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Class notes English FAL
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Complete analysis of grade 12 English FAL poems
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Town- Informal settingAlexandra
Personified and compared to a mother.
Whole poem extended metaphor
Were it possible to say,
Personified Alexandra
as mother figure. Apostrophe: personal
Mother , I have seen more beautiful mothers ,
relationship with town
Emphasised:
(addresses directly)
repetition-bond A most loving mother ,
speaker has with town
And tell her there I will go, Wants to get out of circumstances
Alexandra, I would have long gone from you.
Indicates wish in Forever connected to
stanza 1 not mother
But we have only one mother, none can replace,
possible
Just as we have no choice to be born,
Simile: don’t have control
Emphasise : can’t choose our fate
over who/when we are We can't choose mothers;
born into , cant control
when and where we die We fall out of them like we fall out of f life to death
Physically connected: town beginning and
future knotted in middle. Beginning
And, Alexandra, determines future
My beginning was knotted to you, Product of his roots
Just like you knot my destiny.
Intense feeling of
knowing where he You throb in my inside silences
belongs Inversion
You are silent in my heart-beat that's loud to me.
Emphasise regularity of how
Alexandra often I've cried. often he cried
Alliteration: mimicking
sound of baby When I was thirsty my tongue tasted dust,
breastfeeding
Metaphor: Shacks
Dust burdening your nipples.
Protect child through
Child would instinctively
breastfeeding, idea of safety-
call mother, speaker asks I cry Alexandra when I am thirsty.
Town can’t protect him(he
for protection
gets nothing)
Your breasts ooze the dirty waters of your dongas,
Apartheid, people Ditch, holes in roads(condition
Waters diluted with the blood of my brothers, your children,
killed in streets of streets
Who once chose dongas for death-beds.
Treated badly, not safe, Hide in dongas, killed if found
wants validation, wants to
know what he is worth to Do you love me Alexandra, or what are you doing to me?
Alexandra
, Infant shouldn’t be Living conditions look
You frighten me, Mama,
scared of mother(home) terrible
You wear expressions like you would be nasty to me,
You frighten me, Mama, More personal , reinforce childish plea of how
much he needs from his mother
When I lie on your breast to rest, something tells me
Wants safety Closeness of mother: familiar, safe ,
gets cruelty You are bloody cruel. comfortable
1-Literal: used as a swear word
2-Figurative: hellish environment Alexandra, hell Past tense
What have you done to me?
Feels disempowered, dehumanised
I have seen people but I feel like I'm not one,
Alexandra what are you doing to me? Present tense: still experiencing
harshness of Alexandra
Watches other people leave I feel I have sunk to such meekness!
environment, yet speaker is Submissive, submits to environment
stuck I lie flat while others walk on me to far places.
I have gone from you, many times,
Has left before
I come back.
Always returns
Alexandra, I love you;
I know Idea that other places seem strange to him
When all these worlds became funny to me
Resistance
I silently waded back to you
And amid the rubble I lay, Imperfect situation
Accepting identity and heritage
Simple and black.
, Feeling, state where free movement is Leaves family to work at
restricted mines- Gets sick, held
Expression of grief
Captive captive by situation
A lament of a sick Xhosa mine-labourer in a compound hospital
Not supposed to be caged Trap: inescapable situation he is in
As a wild bird caught in a slip-knot snare-
Parenthese-describes snare
Simile compares himself The plaited tail-hairs of a dun-coloured cow,
to bird and situation
Almost invisible- Restrict movement
Used in reference to situation , regarded
Situation invisible, how as a trap
speaker feels So, tethered in the toils of fever , do I lie
Illness : his snare
And burn and shiver while I listen to the buzzing
Effect of fever Onomatopoeia
Of flies that flutter vainly Hopeless, useless
Against cold, hard, deceiving window-panes: Personification. Gives idea of freedom,
Wants to escape misleading
Like them would I escape, and escaping hasten
Idea of a beacon of hope,
To my home that shines in a valley afar, what he strives for
My home – brightest tooth in the jaws of distance.
Metaphor : Distance , caught in the jaws
Ironic that something he loves can create a snare
There, now, the cows I love are feeding
Cows are more privileged then he is, to be
able to freely graze the grass
In some quiet sun-washed vale;
Personification, tranquility
of environment Their lazy shadows drink the sunlight
Rippling on the grasses;
There, through the long day, girls and women
Sing happily
Among the mealies chant and hoe,
Their swinging hoes are like the glitter A long-handled gardening tool with a thin
metal blade, used mainly for weeding
Of sunshine on water;
Sun would glimmer of water , it would
There, now, shouting, happy herdboys, shine and reflect
While they watch the cattle browse,
Are busy moulding mimic cattle
Alliteration, imitation enhanced
From clay m oist and yellow.
Good rain, no drought in village
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