At A Funeral, Dennis Brutus Flashcards
- Black, green & gold at sunset, pageantry
Choice of colours represents old SA flag of Apartheid era of resistance.
Sunset : connotation of darkness & sadness creating sad mood and symbolising death
Meaning: Flag is apart of ceremonial display creating impression that it is just for show. It was like a beauty pageant when she was in her gown for nothing
Pageantry meaning
Ceremonial display
- And stubbled graves: expectant, of eternity,
Stubbled graves : graves were in state of neglect so looked like stubble after harvest /men’s shave
Of eternity : Ambiguous, dead remain for eternity or belief that afterlife will not end.
Emphasis that we all have to die
Stubbled
Cut out ends of plants
Unshaven
Unkempt
3.In bride’s - white, nun’s - white veils the nurses gush their bounty
Nurses from hospital attend her funeral (must’ve known her).
Connotation : bride’s, nun’s imply purity & holiness & new life.
- Of red-wine cloaks, frothing the bugled dirging slopes
Nurses in red look like frothing red wine surrounding graveyard.
Burgled dirging slopes : suggests military funeral. Land itself mourns when sloping around graveyard
(metaphor)
Bugled
Military instrument used at funerals
Dirge
Funeral song
- Salute! Then ponder all this hollow panoply
Salute : honor her like you’d salute a doctor.
Emphasizes that it is a command.
Then instructs us to think about how meaningless (hollow) funeral is.
Asks reader to look further display with sincerity.
Panoply
Display/collection
- For one whose gifts the mud devours, with our hopes.
Gifts: ability as a doctor to heal and comfort
Devour : her gifts were hungrily eaten by mud. Metaphor comparing mud to hungry mouth.
Meaning : Gifts she had of healing are buried in earth.
Tone: despair
- Oh all you frustrate ones, powers tombed in dirt,
Apostrophe : addresses dead directly
Dead described as “powers in tombed dirt” & “frustrate”. Dead are powerful enough to cause frustration.
- Aborted, not by Death but carrion books of birth
Carrion books: pass books
Not death : it isn’t death that kills people but pass books (books of birth) which symbolize cruel apartheid laws.
Aborted : dead killed by pass books
Poet regards black people as dead because freedom is taken away due to oppression & pass book.
- Arise! The brassy shout of Freedom stirs our earth ;
Personification : dead addressed directly.
Arise: Defiant tone. Commands them to rise up & walk up. Talks to people who do nothing against government.
- Not Death but death’s - head tyranny scythes our ground
Our ground : reference to land where Group Areas Act excluded people of colour.
Death personified as grim reaper & compares SA government to death head wearing Nazis in WW2
Brassy
Music performed on a brass instrument like a bugle/trumpet
Carrion
Rotting flesh of dead animal
Death’s - head
Human skull
Symbol of mortality
Scythes
Cuts down violently
Dearth
Scarcity of something
- And plots our narrow cells of pain defeat & dearth :
Plots: pun. Meaning land or to plan something
Narrow cells of pain: could be graves in graveyards or small houses of disadvantaged areas or prison of Apartheid.
Poet implies pain & death was deliberately caused by apartheid government.
- Better that we should die, than that we should lie down.
Lie down: surrender
Poet implies it is better people resist apartheid than surrender.
No full stop: implies no end to resistance & surrender
Poet has now come to terms with tragedy of young doctors death.
Context of poem
Poem criticizes oppression. Can be seen as a “call to arms” - do not surrender to oppressive powers.
Also about frustration of aborted hopes, Valencia died before she worked as a doctor. Her family made enormous sacrifices to get her through medical school in vain.
At a Funeral
Title suggests poem is a tribute to Valencia Majombozi and is about her funeral ceremony.
A: creates impersonal tone as it isn’t specified
Poets idea of the funeral
Views it as hollow in face of lost hopes & dreams of this woman & her family.
Life’s cruelty create further grief for speaker & presents funeral as an occasion to renew his commitment to struggle for liberation since oppressed people cannot live their lives fully.
Structure
2 equal stanzas & specific rhyme scheme (aaabab, cccdcd)
Formality of poem mirrors formal rites & rituals of a funeral ceremony
Purpose of capital letters
Draws attention & emphasizes words
Exclamation marks
Suggest strong emotion - call to arms
Intention
Highlight plight of oppressed. Make strong political statement, voice his opposition to apartheid regime.
Stanza 1 tone & mood
Tone
Calm
Mood
Melancholic & miserable
Stanza 2 tone & mood
Tone
Angry
Disrespectful
Mood
Unforgiving
Vengeful
