This document contains a full analysis of the prescribed Matric IEB poem: Penguin on the beach by Ruth Miller. The poem has been broken down and analysed stanza by stanza and line by line to ensure it is fully understood by the reader.
Penguin on the Beach
Ruth Miller
By Adrian Mackenzie
Stranger in his own element,
Sea-casualty, the castaway manikin
Waddles in his tailored coat-tails. Oil
Has spread a deep commercial stain
Over his downy shirt front. Sleazy, grey,
It clogs the sleekness. Far too well
He must recall the past, to be so cautious:
Watch him step into the waves. He shudders
Under the froth; slides, slips, on the wet sand,
Escaping to dryness, dearth, in a white cascade,
An involuntary shouldering off of gleam.
Hands push him back into the sea. He stands
In pained and silent expostulation.
Once he knew a sunlit, leaping smoothness,
But close with his head’s small knoll, and dark,
He retains the image: Oil on sea,
Green slicks, black lassoos of sludge
Sleeving the breakers in a stain-spread scarf.
He shudders now from the clean flinching wave,
Turns and plods back up the yellow sand,
Ineffably wary, triumphantly sad.
He is immensely wise: he trusts nobody. His senses
Are clogged with experience. He eats
Fish from the Saviour’s hands, and it tastes black.
, Mood:
➔ Somber & melancholic (from dejection)
Structure:
➔ Enjambment and slowed rhythm
Rhythm:
➔ Sowed by punctuation to convey penguin’s ongoing dejection.
Enjambment:
➔ Enhances the continued distress of the penguin. His plight has
physically ended but not mentally.
Tone:
➔ Critical (of humans) & melancholic
By Adrian Mackenzie
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