LOST OR FOUND WORLD
BY MONGANE WALLY SEROTE
Refers to time of apartheid.
Title: ambiguous, uncertain. ‘Lost’ suggests missing/gone/hopelessness. ‘Found’ suggests
return/regain/hope.
STANZA 1:
Ideas.
‘Skies’: abstract flow if ideas; the sky is vast is vast, there is a world of ideas, all different and
overwhelming.
‘At the mercy of my curtain eyes’: susceptible/vulnerable – rawness, the truth is something he wants to
forget.
‘Wink’/’draw’/’cut’/’forget’: the diction suggests the view from the speaker’s eyes is unpleasant and he
wants to block it out – painful.
STANZA 2:
Hopelessness – feels that his words are ignored (words are like blood).
‘Sea’: reinforces the vastness and immenseness of his idea; many different identities; metaphor –
comparing identity to a sea of tears.
‘Salty expression’: sense of sadness, his identity is lost/missing.
‘Bleeding’: feeling of hopelessness/suffering.
‘Cover’: concealed/diminished/not visible.
‘My pen’: uses his writing to regain his identity – words are like ink, they disappear/lost/sink in sand/no
lasting effect – perhaps he is being ignored/marginalised/confused about his role.
Sound devices: alliteration/sibilance – reinforces sense of loss, words are lost in sand.
‘Needy’: shows the depth of his feeling – seems to be writing for himself only – nobody is listening.
STANZA 3:
Destruction of chasing money.
‘Hope’: hope is like a mountain of flowers; metaphor introduces optimism/expectation of something
better.
‘Passes’: ambiguous, passes used in apartheid.
‘Passes attracting cars like bees’: simile – car represent society/people.
‘Modern madness’: alliteration introduces idea of capitalism – the pursuit of money.
‘Snaps’/’stems’: sibilance reinforces destructive nature of chasing money.
‘Leaves dry dead bodies, walking up the street’: long sentence length suggests the trail of bodies left
behind the aftermath – destruction turns people into ‘dry bodies’ – walking dead; societies obsession
with money destroys.
STANZA 4:
Indicates future is ambiguous.
‘Bright’/’old’/’dark’/’new’: juxtaposition of ideas.
BY MONGANE WALLY SEROTE
Refers to time of apartheid.
Title: ambiguous, uncertain. ‘Lost’ suggests missing/gone/hopelessness. ‘Found’ suggests
return/regain/hope.
STANZA 1:
Ideas.
‘Skies’: abstract flow if ideas; the sky is vast is vast, there is a world of ideas, all different and
overwhelming.
‘At the mercy of my curtain eyes’: susceptible/vulnerable – rawness, the truth is something he wants to
forget.
‘Wink’/’draw’/’cut’/’forget’: the diction suggests the view from the speaker’s eyes is unpleasant and he
wants to block it out – painful.
STANZA 2:
Hopelessness – feels that his words are ignored (words are like blood).
‘Sea’: reinforces the vastness and immenseness of his idea; many different identities; metaphor –
comparing identity to a sea of tears.
‘Salty expression’: sense of sadness, his identity is lost/missing.
‘Bleeding’: feeling of hopelessness/suffering.
‘Cover’: concealed/diminished/not visible.
‘My pen’: uses his writing to regain his identity – words are like ink, they disappear/lost/sink in sand/no
lasting effect – perhaps he is being ignored/marginalised/confused about his role.
Sound devices: alliteration/sibilance – reinforces sense of loss, words are lost in sand.
‘Needy’: shows the depth of his feeling – seems to be writing for himself only – nobody is listening.
STANZA 3:
Destruction of chasing money.
‘Hope’: hope is like a mountain of flowers; metaphor introduces optimism/expectation of something
better.
‘Passes’: ambiguous, passes used in apartheid.
‘Passes attracting cars like bees’: simile – car represent society/people.
‘Modern madness’: alliteration introduces idea of capitalism – the pursuit of money.
‘Snaps’/’stems’: sibilance reinforces destructive nature of chasing money.
‘Leaves dry dead bodies, walking up the street’: long sentence length suggests the trail of bodies left
behind the aftermath – destruction turns people into ‘dry bodies’ – walking dead; societies obsession
with money destroys.
STANZA 4:
Indicates future is ambiguous.
‘Bright’/’old’/’dark’/’new’: juxtaposition of ideas.
