ROY CAMPBELL - POETRY
Tuesday, 15 June 2021 10:25
- Arrived in England after WWI
- 1918 - 1924 in England
THE FLAMING TERRAPIN
- Tells the story of Noah's Arc being towed across the ocean by a terrapin
- "Savage splendour"; "buoyancy and exhilaration";
○ Not delicate
- Starts by rejecting the English poets
○ "bookish" - comes out of library; not in touch with life
○ "pale" - sickly, weak, weary - impression of English poetry, lost its fire
- New poetry is like a guitar "lyre"
- Image of militant, menacing African force
○ "Shaka"
- Repetition of "thunder"
- His poetry will be new; ambitious and 'southern art' to oppose the northern modernism
- Campbell came back to SA and made a base in Durban, KZN from 1924-1926
, THE ZEBRAS
- His 'southern poetry'
- Full of the world and specifically the Africa world
- Zebra becomes manifestation
- Horses do not tow the chariots, but the zebras
○ Rewriting of European history into an African one
- Physicality and sensuousness
- Stripes are imagined as wires of musical instrument
- Sunlight flashes; imagery of light, fire and burning
- Plays on zebra's stripes and becomes a motif
○ "barred with electric tremors"
They become electric with their power; machines become regular images in
Campbell's poetry to represent force
- Colourfulness, vividness and vibrancy of poem
- "dove like voices"
○ Beauty is combined with vigour and energy
○ Stallion = sensual, sexual
- Verbalising "volted"
- Beauty is always affiliated with power in Campbell's poetry
- "trampled" = force; sexual force
○ mating of stallion and mare
Introducing human element of sexuality
○ Nature is charged with colour, sensual and eroticism
- Technical aspects:
○ Sonnet (14 lines divided into 2 parts; octave + sestet)
○ Contents are new and African but form is old and traditional
Filling it with new
○ For all its force - energy is tightly controlled
Rhyme scheme
Rhythm - regular, pentameter, tetrameter, formal
□ All are 10 syllable lines - tight structure
Keeps the force and control
- Notes:
○ Celebration of the natural world
○ Wild animal life = energy, freedom, delight, generosity, beauty, eroticism: zebras as
symbols of vigour
○ The unknown and mysteriousness = danger, violence
○ Dream-like fantasy - the imagination engaging with the reality
○ Extreme sensuousness = imagery of light, colour, smell and movement
○ Packed with figurative language (metaphor): rays of sunlight are ropes, strings of
musical instruments; flowers are pools of water, zebra stripes are electric bars,
steaming breath is smoke and fire
○ Energy and beauty combined: "trampled lilies"
○ Use of electricity and engines in imagery
○ Originality of language (especially verbs: "barred", "volted")
○ Traditional structure: sonnet, rhyme, rhythm
○ Overall effect: rich, dense vivid, forceful - but curbed
Tuesday, 15 June 2021 10:25
- Arrived in England after WWI
- 1918 - 1924 in England
THE FLAMING TERRAPIN
- Tells the story of Noah's Arc being towed across the ocean by a terrapin
- "Savage splendour"; "buoyancy and exhilaration";
○ Not delicate
- Starts by rejecting the English poets
○ "bookish" - comes out of library; not in touch with life
○ "pale" - sickly, weak, weary - impression of English poetry, lost its fire
- New poetry is like a guitar "lyre"
- Image of militant, menacing African force
○ "Shaka"
- Repetition of "thunder"
- His poetry will be new; ambitious and 'southern art' to oppose the northern modernism
- Campbell came back to SA and made a base in Durban, KZN from 1924-1926
, THE ZEBRAS
- His 'southern poetry'
- Full of the world and specifically the Africa world
- Zebra becomes manifestation
- Horses do not tow the chariots, but the zebras
○ Rewriting of European history into an African one
- Physicality and sensuousness
- Stripes are imagined as wires of musical instrument
- Sunlight flashes; imagery of light, fire and burning
- Plays on zebra's stripes and becomes a motif
○ "barred with electric tremors"
They become electric with their power; machines become regular images in
Campbell's poetry to represent force
- Colourfulness, vividness and vibrancy of poem
- "dove like voices"
○ Beauty is combined with vigour and energy
○ Stallion = sensual, sexual
- Verbalising "volted"
- Beauty is always affiliated with power in Campbell's poetry
- "trampled" = force; sexual force
○ mating of stallion and mare
Introducing human element of sexuality
○ Nature is charged with colour, sensual and eroticism
- Technical aspects:
○ Sonnet (14 lines divided into 2 parts; octave + sestet)
○ Contents are new and African but form is old and traditional
Filling it with new
○ For all its force - energy is tightly controlled
Rhyme scheme
Rhythm - regular, pentameter, tetrameter, formal
□ All are 10 syllable lines - tight structure
Keeps the force and control
- Notes:
○ Celebration of the natural world
○ Wild animal life = energy, freedom, delight, generosity, beauty, eroticism: zebras as
symbols of vigour
○ The unknown and mysteriousness = danger, violence
○ Dream-like fantasy - the imagination engaging with the reality
○ Extreme sensuousness = imagery of light, colour, smell and movement
○ Packed with figurative language (metaphor): rays of sunlight are ropes, strings of
musical instruments; flowers are pools of water, zebra stripes are electric bars,
steaming breath is smoke and fire
○ Energy and beauty combined: "trampled lilies"
○ Use of electricity and engines in imagery
○ Originality of language (especially verbs: "barred", "volted")
○ Traditional structure: sonnet, rhyme, rhythm
○ Overall effect: rich, dense vivid, forceful - but curbed
