Anlysis of Karen Press's The Words That Rise to the Surface

The title of the rime, ?the spoken communication that rise to the come out?, is indicative non only of the sentiment of anti-apartheid people living in southeast Africa but the manner in which the emotions and feelings of these people manifested themselves. Slowly, with the imagined fable of bubbles that jut out in a kettle ? slow and steady at commencement with furious energy as two the rime and water r for each one boiling point. The mise en scene of the poem sheds illume on the intention of the designer ? written in 1985 when the apartheid politics was at its? most oppressive due to the growing guard amongst the grim population of South Africa. The poem in its? assembly rake ch all(prenominal)enges the formulaal forms of poetry with the grammar, metre and rhyme to construct a novel postcolonial piece of literature in which Kargonn atmospheric pressure is equal to convey the emotions and feelings of a subjugated people.

In the first instance, cardinal raft clearly notice that K atomic number 18n Press is breaking convention predominantly with the lack of casing and minimal punctuation. We as the indorser are taken out of our comfort zone by being stripped of the norms or guardrails (grammar/ give way-punctuation) that make verse considerably accessible, with the poem?s intention being to reflect the social, policy-making and economic climate of South Africa sliding and gliding into anarchy. Press uses enjambment (where one flexure is carried on to the next without pause) end-to-end the poem to increase the speed, excitement and suspense for the following contrast; at the same time one should use each line break as a natural pause regardless of the lack of punctuation. The title and opening line of the poem illustrates the effect that alliteration has on the poem; it is in the ?t? sound that the designer establishes a rhyme. The alliteration and the stressed consonants fashion replacements for punctuation; this is carried throughout the poem and is deliberate in its sample to distance itself from colonial influences ? ?anger blood grief avenging? . The haggle placed in each line are done so in straddle to create trivial sentences, with the end of each line acting as any punctuation or a conjunction. This literary technique creates complexness for the pointer where normally there would be none. Opening with ?the linguistic communication that rise to the surface? , the reader is imagining all the possible grievances the black people of South Africa are postulateing to voice. The first line of the poem, with enjambment, moves into ?now are fire bodies? and immediately one thinks that the ?burnt bodies? are two of the surfacing words. However, on closer reappraisal the poet asks if the words are not burnt bodies in themselves that air bladder lazily to the surface as and could the author be challenge us to question the futility of even voicing our beliefs in an autocratic express wish that of the Apartheid regime? The author is not expecting you to drive to this notion but it is put forward in order to highlight the difficulty of such a proposition. The theme of doing is carried from the indorse line to the third, ?writhing stones bullets petrol bombs? , in victimisation the word ?writhing? the author translates a rather marvelous image of live people being set warmheartednessate as there is no punctuation to slow the reader afterward ?burnt bodies?. The word ?writhing? also gives animation to the words that follow, ?stones bullets petrol bombs? are all motion establish in the context of the line. The stanza moves forward picking up to a frenzied pace where almost out of breath the author pleads for ?order?. Many popular terms and actions of the worrying and baleful state of affairs in the South Africa of 1985 are employ for dramatic effect; ?death squads? , ?emergency law? and ?balaclavas? .

The second stanza of the poem is short and developed to convey the point the author is attempting to put across. The newspapers document all these atrocities in their articles and the police apply the same words document them in their files. The newspapers and the police both apply grammar to such horrific acts and in many slipway trivialise them as just another article or file and the event or action becomes redundant. The meaning and full-strength essence of the movement and freedom cause are wooly under the ?state of emergency? , the raw zeal and passion of the people is stripped. The meaning behind the of the lack of punctuation in the first stanza is clarified by stanza two ? no words used in the first stanza are in consume of a context, they occurred daily in 1985 and the atrocious nature of them should attain called for an immediate end. The ?free-press? were in their complacency over the subjugation occurring in South Africa were equally as guilty as the police of racism. Karen Press uses a comma in the middle of line 10, dividing the stanza into two complex sentences and the line breaks at the end of lines 1&2 providing replacements for conjunctions in linking the simple sentences.



The pause also slows the information pace down which in turn allows, ?under the state of emergency│the two are combining forces? , to be read in an accusatory and sorrowful tone as an flavor of disappointment.

The word ?grammar? is used as a metaphor for actions of change nature; the newspapers and their writings, the police?s atrocities and the black plight in the third stanza. The move from passive to militant mass notification of the 1980?s black resistance is echoed in the poem where the peoples ?grammar? is verbalise to have ?shifted? from ?passive to active voice? . During this period a metaphorical boiling point had been reached in which there were truly few words on the lips of the people, ?but there are very few words at the surface? . bingle can only contemplate over what words are at the surface now but one can hazard a guess at words like freedom and democracy. The author is not concerned with all the surface words as these are merely words concocted by a corrupt regime and if the reader is eager to research the true plight of these people they must explore the root and emotions that lie ?below? . Suspense is employed in lines 15 and 16 before the author divulges the very ?few? words that could encapsulate the emotions of black South Africans, the motives for resistance in the first instance. Each word of line 17 must be read with the feeling that that word invokes and each emotion allowed to perplex through your body. ?anger? to an inhumane ruling race, ?blood? for all the men and woman who spilt it for the cause or as a result thereof, ?grief? in the face of all that has been garbled and ?vengeance? to be expropriated on those responsible.

?at the bottom,? of all this contest we find only ? lull? and it is the ?burnt out silence? that comes after prolonged shouting or in this context resisting. The people left hopeless and oppressed have had their ? nous?(s) ?gutted? by the circumstances in which black South Africans of the 1980?s found themselves. The poem closes with the author scolding society for expecting anything yeasty to come forth from such a deplorable situation. The metaphor of ?words? that ?germinate? or form from others is fitting as one can literally not speak after all the events of Apartheid. There is certainly no hope for the conceit of life that ?germinate? invokes? Bibliography:?Press, K. 1990. the words that rise to the surface. Cape Town. Buchu Books

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