Summary Grade 11 Poetry Analysis: In Detention by Chris van Wyk
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Module
English Home Language
Institution
11th Grade
Analysis of the poem In Detention by Chris van Wyk
includes context and structure, the message of the poem, line-by-line analysis, discussion of the poem
The title immediately places the poem in apartheid and comments indirectly on the number of deaths in detention of
political activists during these years
Chris Van Wyk was a poet in the Apartheid era, as he was of 'colour' it is quite expected that he would have something
to say about the country's happenings and does this through poetry.
This poem portrays a very heavy topic, being the death of many innocent people under imprisonment in a very
light-hearted and 'humorous' manner. The main idea and purpose of the poem is to state or show the reasons and
excuses that were given by the Apartheid police for killing people in prison. The theme and diction of this poem is kept
very simple and in plain English to make an important point and make sure that people understand the reality of what
is being said.
The tone of the poem is sarcastic however works out to be very effective. Through writing tools such as sarcasm and
repetition, the writer brings our attention to the absurd variations of the explanations that the police gave. The
variations of the explanations are rather absurd and quite frankly make no sense, showing that the police, in some
sense abused their authority and were disrespectful enough to give such reasons and think the public would believe
them. By referring to the men as "he" and not giving any specific names, shows that these deaths occured quite often
to many people. As the poem progresses, the explanations become more and more strange and queer, creating more
of an effect of twisted facts.
It is also important to carefully look at the actual explanations, where one can realize that in fact the police were highly
dishonest: ie. with statements like "he fell from the ninth floor" one needs to remember that prisoners were kept
chained and cuffed so it would have been quite impossible for these explanations to be true.
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