welcome back to between the lines I'm your host Adam Webb today we'll look at a lesson for this Sunday this is one of the three poems that have been recently added to the csec poem list let me tell you something csec does not like easy poems that said if you stick with me to the end of this video you'll come to a solid understanding of this poem first I'll read the poem then I'll summarize what is happening and finally we'll do a line by line analysis looking at the devices on diction used as well as the themes explored in the poem [Music] a lesson for this Sunday by Derek Walcott the growing idleness of summer grass with its frail kinds of furious butterflies requests the lemonade of sin capris in scansion gentler than my hammock swings and rituals no more upsetting than a black maid shaking linen as she sings the plane notes of some Protestant Hosanna since I like idling from the 13 things or so they should until I hear the cries of two small children hunting yellow wings who break my Sabbath with the thought of sin brother and sister with a common pain frowning like serious lipidopterists the little surgeon pierces the thin eyes crouched on plump haunches as a mantis praise she shrieked eviscerate its abdomen the lesson is the same the maid removes both prodigies from their interest in science the girl in lemon frock begins to scream as the maimed teetering thing attempts its flight she is herself a thing of Summer light frail as a flower in this blue August air not marked for some late grief that cannot speak the Mind swings inward on itself in fear swayed toward nausea from each normal sign heredity of Cruelty everywhere and everywhere the frocks of Summer torn the long look back to see where choice is born as summer fastest ways to the scythe's design based on the title The Point might present some kind of lesson we should learn we see in stanza 1 that the speaker is relaxing in his hammock there's an ear of calm rest something interrupts him means number two it is the cries of two small children hunting butterflies even though these kids are just playing with the butterflies the speaker seems to take what they're doing very seriously even though they are being playful being kids they're actually hurting even torturing the butterfly and the speaker reflects in the last stanza on how what they are doing fits into a bigger cycle of Cruelty and pain this might be the lesson he learns the same lesson mentioned in the title [Music] let's jump back to the title a lesson for this Sunday the title brings to mind Sunday school that part in church where kids are taught stories and lessons from the Bible for Sabbath keeping Christians it is instead Sabbath School interestingly the speaker mentions his Sabbath being broken later on we'll get there anyhow the point might be some kind of lesson for us to learn whether it be related to Christianity or not it could be that the poem is a lesson for us and it could also be that it is the speaker who learns the lesson in the poem the phrasing of the title also makes us wonder whether the speaker is trying to teach us a lesson sometimes during sermons which are often given on Sundays the preacher might tell a story that illustrates a point this point might be the story in the speaker's sermon any or even multiple of these interpretations of the title could be correct let's go down to line one the growing idleness of summer grass this line begins the imagery of blissful calm that the stencil will continue to be picked it is Summer and the grass is Idle since the grass is said to be idle this is personification the effect is this is not a mood of toil and labor but a mood of relaxation also we know that summer is a bright vibrant time which helps to paint this picture of a person just taking it easy with no work to do the idleness of the grass is growing so the grass is getting lazier and lazier but growing idleness has some other connotations too it might suggest that the grass is useless purposeless maybe it needs to be cut down Perhaps it is overgrown later in the point mention will be made of a scythe that is used to cut the grass line two with its frail kinds of furious butterflies in line 2 we see that the grass has frail kites of furious butterflies the first thing we notice is the alliteration or consonants of the sound we have frail and Furious we also have the sound in butterflies this alliteration brings to mind the sound of flight of wings fluttering through and above the grass the line tells us that there are butterflies flying about but let's look at how the butterflies are described the butterflies are said to be kites as if this is a collective noun for a group of butterflies but the real collective noun for a group of butterflies is a flight a flight of butterflies not a kite of butterflies so what's up with kite why do we see a kite and not a flight of butterflies this might be a metaphor that is comparing the butterflies the kite what is the point of this comparison here just as kites are thin and delicate so are the butterflies the line even said frail guys so this makes sense and later on there will be more support for the butterfly's Frailty so these butterflies are frail delicate they are perhaps vulnerable feeble another implication is that just as kites are typical playthings for children especially in the pre-smartphone era these butterflies become playthings toys for the children to enjoy to manipulate even to destroy this will be supported in stanza 2. in fact the theme of man destroying and being cruel to Nature has only just begun still in line too we see that the butterflies are not just frail but Furious why are these cute little things Furious the Furious here Works in two ways for one there are Furious in how they fly it's not about anger but about how they are just quickly fluttering about in all directions it's more about the movement of their wings and not about how they're feeling this is supported by the comparison of the Butterflies the kites the other usage of furious here ties into what happens in stanza 2 where we will see the children hunting and torturing the butterflies the butterflies are Furious because they are being hurt by the children more universally nature is furious because It suffers at the hands of humans but just as nature is a victim of man's cruelty so is man a victim of man's cruelty we'll talk more about this later as we unfold how the butterflies actually serve as a symbol to represent not just the nature but even those who are oppressed those who suffer at the cruel hands of others there's one more thing that I'll mention about the butterflies before we come back to them later on the butterflies here belong to the grass they are property of the grass they are the grasses frail types of furious butterflies look at the word it's this ownership might speak to how some people are owned by others whether literally in the sense of slavery or figuratively in the sense of the Rich and Powerful exploiting the poor and weak even more directly it may relate to how man has claimed ownership over nature however this interpretation is a stretch as the grass which owns the butterfly is a part of nature as well and this might even tie into the psychical nature of ownership anyway let's jump to line three requests the lemonade of sin to praise line 3 is a little tricky first of all who or what is making this request the butterflies doesn't seem so maybe the grass look at line one to see what the subject of the sentence is it's not the grass but it's a growing idleness of the grass so the idleness of the grass requests the lemonade of simple praise since the idleness of the grass is requesting something we have personification it's requesting praise and this praise to Metaphor is said to be lemonade why lemonade because it's summer and it's hot and lemonade is what you drink in a time like this lemonade is something one would readily request if they were out in the summer Heat giving someone lemonade and a hot day it's a good way to praise or reward them so in the first three lines we see that it is summer and there is grass and there are butterflies the speaker says that this kind of relaxed atmosphere is begging to be recognized to be appreciated line 4 in scansion greater than my hammock swings the speaker continues in line 4 to describe the atmosphere the pleasantness of nature here he is describing how nature is making its request the entire stanza even leading down into the next stanza is a single sentence so everything here is connected so how is the nature how is the atmosphere how is the idleness of the summer graph requesting to be praised scansion means Rhythm but especially the kind of Rhythm found within a poem so here this relaxing nature this calmness this idleness is asking for appreciation and we see that it is making its request in a poetic way in other words the same way one might listen to music and find comfort and joy in the Rhythm the speaker is enjoying the Rhythm and the vibe of this relaxed atmosphere this same atmosphere that is worthy of praise still in line four we see that this kanchan the rhythm of nature the Rhythm with which nature is requesting prayers is even gentler than the swing of the hammock the speaker is relaxing in a hammock and the hammock is Swinging with a slow soothing Rhythm even as nature is seeking our prayers we see that it communicates in a kind soothing way lines five to seven and rituals no more upsetting than a black maid shaking linen as she sings the plain notes of some Protestant Hosanna imagine a black man shaking Linens maybe she's getting the wrinkles out or hanging them to dry she's also singing maybe her voice is beautiful the notes of the song are said to be plain plain here could mean monotonous predictable or musically uninteresting but I think the focus is on how unobtrusive the notes are on how they are so plain that they just blend seamlessly into the atmosphere not calling too much attention to themselves not loud or jarring the voice of nature the calmness to speaker feels is similar to such a scene however one cannot simply ignore the darker connotations of this black maid singing a protester in Hosanna initially we noticed that the butterflies have begun to serve as a symbol for the oppressed they owned the slaves even here we have a black man who by profession is a servant one who is in one sentence or another owned by her master this is not a made of a known specific risk but a black maid which brings our mind back to slavery especially since this man is singing a Protestant Hosanna slaves would often sing songs to keep their spirits up as they worked many of the most popular black gospel songs are well rooted in slavery as they were sung by the slaves who kept their hearts on a different world on a distinct future Negro spirituals like Swing Low Sweet Chariot and the Amazing Grace might come to mind a Hosanna which the maid is said to sing is a cry of praise to God but this Hosanna is a Protestant one the Protestant here refers to any of several Christian denominations which are separated from the Roman Catholic Church those churches are Protestant churches protesting against the alleged authority of the pope of Rome but look at the word Protestant in a simpler and closer sense the black maid might be protesting her ownership protesting against the position she holds as a lowly servant perhaps even as a slave thus far the butterflies and the maids seem to be parallel in what they represent this is good evidence that the poem acknowledges that the cruelty of man leads to exploitation of nature but also the exploitation of people Planet Since I Lay idling from the 13 things in line 8 we return to what the speaker is doing the idleness of the grass has been requesting the lemonade of sin to praise since he lay idling from the thought in things this phrase is strangely constructed but the meaning might still be clear he is lying in his hammock and his mind has strayed away from the cares of life from problems from work and so on his mind is Idle before entering the next stanza look at the unified image represented in stanza one we get visual imagery with the grass and butterflies kinesthetic imagery with the swinging of the hammock and again with the furiously flying butterflies some auditory imagery with the singing black maid and we can even see gothicatory imagery with the mention of lemonade all this imagery serves to depict how calm and relaxed this figure is how pleasant the atmosphere is and in that we can see a contrast between the speaker's relaxedness and the furiousness of the Butterflies even in the same environment while some live easy others are Furious also we get a little more alliteration in the final line of the stanza as the sound continues to imitate the Flight of the Butterflies 9910 or so they should until I hear the cries of two small children hunting yellow wings the opening line of the stanza throws us a curveball or so they should who is they here they must be the growing idleness of the summer grass along with the butterflies so the islands of the summer grass alongside its butterflies were said to request simple praise in a gentle soothing way and we see how not upsetting this request is with the mentions of the black meat singing but then he says or so they should meaning the relaxed atmosphere is what should be not what is the next word until suggests that this Pleasant mood did exist but was interrupted by something what is it that interrupts the speaker's Bliss it is the cries of two small children hunting yellow wings so in making a literal summary of the first stanza along with the first two lines of the second stanza the speaker is relaxing in his hammock until the cries of children break the silence and interrupts his relaxation so these two children are crying out an excitement as they hunt butterflies referred to as yellow wings referring to the butterflies as yellow wings is a type of metaphor called a synecdochi since they are likely hunting not literally just the wings but the butterflies themselves however this could be literally referring to just the wings as the children might actually be hunting just to collect the wings of the Butterflies which would mean that they're ripping away the wings from the butterflies plan 11 who break my Sabbath with the thought of sin this impression of Cruelty on the part of the children is supported in the next line as we see that the children break the speaker's Sabbath with the thought of sin the Sabbath is a Christian and also a Jewish day of rest and worship one that should not be broken by any Idol let alone sinful thought or action this thought of sin is the children's intention to maim and the torch of the butterflies for their own pleasure it is ironic that of the four people mentioned in the poem so far the speaker the male and the two children the kids are those who are given the capability to be evil to be cruel children especially compared to adults are usually seen as innocent but the speaker sees their interaction with the butterflies as a sin as wickedness by the way we do see the continued alliteration of the sound in Sabbath with the thought which re-emphasizes the butterfly is fluttering telling us that the children's thought of sin is what eventually harms these innocent creatures lines 12 13 a brother and sister with a common pin frowning like serious lipidupturists we get more details on the children you see that they're siblings with a common pin they frown like serious lipidopterists here we have a simile that compares the children to lipidopterists a lipidopterist is one who studies butterflies and moths these children take what they're doing seriously to them this is not just a game their thrawning shows that in their minds they are doing serious work you see that like real lipidop tourists the children have their apparatus look at lines 14 15. the little surgeon pierces the thin eyes crouched on plump haunches as a mantis praise we see that the little surgeon pierces the thin eyes here the children specifically the little girl are compared to surgeons and so of course we have a metaphor here surgeons work with high precision tools to cut and pierce the human body somewhat similarly this girl uses the common pin to pierce the butterflies eyes notice how the diction exposes what first appears to be light-hearted childish fun to be twisted cruelty through simile the girl is said to be like a praying mantis she's crouched on Plum haunches which means she's crouched down or stooping her stance and focus are like that if a man is praying when a praying mantis is getting ready to pray on their victim they get into a stance that resembles one that we take when we pray like sotomantis this girl is preying on the helpless butterflies she is their predator and like such a mantis the girl is focused and zoned in ready to make her next move on the suffering butterfly iron 16 she shrieks to eviscerate his abdomen look at how jarring this sentence is the girl shrieks to eviscerate the butterfly's abdomen a shriek is an outcry the little girl is attacking the butterfly viciously and she cries out in a sort of cruel excitement eviscerate is a very strong word literally it means to remove the viscera from something or someone the visceral are the intestines or more Loosely the internal organs so we're seeing the butterfly not quite as an insignificant insect being toyed with but on a more intimate scale such that we can participate in its Agony we can imagine the guts spilling out from the butterfly the entrails running out like overcooked sausages plant 17 the lesson is the same and as the speaker who watches in horror as his Sabbath is broken by the children's thought of sin as this man watches he knows that the lesson is the same the question is what is this lesson we know it is the same as mentioned in the title but what is it the lesson has something to do with the kid the Star Trek the butterflies and more broadly our cruelty toward nature but since we're only halfway through the point we have not yet seen the full lesson we have to come back to this phrase later on when we have a more complete idea of what the lesson is line 17 18 the maid removes both prodigies from their interest in science perhaps fed up with the loud noises perhaps disturbed by the killing of the Butterflies or perhaps needing to get the children cleaned up the maid takes them away from the butterflies playtime is over why are they called prodigies a prodigy is an extremely talented child well they were earlier said to be a lipidopterists and the girl was said to be a surgeon it seems the children are genius scientists at least in-house series seriously they undertake the hunting and studying of the Butterflies but these lines hide some dark meanings a prodigy can also be a monster a freak of nature an anomaly perhaps these children aren't just good at science but good at evil they have a natural inclination toward wickedness in the next stanza we realize that these children's cruelty is not specific to them but is the ubiquitosan universal result of an endless cycle of human cruelty line 19 the girl in lemon frock begins to scream then we see that this little surgeon this cruel little girl begins to scream she's screaming because she wants to continue playing with a butterfly but the maid is taking her away she's wearing a lemon frock while this could be a frock or dress with a lemon pattern on it it more likely means her dress is lemon colored the girl in her yellow dress matches the summery atmosphere and blends in with the color of the Butterflies perhaps the color of the grass and even with the imagined lemony it mentioned in standard the idea is the girl is indistinct from her environment in that she's a product of her environment she's cruel not because something is wrong with her but because cruelty is all around her this as we will see clearly is a learned behavior notice that it's not a speaker but the black maid the marginalized person we imagine who takes the children away from the butterflies who basically saves the Butterflies from the children perhaps only humans will suffer at the hands of others can understand and be sympathetic towards those who are suffering or towards nature which is suffering line 20 as the maimed teachering thing attempts its flight going down into this line we have an irony the little girl is screaming but is she really the one suffering she's screaming while the maimed teetering thing attempts its flight what is the maimed teetering thing it is the butterfly that has been pinned down the same one with its eyes pierced with its bowels leaking out of it to be maimed means to be Gravely wounded to be wounded in such a way that permanent damage is done to the body what is teetering it is fidgeting struggling the fruitless attempts to fly again notice the irony the butterfly is the thing suffering dying but it is the girl who is screaming and creating a scene as mankind destroys nature and each other the Destroyer the oppressor the aggressor always finds a way to make himself the victim line 21 she is herself a thing of summary light we see here more descriptions of the girl we have a metaphor she is herself a thing of summary light we can say that this description is ironic isn't this calculating uncruel a thing of Darkness why is she a thing of summary light well because she is ultimately just a kid having fun with insects right she's really just a cute little girl in a yellow dress playing like all children do isn't she these lines really trivialize and normalize even romanticize the inherent evil and also self-absorption of humans even while the butterfly is suffering the focus is on the girl the girl is screaming the girl is being complimented all while the butterfly is ignored line 22 frail as a flower in the blue August air this line continues to describe the girl she said through simile to be frail as a flower in the blue August air somewhat metaphorically the blue Air refers to Summer air the Summer Breeze while the air is technically colorless it is described as blue because the skies are cloudless and blue it is sunny the flowers are thin in this season perhaps because they get less water and are more easily tossed around by the Summer Breeze in any case the little girl is said to be as frail as these flowers she's thrilled not only because she's a little girl but also in the sense that being a child her mind is malleable her mind is easily molded by Society due to this she easily assimilates into the behavior of blind cruelty perpetuating the cycle the poem sheds light on an interesting observation is that the little girl is several times described as being or being like some kind of animal or plant here she is compared to a flower back in line 15 she was compared to a mantis but also to a beast perhaps a horse where is that comparison it is in the word Hajj while it can refer to the human hip it more usually refers to the hind quarters of four-legged animals related is the description of the little girl in line 21 as being a thing of summary light no tying her to a season of nature with these descriptors the girl is tightly tired to Nature the message might be even though we are cruel to our nature we are a part of it and we are therefore being cruel to ourselves line 23 not marked for some late grief that cannot speak this does look like a difficult line not marked for some lead grief that cannot speak this land is talking about the little girl what does it mean to be marked for something this is not a normal phrase but it likely means to be assigned something to be selected for something such as being marked out for a promotional work we see that this little girl was not marked for some late grief what is lead grief further what is lead grief that cannot speak we can imagine that if someone does something evil while they're a child while their childhood naivety might prevent them from understanding their wrongs as they do them they will grow up and regret their actions when they are old enough to understand I imagine this to be the case of very young children who commit murder while they're not old enough to understand the implications of their actions so children who later feel regret or sorrow for their actions can be said to have been marked for some late grief that cannot speak the grief is late because it comes only after the evil is done long after when the child grows up the grief cannot speak because the children are not yet able to understand or Express grief however we see that this little girl is not marked for some late grief that cannot speak so she will never feel sorry for torturing the butterflies how many of us know that we're growing up mourn the insects we killed when we were children cruelty is not something that we grew out of it is something we grow into it is not something we become sensitized to but something we become desensitized to Let's jump down to line 24. the Mind swings inward on itself in fear just as the first stanza the third stanza is an inward Reflection by the speaker he says that the Mind swings inward from itself in fear here through metaphor the mind is compared to something that can swing inwardly perhaps the door the Mind swings inward on itself this is talking about reflection contemplation introspection earlier the speaker's mind swung outward as he was noticing the actions of the children now his mind swings inward as he pieces together the meaning of of what he has just seen what is the meaning of the summer grass and the butterflies and the little girl what is the list we see that the Mind swings inward on himself in fear so as the speaker reflects what he feels is fear there's a stark contrast in mood and language when you look at the first and last stanzas initially oblivious the speaker was relaxed enjoying the summer air and the Loveless title of butterflies from the comfort of his hammock now he's fearful why is he fearful because he has learned a list the same as mentioned in the title line 25 swayed towards nausea from each normal sign before we see exactly what the lesson is the speaker continues to describe the movements of his money the Mind swing inward on itself in fear swayed towards nausea from each normal sign after speaker reflects and Views fear as he sees each normal sign he becomes increasingly nauseated he feels sick to his stomach anxious disgusted horrified but what are the normal signs that the mind is swinging from these signs are the everyday happenings around the speaker that those seemingly innocuous are really evidences of a pervasive human cruelty what science have to speak a scene the Furious butterflies the Protestant Hosanna he imagines a black man to sing and most of all the little children making fun of torturing insects these signs are normal because they do not seem shocking or in any significant of the surface however upon close examination one can learn a lesson from these things line 26 heredity of Cruelty everywhere this line finally makes it clear what the lesson is heredity of Cruelty everywhere we humans are cruel and wicked toward one another and a teenager because it is an inherited trait our appearance or crew let their appearance were cruel and so were our ancestors as the speaker examines the world he notices that no matter where he looks he sees the learned and normalized cruelty of humans even children are cool because children live what they learn they grow up and pass the straight On to the Next Generation continuing the unending chain line 27 and everywhere the frocks of summertime what else does the speaker recognize first we saw the girl wearing the lemon frock now through personification summer is wearing torn frocks what is the meaning of this remember how summer was described in the beginning it was calm relaxing enjoyable the speaker has learned that even while life often appears this way the world is really in a deplorable state if summer which appeared to be wonderful is wearing torn clothes it means that behind the apparent beauty of the world there is evil suffering cruelty Brokenness also note that we are the ones who drift nature in torn clothes we are responsible for whatever ugliness and Brokenness we can observe in nature line 28 the long look back to see your choice is born as the speaker's mind continues to swing it takes the long look back to see where choice is born we have a little bit of personification as choice is said to have been born anyway what does this mean this works on two levels for one the speaker is wondering at what point does a person chooses whether consciously or not to be cruel what marks a person's First Act of Cruelty what marks their first thought of Cruelty what marks the beginning of them becoming cruel when does a person become overtaken by this inevitable human trait the speaker is taking a long look back which suggests that these fundamental events happen in childhood not adulthood the second level at which the long look back works is even more interesting the speaker might be looking back through the annals of human history making an attempt to discover exactly where and when humanity went wrong were we always this way were we ever self-aware enough to choose to be good or evil at Lane 29 a summer grass swears to the sights design and even as the poem looks deep into the past we come back to the present reality as summer grass sways to the scythe's design most literally the line means that the grass's destiny is determined by the Scythe or by the wielder of the Scythe man just as the little girl toyed within destroyed the butterfly so do we as a species continue to exact cruel control over nature and even over each other the Scythe is used to cut grass but is typically imagined to be the weapon of choice for the Grim Reaper the man of death so therein might be a Nifty illusion design here means an intention or plot and usually refers to an evil plan so we can say that the Scythe is personified the grass is swaying to the site's design and that's a metaphor we're no longer talking about the literal grass but are instead concluding the speaker's reflection on the state of the world as determined by human nature future the grass swing to the size design means that only suffering and death await both nature and Mankind we are destroying both ourselves and nature it is human nature that is the Scythe particularly our innate cruelty and inevitably due to this cruelty the world is fated to share the same end as a grass that is chopped down by a farmer's scythe notice how the end the entire lesson this reflection on human cruelty seems to be framed within some spiritual or religious particularly Christian ideology first we have the title implying that this lesson might be one heard at church in stanza 2 we have the maid singing Christian songs and the nature God's creation and manifestation requesting praise note also how the Christian made is sort of a hero in the poem the one who eventually stops the children from further harming the butterflies then we see that the speaker himself seems to be religious keeping the Sabbath and he becomes annoyed with the children's thought of sin the speaker May in one sense be saying that man is inherently cruel but he's not justifying this cruelty somewhat self-righteously he's pointing out how Unholy how immoral man is by nature perhaps he is following us to become more connected to God as a means to reform our nature as a human race [Music] firstly of nature the poem explores meant cruel to the nature through the anecdote of the children and the Butterfly we see that even from childhood humans take advantage of nature exploiting it for their own Amusement the poem however also shows us that in contrast nature is kind towards us this is especially evident in the first stanza religion the poem is littered with references to Christianity the speaker himself seems to be religious mentioning that the children break his Sabbath with the thought of sin the poem perhaps indicates that by being cruel to Nature we are affronting God and that becoming more religious or more spiritual might be a step toward eradicating this toxic element of human nature alternatively the religious reference might point to a certain irony even though humans claim to be connected to God through religion we are cruel to the most present manifestation of God in the world nature suffering and sadness nature suffers throughout the point instead of the one it is implied that nature feels underappreciated and unacknowledged by man this is why it feels the need to request praise following that we see the butterflies suffering at the hands of the little girl then the frocks of Samara are said to be torn finally the summer grass is said to sway to the scythe's design nature continually suffers at the cruelty and thoughtlessness of man this realization strikes to speak with fear and sorrow power and powerlessness throughout the point naturally shown to be powerless against the cruel hands of men this is shown particularly through the anecdote of the little girl torturing the butterfly and leaving it to die well that is it for this point I hope you have all learned our lesson for this Sunday see you in the next analysis and as always thanks for watching [Music] [Music] [Music] thank you