NON-AFRICAN POETRY
11. Examine God’s reasoning in The Pulley.
12. How does the image of caged bird explain the boy’s experiences in The Schgolboyt?
Explanation
Question 11
(1) Relation to theme: God's love for mankind which ensures that mankind is never separated from Him. (ii) God's creation of man and the benefits He bestowed on man.
(2) The reasoning for this is laid out in the stanzas: In the first stanza, God performed some activity when he created man: (i) He downloaded (as a pulley does) his gifts of blessing into a glass). (ii) Then he poured them (all we can) on man by a fiat: "Let the world's riches, which dispersed lie/contract into a span".
(3) The drama of withholding “rest": The second stanza describes the specific gifts: “beauty", "wisdom" "honour" "pleasure" and "strength as they are poured in succession. Then; dramatically, God made a stay "Rest"; my jewel' which lay at the bottom of the glass is withheld.
(4) God's reasoning: The third stanza provides the rationale for the reasoning: If "rest is included, man will be more worldly, i.e., "rest in Nature"; instead of the God of Nature. The result is “both will losers be".
(5) The concession and conclusion: The concession, Yet let him keep the rest (remainder) is magnanimous. But it precedes a caveat: *But keep them in repining restlessness' Then a new phenomenon is paradoxically introduced: "Let him be rich and wearie". At this stage, the logic of the reasoning is made more manifest: Not sure about man's inherent “goodness", God ensures that he keeps his link to man by throwing the latter into a state of repining restlessness". So that “if goodness lead him not, yet weariness/ may tosse him to my breast".
Question 12:
(1) Relation to theme: The restrictions imposed by society in general and school in particular on children's growth and development.
(2) The caged bird and the boy's experience of nature ("summer morn");: (i) summer morn is exciting (ii) “birds sing on every tree" (ii) ... "The distant huntsman winds his horn", etc. However, like a caged bird, the boy is excluded from participation in nature's activities by being restricted in school.
(3) A caged bird and the boy's experience of school. The boy describes his experience of school harrowingly (i) The setting is dreary (ii) Thought of it "drives all joy away" (ii) Teachers are old and overly strict "cruel eye outworn". (iv) The little ones are In sighing and dismay". (v) He feels anxious and cannot "take delight" in learning. A caged bird must be going through similar experiences.
(4) Through exclamations, appeals and rhetorical questions the caged bird must be going through similar experiences the boy blames his parents and society looking on as he, like a caged bird, is being denied natural growth and being kept Sorrowful
(5) Implications for adulthood (i) Loss of early childhood joy. (ii) Loss of time to acquire survival skills (iii) Loss of emotional and psychological buffer in times of old age, *when the blasts of winter appear".