"It is the Constant Image of Your Face" Vocabulary

Flashcards for vocabulary related to the poem "It is the Constant Image of Your Face" by Dennis Brutus.

Apartheid

A system for keeping white people and nonwhites separated in South Africa from the 1950s to the early 1990s. Dennis Brutus was against it.

Political Activist

Someone who is actively involved in a protest or a political or social cause, like Dennis Brutus.

Exile

Being chased out of your home country and not being allowed to return, as happened to Dennis Brutus in 1965.

Patriotic

Having or expressing devotion to and vigorous support for one's country. Dennis Brutus, Martin Carter and Nelson Mandela were described as patriotic men.

Pass Laws

Wicked racial laws created by the South African government that discriminated against the black South Africans

Mitigation

The action of reducing the severity, seriousness, or painfulness of something, which the persona begs for in the poem.

Tone

The attitude of the poem, changes from contemplative/reflective to sadness and then guilt.

Mood

The feeling the reader gets from the poem, changes from pensive to melancholy to remorse. The overall mood is reflective.

Stanza

A group of lines forming a unit in a poem, similar to a paragraph in prose. This poem has two nine-line stanzas.

Apostrophe

A figure of speech in which the persona addresses someone who is not present or something that is personified

it’s the constant image of your face

This is from line 1 of the poem 'Poem'. This line shows how Dennis Brutus cannot get the suffering of his people out of his head, it haunts him.