‘Nightsong: City’ Dennis Brutus (1924-)
Sleep well, my love, sleep well:
the harbour lights glaze over restless docks,
police cars cockroach through the tunnel streets;
from the shanties creaking iron-sheets
violence like a bug-infested rag is tossed
and fear is immanent as sound in the wind-swung bell;
the long day’s anger pants from sand and rocks;
but for this breathing night at least,
my land, my love, sleep well.
Tender, gentle: Address to
lover/land
Violence (Apartheid)
Suffering (Apartheid)
Sounds
Punctuation
, Biographical Information
• Brutus was an anti-Apartheid activist.
• He used his poems to speak about his experiences and against the Apartheid
government.
Meaning/Message
• The speaker addresses a lover urging them to rest from the difficulties of the day
(literal).
• The speaker is calling on South Africa to find a way to bring peace against the
violence that Apartheid has infected them with (figurative).
Imagery/Figures of Speech/Diction
• Pathetic Fallacy: When the conditions of nature mimic/reflect human emotions.
• Transferred epithet.
Structure
• Cyclical repetition of beginning and end:
→ Can always return to hope.
→ Trapped in cycle of violence.
• Slow gentle rhythm of a lullaby mimics the heavy weight of violence on South Africa.
• Three regular stanzas (part rhyme) and one irregular stanza: violence breaks
structure/normality.
• Semi colons and enjambement: constant flow of violence.
Tone/Mood
• Lullaby – soothing, gentle, tranquil.
• Violence – despair, anguish, fear, distress.
• Speaker has a love-hate attitude/relationship with South Africa.
Sleep well, my love, sleep well:
the harbour lights glaze over restless docks,
police cars cockroach through the tunnel streets;
from the shanties creaking iron-sheets
violence like a bug-infested rag is tossed
and fear is immanent as sound in the wind-swung bell;
the long day’s anger pants from sand and rocks;
but for this breathing night at least,
my land, my love, sleep well.
Tender, gentle: Address to
lover/land
Violence (Apartheid)
Suffering (Apartheid)
Sounds
Punctuation
, Biographical Information
• Brutus was an anti-Apartheid activist.
• He used his poems to speak about his experiences and against the Apartheid
government.
Meaning/Message
• The speaker addresses a lover urging them to rest from the difficulties of the day
(literal).
• The speaker is calling on South Africa to find a way to bring peace against the
violence that Apartheid has infected them with (figurative).
Imagery/Figures of Speech/Diction
• Pathetic Fallacy: When the conditions of nature mimic/reflect human emotions.
• Transferred epithet.
Structure
• Cyclical repetition of beginning and end:
→ Can always return to hope.
→ Trapped in cycle of violence.
• Slow gentle rhythm of a lullaby mimics the heavy weight of violence on South Africa.
• Three regular stanzas (part rhyme) and one irregular stanza: violence breaks
structure/normality.
• Semi colons and enjambement: constant flow of violence.
Tone/Mood
• Lullaby – soothing, gentle, tranquil.
• Violence – despair, anguish, fear, distress.
• Speaker has a love-hate attitude/relationship with South Africa.
