Question

1 A. Discuss Diop’s “Africa” as a Negritude poem.

B. Examine the structure of Blake’s “A Poison Tree”

NB:answers should contain references from the poem

Answer 1

The poem Africa is all about the land and its black people and their sacrifice and strength. Because in the lines where Diop said, "the blood of your sweat, the sweat of your work, the work of your slavery" describes their sacrifice to the land of Africa.

At the end of the poem, it says that "…whose fruit bit by bit acquires the bitter taste of liberty" clearly indicates the fight for freedom by the people for their equality in the country.

This poet used this poem as a negritude poem to point out the people's problem and to make them claim for their liberty.

B. Blake's "A poison tree."

Firstly, he started describing his friend and then his foe. He got angry with both the people, but he said his anger level is different for a friend and a foe. He continues telling about his anger level in his poem with the words, "And I watered it in fears, Night and morning with my tears; And I sunned it with smiles,And with soft deceitful wiles."

At the end of the poem, he ends that the main reason for his anger level is his foe and he only elongated his behavior as a whole, though he tried to cut down his emotions with the words, "And my foe beheld it shine, And he knew that it was mine."

We can say that anger is controllable once we are able to understand the cause and its effect of anger.