This document contains a full analysis of the prescribed Matric IEB poem: Touch by Hugh Lewin. The poem has been broken down and analysed line by line to ensure it is fully understood by the reader and includes points on the structure and techniques in the poem.
Tone = imploring (someone to touch him) Mood = melancholic (yearning for touch)
Summary = imploring someone to touch him because he has not been treated with affection and compassion for so long
Hugh Lewin = sentenced to 7 years in prison by the Apartheid government for being an anti-apartheid activist
When I get out → wants to remember touching being linked to affection and not dominance and pain in prison
I’m going to ask someone → imploring someone to touch him
to touch me
very gently please → Slow Rhythm = wants to savour the moment of affection. Wants to restore his humanity.
and slowly,
touch me
I want
to learn again → isolated for so long that he has lost connection with normality
how life feels. → yearning to be touched with affection (wistful mood) + enjambment (unwavering time in prison)
I’ve not been touched
for seven years
for seven years → Repetition = foregrounds how long he has been imprisoned
I’ve been untouched → when he has been touched, it has been without care (also not touched emotionally)
out of touch → ousted from society and caring affection, now in a harsh place (isolated)
and I’ve learnt
to know now
the meaning of → danger to society, he is not accepted
Untouchable. → untouchable (s): Lowest Indian caste, ‘pariahs’ of society
Untouched – not quite → Dash used to explain that has been touched but not with care.
I can count the things → touched by things not caring people, no intimacy and affection involved
that have touched me
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