Magnitude

themes

JSLR contrasts his minute existence with the immensity of slavery, explores the idea of memory, and touches on injustice.

“It is your name I am calling… Your thousand, thousand names”

epigraph foregrounds history and remeberance

second person pronoun: direct appeal to ancestors

repetition: establishes theme of enormity

“million” “individuals” and “percentage”

“fingers” “hands” “feel”

semantic field of calculation vs anthropomorphism

confliction between factual and emotional

finding connection improves understanding, but feels impossible on a grand scale

“a real, fleshy equation”

antithesis: hypothetical/ logical vs harsh reality

“Give or take.”

idiom - creates a casual tone, uncomfortable (criticise careless and indifferent attitudes to history)
imperatives - the ownership of slavery

“bigger than the mind’s computational eye”

comparative: sense of defeat, searching for answers

“like death”

subordinate clause and simile

adds an unsettling comparison, alludes to the true number - slaves

“you give up on and take for granted”

second person pronoun: mass ignorance

phrasal verb: difficulty/ challenge of remeberance

“to keep count” “to take it all in”

monosyllabsy mimics counting

suggests that comparisons are impossible, resolves to look on an individual basis, commits to devoting time

“In a lesson”

abstract noun: learning from each other? poetry inspires conversation

“he’s counting / the breaths”

present simple tense: immediacy of self-expression

elision/ contraction: conversational tone

enjambment: allows words to flow, authenticity

short, free verse stanzas: fleeting nature of memory

“her Akan blood arrows back up to slavery”

“the boy is the son of a slave”

verb connotes violence

metaphor suggests superiority to simple, monosyllabic description of boy

“but it’s not working”

conjunction adds defeat

“darts of sunlight riding the backs of the waves”

visual imagery evokes the memory

dynamic verbs “darts” “riding”

power and hope

“how the rest, for him, is a mystery”

deviation from couplets: accepting the impossible

end-stopped line: letting go of the incessant calculation

quotes

your thousand, thousand names
million individuals percentage vs hands fingers feel
a real, fleshy equation
give or take
bigger than the mind’s computational eye
like death
you give up on and take for granted
to keep count, to take it all in
in a lesson
he’s counting / the breaths
her Akan blood arrows up to royalty, the boy is the son of a slave
but its not working
darts of sunlight riding on the backs of waves
how the rest, for him, is a mystery