‘I Have My Father’s Voice’ Chris van Wyk (1957-2017) Sons positioning/
inheritance
When I walk into a room Sound devices
Fathers personality
where my father has just been Structure
I fill the same spaces he did
from the elbows on the table
to the head thrown back
and when we laugh we aim the guffaw
at the same space in the air.
Before anybody has told me this I know
because I see myself through
my father’s eyes.
When I was a pigeon-toed boy
my father used his voice
to send me to bed
to run and buy the newspaper
to scribble my way through matric.
He also used his voice for harsher things:
to bluster when we made a noise
when the kitchen wasn’t cleaned after supper
when I was out too late.
Late for work, on many mornings,
one sock in hand, its twin
an angry glint in his eye he flings
dirty clothes out of the washing box:
vests, jeans, pants and shirts shouting
anagrams of fee fo fi fum until he is up
to his knees in a stinking heap of laundry.
I have my father’s voice too
and his fuming temper
and I shout as he does.
But I spew the words out
in pairs of alliteration
and an air of assonance.
Everything a poet needs
my father has bequeathed me
except the words.
Biographical Information
• Poet born in Soweto and family was forced into a coloured township.
• Parents were uneducated but encouraged him to pursue a good career.
, • Saw his poetry as a form of protest and critiqued Apartheid by telling stories of
victims’ everyday struggles and experiences.
Meaning/Message
• Son pays tribute to his father who despite his frustrations and limitations of
Apartheid made sure to pass down a rich legacy of life lessons to his son.
• Poet expresses disapproval of Apartheid in a way in which his father couldn’t.
Imagery/Figures of Speech/ Diction
• Sound devices: Alliteration and Sibilance
• Poetry jargon
Structure
• Irregular and free verse: Son continues to grow and mature in a chaotic South Africa.
Free verse can show the father’s unpredictable outbursts in expressing anger.
• First four stanzas are longer: Full and rich connection between father and son.
• Last three stanzas are shorter: Son’s connection isn’t as big and he has potential to
fulfil.
• Enjambment: Flow of past into present of both Apartheid and his father’s legacy.
Tone
Reflective, Honest, Grateful
inheritance
When I walk into a room Sound devices
Fathers personality
where my father has just been Structure
I fill the same spaces he did
from the elbows on the table
to the head thrown back
and when we laugh we aim the guffaw
at the same space in the air.
Before anybody has told me this I know
because I see myself through
my father’s eyes.
When I was a pigeon-toed boy
my father used his voice
to send me to bed
to run and buy the newspaper
to scribble my way through matric.
He also used his voice for harsher things:
to bluster when we made a noise
when the kitchen wasn’t cleaned after supper
when I was out too late.
Late for work, on many mornings,
one sock in hand, its twin
an angry glint in his eye he flings
dirty clothes out of the washing box:
vests, jeans, pants and shirts shouting
anagrams of fee fo fi fum until he is up
to his knees in a stinking heap of laundry.
I have my father’s voice too
and his fuming temper
and I shout as he does.
But I spew the words out
in pairs of alliteration
and an air of assonance.
Everything a poet needs
my father has bequeathed me
except the words.
Biographical Information
• Poet born in Soweto and family was forced into a coloured township.
• Parents were uneducated but encouraged him to pursue a good career.
, • Saw his poetry as a form of protest and critiqued Apartheid by telling stories of
victims’ everyday struggles and experiences.
Meaning/Message
• Son pays tribute to his father who despite his frustrations and limitations of
Apartheid made sure to pass down a rich legacy of life lessons to his son.
• Poet expresses disapproval of Apartheid in a way in which his father couldn’t.
Imagery/Figures of Speech/ Diction
• Sound devices: Alliteration and Sibilance
• Poetry jargon
Structure
• Irregular and free verse: Son continues to grow and mature in a chaotic South Africa.
Free verse can show the father’s unpredictable outbursts in expressing anger.
• First four stanzas are longer: Full and rich connection between father and son.
• Last three stanzas are shorter: Son’s connection isn’t as big and he has potential to
fulfil.
• Enjambment: Flow of past into present of both Apartheid and his father’s legacy.
Tone
Reflective, Honest, Grateful
