English lit - before the sun

‘before the sun’

literally two corns and figuratively the cycle of life

ambiguous

“blue morning”

tone is optimistic and hopeful

refreshing

stanza 1: line 1

birth/ spring

stanza 1: line 2

youth/ summer

stanza 1: line 3

adulthood/ Autumn

stanza 1: line 4

old age/ winter/ death

“the bright chips”

wood chipping

coming and entering the world, being born

“through the air”

humans believe that life is long and eternity thought it is actually very short and time flies

“arc,”

narative arc

rainbow, smooth circular shape

“eternities later”

childhood feels like a long time in the moment but in reality its not, your sense of time is just skewed

“settle down”

when you are older you settle down once in adulthood

“dewy”

softens the impact of the fall (when you leave home)

cleansing

“fourteen”

boy —> juvenile

the age where the boy moves away from parents to an external tutor

“big logs”

at 14 he can handle the kid ideas and feelings better

its literally just a log

“are what you want”

how you want to prove yourself

“a sweet nose-cleansing odour”

appreciation of the natural simplicity

“it sends up a thin spiral of smoke which later straightens”

delicate —> childhood

never-ending —> eternity —> sense of time is skewed when younger

“which later straightens”

as you grow time flies quickly and you loose your childhood humour and mature

“distant sky”

heaven

time goes quickly until you die

“sun”

personified

imagery

“finally shows up”

life is bright as a child but as an adult it dims until its bright again when elderly before you die

“two cobs of maize”

simple —> can only give this as he doesn’t have anything else —> childlike

stanza 7

boy feels like an adult/parent

a parent to a child

the sun is like a child and the boy has to feed it

“the sun just winks like a grown-up”

snap back to reality —> he’s the child again and the sun is now the parent

“one for the sun”

personification —> treats the sun .like a friend

“two little skeletons”

death

corn

life cycle

starts as two full corns an ends as two little skeletons

structure and form

stanzaic poem

poem is organised but no rhyme scheme or much else

—> freedom of free verse

• childlike

• childhood isn’t perfect

  • no predictability in life —> no rhyme scheme

simple language

context

raised in a rural area in Chivhu, Zimbabwe

topic sentences

1. throughout the poem Mungoshi explored the innocence and excitement of youth

2. within Mungoshi’s poem ‘before the sun’ he explores the theme nature

3. Mungoshi explores the passage of time in his poem from birth to death