Summary
Summary English FAL poems - grade 12
- Institution
- 12th Grade
Summary of all the poems in grade 12 with questions as well.
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CAPTIVE – person whose ability to move or act freely has been taken.Being captive means agianst one’s will
In Captive, the mine worker is not only held captive by fever, but it suggests that he is being
held captive by the alien city in which he is compelled to work – migrant labour is the
underlying cause of the mine worker’s illness and the fever is merely a symptom.
Lament of a sick Xhosa mine-labourer in a compound hospital
- Subtitle gives a clue on what motivated the poet to wirte his thoughts at that time.
- The speaker is in a hospital, in mine compound.
- Subtitle shows the speaker is homesick
- The speaker is not addressing anyone in particular.
- Imagery instead of depending rhyme.
- Main intention to lament
THEME: Nostalgia - The sick miner misses and longs for his home. He thinks about the old
familiar routines and wishes he was there. Instead he is in a hospital, fighting a fever.
The poem is written in FREE VERSE; It is a MONOLOGUE.
The TONE is regretful and NOSTALGIC – The speaker regrets that he is far away from home.
Lament – passionate expression of grief
The speaker is TRAPPED:
Trapped by his illness Deprived of his Trapped underneath Confined in a hostel
freedom a mine
1. As a wild bird caught in a - Snare – trap for catching birds/mammal
slip-knot snare - - Simile - speaker uses image of a bird caught in a snare –
emphasises that he is kept against his will, he has no
freedom, no possibility of escape.
- He is trapped. He is homesick
- S – alliteration emphasises entrapment /
entanglement.
2. The plaited tail-hairs of a
dun-coloured cow,
3. almost invisible - - Imaginative knot is made of brown cow hair -
establishes rural colour of speaker’s background.
- A trap to catch animals.
4. So, tethered in the toils - Speaker is lying in a hospital bed in a mine compound–
of fever, do I lie with a fever – he has tuberculosis – he is a migrant
worker because of economic necessity
, - thethered – tied up, entrapment
- toils - net;
- metaphor, tied up in a net of fever
- snare and tethered are images derived from tribal life;
from hunting and gathering
- T- Alliteration – Helps imagine how speaker is
struggling to escape thoughts over and over
5. And burn and shive while - burn and shiver – an indication of fever
I listen to the buzzing - buzzing – z – sounds’ the sound of flies that flutter
vainly;
- sound of flapping wings - onomatopoeia
6. Of flies that flutter vainly flies – trapped
Flutter vainly – cannot escape;
Onomatopoeia and f-alliteration
7. Against cold, hard, - Deceiving – to trick or to lie
deceiving window-panes: - Flies cannot see transparent window - emphasises
sense of captivity
- It seems to flies as if they can escape, but it is a lie
because window is an invisible barrier.
- Flies – indicate a hospital ward that is not clean
- Metaphor to describe entrapment; just as flies are
trapped by deceiving window panes, speaker is trapped
by his illness.
8. Like them would I escape, - Simile –compares himself to flies.
and escaping hasten - Flies cannot see transparent windowpanes, so they fly
into them.
9. To my home that shines - He cannot escape, it is an illusion of freedom.
in a valley afar, - It is a figurative escape
- Thoughts about his home are an escape from being a
captive by an alien city where he is compelled to work.
10. My home – brightest - He has a delusion of being back in his homeland – he
tooth in the jaws of longs to escape – Nostalgia
distance. - METAPHOR: brightest tooth – a positive image;
brightest – shining
- jaws – danger – a negative image
- Time and Distance separates him from rural home,
- Time is not on his side.
- “Jaws” – Time is depicted as a monster; it is difficult for
him to return
- “Brightest” – positive – his rural home is a shining
beacon in the distance.
- Distance is compared to a set of jaws, home is
compared to the brightest tooth.
, - His home shines: brightest, BUT it is also distant – in
the jaws of distance
- He is FAR from home –life is devoured – jaws - by far
distances that he travelled to earn a living.
11.There, now, the cows I - REPETITION of There now … Lines 11 – 23: to
love are feeding emphasise his imaginative escape.
- There emphasises the fact that he is here – far from the
village.
- Strengthens tone of nostalgia.
12. In some quiet sun- vale - valley
washed vale; - Pastoral beauty of mine-worker’s hom
- Contrast of this beauty to his work underground
13. Their lazy shadows drink - Metaphor: getting later; sun is setting
the sunlight - Personification: shadows of cows are said to be
drinking ripples of sunlight in grass.
- Emphasising intensity of miner’s imagination
- Metaphors and Similes describe longing for home
village and freedom of people vs his work in dark mine
shaft.
14. Rippling on the grasses; Movements of the wind.
15. There, through the long Emphasise the difference between here and there
day, girls and women
16. Among the mealies chant Chant – sing
and hoe, Hoe – weeding of fields
like – simile
Hoes are compared to sunshine on water
hoe – skoffelpik
17. Their swinging hoes are
like glitter
18. of sunshine on water;
19. There, now, shouting - They are making cows from moist clay
happy herd boys, - ‘h’ – alliteration imagine singing and joking of boys as
they work and play; it sounds like a song or rapid
speech.
20. While they watch the
cattle browse
21. Are busy moulding mimic Mimic – to copy
cattle m-alliteration
22. From clay moist and - Inversion – to emphasise the warm colours
yellow. - Soothing, warm colours yellow, orange vs cold, white,
sterile hospital
23.There, when the sun has METAPHOR: setting sun is compared to a bird settling in
folded his wings that its nest.
, dazzle,
24. And has sunken to his
hidden nest beyond the
hills,
25. All shall group together - Sun sets – villagers sit around fires and share day’s
gaily, around the experiences
crackling fires, - Elders tell stories that happened back in days about
battles they fought, cattle races and brave hunters who
faced lions and leopards.
26. And chew the juicy cyd METAPHOR: speaker compares talk of day to a cow
of gathered day; chewing cud.
27. And greybeards shall tell
stories of ancient battles,
28. And cattle-races of the
days of old,
29. Of hunters, bold and
fearless, who faced the
lion’s thunder
30. And stalked the lighting - Lair – its home or hiding place
leopard to his lair - Lion & leopard –speaker compares these 2 big cats to a
force of nature that can destroy a heavy storm.
- Lion’s roar is as loud as thunder.
- Leopard has same terrifying strength of lightning.
- L- alliteration: mimics or copies speed and strength of
leopard.
31. But here I burn and - REPETITION of There - emphasise his imaginative
shiver and listen to the escape.
buzzing
32. Of flies against deceiving - Homesick worker feels that he should be able to see all
window panes way to his village because window is transparent.
- But window is a solid obstacle, preventing him from
getting home.
- He cannot get home just by imagining the place.
- Back to reality: Dash that shows return from
imaginative journey back to present.
- Beginning and closing lines reflect reality of speaker’s
present time – between these he travels back in his
imagination – where the pastoral beauty of the country
is conjured.
- Hard times are left out and t rural life seems ideal.
- “here” – is distancing speaker from his folks at home.
- REPETITION: Beginning and closing lines reflect reality
of speaker’s present time.
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