Comprehensive notes covering Nightsong City by Dennis Brutus.
A combination of information from the textbook, The Complete Poetry Resource (Sixth Edition), as well as additional class and video notes.
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Alliteration: “s” sound, like a lullaby.
Nightsong City We assume the city is peaceful at night.
by Dennis Brutus
Wishing the speaker’s love to sleep well.
Stanza 1: Imagery creates subtle suggestion of The implied “love” is the land, South Africa.
. conflict, danger and violence. Colon: indicates a list of circumstances will
follow under which his “love” must sleep.
1. Sleep well, my love, sleep well : Harbour lights: Creates a peaceful image.
(Personal and intimate address) Personification: When a person’s eyes glaze
over, it means they are not listening or
concentrating. The harbour lights as looking
(Transferred epithet) out without any emotion.
2. the harbour lights glaze over restless docks, Restless: Contrasts the peaceful image in the
(Personification) first part of the line.
From here down, sinister images of violence proliferate. This phrase is the onset of various sinister
images of violence that follow
Docks: Described as being restless, which
3. police cars cockroach through the tunnel streets; conveys a tense atmosphere.
Cockroach: (verb) Suggests the police move
in a menacing way and hints at potential
police brutality. Also implies that the speaker
feels the police are unwelcome in the shanty
towns. They are like pests, unhygienic and
unwelcome.
Tunnel: Describes the narrow, dark streets
which are patrolled by the police cars and
also describe a narrow chance of escape.
Stanza 2: The undertone of violence and fear is developed.
. Also suggests that fear and violence are sprung from
. poverty, inequality and police brutality.
(Onomatopoeia)
The homes are built from corrugated iron,
4. from the shanties creaking iron sheets
suggesting poverty.
(South African townships)
Sense of menace is confirmed.
Simile: Comparing the violence which erupts
to the way in which a rag which is infested
(Compound adjective)
with bugs will be tossed. Also indicates the
5. violence like a bug-infested rag is tossed
disruption that the violence causes.
Bug: Links to the idea of cockroach in line 3.
It also highlights the fact that these living
conditions are unsanitary.
(Compound adjective) Just as the speaker hears the creaking of
6. and fear is immanent as sound in the wind-swung bell iron everywhere due to the wind, he also
hears the fear which is everywhere in the
township.
Simile: The persistent fear is as common as
a sound of a bell that is caught in the wind.
The fear is also as real and tangible as the
sound of a ringing bell.
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