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Summary English Home Language - Vultures poem
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Sufficient summaries, explanation and analysis of the poem vulture to be able to ace the exam section thereof.
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VulturesForm
The poem is written in four stanzas, in free verse with no rhyming pattern.
It contains lots of enjambment lines giving the poem a fast pace, but with
a jarring rhythm that mirrors the dark tone of the poem. The first stanza is
considerably larger than the other three taking up twenty-three lines that
are all very short. The other three stanzas are eight, eleven and eleven
lines respectively.
About Chinua Achebe
Chinua Achebe was a contemporary Nigerian Poet who spent part of his
life living in his native Africa and part of it in the United States. He was a
highly educated man who is one of Africa’s most famous writers producing
not just poetry but novels as well. He dabbled in politics, but left that
endeavour behind, allegedly due to frustration with corruption. His poems
dealt largely with his own culture, but one of his more famous pieces of
poetry was this piece, about Belsen, although even this was tied to his
own culture using the imagery of vultures.
First Stanza
This first stanza begins with a relentlessly long sentence filled with dark,
sullen descriptions. He uses alliteration in the second and third line
“drizzle of one despondent dawn” but this is an enjambment line and so
doesn’t give the ebb and flow usually associated with alliteration. This
helps to emphasize the bleak tone Achebe is trying to achieve. He uses
the description of the vultures seating position “perching high on broken
bones of a dead tree” It is unclear whether he is describing the/a tree as
being bone-like or if the vultures are actually perched upon a mound of
bones. Achebe then continues to describe the birds themselves and paints
a grim image of them, having already described them as harbingers, a
word closely associated with the brining of death he describes them as
having “bashed in heads” and “gross feathers” and later in the final line
he describes them as having “cold telescopic eyes” giving the birds an
almost mechanical feel, suggesting they shouldn’t even really be classed
as animal. He then continues to describe their actions, again this is very
grim as they peck at the eye of a corpse. And he further describes the
vultures eating the corpse’s bowel. (I hope you’re not reading this whilst
eating!)
Second Stanza
In this stanza Achebe skilfully contrasts the “light” of love with the “dark”
of death by mentioning that in this darkest of environments, the “charnel-
house”, a storage place for corpses, there is the presence of love. He
personifies love itself. He uses an exclamation point on the phrase “her
face turned to the wall” because love can’t stand to look at the atrocities
contained within. It may also be a reference to people being lined up
against walls before being gunned down by firing squads, but that’s purely
speculative on my part!
Third stanza
, This Stanza throws the poem on its head somewhat. It cleverly constructs
the character of the Commandant. His description is not particularly
flattering. His only physical description describes his “hairy nostrils” but
his actions are kind and very human. He brings chocolate home for his
child. A kind gesture and not actions you would probably associate with a
war criminal. Achebe makes us see that even this horrible man has a soft
side and that is represented by the description of his interactions with his
child. It is almost as if his child represents his “good side” and the vultures
represent his “bad side” Achebe also produces the harrowing image of the
smell produced by Belsen, the smell that lingers on the Commandant
himself being described as “human roast” considering the man smelling
this way and then hugging his “tender offspring” this is a very powerful
piece of imagery.
Fourth Stanza
In this final stanza Achebe brings the poem to a close by describing how
even the “ogre” that is the commandant has a soft side, which was shown
in the preceding stanza. He emphasises the solace that should be taken in
this small mercy “praise bounteous providence” his language here is
particularly emphatic and evokes fantastic contrasts, describing the
Commandant’s humanity as a “tiny glow worm” which is encapsulated in
a “cruel, icy cavern” even the word encapsulated isn’t accidental,
suggesting that his warmth is trapped. It gives a picture of an evil man
that would be rid of that warmth if possible. This is further emphasised by
the line “the very germ of that kindred love” this is not the voice of the
narrator but rather a peak into the psyche of the Commandant and
showing the narrators omniscience. This is a chilling thought, the idea that
the Commandant views his softer side as a curse, or a “germ” Achebe
closes by using the phrase “perpetuity of evil” suggesting that evilness is
enduring, everlasting. This leaves the poem on a very bleak note.
Vultures Summary
I think the vultures, described in such a disparaging; grim fashion could be
construed as a metaphor for the people responsible for the atrocities in
Belsen and in particular the Commandant. It is the longest part of the
poem and I don’t think is a coincidence. I think the first stanza is a
metaphor for the Commandant’s predominant personality traits and this is
why it dominates so much of the poem’s content. The third stanza, the
scene with his child, represents a far smaller portion of the poem and this,
I think, is a metaphor for his spark of humanity. The form of this poem is
very clever as it creates a grim image, creates a glimmer of hope in the
second and third Stanza and then ends on a dour note emphasising the
futility of the situation.
Chinua Achebe is a Nigerian writer who would probably be familiar with
the sight of vultures, which are scavenging birds, feeding on the carcass
of a dead animal. This is the image that he explores in the first section of
his poem entitled 'Vultures'. A miserable scene is set with grey weather,
and Achebe uses alliteration in the phrase 'drizzle of one despondent
dawn' to emphasise the depressing atmosphere. There is no sign of sun at
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