THE ZULU GIRL-Roy Campbell
When in the sun the hot red acres smoulder,
Down where the sweating gang its labours plies,
A girl flings down her how, and from her shoulder
Unslings her child tormented by the flies.
She takes him to a ring of shadow pooled
By thorn-trees: purples with the blood of ticks,
While her sharp nails, in slow caress ruled,
Prowl through his hair with sharp electric clicks.
His sleep mouth plugged by the heavy nipple,
Tugs like a puppy, grunting as he feeds:
Through his frail nerves her won deep languors ripple
Like a broad river sighing through its reeds.
Yet in that drowsy stream his flesh imbibes
An old unquenched unsmotherable heat –
The curbed ferocity of beaten tribes,
The sullen dignity of their defeat.
Her body looms above him like a hill
Within whose shade a village lies at rest.
Or the first cloud so terrible and still
That bears the coming harvest in its breast.
, THE ZULU GIRL
Questions and answers
Stanza 1:
1. Describe the conditions in which the ‘gang’ is working,
quoting from the poem.
The group is working hard in very hot conditions. The ‘acres’ of
land ‘smoulder’ as if they are burning, the people are ‘sweating’
as they ‘ply their labour’; the baby is ‘tormented by the flies’.
2. What impression of the Zulu girl is created by the word ‘flings’
in line 3?
The word ‘flings’ creates the impression that the Zulu girl is
feeling exhausted. She ‘throws’ down her hoe in an irritated
manner that expresses exactly how she is feeling.
3. What is the girl doing in the first stanza?
she, along with a group of labourers, is working in a field,
hoeing the soil. Her baby is slung over her back while she
works.
4. Which words in stanza 1 tell you of the extreme heat of the
day?
‘the hot red acres smoulder’ and ‘the sweating gang’. The fact
that the child is ‘tormented by the flies’ is also partly indicative
of the heat.
Stanza 2:
5. What evidence is there in stanza 2 that this is not a healthy
situation for the child?
When in the sun the hot red acres smoulder,
Down where the sweating gang its labours plies,
A girl flings down her how, and from her shoulder
Unslings her child tormented by the flies.
She takes him to a ring of shadow pooled
By thorn-trees: purples with the blood of ticks,
While her sharp nails, in slow caress ruled,
Prowl through his hair with sharp electric clicks.
His sleep mouth plugged by the heavy nipple,
Tugs like a puppy, grunting as he feeds:
Through his frail nerves her won deep languors ripple
Like a broad river sighing through its reeds.
Yet in that drowsy stream his flesh imbibes
An old unquenched unsmotherable heat –
The curbed ferocity of beaten tribes,
The sullen dignity of their defeat.
Her body looms above him like a hill
Within whose shade a village lies at rest.
Or the first cloud so terrible and still
That bears the coming harvest in its breast.
, THE ZULU GIRL
Questions and answers
Stanza 1:
1. Describe the conditions in which the ‘gang’ is working,
quoting from the poem.
The group is working hard in very hot conditions. The ‘acres’ of
land ‘smoulder’ as if they are burning, the people are ‘sweating’
as they ‘ply their labour’; the baby is ‘tormented by the flies’.
2. What impression of the Zulu girl is created by the word ‘flings’
in line 3?
The word ‘flings’ creates the impression that the Zulu girl is
feeling exhausted. She ‘throws’ down her hoe in an irritated
manner that expresses exactly how she is feeling.
3. What is the girl doing in the first stanza?
she, along with a group of labourers, is working in a field,
hoeing the soil. Her baby is slung over her back while she
works.
4. Which words in stanza 1 tell you of the extreme heat of the
day?
‘the hot red acres smoulder’ and ‘the sweating gang’. The fact
that the child is ‘tormented by the flies’ is also partly indicative
of the heat.
Stanza 2:
5. What evidence is there in stanza 2 that this is not a healthy
situation for the child?
