“Epitaph” byDennis Scott

http://thetbjoshuafanclub.wordpress.com/2010/07/29/condemned-to-die-destined-to-live/

Title Author Form Literal Meaning Figurative Meaning Themes Interconnectivity

What does the title mean?

EPITAPH

An Epitaph is a short text honouring a deceased person, strictly speaking that is inscribed on their tombstone or plaque

http://linuxologist.com/1general/top-20-geek-epitaphs/

http://professionalheckler.wordpress.com/2009/08/02/famous-epitaphs-repost/

Dennis Scott was born in Jamaica in 1939. He had a distinguished career as a poet,

playwright, actor, dancer in the Jamaican National Dance Theatre, an editor of Caribbean Quarterly and teacher.

His first collection, Uncle Time (1973) was one of the first to establish the absolutely serious use of nation language in lyric poetry.

He died at the early age of fifty-one in 1991

They hanged him on a clement morning, swung between the falling sunlight and the women's breathing like a black apostrophe to pain. All morning while the children hushed their hopscotch joy and the cane kept growing he hung there sweet and low. At least that's how they tell it. It was long ago and what can we recall of a dead slave or two except that when we punctuate our island tale they swing like sighs across the brutalsentences, and anger pauses till they pass away.

What structure does the poem take? Is it a sonnet or is it written in free verse?

FREE VERSE

What is the poem about? A man was hanged in the morning and

left there for women and children to see.

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The tale of the hanging of slaves has been passed down from generation to generation but is questioned by the narrator since “they” did not care about slaves.

Those who re-tell the tales of hanging in recent times connect with their ancestors; their writing is filled with emotion.

Photo: Caribbean writers at Carifesta 1995, Trinidad. L-R: Derek Walcott, Martin Carter, George Lamming, Earl Lovelace, Ernest Mootoosamy (Guadeloupe), Kamau Brathwaite.  Photo (c) by Sherwin Griffith.http://mahanaimnotes.blogspot.com/2010/05/select-bibliography-of-west-indian.html

Poets who “WRITE BACK”.Caribbean people were unable to tell their side of the story until recently

Characters: “They”, “him”, women, children, “we”

Narration: 3rd person

What literary devices can you identify in the poem?

Why does the author choose to use these?

Simile “like a black apostrophe to pain”

Comparison of the victim’s shape to that of an apostrophe’s

“they swing like sighs” comparing the words to emotional release 

Metaphor “we punctuate our island tale” “the brutal sentences”

non-literal comparisons exploring the Caribbean people’s use of language in order to express self and tell tale

Alliteration “breathing like a black...” “hushed/their hopscotch joy” “they swing like sighs”

influences the rhythm of the poem

Personification “anger pauses/till they pass away”

Anger is given human-like characteristics to show that it is so much that it has taken on a “life” of its own

Irony “They hanged him on a clement

morning” The word “clement” means “merciful”. The narrator is using irony to show that although the executioners believed that they were exacting mercy those close to the victim knew otherwise

Allusion “sweet and low” – reference to the Negro

gospel (spiritual) Swing Low, Sweet Chariot

Bearing in mind that: The theme reveals the connection

between the literary work (the world created by the author's imagination) and the outside world

What main ideas (themes) can you identify in the poem?

Can you give examples to justify your choice of theme?

Injustice

After having discovered the themes How do these relate to other poems

you have already covered or are yet to cover?

How does the content contrast with other poems?

“The Lynching” – Claude McKay