Forgotten people
Nkathazo ka Mnyayiza
Broken
rusty
and hanging gates
fallen leaves on unswept yards
where mangy dogs stretch out their empty beings
and where fowls peck fruitlessly at unwashed dishes
I saw him the old man on an old bench seated
thoughts far off man’s reach and sight
and like the setting sun
he gave way to the dying embers of life
and slowly he slouched into bed
with a dry and empty stomach
to await another empty day or death.
mangy – scruffy, suffering from an ugly skin disease
| Post-reading | |
| 3. | The poem is set in a place where nothing is being cared for. What are the signs that: |
| a) | no one is doing any upkeep? |
| b) | the animals are neglected? |
| c) | the old man has no one to look after him? |
| 4. a) | “Dying embers” usually describes a fire that is slowly going out. What does “dying embers of life” suggest about the old man’s physical state and feelings? |
| b) | Quote all the other words that emphasise the old man’s position. |
| 5. | You have probably been told not to use ‘and’ more than once in a sentence. Suggest why the poet has chosen to use ‘and’ four times in this short poem. |
| 6. | The title is “Forgotten people”, so why does the writer describe only one person? |
| Pre-reading | |
| 1. | A confession is usually an admission of wrongdoing or even slipping up so that one can be forgiven and have a fresh start. What do you think is necessary if such a confession is to work? |
| During reading | |
| 2. | As you read this “confession”, what are the signs that it is not really designed to admit a fault? What is the person doing if he is not confessing? |
Confession
Chris van Wyk
i would
have brought
you
mulberries
but
they
threatened
to explode
their mauve
corpuscles
all over
my
best shirt
so
i ate them
| Post-reading | |
| 3. | How does the title, “Confession” heighten the humour of what the person actually does? |
| 4. | The lines of the poem are short, breaking up the sentence into small fragments. What does this suggest about how the person is speaking? |
| 5. | The speaker suggests that he ate the mulberries in self-defence. |
| a) | Quote words that are chosen to make the mulberries seem dangerous. Explain. |
| b) | What do you think was the real reason he ate the mulberries? |
| 6. | Have you ever been in a situation when you have had to explain away something you have done. What happened? See if you can tell the story in a humorous way in about half a page. |
| Pre-reading | |
| 1. | Shelley the poet was also a revolutionary political activist in the early nineteenth century. He was implacably opposed to tyranny in any form. At the time, major archaeological finds had been made in Egypt and other countries of the near east. Shelley went to see the statue of the mighty Pharaoh Rameses II, also known as Ozymandias, in the British Museum. How would you expect someone of his political views to respond? |
| During reading | |
| 2. | Most of the poem is in the voice of the “traveller from an antique land”. He tells a dramatic story. Be alert to how you would read the poem aloud for the same dramatic effect. |
Ozymandias
Percy Bysshe Shelley
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert ... Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
antique – ancient
passions – inner feelings of this arrogant ruler
pedestal – base on which the statue stands
sneer – contemptuous expression
stamped – expressively carved
trunkless – without the main part of the body
visage – image of a face carved in stone
| Post-reading | |
| 3. | What would your response be to seeing “two vast and trunkless legs of stone” standing in the desert? |
| 4. | The statue’s face is lying in fragments half sunk in the sand, but its features are clear enough to show what kind of person he was. What clues to his personality can you find in lines 4-8? Describe him using this evidence. |
| 5. | Which people did Ozymandias intend the statue to impress and scare off? Quote the words from the text on the pedestal which make this plain. |
| 6. | You have heard of global warming and the danger of good, fertile land becoming desert from drought. Ozymandias’s boasting message is “Look on my works”, but all we can see now is desert. What do you think this massive statue looked over when Ozymandias was at the height of his power? |
| 7. | The last three lines suggest the emptiness of the scene. The ruins of the statue are a “colossal wreck” in the midst of it. “Colossal” means huge, but it brings to mind the awe-inspiring Colossus of Rhodes, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, built to celebrate
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