ENGLISH B

• The speaker warns his love that a dark time has come
• The dark time


  • Characterized by wars, suffering, oppression and death
  • The poem's imagery and metaphors explore the fear, terror, pain and death that war brings
  • Even nature seems to respond to this dark time
• Mood of the poem

  Dark, gloomy and menacing
• The speaker might be speaking to his lover


  Or referring to his country as his love
• The dark time the poem speaks of is connected to the struggles that Guyana faced in 1953 due to British colonization
• At this time, the British soldiers flooded the country and crushed those who tried to stand and fight
• The poet was one of the freedom fighters and it is believed that he wrote this poem from a prison cell
• Dark time


  Figurative language, a metaphor representing sorrow, tragedy, death, evil
• Brown beetles


  Represent the soldiers that are spread out all over the country oppressing the people
• The beetles are compared to soldiers because they are everywhere, have natural body armor, and their crawling depicts the heavy treading of the soldiers
• Pathetic fallacy


  • The elements of nature (sun, flowers) show emotion or feeling, reflecting the mood of the poem
• Red flowers


  Signify blood and bloodshed, the flowers are wilting due to the oppression
• Dark metal


  Reference to the machinery of war, the weaponry, especially the guns
• Festival of guns, carnival of misery

  Oxymorons, representing the pain for the Guyanese but pleasure for the British who are victorious
• Faces of men


  Strained and anxious, exhausted and worried due to the oppression
• Boot of steel


  Represents the heavy, destructive footsteps of the invading soldiers
• Man of death, strange invader


  Metaphor for the British invaders or possibly death itself, threatening the dreams and spirit of the Guyanese people
• The elements of nature (sun, flowers, grass) in the poem represent the Guyanese flag and national pride
• The poem explores themes of love, death and war, with the speaker not willing to abandon his country despite the oppression
• 1. sec english b point

  The constant image of your face
• It is one of the more cryptic poems on the syllabus, not very straightforward
• The language in this poem is a little difficult
• Dennis Brutus

  • Born in 1924
  • South African known for his activism against apartheid
  • Accomplished quite a lot
  • Spent many years trying to end racial segregation
  • Rewarded by being thrown in a prison cell next to Mandela
  • Tried to escape prison and was shot in the back at point-blank range
  • Chased out of South Africa, exiled
  • Made England his new home by 1971
  • Became a professor of African literature at Northwestern University
  • His British passport got cancelled in 1980 and he was threatened with deportation
  • Won the battle to stay in the US
  • Unbanned from South Africa in 1990, returned in 2009 at age 85
  • Died in Cape Town, South Africa
• Dennis Brutus: 'It is the constant image of your face'
• The face mentioned in the title and opening line

  Is not the face of a person but the face of a country
• Framed in my hands

  A metaphor comparing the image of the face to a photograph that is framed
• Grave attention of your eyes

  The serious, somber attention of the eyes of the face are surveying or closely watching the speaker
• World of knives

  A metaphor meaning the speaker is in a very dangerous, perilous situation or environment
• The eyes through personification

  Are accusing or convicting the speaker of treachery (betrayal of one's country)
• Heart's treachery is an oxymoron since heart is associated with love and loyalty, and treachery is the opposite
• The speaker has betrayed a country

  And that country is constantly watching and accusing him
• The betrayal is a two-way street, the country has also betrayed the speaker
• The speaker's homeland

  Takes precedence over all his loves
• The speaker cannot love the other country (America) as much as he loves his homeland (South Africa)

  This is like a married man with side chicks, where his wife is his number one priority
• The other country (America) feels betrayed

  Because the speaker left it to return to his homeland (South Africa)
• The speaker feels betrayed by the other country (America)

  Because it almost deported him in 1980
• Apartheid

  Speaker was banished from his country and took refuge in England, then moved to America
• In the first stanza

  Speaker might be talking to England or America, likely America
• Speaker

  Can't love America as much as he loves his homeland South Africa, but does love America
• America

  Kneeling before the speaker, feeling betrayed