Commonwealth Poetry: Derek Walcott, Nissim Ezekiel and Sitakant Mahaputra

·         Contains poetry written by the poets of the former colonies of Britain

·         The poets are trapped between their national culture and their westernized selves

·         Such people were called Brown Sahibs by Homi Babha

·         Edward Said calls them hybrids

·         Only their skins are brown; in their behaviour and loyalties, they are very much English

·         Alienation is a repeated theme in commonwealth poetry

A Far Cry From Africa – Derek Walcott

·         Being a mixed blood who is given an English education Walcott is a hybrid Brown Sahib

·         The poem captures his torn loyalties towards his African heritage and westernized upbringing  

·         The West Indians are decedents of the slaves brought from Africa

·         At the time the poem was being written Africans were fighting for independence from the White colonial powers

·         A wind is ruffling the tawny pelt/ Of Africa – the winds of rebellion is awakening Africans

·         However, both Mau Mau freedom fighters and the British were committing violent activities – Corpses are scattered through the paradise

·         Back in England, academics are justifying colonialism

·         According to the poet the “upright man” had reduced himself to an animal and “inflict pain” on other men

·         In the war between Africans and the Colonizers, Walcott cannot take a side

·         He is “poisoned with the blood of both” is “divided to the bone”

Themes

·         Colonization, freedom struggle, and violence

·         Man’s capacity to inflict pain on his fellow men

·         Trauma of hybridity

Techniques

·         Visual images: A wind is ruffling the tawny pelt/ Of Africa

·         Similes: Kikuyu quick as flies, savages, expendable as Jews

·         Symbols: gorilla – Africans, superman – the White

Night of the Scorpion – Nissim Ezekiel

·         The poem offers an insight to the behaviour of a small community in India

·         The point of view is of a child’s

·         The narrator’s mother is stung by a scorpion

·         Villagers come “like a swarm of flies” and offers superstitious advice and opinions

o   The scorpion had bitten the woman due to her karma

o   Her sins would be cleansed by the poison 

o   The poison would cleanse her of her worldly passions

·         The narrator’s father is a sceptic but he turns to “every curse and every blessing” in his desperation to cure his wife

·         He is purely an observer who is detached from everything that was going on

·         He distances himself from the villagers by reporting what they said as “they said”

·         As in the case of Walcott, it is Ezekiel’s hybridity as an westernized Indian Jew that allows him to stand aside and observe his community

Themes

·         Rural superstitions

·         Motherhood

Techniques

·         The poem is narrated in the form of a flashback

·         Language is simple and conversational

·         The first 43 lines form a single stanza – a narrative of the incident

·         The last 3 stanza – mother’s statement – makes the second stanza

·         Mother’s statement is the lyrical part of the poem

·         Absence of rhythm or rhyme – easy to create visual images

·         The crowd cast a shadow of a huge scorpion

Grandmother – Sitakant Mahaputra

·         Mahaputra is an Indian poet who writes about the impact of modernization and urbanization on basic human relationships  

·         The grandmother in this poem had asked the narrator’s father come to see her – she has “become an eroded shore”

·         But due to his obligations in the city, he had not gone to see her

·         By the time he had finally reached the village, even the final rites for the dead mother had been performed

·         Feeling sad and guilty, the narrator’s father cries

·         However, being a product of a western education he is unable to express his sorrow freely

·         His face to the wall, his back to us/ Father wept

Themes

·         Break down of human relationships due to urbanization and modernization

·         Impact of westernization – inability to express one’s grief openly

Techniques

·         Presented as a recollection of a life-changing day

·         Conversational tone

·         Simple language

·         Similes – the bus is a match box and the passengers that are tightly packed into it

·         Metaphor – eroded shore – an old woman close to her death