Touch

• Touch: 'by Hugh Lewin'
• Poem was written while Lewin was imprisoned for political activism. Thus it can be read as a historical poem which is also indirectly a protest poem.
• Speaker


  Most probably the poet himself. Events that are described are possibly real memories.
• Form


  • Free verse; short lines with sporadic rhythm (which shows the repeated disruption of life due to cruel acts)
• Language


  • Simple diction complements the simple subject matter—how human touch differs in varying contexts. Lewin uses vivid descriptions of the brutality he underwent while he was in prison for committing crimes against the government.
• Speaker is currently in jail.
• Title


  Deals with primary subject matter— human touch (normal physical contact that is inaccessible for a prisoner & the invasive, physical abuse).
• When I get out

  1. I'm going to ask someone

  2. to touch me

  3. very gently please

  4. and slowly,

  5. touch me

  6. I want

  7. to learn again

  8. how life feels.
• I've not been touched

  1. for seven years

  2. for seven years

  3. I've been untouched

  4. out of touch

  5. and I've learnt

  6. to know now

  7. the meaning of

  8. untouchable.
• • Untouched - not quite
  • I can count the things
  • that have touched me.
• One: fists


  1. At the beginning

  2. fierce mad fists

  3. beating beating

  4. till I remember

  5. screaming

  6. don't touch me

  7. please don't touch me.
• Two: paws


  1. The first four years of paws

  2. every day

  3. patting paws, searching

  4. - arms up, shoes off

  5. legs apart -

  6. prodding paws, systematic

  7. heavy, indifferent

  8. probing away

  9. all privacy.
• I don't want paws


  • I want
  • to want to be touched
  • again
  • and to touch,
  • I want to feel alive
  • again
  • I want to say
  • when I get out
  • Here I am
  • please touch me.
• Hugh Lewin


  South African anti-apartheid activist and writer
• Hugh Lewin was born in 1939 in Lydenburg, Mpumalanga, to English missionary parents
• At university he joined the Liberal Party of South Africa (LPSA)
• He became a member of the "National Committee for Liberation", a secret sabotage group
• After graduating from Rhodes University, he worked as a journalist at the Natal Witness, Drum and Golden City Post
• In July 1964 he was held under the country's 90-day detention law and later sentenced to seven years' imprisonment for protest sabotage activities against apartheid
• Upon his release in 1971, he left the country
• He spent 10 years in exile in London, followed by 10 years in Zimbabwe
• He served as a member of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) committee on human rights violations in Gauteng, in the 1990s
• He won the 2003 Olive Schreiner Prize for his prison memoir Bandiet Out of Jail
• While in prison, he secretly recorded his experiences and those of his fellow inmates on the pages of his Bible
• On his release, these writings were published in London in 1974 and remained banned in South Africa until it was published in 1989
• Hugh Lewin died on 16 January 2019 at his home in Killarney, Johannesburg, Gauteng. He was 79 years old
• When I get out, I'm going to ask someone to touch me very gently please and slowly, touch me
• I want to learn again how life feels
• I've not been touched for seven years, I've been untouched, out of touch and I've learnt to know now the meaning of untouchable
• Untouched - not quite, I can count the things that have touched me
• One: fists, at the beginning, fierce mad fists beating beating till I remember screaming don't touch me, please don't touch me
• Two: paws, the first four years of paws every day, patting paws, searching - arms up, shoes off legs apart - prodding paws, systematic heavy, indifferent probing away all privacy
• I don't want paws, I want to want to be touched again and to touch, I want to feel alive again I want to say when I get out, here I am please touch me
• When I get out

  I want to be touched again
• Not being touched for 7 years


  I've learnt the meaning of "untouchable"
• The touches I've experienced in prison

  Fists and paws, not gentle human touch
• What I want when I get out

  To feel alive again through gentle human touch
• 'I am not here' - this line could be interpreted as being about death or absence, but it could also suggest that the speaker feels like they don't belong in the world around them.
• 'The world is pyramidical' - the poem has a sense of structure, but it also suggests that there are hidden depths to things
• 'A man must choose / A text upon the wall' - this quote shows how Eliot uses religious imagery throughout his work, suggesting that life can be seen as a journey towards salvation (or damnation)