In depth and colour coded notes that gives key analysis on all 16 matric poems for class of . Skip the hassle of taking poetry notes in class which can feel rushed and confusing with this poetry study guide to help you ace prelims and finals. These notes helped me achieve in the top 1% of IEB candi...
1. THE SUN RISING – John Donne
2. THE DISCARDMENT – Alan Paton
3. STRANGERS FOREVER – Amin Kassam
4. REMEMBER – Christina Roseti
5. OZYMANDIAS OF EGYPT – Percy Bysshe Shelley
6. MOVING THROUGH THE SILENT CROWD – Stephen Spender
7. MIRROR – Sylvia Plath
8. OOM PIET – Finuala Dowling
9. COCKROACHES – Mauri Yambo
10. TO ME FAIR FRIEND, YOU NEVER CAN BE OLD – William
hell;Shakespeare
11. GO, LOVELY ROSE – Edmund Waller
12. WILL IT BE SO AGAIN – Cecil Day Lewis
13. NOBODY LOSES ALL THE TIME – E.E. Cummings
14. THE TENANT – Na Ncube
15. TOUCH – Hugh Lewin
16. NAMAQUALAND AFTER THE RAIN – William Plomer
TEHANI HOOSAIN [BEAULIEU COLLEGE 2023]
, TEHANI HOOSAIN 2023
THE SUN RISING– John Donne
LOVE POEM: believed love was the reason for living
EXTENDED METAPHOR
Busy old fool, unruly sun,
Apostrophe: bring down to human level (undermining sun)
Sun is being insulted (ironic as keeps everyone/thing alive on the planet)
Why dost thou thus,
Through windows, and through curtains call on us?
Must to thy motions lovers' seasons run?
RHETORIC QUESTIONS: disempowers son (answer is not imp enough to be heard)
Saucy pedantic wretch, go chide
Late school boys and sour prentices,
Go tell court huntsmen that the king will ride,
Call country ants to harvest offices,
Sun is commanded (poet assumes power) -- to call on people arguably less important: emphasises
belittling
Love, all alike, no season knows nor clime,
Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time.
RHYMING COUPLET: affirms that love is beyond weather, place and time of year (it never changes &
is unaffected by divisions of the clock)
Rags: meaningless & to be chucked away (METAPHOR) STANZA 1 SUMMARY: The
speaker has a go at the sun
for invasion of privacy and
CAESURA: slows down poem (emphasises that love will not be run by declares that love isn't subject
time and that love has its own schedule) to the everyday routines, and
is certainly no slave to time.
→ Insults: picture of lovers being rudely awakened by strong
rays & wanting sun to go elsewhere
Thy beams, so reverend and strong
Why shouldst thou think?
RHETORIC QUESTION: why do you, sun, thing u are all high/mighty (undermining sun)
I could eclipse and cloud them with a wink,
IMPLICIT METAPHOR: eye=source of eclipse (saying his blink is more powerful that the sun – he has the
power to outshine the sun by covering the suns light)
But that I would not lose her sight so long;
However, he doesn’t want to waste time doing that and lose a second of seeing her (his eyes are only
for his lover)
- Iambic pentameter: shows boasting of speaker (puts sun into place with 2 perfectly constructed
lines – emphasises ease with which speaker could eclipse sun)
If her eyes have not blinded thine,
Her eyes blind beam of sun (HYPERBOLE: excessive wander of her beauty) – eyes outshines the sun
(emphasising how dazzling she is)
Look, and tomorrow late, tell me,
TEHANI HOOSAIN [BEAULIEU COLLEGE 2023]
, TEHANI HOOSAIN 2023
Command
Whether both th' Indias of spice and mine
Lover = India’s (HYPERBOLE/METAPHOR): location of absolute beauty (spice + gold) –excess of
pleasure/beauty she brings (exaggerates by saying exotic India won’t be where the sun last saw it
as it’ll be embodied in his lover)
Be where thou leftst them, or lie here with me.
Ask for those kings whom thou saw'st yesterday, STANZA 2 SUMMARY: Helplessly in
And thou shalt hear, All here in one bed lay. love with his mistress/wife, the
RHYMING COUPLET: together 2 lovers make up royalty of the world speaker rather arrogantly belittles
(emphasises excessive sweetness/beauty of love) the sun by suggesting that his bed
is the place to be.
CLIMAX: transforming from criticisms of sun to what they are + beauty of love (anger has dissipated)
She's all states, and all princes I;
METAPHOR: She is the whole world and the speaker is the prince of those worlds (ultimate power:
women compared to land that men has power over)
Caesura: divides however coming together like 2 worlds (beginning + end of entire world):
ARGUMENT OF ENTIRE POEM
Nothing else is.
Nothing but them matters (they are even better than the whole world)
Princes do but play us; compared to this,
They are the real princes (all others = imitations)
All honor's mimic, all wealth alchemy.
They are the real deal (there love is wealth…they don’t need the allusion
of honour that wealth brings) The sun should be happy as it only
Thou, sun, art half as happy as we, needs to warm the 2 lovers rather
than the entire world (they are the
In that the world's contracted thus.
world). The sun is old, happy
Thine age asks ease, and since thy duties be because it now has less area to
To warm the world, that's done in warming us. warm (world=contracted).
Shine here to us, and thou art everywhere;
This bed thy center is, these walls, thy sphere.
Shifted word order: puts emphasis on
FORM + STRUCTURE
bed (=centre of world) + walls (=world)
• 3 X 10-line stanzas
CAESURA: balance of world as lovers
• Syllabic pattern for each stanza is the same: lines 1,5,6 = are where they should be (@centre in
iambic tetrameter (4 stresses) --- line 2 (2 stresses) ---line their bed) – love is a balancing force
3,4,7,8,9,10 = iambic pentameter (5 stresses)
• Rhyme scheme constant for all stanzas: ABBA CDCD EE
STANZA 3 SUMMARY: The bed and
• poet uses colloquial lang (casual/mischievous mood) BUT the lovers are a microcosm of the
poem is always foregrounding sincere/powerful feelings of universe, according to the speaker,
love who in the end invites the sun to
become a part of the whole.
• TONE: cheeky, arrogant, extravagant (changes thru poem)
TEHANI HOOSAIN [BEAULIEU COLLEGE 2023]
, TEHANI HOOSAIN 2023
THE DISCARDMENT – Alan Paton
➔ Escapism (from cycle of poverty)
➔ Lack of human rights + equality will lead to destruction of world
➔ Social injustices = a deed of darkness (society v unequal/destroyed to point can no longer work)
created by Apartheid
➔ COLONIALISM (how west has treated Africa, same as domestic worker treated)
➔ Joy of worker vs guilt of employer
We gave her a discardment
Nouning: removing accountability, don’t focus on act but effect thereof
A trifle, a thing no longer to be worn,
Small, insignificant
Its purpose served, its life done.
Giving her something that no longer need (= worthless) – hand me down
She put it on with exclamations,
Her eyes shone, she called and cried,
Hides identity (don’t want to make poem about individual) – doesn’t want to diminish story to 1 woman (global
story) – removing dignity, not worthy of name
The great bulk of her pirouetted
Large woman
Overwhelming happiness (likes object: gratitude) – one mans trash = anothers treasure
She danced and mimed, sang snatches of a song.
She called out blessings on her native tongue
African woman
She called out to her fellow-servants
She is a servant, socio-economically she is @ the bottom (living in poverty) – min wage job
ANAPHORA: shows excitement
The the strangers and passers-by
To all the continent of Africa
Global story about Africa, colonisation (reality of many communities)
To see this wonder, to participate
Shameful, irony (“I have given her my trash & she is happy)
In this intolerable joy.
Speaker can’t endure watching joy as speaks to how little she rly has (points towards injustice + extent of)
And so for nothing
Is purchased loyalty and trust
Should be earned
And the unquestioning obedience
Need for money (about basic survival)
Of the earth's most rare simplicity.
Loyalty, trust, kindness should never be purchased
So for nothing
REPETITION: when someone sells soul for trinket/nothing it becomes disturbing (used to rich doing this but not
poor)
TEHANI HOOSAIN [BEAULIEU COLLEGE 2023]
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