An in-depth line-by-line (and further!!) analysis of Touch by Hugh Lewin. These notes helped me get 96% for English in my matric finals and I have no doubt that they'll help you too.
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Hugh Lewin:- anti-apartheid activist, went to prison 7 yrs for sabotage, journalist
When I get out The speaker is currently in prison. Considering nature +context of
I’m going to ask someone the poem, the speaker is most likely the poet.
to touch me Gently+slowly: CONNOTATION: Affection,kindness.
very gently please A relationship where this kind of “touch” exists, indicates
and slowly, trust and equality.
touch me suggests has been physically abused in prison. He does
I want not necessarily only want to be touched, but he also wants to
to learn again
how life feels. LINEBREAKS (lines 6-9): slows the poem down; breaks sentence into
phrases, emphasizing the meaning/showing the speaker’s
struggle in uttering the words.
I’ve not been touched Repetition: emphasizes the repetitive nature of being in
for seven years prison and the length of his incarceration.
7 years- another hint autobiographical -he was in jail for seven years
Touched a stirring of your emotions
Untouchable: person been rejecting by society[crime, caste system]
Untouched- forgotten
- Blunting of emotion, not being touched by things, emotional
re-tardation
for seven years Not being touched- physical, separated apart
I’ve been untouched Out of touch- not know going on in outside world- torture in itself, a
out of touch not knowing
and I’ve learnt Untouchable:unclean [activism- -emotionally rejected]
to know now absence of touch+lack of contact with outside world has been
the meaning of torturous for him—evident from diff connotations of word“touch”.
untouchable. “Untouchables” - people in India who were considered to be of the
lowest social caste (class)=lowly jobs, not allowed to touch
members of higher ranked castes.
Untouched – not quite Seeing how has been touched in jail
I can count the things Quite effective choosing to list: one this, two this
that have touched me Bring attention back, focus on violation made in prison
Speaker’s account of the brutality, violation in prison
Dash—negates the previous idea that he is
“untouched” - he has been touched but in a manner not desire.
shift from initial gentle touch he desired->how touched in p
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