Poetry Revision

Session 2: “Parade’s End” and “Our Sharpeville”

SIMILES

What is a SIMILE?

A SIMILE is when one thing is compared to another to describe it using ‘like’ or ‘as’.

EG: ‘He was as tall as a house’ or ‘she was like a princess’

“Parade’s End” by Daljit Nagra

Read through the poem. What do you think are the main themes or ideas explored in the poem?

Themes

Class

Race

Prejudice

Divisions

Judgements

Difference

Conflict

What kind of conflict is present in this poem?

What kinds of clashes and collisions are occurring in this poem?

Voice

Who is the voice?

Find a quote to show how the voices feels about:• The area the superstore is in:‘my brother’s eyes scanned the men’ – scanning = suspicious• The locals:‘council mums’ – emphasising the fact they live in council houses, concerned about class, condescending?• Locking up the shop:‘two metal bars’ – locking up carefully, cautious, happened before

Imagery

How does the author use….• Images of wealth vs images of poverty‘champagne gold’ – success (gold colour of riches / royalty etc)• The image of the meat counterImage of plenty• The images of the locks - protection• The scene in the fourth verse: ‘graffiti’ and ‘high-rise flats’ – not

a good area(contrast with ‘cul-de-sac emphasised by half-rhyme)

What imagery is present in the final stanza?Golden leaves fall away to reveal bare trees – dead, winter, negative

Language choice

Why has the author used these particular words….• ‘scanning’ – suspicious, looking for danger• ‘Yorksha, mekkin claaaaims on aut theh’ –

accent / dialect• ‘throbbing red’ - • ‘pucker’- Both of these are evocative of pain / skin etc

Rhyme and Rhythm

Is there any rhyme or rhythm used consistently in the poem?

Form and Structure• How many lines are in each stanza?- There are seven lines in each stanza except the last one – could

represent disappointment, or the characters feeling smaller by the end.

• How does the author use enjambement?- The tone of the poem seems casual but hidden in the lines without much emphasis are clues that hint at prejudice and discrimination.• Is there a structure to the poem? (stanza by stanza? How does the

poem begin and end?)- The structure is almost circular as we start with colour and end with colour – but the family have regressed to their ‘former’ colour. They have been prevented by moving on / up.

Practise Question!

Now, try PLANNING an answer to the following question:

Examine how Daljit Nagra explores the themes of cultural tensions and conflict in “Parade’s End”.

How does the author present what has happened? How are divisions and tensions created and described for the reader?

“Our Sharpeville” by Ingrid de Kok• Ingrid de Kok grew up a white South African in the mining

town of Stilfontein near Johannesburg during the time of Apartheid in South Africa

• Apartheid was a system of racial discrimination where people of different skin colours had to live apart, eat apart and weren’t allowed to spend time together

• There were even Pass Laws introduced that meant black people had to wear a pass at all times.

• In March 1930 in Sharpville, a mining town, there was a peaceful protest against the Pass Laws.

• The police opened fire on the protest and over 180 were injured, and 60 people were killed.

Voice

• First person – personal • Past tense – memory ‘I was playing hopscotch’

– childhood, simple, innocent• Moves to shame and knowledge ‘come inside;

they do things to little girls’• ‘our Sharpville’ – her experience as a white

South African whose family was distrustful of black people.

• ‘I returned to the closed rooms, home’ – shut, narrow existence and viewpoint

Stanza 1

• ‘building hot arteries’ – metaphor for building tunnels / pipes in the mine. Important. Land figured as a body. ‘hot’ – dangerous, uncomfortable.

• ‘and it seemed like a great caravan’ – a caravan of people travelling. Nomadic people (travellers) in hot countries would travel in groups with tents and carts – called caravans. Positive, interesting image, like something from her ‘Sunday School book’

Stanza 2

• ‘and it seemed like a great caravan’ – Simile: a caravan of people travelling. Nomadic people (travellers) in hot countries would travel in groups with tents and carts – called caravans. Positive, interesting image, like something from her ‘Sunday School book’

• ‘olive trees, a deep Jade pool’ – calming and relaxing.

• ‘night falling, its silver stars just like the ones / you got for remembering your Bible texts’ – Simile: child’s association with the scene is innocent

Stanza 3

• A short stanza – interruption from her grandmother into her daydream.

• ‘her voice a stiff broom’ – metaphor, sweeping out what she had been thinking about.

• ‘Come inside; they do things to little girls’ – sexually threatening

Stanza 4• ‘there was no jade pool. / Instead a pool of blood’ contrast /

juxtaposition shocking and highlights violence and childhood ignorance.

• ‘…and grew like a shadow as the day lengthened’ – grew like darkness, negative, inevitable

• ‘the dead, buried in voices’ – metaphor, weren’t aware of people dying because of the noise of what was going on

• ‘these were not heroes in my town / but maulers of children’ – contrast highlighted by line break ad short lines in the middle of the stanza

• ‘that might tempt us’ – evil, temptation, not to be trusted (but interesting… questioning…)

• ‘across the wellswept streets’ – like her grandmother’s voice, clean and tidy, nothing our of place and nothing going wrong

Stanza 5• ‘If I had turned I would have seen’ – hindsight, imagining as an

adult looking back• ‘known there were eyes behind’ – people were watching like she

was, she didn’t need to feel ashamed• ‘all I felt was shame, / at being a girl, at being found at the gate’ –

a kind of loss of innocence. Done something wrong, linked to her gender

• ‘at having heard my grandmother lie / and at my fear her lie might be true’ – realises her grandmother is lying – knowledge – but also ashamed that she wonders if those men are maulers of children – is she herself prejudiced?

• ‘walking backwards, called back / I returned to the closed rooms, home’ – regression back to safety and ignorance, not looking at the world.