and welcome back to our english first additional language lessons we are still on poetry and today's poem is titled what life is really like it is a question and we are going to get into the mind of the poet to know if not to understand from her own perspective what indeed life is really like for her all right let us just have a brief um background of the author beverly raycroft was born in eastern cape she is a graduate of university of cape town and the university of vats vats went um she worked as a teacher for several years before turning full-time to writing and journalism her articles have been published widely both locally and internationally she lives in cape town with her family i'm going to read all of that but then the poems in her debit collection missing chart the experience of facing mortality illness and the hope of recovery. So these are the subjects that are centered around her poetry, if not her writing, such as facing death, mortality, and she also speaks about illnesses, and then also her poetry, if not her writing, embodies also hope for recovery. I did mention that the title is a question, and it's... for us as readers to really understand from her own perspective what is the response to the question that is in the form of a title what life is really like.
Now what is the poem about? Let us have a background and a summary of what the poem is about before we can even delve deeper into the nitty-gritties of the poem itself. The poem deals with a poet's relationship with her father, a university lecturer, who feels she should know what the world is. Sorry. know that the world is not a kind place and that she should toughen up.
So remember the title, What Life Is Really Like. We need to know what is that the speaker defines life through her lens of experience. Now, what you are going to learn about is how the father taught her the essence of life, how the father taught her the definition of life through the experiences and the teachings that she's going to impart to her.
And then that is centered around toughening her up, right? That she needs to do what to toughen up. So we are going to, as in when we analyze the poem, have that at your backdrop, I'm sorry, at your backdrop, to say that the most or the basis, if not the crux of the lesson from the speaker's father or the poet's father is to toughen up because indeed life is not easy.
Now to teach her about life, he wants to involve her in experiences that show suffering, pain, and death. So we are going to look into the diction, meaning the choice of words that are used in this poem to better explain or convey the idea of suffering, the idea of pain, and death. And then we are going to look into the imagery, the imagery that are used in the poem to further convey the idea of suffering, of pain, and death.
remember The essence, if not the crux of the poem, is that the speaker needs to toughen up, as is said by her father. And then, for an example, we are going to see the killing of a chicken and the stishing of the wound of a pigeon. You see all these graphic images.
They indeed represent the toughness of life, right? And then, however, the father becomes more reflective, silent when faced with her own suffering. Now, towards the end, we are going to see the contrast of attitude of the father. from her being this strict father who wants the poet to be a tough child, showing her through the use of experiences involving her in tough experiences such as stitching the wound of a pigeon.
But then towards the end, the father is much more gentle. That will be the contrast that we're going to see throughout the poem. So this will be your backdrop as and when you analyze the poem.
Now let us get into the poem itself. The structure, remember in the previous poems I did mention that you must expect questions around the analysis if not the discussion of the structure. So the poem What Life Is Really Like is a lyrical poem similar to the poem that we did previously when we spoke about lyrical poem that it embodies or mimics a song like or it has the qualities of a song and then mostly it's written in a free verse meaning that it's not really structured it does not follow any particular a structure such as maybe in the sonnet where you can have an octave, where you can have a suset.
This is a free verse and in most cases free verses have uneven lines. It means that the length of line one can be longer followed by a shorter. a line so that the structure or if not that the lines are actually uneven or unequal. Now, modern lyrical poetry is a formal type of poetry which expresses personal emotions or feelings.
I did mention when we did the poem that most the purpose of a lyrical poem is to express the speaker's deposited emotion. Now, the poem consists of 43 lines of unequal, like I've already said, uneven lines because it is indeed one. a free verse and it has eight stanzas.
So you must expect questions around structure and you should be able to know the structure of each and every poem. Now stanza one, it says, it reads as follows. You need to toughen up. My father would complain when I was small. I ought to take you to see chickens having their heads chopped off.
That would teach you what life is really like. Bear in mind what we discussed at the beginning when I said what to expect in this poem or what is the poem about is the teachings of the father that the speaker must toughen up, right? And the speaker, I mean, the speaker's father is advising them to, or advising her rather, to be strong and more resilient when you say you. So this you, it means this is the voice of the speaker's father addressing the poet.
herself to say you need to toughen up right and then it says we have enjambment in line five and six and then the father's words are in italics to show that it's her oh sorry his direct words to the speaker let us go back a bit and then analysis of stanza one the poems starts with an instruction from a father to his young daughter to say that you need to toughen up but the girl experiences it as if he is complaining about her innocence The father is implying that the child needs to get used to the real life experiences. Remember, when you say the child must toughen up, it means that you must expose the child to the reality of life. Now, based on the father's analysis of life is that life is tough. So hence, he is going to use the imagery. I spoke a lot about imagery.
Remember, imagery, it's incidents or pictures or symbols that... a poet would use to represent if not to drive a particular point. Now to drive or to convey the concept of toughness, the father is implying that the child needs to get used to the real life experiences in life, like in line 8, what life is really like, which implies that she does not yet understand the intricacies of life. Furthermore, really in line 8 is printed in bold to emphasize how important this message is.
And then one of the things that the father alludes to that actually depicts the picture of toughness, he says that I ought to take you, let us go back a bit, I ought to take you to see chickens having their heads chopped off. You look into the diction, choice of words by the speaker. She's just a child who's just young, but the father says for you to be tough.
I actually could have taken you out to. It means that I won't. It means that he did not really take the point.
But he's saying the best way for you to learn how tough life is, is to take you instead of taking the child to the park where they will walk and have fun. He says, no, no, no. Remember, here he's teaching her that life is indeed tough. He said that it's better you go and experience the chicken's heads getting chopped off.
and even the words chopped off. It's so graphic, right, to represent the toughness of life. Right?
Now, stanza two. He'd seek me out when one of his pigeons crazed for home or met with terror from a roaming hawk would stumble into the loft mutilated by wire or beak. Now, I want us to look into the choice of words by the speaker here. He'd seek me out, meaning that the father will call her.
to say come and see the pigeon crazed. Look at the word crazed. It's a movement, a swift movement that is disorientated for home or made with terror.
Made with terror, it means a fear filled up with fear from a roaming hawk. This is a hawk that was preying on a pigeon. You can imagine how graphic this is. With tumble, you know, tumble, it's a... an irregular movement into the loft.
A loft is a place where the pigeons stay mutilated. You look into the word mutilated, it's when something has been chopped off or cut off in a violent manner right now the father wanted her remember in the first stanza he said that he must go and watch she must experience and the chickens had been cut off now he further uses um the manner in which a hawk will uh will uh damage if not will mutilate what the pigeon to say you must further see this as an experience remember the main thing why is he saying all of this why is he's using his is he using this graphic imagery is to drive the point of how tough life is to this speaker. Mutilated inflict a violent and disfiguring injury.
I've already mentioned that. The pigeon could have been blindly thrown into a wire because he was anxious to get home, because the pigeon was hurrying into the loft to find safety. for home or a hawk looking for a prey roaming could have sliced his neck. Personification in line 10 and 12 when one of his pigeons crazed for home or met with terror. The pigeon is described like a crazy mad person.
It has been given a human quality by being said that it is crazed for home like a mad person who's running for shelter to run to home. It is effective because the poet successfully emphasizes how uncivilized the pigeon was. Remember because it is running away from what?
From a hawk. And then stanza three. I was the one made to clench my palms around the its pumping chest to keep it still while my father's hair finger stitch its garrot at her throat angrily to write again.
Remember now the pigeon is um injured injured by the hawk severely so it is even mutilated remember the word mutilated is to be cut off um violently now the speaker says i was the one made to clench my palm now the father is going to stitch the pigeon now she he is roping if not taking the speaker with her young as she is and to say she must experience this not only experience this but be involved in the process of stitching the pigeon. because the speaker was the one meant to clench her palms like this into what into the pigeon walls her father's hairy fingers the fingers are described as being a hairy was stitching the carotid throat angry to write again now made two so that she can learn about the day about life and what and suffering she has to hold the bed tightly like i've already said flinched and we can see in the picture here how frightened the bird is by describing of his pumping chest referring to his heartbeat. And then garroted. Garroted is a weapon. Pardon me, let me just do this.
Garroted is a weapon usually of wire, which is used to strangle a person by pulling it tightly around their throat. Now, this is just the imagery of death and danger. You know, instead of saying the pigeon was maybe...
got injured he said garrotate which is such a heavy word to further convey the idea of the toughness what toughness of life the father is also uh pictured vividly with the description of his hair as fingers being hairy working angrily to search out the wound now also the mood of the father here he is angry whilst doing the process of what stitching um the the wound of of uh of of of the pigeon and what is important to note is that the speaker is involved in all of that remember the father is teaching her that indeed life is how life is tough stanza four you see life is a fight for survival it shout now look at how he said these words to the speaker forgetting you was not lecturing his students or giving his inaugural address you got a roll with the punches now Here we get to know and see that the father is indeed a lecturer because he is now speaking, if not addressing the speaker who is his own daughter, as if now he's speaking to his students at the university. And then we've got metaphor. Inaugural, it means first lecture given by newly created university professor.
And then we've got slang. The slang, you've got to roll with the punches. It's just the slang. Analysis of stanza three. two three and four let us go into it In these three stanzas, the child explains how the father uses another real-life situation to teach her about the cruelty of life by forcing her to assist when he stitches up an injured pigeon.
The father uses anecdotes. Now, an anecdote is mostly a narrative or a story from a personal perspective that is normally shared to convey a particular idea. Now the father uses an anecdote like life is a fight for survival, line 25, and we're gonna roll with the punches to get his message across. Now he's very determined to teach the poet the toughness of life and he does that in various words but most importantly by exposing her to the cruelty of life by using these animals that are dead or wounded and these incidents that are really violent such as a pigeon that was garroted you know to a it even crazed for home meaning that it was a flying like a crazy human being just for it to get shelter because it was running away from a hawk that damages it violently now all of those imagery portray if not uh convey the idea of how indeed the speaker needs to toughen up as it is said by her father her child experience uh his tone as harsh and wow angry and then The manner in which the father is conveying all these experiences is not in a polite manner. He's saying the words in an angry tone.
She feels her father forgets that she is a child and not one of his students at the university. You can even see how he addresses the child. It's as if now he's giving an inaugural lecture, forgetting that he is indeed talking to his own daughter.
But remember, bear in mind that for the purpose behind all of that is... to teach the poet the lessons of life that indeed life is tough and which answers the title to say what life is really like. Stanza five, I waited and waited for that bitter roughness to spy me and circle it to lend years and years of flinching anticipation until the day I come home from hospital.
There's a repetition. of I waited and waited and yes and yes, I repeated to emphasize how the girl expected to receive a blow from the universe. Now the speaker in stanza 5 here is reflecting as in when she is now older to say this is how I was taught by my father that life is indeed tough.
Now the waiting in stanza 5 said that because this is the philosophy that my father gave to me that life is indeed tough, I waited and waited. repeatedly to emphasize the fact that this is how the speaker perceived life. This is how the speaker expected life to be. That I'm expecting life to be really tough, as said and taught by my father.
Hence the repetition. And then... Before that, allow me to go back.
Look at how this I is now reduced to a lowercase I, which we know that the first person I should be writing in a capital letter since it's a proper noun. This corresponds with the mood of vulnerability she experiences due to the explanation she had for years and years in line 33. That harm will come her way one day. This expectation finally met her.
Later in the year, the speaker expected to encounter a challenging, if not tough reality that would observe and surround her. So this eye resembles how vulnerable and anxious the speaker was to expect nothing but hard blows from life as per the teachings of her father. Bitter roughness, the toughness that her father seeks.
She does not find it in her life and compare it to a bird or a pigeon hawk circling and looking for a place to settle. However, it does not come to her. De Kiel describes the toughness expected by her father as a bitter roughness and personifies it as a bed of prey spying on her and circling above her, ready to pounce at any moment. Because remember, if you teach a child a particular concept, It becomes rooted, you know, it becomes rooted on the child later on the year as in when the child develops.
That would be the philosophy that a child carries because it's what was rooted in her when she was young by her father. Now that is why even here she was waiting in anticipation, anticipating when will the bad things come because all I know is that my father taught me how tough life is. And then the word flinching making a quick nervous movement as an instinctive reaction of fear or what or pain.
I already mentioned the lowercase i, now stanza six, and my father dressed my wound, dressed to clean. Now in stanza five, remember the last line in stanza five, the speaker came from the hospital. Now the father is the one who's taking care of her, applying a medical treatment to a bandage wound, linked to stanza three, nursing the wound of a pigeon. Remember in stanza three, the speaker was helping the father to stitch.
the pigeons um the damage uh sorry the the the pigeon she was the one who clenched the chest of a pigeon whilst the father was stitching it up now it is the same way that now the father is helping her to trust the one because it means that that hard blue moment that the speaker was waiting for years and years indeed happened because he did go to the hospital and he experienced breast cancer and then now he's back at home where the father is the one now um dressing the wound in the same way that you are stitching there a garroted pigeon. Now, the mood of vulnerability. This stanza stands alone line must be read in conjunction with lines 34 and 35. It is effective that the wolf father who used to warn her to toughen up is the one who dresses her wounds now, which is ironic. And then stanza seven, easing with practiced hands.
Unlike earlier in stanza three where the father was stitching the pigeon angrily, now there's that contrast, there's that change. The father's hands are now at ease. Easing with practiced hands, the drip from my bulldozer's chest.
He renewed the plaster in breathing silence, never speaking, never one say. This father is silent now compared to the rest of the stanzas from stanza one where he was even shouting, saying the words with a feminist and with a stout tone that the speaker must toughen up. Now that the speaker came back from the hospital, the father shows another side of him that was never seen before in the poem. Firstly, his hands are at ease now, and then he's changing the drip from the bulldozed chest. The speaker uses a metaphor in this line to compare her chest to a soil that was bulldozed.
This is a bulldozer, this is soil. to show that indeed she was cut open for the operation. And then the father is renewing the plaster and in breathing silence. This is interesting to note because the father has been very vocal. Now he is breathing what silence and he's not even saying anything, which is a contrast, as I've said.
There is a contrast between the action of the father at the beginning of the poem and his silence after the surgery. of his own daughter. A metaphor, I've explained that. The way she described the effect of the surgery breast removal is indirectly compared to the state of the soil which is churned up by the bulldozer. The silence of the father is depicted as a breathing person to emphasize effectively how quiet the normally vocal father is now.
It might be that he is indeed touched by the toughness of the experience rather that the head daughter. went through which is to have this life-threatening surgery. The poet describes the way her father dresses her wound.
It is significant because he does it in silence which is contrast with his conduct during the childhood when he was describing as loud and insensitive that she needs to toughen up. Then line eight he says a life is a bastard toughen up. Check the diction used there. Life is a bastard. You need to do what?
You need to toughen up. This is again the father, which is a metaphor to become hardened to the ways of the world and less emotional when dealing with what? When dealing with pain and suffering.
What does this imply? It implies that the father finally breaks his silence to make a grim statement about life's difficulty. to say even though The speaker went through all of that.
He still maintains and he's still adamant that The father reiterates his earlier advice, emphasizing the need for the speaker to do what to become stronger and more resilient. These lines are effectively isolated from the previous stanzas. The poet tells us that the father is now a changed man.
He believes she has received a fair chance of toughening up through invasive surgery that she has experienced. which is quite similar to what the imagery that we used in stanza one, two, and three to portray the idea of what of suffering. Now, we have a theme of cruelty. We have the theme of fate, the theme of psychology, psychology of growing up.
Remember, when you are asked to discuss any of the themes here, you are going to back them up with evidence from the poem by stating a particular line to support or if not to support. used particular lines to substantiate the idea of cruelty. There are quite graphic imagery that are portrayed throughout the poem that can be used to support the idea, if not the theme of cruelty.
The father believes that life is hard and endeavors to alert his child to the hardness of life by exposing her to occurrences that are seen as harsh. Now, we are not only going to say occurrences that are seen as harsh. For an example, we can say such as in stanza one, when he says that she must... be taken to where to experience the chickens being chopped off you know a being part of of the process of teaching a garrett pigeon you use that to support your your uh your analysis if not your your substantiation of the ideas of things that's how you respond to such or questions of things in poetry i've already stated that when we're doing a previous a poem Another theme can be fate.
Fate is part of life and human beings cannot act in any way to change the outcome of what is planned. The father does his best to ensure that his child is aware of the cruelty of nature. Even though the speaker was exposed to the ideology of the cruelty of nature at a young age, that did not prohibit her to experience her own fair share of toughness, if not challenges in life, such as having a...
breast cancer and having to go through breast surgery, which is what it calls about fate. And another one can be psychology of growing up, which means that the father presents his child with many examples of, right? These can be the themes that are presented in the poem. And then the tone, the poem starts on a serious, cautionary tone when the father wants his child to expect life to be tough. But he changes instance of 7 to 1 of resignation when the father realizes that his child has had his share of toughness.
Remember, tone can be deduced from the diction, if not the choice of words in the poem. And then the mood, the speaker's mood is one of anticipation. Remember, she grew up.
She grew up waiting for bad things to happen as she was taught by her father. She's forever waiting for fate to deal with her blow. And then the imagery, the poet makes use of imagery to assist the reader to understand her emotions. When she has to assist her father in suttering the bird, she has to hold the bird tightly clenched at the bird's chest.
There's also repetitions. Danza 5 waited and waited and years and years are repeated to emphasize how the girl expected to receive a blow from the universe. And then diction and figurative language, we've got a metaphor in stanza 7. The way she describes the effects of the surgery, like we have already said that being bulldozed, which is comparing her chest to the soil that was bulldozed by the bulldozer, right?
Pardon me. And then we've got personification in line 10 and 12. When one of his pigeons crazed for home, we already mentioned that when we're doing stanza 2, that The bird was being given a human quality with the ability to run for shelter or for home because it was running in fear, which is terror, because of the hawk that mutilated it. And in stanza 5, the killing described the toughness expected by her father as a bitter roughness and personified it as a bird of prey spying on her and circling above her, ready to pounce at any moment. Because remember here, she grew up expecting and waiting for bad things to happen for her.
And then we've got contrast. Contrast is how the father reacted in the first stanzas towards her silence now in the last stanza where she was now addressing the poets. the poet's wound and changing and taking care of her wound. Let me just, before we end the poem, give one example of typical exam questions. Examiners will always ask you to refer to a particular line.
Please go back to that particular line and then you'll always be asked to identify a figure of speech and explain its effectiveness. not to give the definition. I've always emphasized that when you get these type of questions, you are not asked to give the definition, but to explain the effectiveness. Identify the figure of species used in line one, placed for whom you have already done that.
So it's personification. And then B, explain the effectiveness. It effectively creates a picture of an agitated state, of the agitated state the pigeon is in after he nearly does not make it home.
or is accosted by a hawk by comparing him to a crazy person who is made with terror. Now another way of fashioning this response you can say the bird has been given a human quality with the ability to run like a crazy person because it was running for shelter, running away from a hawk, running in fear from a hawk that was preying on it. So these are typical exam questions.
What tone would the father use in stanza four? Why would he use this tone? The questions of tone are also important.
He would use the tone of anger because, remember, he was adamant. He was adamant that his child must become stronger and face challenges of life. Hence, he was using this painful graphic imagery to portray the idea of toughness.
This is indeed what life... is really like poem and we got the answer to say life is indeed tough as the poet was taught by by her father thank you