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Portrait of a Loaf of Bread - Mtshali Analysis
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This is an in-depth analysis of Portrait of a Loaf of Bread by Mtshali.
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Portrait of a Loaf of Bread - MtshaliBackground
Mbyuseni Oswald Mtshali (1940 -):
- Born in Vryheid, KZN, to teacher parents
- Worked as a messenger
- Writing reflects his harsh experiences under aprtheid regime
- Studied at Columbia University and became an educator (NY & Soweto)
- South African poet
- Wrote in English and Zulu
- His work drewdeeply upon the immediate experience of life in the
Johannesburg township of Soweto
- His poetry also reflects his harsh experiences under the apartheid regime
Portrait of a Loaf of Bread: Analysis
Title:
- A portrait is a study of something, often used to describe a painting of
someone /something
- The subject here is unusual when compared to famous portraits
- Normally the subject of a portrait is something stationary but in this case, we
see constant motion, a lot of the use of verbs, etc.
- This portrait of a loaf of bread doesn not adhere to what a portrait
generally is.
Look back to the rolling fields
Waving golden-topped wheat stalks
Mowed by the reaper’s scythe,
Bundled into sheaves
Carted to the mill
And ground into flour.
Kneaded into mountains of dough
To be churned by rollers
And spat into pans as red hot
As Satan’s cauldron.
, Brought to the café,
Warmly wrapped in cellophane,
By “East Fresh Bread” bakery van;
For the waiting cook
to slice and toast
To butter and to marmalade
For the food-bedecked breakfast table.
Whilst the labourer
With fingers caked with
Wet cement of a builder’s scaffold
Mauls a hunk and cold drink
And licks his lips and laughs
“Man can live on bread alone.”
Structure:
Theme:
- Segregation (apartheid - non-white vs white)
- Unity (eating the same bread)
Figures of Speech:
The poem is Stanza 1
obviously about the
Look back to the rolling fields Look back: This is present tense
journey undertaken command/instruction
between farmland - The effect of this is that the poet is
asking us to reflect on the past
and table - the DICTION: The verbs are calming, friendly and
genesis of a loaf of non-threatening
- A hypnotic atmosphere is created
bread.
Settting : Agricultural, hills
Gives us the setting Waving: Wind is blowing through the stalks
of the poem. - A friendly gesture
PERSONIFICATION:The fields are waving the
- It’s an idyllic wheat stalks
rural setting METAPHOR: The metaphor of the wheat stalks
being topped with gold is a reference to this
- Beautiful fields of incredible bounty, this wealth given to us by
wheat nature.
ALLITERATION: “w” sound repeated
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