1 When in the sun the hot red acres smoulder a
2 Down where the sweating gang its labour plies b
3 A girl flings down her hoe, and from her shoulder a
4 Unslings her child tormented by flies. b
5 She takes him to a ring of shadow pooled
6 By the thorn-tree: purpled with the blood of ticks,
7 While her sharp nails, in slow caresses ruled
8 Prowl through his hair with sharp electric clicks.
9 His sleepy mouth, plugged by the heavy nipple,
10 Tugs like a puppy, grunting as he feeds;
11 Through his frail nerves her own deep languor’s ripple
12 Like a broad river sighing through the reeds.
13 Yet in that drowsy stream his flesh imbibes
14 And old unquenched, unsmotherable heat –
15 The curbed ferocity of beaten tribes,
16 The sullen dignity of their defeat.
17 Her body looms above him like a hill
18 Within whose shade a village lies at rest,
19 Or the first cloud so terrible and still
20 That bears the coming harvest in its breast.
Line by line analysis
THEME
The poet describes the harsh conditions under which people have to work. The Zulu people are an oppressed nation, but they are gathering strength to rebel.
TONE
The opening stanza adopts a sympathetic tone as the poet exposes the harsh conditions where ‘the sweating gang’ (line 2) labours. Likewise, the girl’s child is ‘tormented’ (line 4) by flies. The second stanza portrays the mother as loving and nurturing as she ‘caresses’ (line 7) her child’s hair while she tends to him. The tone of the third stanza is tranquil and serene:
The word ‘Yet” in the fourth stanza is a shift in tone as the threatening ‘curbed ferocity’ (line 15) of those ‘beaten tribes’ (line 15) intrudes on the peaceful scene. The tone of foreboding and danger finds expression in the 'cloud so terrible and still’ (line 19) that warns of a looming confrontation once the ferocity is unleashed.
Line 1.
Hot red acres – the African landscape.
Metaphor – landscape is compared to a furnace (hot, red and smoulder have connotations of intense heat). Red is the colour of the freshly ploughed earth.
Smoulder is to burn without flames or about to set into flame. The sun is heating up the earth, the land.
Line 2
Gang – a collective noun which means that the members have no individual identity or individuality. Here they are labourers, farm workers who have no identity or possibly no dignity.
They are ‘sweating’ because of the heat of the sun and also because they are doing hard work suggesting that they are forced to work on the fields.
Plies – to work steadily
Line 3
The focus moves from the collective to the individual – a girl.
The word ‘girl’ also suggests that the woman is nameless, without identity. She is not seen as a woman or as a mother even though she has a child.
‘Flings’ suggests an attitude of defiance. Here in protest to the unfavourable conditions that she is forced to work in and also to the authority of the landowner she is forced to work for.
‘Hoe’ is a gardening/farming tool used to plough. It involves strenuous labour to plough the hard earth which has been baked by the sun (line 1).
Line 4
The girl is carrying her baby on her back while working. She unties the knot of the cloth that holds her child to her back. The child is troubled by the flies. The image here suggests the poverty and degrading conditions under which she must nurture her child. This image is directly opposed to the nursery and sterile conditions under which a mother would normally nurture her child.
Stanza 2
This stanza illustrates the care that the mother shows to her child.
Line 5
Ring of shadow is the shade that comes from the thorn tree.
Pooled suggests that more than one tree creates the shade but the metaphor also suggests the refreshing that one gets from a pool of water on a hot day. The idea is that she finds this shady spot the ideal place (given the context) to feed her child.
Line 6
The hyperbole suggests that the area is infested with ticks (tick-ridden) because the tree is coloured purple by the blood of ticks. Again, the imagery of a place that is not suitable for a baby.
Ticks - parasitic insects causing a bacterial fever transmitted by its bite
Line 7
Sharp nails – what does this image tell us about the mother?
Note the sibilance in the line suggests a soothing ‘s’ sound that soothes her child.
‘Slow caresses’ suggests the motherly affection that she gives her child. Caress means slow loving strokes.
Ruled suggests that she meticulously divides the child’s hair into straight lines to look (prowl) for lice or ticks.
Line 8
Prowl – to move about secretly or cautiously looking for prey. This metaphor is extended by the mother’s sharp nails. The image here portrays the mother as a predator in order to protect her child against the ticks (poverty /unhygienic conditions).
Sharp electric clicks – onomatopoeia on the word clicks and it imitates the sound of electric shocks as the mother strokes through the child’s hair. Electric refers to the static electricity caused by the friction between her nails and the child’s hair.
Line 9
Sleepy relates to the effect of the sibilance in line 7.
Plugged – latched. It also suggests connected / related (the bond between mother and child). The word also suggests the immense hunger of the child as if the breast milk is his only nourishment. (poverty)
Heavy nipple is transferred epithet in that it makes better sense to state ‘heavy breast’ but the poet transfers the description to the nipple to heighten the breastfeeding effect of the suckling child.
Line 10
Tugs – abrupt pull implying that the child feeds hungrily
Simile – the child is compared to a puppy that is feeding. Both a child and a puppy are vulnerable, innocent and harmless. There is possibly an extension of the image here that if the child is viewed as a puppy, then the mother is viewed as a dog. What do you think?
However, the mother does not view her child this way.
Grunting – an animal-like noise. This suggests that the child is drinking the milk voraciously almost gluttonously. (Again extending the idea of poverty, starvation for the child).
Line 11
Frail – fragile, delicate
Languor – tenderness, lack of energy. Note the possessive case: languor’s ripple. This suggests that the mother’s tenderness ripples (her tenderness is stirred up or moves into the child). This could be a deep influence from the mother that the child is drinking in.
Line 12
Simile – the influence from the mother is compared to a broad river. Here the focus is on the underlying strength from the mother that is broad (expansive). It contains more than just nutritional sustenance.
Sighing is onomatopoeia. This is an emotion of relief in this case. Relief that is explained in the next stanza. Also, personification – the river sighs.
Line 13
Yet – indicates a change of thought and of tone
Drowsy – resonates with sleepy (line 9)
Stream as opposed to a broad river in line 12. It could imply that this stream will become as expansive as the mother’s influence of strength one day.
Imbibes – absorbs or soaks up
Line 14
Unquenched – unsatisfied, unfulfilled
Unsmotherable – that which cannot be suppressed or held back
Heat – intense passion
This line refers to the underlying, unfulfilled and unstoppable passion or energy. The dash at the end of the line is used to indicate or explain what this passion/ fire is in the next line (line 14).
Line 15
curbed – restrained / subdued
Ferocity – fierceness / violence
Note the threatening tone of this line.
The restrained warrior-like fierceness of the Zulu tribes who allowed themselves to be beaten.
Line 16
Sullen – gloomy and threatening
Dignity – quality of being worthy of esteem or respect
Even though the Zulu tribe’s pride was defeated, they did not lose their dignity.
Stanza 5
The poem now moves to its prophetic climax and the Zulu Girl, as we have seen, takes on the significance of a symbol. She is no longer just a single, stray, exploited, hardworking individual in some remote part of the field: she represents to us the potentiality of her race for suffering, survival, and triumph.
Line 17
Looms – rises above.
Simile – the mother’s body is compared to a hill. Her body protects her child like a hill protects people living at its foot.
Line 18
The mother provides shade to the child (refer to line 5) in the heat of the sun.
The village people are waiting in rest. This suggests that they are ready to rise once again. It could mean that they are resting (waiting) for the appropriate time.
Line 19
Simile – the mother’s body is also compared to the first cloud (first rains of the spring season) that is threatening/ violent (terrible) and still (link to the word ‘rest’ (waiting silently to rise at the appropriate time).
The line suggests an unpredictable appearance.
Contrast the hot landscape in line 1 with the anticipation of the first rains of spring.
Line 20
Bears – carries forth
coming – the future
harvest – a gathering or yield in due season. Can also mean a consequence of an effort or activity. This must be understood in terms of time when the fruit of waiting will ripen. In other words, when the time is right.
The last line warns of a looming confrontation that will restore the Zulu tribe’s warrior pride. In other words a day of reckoning for the Zulu tribe is inevitable.
TONE
The opening stanza adopts a sympathetic tone as the poet exposes the harsh conditions where ‘the sweating gang’ (line 2) labours. Likewise, the girl’s child is ‘tormented’ (line 4) by flies.
The second stanza portrays the mother as loving and nurturing as she ‘caresses’ (line 7) her child’s hair while she tends to him.
The tone of the third stanza is tranquil and serene.
The word ‘Yet” in the fourth stanza is a shift in tone as the threatening ‘curbed ferocity’ (line 15) of those ‘beaten tribes’ (line 15) intrudes on the peaceful scene. The tone of foreboding and danger finds expression in the ‘cloud so terrible and still’ (line 19) that warns of a looming confrontation once the ferocity is unleashed.
POETIC DEVICES
1. Metaphor (line 1) landscape// furnace of intense heat
2. Metaphor (line 5) shadow/ /pool
3. Hyperbole (line 6) purpled
4. Sibilance (line 7) s sound
5. Onomatopoeia (line 8) clicks
6. Metaphor (line 8) prowl – mother// predator
7. Transferred epithet (line 9) nipple
8. Simile (line 12) milk of mother// river
9. Personification (line 12) river sighing
10. Onomatopoeia (line 12) sighing
11. Simile (line 17) mother’s body// hill
12. Simile (line 19) mother’s body// cloud
