Meaning of Life and Poem Essay

Introduction Chinodya is a graduate of the University of Zimbabwe. A good writer, he won the first honour in Literature in English in the Zimbabwean volume Publishers Associations Award in 1991. He has excessively published several fryrens books in his life. Discussion There is no set garentee to unlock the import of a poem. Each poem dictates an individual mode of approach. A useful approach to the analysis or sermon of a poem is to list some of the elements that are foregrounded in the poem.M H Abrams defines foregrounding as follows To foreground is to bring something into the highest prominence, to make it dominant in perception (Abrams 1993274). spotlight may be achieved in several ways. The writer may take over certain words or an entire line to draw our attention. Sometimes, the make-up (setting of type) and punctuation may be manipulated for effect. Even images, such as optic or auditory, may be heightened for attention.Now that you know the meaning of the marches foregrounding, use it sometimes in your discourse of poetry. Just as Banoobhai foregrounds irony in his poem Hes a Good Boy, This whiz. Chinodya foregrounds certain elements in his poem for our immediate attention. Before proceeding whatsoever further, list at least THREE elements that are foregrounded in recall. Your list would probably look like this . Repetition of words think of, bradawl . Use of sound devices (appealing to the sense of hearing). Use of colour (appealing to the sense of sight) . colloquial tone . Use of long vowel sounds to slow down the cadence . and so on. Try to incorporate some of the above points in your discussion of the poem. The English poet William Wordsworth celebrates the power of the imagination to recall and re-live memorable experiences in his illustrious poem I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud (often referred to as The Daffodils). Chinodyas poem is reminiscent of Wordsworths poem.The foregrounding of the word remember, by its repetition, sugges ts that the speakers memories of his childhood days are vivid. It also induces a nostalgic mood which contributes to the overall effect of the poem. Minute detail such as crouching thorn trees, criss-crossing bush paths and coarse crop of crazy weed suggest memories that are still alive after all these years. hostile Wordsworths poem, Recollection sketches a past which was non always perfect (look up the meaning and pronunciation of this word if you are not sure).In the third stanza, the speakers description of his childhood days is off-and-on(a) by the unpleasant memory of a harsh law I remember the big bless that said Something about people not being allowed in ? Such memories are indelible and often avatar our attitudes as adults. We recall how in our own country apartheid laws restricted blackened people (including Indians and Coloureds) free access to public places. Although as a child the speaker was too young to know the significance of the big sign, its effect on him as an adult is a lasting one.