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Contains poetry written by the
poets of the former colonies of Britain
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The poets are trapped between
their national culture and their westernized selves
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Such people were called Brown
Sahibs by Homi Babha
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Edward Said calls them hybrids
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Only their skins are brown; in
their behaviour and loyalties, they are very much English
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Alienation is a repeated theme
in commonwealth poetry
A Far Cry From Africa
– Derek Walcott
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Being a mixed blood who is given
an English education Walcott is a hybrid Brown Sahib
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The poem captures his torn
loyalties towards his African heritage and westernized upbringing
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The West Indians are decedents
of the slaves brought from Africa
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At the time the poem was being
written Africans were fighting for independence from the White colonial powers
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A wind is ruffling the tawny
pelt/ Of Africa – the winds of rebellion is awakening Africans
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However, both Mau Mau freedom
fighters and the British were committing violent activities – Corpses are
scattered through the paradise
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Back in England,
academics are justifying colonialism
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According to the poet the
“upright man” had reduced himself to an animal and “inflict pain” on other men
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In the war between Africans and
the Colonizers, Walcott cannot take a side
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He is “poisoned with the blood
of both” is “divided to the bone”
Themes
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Colonization, freedom struggle,
and violence
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Man’s capacity to inflict pain
on his fellow men
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Trauma of hybridity
Techniques
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Visual images: A wind is
ruffling the tawny pelt/ Of Africa
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Similes: Kikuyu quick as flies,
savages, expendable as Jews
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Symbols: gorilla – Africans,
superman – the White
Night of the Scorpion – Nissim Ezekiel
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The poem offers an insight to
the behaviour of a small community in India
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The point of view is of a
child’s
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The narrator’s mother is stung
by a scorpion
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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
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The narrator’s father is a
sceptic but he turns to “every curse and every blessing” in his desperation to
cure his wife
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He is purely an observer who is
detached from everything that was going on
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He distances himself from the
villagers by reporting what they said as “they said”
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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
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Rural superstitions
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Motherhood
Techniques
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The poem is narrated in the
form of a flashback
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Language is simple and
conversational
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The first 43 lines form a
single stanza – a narrative of the incident
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The last 3 stanza – mother’s
statement – makes the second stanza
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Mother’s statement is the
lyrical part of the poem
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Absence of rhythm or rhyme –
easy to create visual images
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The crowd cast a shadow of a
huge scorpion
Grandmother – Sitakant Mahaputra
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Mahaputra is an Indian poet who
writes about the impact of modernization and urbanization on basic human
relationships
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The grandmother in this poem
had asked the narrator’s father come to see her – she has “become an eroded
shore”
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But due to his obligations in
the city, he had not gone to see her
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By the time he had finally
reached the village, even the final rites for the dead mother had been
performed
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Feeling sad and guilty, the
narrator’s father cries
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However, being a product of a
western education he is unable to express his sorrow freely
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His face to the wall, his back
to us/ Father wept
Themes
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Break down of human relationships
due to urbanization and modernization
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Impact of westernization –
inability to express one’s grief openly
Techniques
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Presented as a recollection of
a life-changing day
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Conversational tone
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Simple language
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Similes – the bus is a match
box and the passengers that are tightly packed into it
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Metaphor – eroded shore – an
old woman close to her death
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