Compiled, designed & circulated by:
Mr Milan Mondal, Assistant Professor, Dept. of English, Narajole Raj College
Line by line critical analysis of the poem: — Stanza-II
“Threshed out by beaters, the long rushes break In a white dust of ibises whose cries
Have wheeled since civilization’s dawn
From the parched river of the beast-teeming plain”
In the beginning of the second stanza the poet speaker once again puts light into the natural landscape of Africa. In the first line there is an agrarian imagery. The process of threshing of crops has been presented here through a picaresque description. But metaphorically the line is ironical one. The ruling colonizers are finding the colonized native to beat and murder brutally.
In the next line the cry of the ibises is used ironically. It works as an agent to detect the hidden natives. So the cry of the ibises, though reflects the African natural world here it is a symbol of menace. The poet speaker once again gives the natural description of African landscape.
According to him African land is naturally affluent since the dawn of civilization. The word civilization is noteworthy here. The word is not used in its colonial sense. Rather, it means that Africa is naturally affluent or the African land bears these characteristics from the very day of
Compiled, designed & circulated by:
Mr Milan Mondal, Assistant Professor, Dept. of English, Narajole Raj College
origin of mankind. The parched river and beast-teeming plain refer to the fact that the African land is dry and the beat roam there openly. So, through the natural imagery the poet speaker presents the essence of the African land. But due to the grim fight in between the colonizers and the natives there is a turmoil situation right now.
“The violence of beast on beast is read As natural law, but upright man Seeks his divinity by inflicting pain.”
The above lines on the one hand tells about the natural law and on the other hand also depict the anticultural bestiality of mankind. In the animal world a certain animal kills other only to appease its hunger. They only do it out of natural law but they never kill other without necessity. But the poet speaker’s point of view is ironical in case of human beings. Human beings kill others without any reason. In this poem both the colonizers and the natives kill each other. It is not the natural law of mankind. The poet’s speaker, here, is cynical enough. The tone of the poet speaker is that the so called civilized human beings are no better than ferocious animal, rather they (human beings) are much more dangerous than animals. A certain sect of animal does not kill its own sect but it is very common in case of human being. According to the poet speaker a certain man, very often cherishes the death of another man. Sometimes, a
Compiled, designed & circulated by:
Mr Milan Mondal, Assistant Professor, Dept. of English, Narajole Raj College
certain man feel pleasure by inflicting pain to other. At the time of Mau Mau uprising both the colonizers and the colonized people feet pleasure by inflicting pain to each other.
“Delirious as these worried beasts, his wars
Dance to the tightened carcass of a drum While he calls courage still that native dread Of the white peace contracted by the dead.”
In the first two lines there is an imager of a war. Here, there is also a reference to the ritual of dancing of the natives during a war. The native people usually beat drum and dance. It is their cultural ritual. But here, African landscape is compared to a drum. The poet speaker thinks as the African land is being beaten like a drum during the war between the colonizers and the colonized natives. Here, we can find out an analogy in between the first two lines and with the opening lines of Pablo Neruda’s poem The Way Spain Was:
“Tout and dry Spain was
a day’s drum of dull sound,…”
The poet speaker thinks this war to be delirium. That is to say that it is nothing but a madness for both the colonizers and the native kikuyus.
The next two lines are very difficult to interpret. Apparently, the natives think that the act of slaughtering the colonizers is a courageous deed. Ultimately it invokes a sinister to their life
Compiled, designed & circulated by:
Mr Milan Mondal, Assistant Professor, Dept. of English, Narajole Raj College
because after the killing the natives become the most wanted ones to the colonizers. This is also dreadful for the natives because they are bound to the colonizers as their (natives) ancestors were bound by the contract. This also hints at the slave tradition of the Caribbean people.
Reference (s): —
1. Batra, Shakti, Three contemporary poets (A critical study)
2. https://poemanalysis.com/derek-walcott/a-far-cry-from-africa/
3. https://www.enotes.com/topics/far-cry/in-depth
4. https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/far-cry- africa
5. https://owlcation.com/humanities/Analysis-of-Poem-A-Far-Cry- From-Africa-by-Derek-Walcott
6. http://www.scholarspark.com/-a-far-cry-from-africa-by-derek- walcott.html
Compiled, designed & circulated by:
Mr Milan Mondal, Assistant Professor, Dept. of English, Narajole Raj College
