4/1/09 - Wed.
Homework:
Due Fri. Soweto Rd. Assignment #1-9
Collected Today:
1. This I Believe Essay in this order:
a. Green Grading Rubric
b. Final Draft
c. Draft #2
d. Draft #1
e. Brainstorming and Outlining Sheet
2. Belief Statements Tracking Sheet (classwork from South Africa unit)
---for people who didn't turn them in last time:
1. Vocab. Review sheet (crossword and reminders chart on back)
2. South Africa Quiz and Amandla! notes
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POETRY 101 To truly understand poetry one must take their time with it, one must read a poem
multiple times, and ask themselves many questions about the poem to try to get to a deeper understanding
of the poem.
It may be useful to know that most poets spend countless hours and days and months and sometimes
years writing one poem—most poems aren’t written, fully formed in one sitting. Therefore you shouldn’t
expect to understand a poem in one simple read through.
The following information gives you suggestions for how to learn to dissect the meaning of poetry step by
step… but don’t be too hard on yourself if it’s hard for you, like so many things we get better at analyzing
poetry the more we do it.
BASIC DIRECTIONS FOR HOW TO READ A POEM:
Before You Read
Author and Context: Notice as much about the context and what you know about the subject and poet as
you can. Who wrote the poem? Where is (s)he from? When was the poem written? What was going on in
the world or in that person’s life at the time? Make a prediction about how the context might be linked to or
included in the poem.
Title: Ponder the title. Predict what the poem may be about before you begin reading.
While You Read
First Read: Read straight through the poem one time, marking words that you don’t know, or phrases that
are confusing to you. Look up words that you don’t understand in the dictionary, and spend some time trying
to figure out what the confusing phrases might mean by looking at the phrases you do understand in the
poem. Now jot down your first reactions to the poem.
Paraphrase: Now re-read the poem to try to understand what the literal meaning is. This is simply the basic
‘story’ of the poem, or the ‘what’s going on.’ Jot down short observations about the literal meaning for each
line, stanza or a couple of sentences at the end of a short poem summarizing its literal meaning.
Connotation: Re-read the poem for a third time. This time you are asking yourself for the meaning of the
poem beyond the literal, beyond the basic story. Mark words, phrases and images in the poem that give
hints and suggestions of a deeper meaning. It often helps me to ask the question ‘what might the author be
trying to tell me, but not just coming right out and saying?’
Tone and Mood: Observe the speaker’s attitude (mood) and voice (tone). Does the poem seem cynical,
angry, calm, humorous? Then decide how this affects the poem’s meaning.
Devices: Now look at the poem from a technical perspective (think car mechanic of poetry). Examine and
mark all poetic devices you see (see the back of this sheet for some). Write how these devices create or
emphasize meaning and effect; what do they do for the greater understanding, mood or tone of the poem?
Shifts: Now pay particular attention to how the poem moves from one idea to another. Trace the changes
that occur in the poem. Mark the following to note where the shifts may happen; transitional words (like ‘but’,
‘yet’ and ‘however’), punctuation, structure (the end and beginnings of stanzas, first lines and last lines of a
poem, etc), form (if it’s a free verse poem – with no set structure - are any words set apart?) and any other
elements that seem to indicate a change in the poem.
Title: Now look at the title again. See if you can interpret a deeper meaning than you could the first time you
looked at it. Jot down any new ideas you have.
After You Read
Theme(s): Write a one sentence plot summary of the poem (one sentence that summarizes what happens
in the poem). Then, make a list of subjects brought up during the poem (topics being discussed or
observed). Finally, write a short idea (a complete sentence) of what the speaker is saying about each of the
subjects; this list of sentences is your list of themes.
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Poetic Devices that are important right now…
Alliteration: repetition of the initial consonant sound
i.e. Dry dogs don’t drown.
Sibilance: repetition of the ‘s’ sound
i.e. Sally saunters on the seashore
Assonance: repetition of vowel sound
i.e. It felt like going out on a cloud in the South.
Figurative Language: words expanded beyond their usual, literal meaning (often includes simile, metaphor, and personification)
Onomotopoeia: words that sound like what they mean
i.e. buzz, slush
Personification: giving inanimate objects human qualities
i.e. The sky muttered thunder and some sad drops
Symbol: something concrete that stands for something else
Simile: A comparison between two things that uses the words ‘like’ or ‘as’
i.e. ‘her tears fell like rain’
Metaphor: A comparison made by describing one thing as another
i.e. The march of the army was a drumbeat heard throughout the country.
Rhyme: the musical quality of a poem
i.e. bed-head, sad-mad-glad… you get the idea
Rhyme Scheme: Ending Rhyme is the most prolific rhyme scheme used.
i.e. All in a hot and copper sky, A
The bloody Sun, at noon, B
Right up above the mast did stand C
No bigger than the Moon. B
Meter: the patterned repetition of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line
Stanza: a group of lines in a poem, like paragraphs in a piece of prose writing
Verse: a line of poetry
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Global Literature Name: _______________________
South Africa Unit - “Soweto Road” 20 points
Using the techniques for how to read a poem from your “Poetry 101” Handout, analyze the poem “Soweto Road”. This is a challenging poem, so expect to read it several times, and really dig deep for understanding.
Mark “Soweto Road” by Lindiwe Mabuza for the following elements:
1. Author and Context: Make a prediction about how the context might be linked to or included in the poem.
2. Title: write literal and deeper meanings of the title.
3. First read: Mark words and phrases you don’t know with definitions for the words, and an educated guess about the meaning of the confusing phrases
4. Second read: On a separate sheet of paper, summarize the literal meaning of the poem in 4 sentences or less.
5. Third read: Mark words, phrases and images that hint at deeper meaning in the poem and write in what you think they might be hinting at.
6. Comment on the mood and tone of the poem- and where that mood or tone changes
7. Now take different colored pencils and mark the poem for the following (giving me a key of what each color stand for): alliteration, sibilance, assonance, rhyme, similes, metaphors, and figurative language. Then comment on what you think patterns of these poetic devices does for the greater understanding of the poem (read devices on “Poetry 101” for help with this).
8. Once your poem is all marked up, go back to your poem and read it one last time. See if there are any other questions or answers that come up for you in this final read and mark them down on the poem.
9. Figure out what at least two main themes in the poem are by using your “Poetry 101” handout and jot them down on the poem.
10. Finally, write one short paragraph (at least 5 sentences) that tells 1- what you think the main meaning of the poem is, 2- what main themes are present in the poem and how do they affect the meaning? 3- how the use of poetic devices supports the main idea or theme of the poem 4- comment about how one poetic device affects the meaning of the poem 5- and comment on a second poetic device and how it affects the overall meaning of the poem.
Historic Note: The Soweto Riots of 1976
The Soweto riots of 1976 were the most brutal and violent riots that had taken place against the South African apartheid administration. It was also amazing in how far and how fast it spread. Its significance would go beyond the violence on the streets. The police actions during the riots would be part of what instigated a world-wide boycott of South African produce and signaled the increased militancy of the black population of South Africa.
During a reorganization of the Bantu Education Department of the government, the South African apartheid government decided to start enforcing a long-forgotten law requiring that secondary education be conducted only in Afrikaans, rather than in English or any of the native African languages. This was bitterly resented by both teachers and students. Many teachers themselves did not speak Afrikaans (an extremely difficult language to learn) and so could not teach the students. The students resented being forced to learn the language of their oppressors and saw it as a direct attempt to cut them off from their original culture.
By 1976, several teachers were ignoring the directive and were fired, prompting staff resignations. Tensions grew. Students refused to write papers in Afrikaans and were expelled. The students of one school after another went on strike. The government response was to simply shut the down schools and expel the striking students.
A protest march was organized in the black Soweto township just outside Johannesburg on June 16 1976. Over 20,000 students turned up to the march, followed closely by the police. The regular day-to-day tension between blacks and the apartheid regime’s police force was coupled now with the anger directed at the recent education act. Conflict began almost immediately, as police fired round after round of tear-gas and then guns into the crowds. The police showed no mercy attacked students of all ages, armed or unarmed. In the book, Kaffir Boy, a young boy called David described the police’s actions on the first day of the riot:
"They opened fire. They didn’t give any warning. They simply opened fire...And small children, small defenseless children, dropped down like swatted flies. This is murder, cold-blooded murder".
The riots began to spread all over the South African townships (squatted villages, often just outside main industrial areas, lived in by black workers) as years of built up anger and bitterness at the brutal apartheid government exploded. Realizing the scale that these riots were happening on, the government reacted in the way any government would: with the full use of organized violence. After days of not being able to enter them, anti-riot units along with armed vehicles and personnel were sent to Soweto and other townships. Meetings were stopped and activists were harassed. For instance, the radical black consciousness activist Steve Biko was ‘banned’ meaning he was stopped from making speeches in public and was not allowed to be quoted in print. In the end, due no doubt largely to his disregard for this law, he was killed by the police in a brutal beating.
But regardless of their actions, the government could not stop additional protests. After Soweto, an uprising or march would take place almost every day, often completely spontaneously. Young blacks expressed their anger at apartheid by marching, rioting and setting fire to government property.
Over 360 blacks were killed in the Soweto riots of 1976. The South African government basically declared war on black school children. The government used their full physical force against the students but they did not let up. They carried on fighting and eventually the South African apartheid regime fell. There is only so much that a people are willing to take and in 1976, the black youth of South Africa told the government exactly when they had crossed that line. The Soweto riots signaled the beginning of the end for the racist, colonial state of South Africa.
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Soweto Road
On this spot rough
From cares of slow years
On these streets
muddy from torrents red
on these crooked roads
yawning for direction
here where like early spring
awaiting rain’s seeds
young voices stormed horizons
how yet like summer streams
young blood flowed over
flooded flower
in the dead of winter
On this road here
here this road here
tingles and shudders
from acid taste
the snakeskin snakestooth whiplash road
where snakes tongue flicker lick
broken glass children’s park
road school for shoeless feet…
olympic track perfected
by daily daring sprints
against passes
and barbed wire nakedness…
this road pressed soft
oozing like tear-falls
treeless show-ground for hard-ware
processions
all the June sixteen festivals
and their mad array of hippos
muffling contrary anthems
with machine-gun chatter
naked greed and lust for blood in camouflage
Soweto road drunk
from rich red wine
this sweet arterial blood
for choice Aryan folk…
battlefield road here yes
here
yes even here
where road-blocks to life pile
precariously
here we kneel
scoop earth raise mounds of hope
we oath
with our lives
we shall immortalize
each footprint left each grain of soil
that flesh shed here
each little globe of blood
dropped in our struggle
upon the zigzag path of revolution…
Soweto blood red road
will not dry up
until the fields of revolution
fully mellow tilled
always to bloom again
Lindiwe Mabuza.
