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ENG 2603 Assignment 1 - 2019
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- University Of South Africa (Unisa)
ENG 2603 Assignment 1 - 2019 I have included the Questions and Answers for assignment 1 - 2019
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ENG2603Colonial and postcolonial African Literatures
Assignment 1
Unique number: 692860
19 March 2019
, Essay
1. The New Century of South African Poetry
Carefully study Gcina Mhlope’s poem, “Sometimes when it rains”, and discuss how the poet
alternates different sets of imagery, in portraying how the symbol of rain appeals differently
to the senses of the persona during progressive stages of growth and maturity.
Gcina Mhlope’s poem, "Sometimes when it rains."
In Gcina Mhlophe’s poem "sometimes when it rains," the speaker wonders about the
complexity of nature. She seems surprised by the fact that people get wet when it rains,
there lacks decent shelter, and if prisoners still desire to have a view of the rainbow at the
end of the rain. Therefore, this essay purposes to discusses how the symbol of rain appeals
differently to the senses of the persona during progressive stages of growth and maturity.
Considering the subject of the poem, the speaker desires to communicate something
that can only happen when it rains. In other words, something is happening only
sometimes when it rains, and not when the sky is cloudy, or the sun is shining. As noted,
each stanza starts with "sometimes when it rains," the phrases are then followed by the
speaker's feelings, thoughts, and wonders.
In stanza one and two, the speaker portrays rain as a symbol of hope. She uses the image of
an innocent child, whose point of view is as simple as life before industrialization. This is
seen when she says that "And think of times when as a child, I'd sit by myself and wonder
why people need clothes." To some extent, the poet portrays some naivety. The naivety has
been reflected even more when she talks about growing up tomorrow — the innocent kind
of naivety, that kind of non-eroded mind and thinking.
On her third stanza, she portrays that not only do humans need rain, but animals do love that
experience and enjoy it at the same time. She not only brings out the fact that as animals,
they also did not have to hide from the rain, they let it rain down on them, embrace it just like
the goats and the sheep. She emphasizes her point on the next stanza where says that, “when
we had to undress, carry the small bundles of uniforms and books on our heads and cross the
river after school.” She brings out the fact that not like in the modern society where people
avoid being rained on by using umbrellas, they welcomed all
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