Both question 1 and question 2 answered:
Question 1: Poetry – "Nightsong City" by Dennis
Brutus
Question 2: Drama – I Will Marry When I Want
, ENG2602 – Assignment 3 (2025)
Question 1: Poetry – "Nightsong City" by Dennis Brutus
Word count: ±1120 words
Essay Title: Tension in Stillness: Juxtaposing Rest and Anxiety in "Nightsong City"
Dennis Brutus’s Nightsong City is a brief but powerfully evocative poem that overlays a
tender lullaby with the tension of urban violence and fear. In only nine lines, the poet
contrasts themes of rest and anxiety through the use of vivid poetic techniques. The
poem gently addresses the city as a lover or beloved (“my love”), but this endearment
exists uneasily alongside stark images of poverty, crime, and unrest. Brutus employs
imagery, personification, diction, and enjambment to juxtapose calm and
disturbance, revealing his conflicted emotional connection to a city plagued by injustice
and hardship.
The poem begins and ends with the words “sleep well,” framing the verse as a lullaby.
However, this gentle refrain is immediately undermined by unsettling images: “police
cars cockroach through the tunnel streets” and “violence like a bug-infested rag is
tossed.” The contrast between the wish for peaceful sleep and the city’s harsh reality is
central to the poem’s effect. Brutus creates this contrast using four notable techniques,
which I explore below.
The first and most prominent device is imagery, which Brutus uses to conjure both
beauty and menace. The line “the harbour lights glaze at restless docks” paints a
seemingly peaceful picture with the soft word “glaze,” evoking light reflecting gently off
water. But this is followed by the word “restless,” which hints at unease. The “harbour”
typically suggests trade, movement, and life, yet here it is paired with “restless docks,”
suggesting tension and dissatisfaction. The beauty of the lights is thus tempered by the
agitation of the setting. Further down, “violence like a bug-infested rag is tossed” gives a
visceral, disturbing image. The “rag” is associated with poverty and filth, and describing
it as “bug-infested” magnifies the discomfort. Violence is not only omnipresent but also
contagious and dirty tossed casually and indiscriminately. This brutal image clashes
with the soft invitation to “sleep well,” making the reader aware of the tension between
desire for peace and the reality of danger.
A second key technique is personification, particularly in how the city is addressed as
if it were a human lover. The speaker says, “sleep well, my love, sleep well,” addressing
the city tenderly. This personification has two effects: it creates an intimate, emotional
tone, and it intensifies the pathos of the poem by highlighting the speaker’s emotional
attachment to a place filled with suffering. The city is not simply a setting it is a beloved
subject in need of comfort. This duality creates tension: how can one love a place so
broken? This reflects the experience of many who live in cities afflicted by apartheid-era
violence or postcolonial oppression they love their home but are tormented by its
Question 1: Poetry – "Nightsong City" by Dennis
Brutus
Question 2: Drama – I Will Marry When I Want
, ENG2602 – Assignment 3 (2025)
Question 1: Poetry – "Nightsong City" by Dennis Brutus
Word count: ±1120 words
Essay Title: Tension in Stillness: Juxtaposing Rest and Anxiety in "Nightsong City"
Dennis Brutus’s Nightsong City is a brief but powerfully evocative poem that overlays a
tender lullaby with the tension of urban violence and fear. In only nine lines, the poet
contrasts themes of rest and anxiety through the use of vivid poetic techniques. The
poem gently addresses the city as a lover or beloved (“my love”), but this endearment
exists uneasily alongside stark images of poverty, crime, and unrest. Brutus employs
imagery, personification, diction, and enjambment to juxtapose calm and
disturbance, revealing his conflicted emotional connection to a city plagued by injustice
and hardship.
The poem begins and ends with the words “sleep well,” framing the verse as a lullaby.
However, this gentle refrain is immediately undermined by unsettling images: “police
cars cockroach through the tunnel streets” and “violence like a bug-infested rag is
tossed.” The contrast between the wish for peaceful sleep and the city’s harsh reality is
central to the poem’s effect. Brutus creates this contrast using four notable techniques,
which I explore below.
The first and most prominent device is imagery, which Brutus uses to conjure both
beauty and menace. The line “the harbour lights glaze at restless docks” paints a
seemingly peaceful picture with the soft word “glaze,” evoking light reflecting gently off
water. But this is followed by the word “restless,” which hints at unease. The “harbour”
typically suggests trade, movement, and life, yet here it is paired with “restless docks,”
suggesting tension and dissatisfaction. The beauty of the lights is thus tempered by the
agitation of the setting. Further down, “violence like a bug-infested rag is tossed” gives a
visceral, disturbing image. The “rag” is associated with poverty and filth, and describing
it as “bug-infested” magnifies the discomfort. Violence is not only omnipresent but also
contagious and dirty tossed casually and indiscriminately. This brutal image clashes
with the soft invitation to “sleep well,” making the reader aware of the tension between
desire for peace and the reality of danger.
A second key technique is personification, particularly in how the city is addressed as
if it were a human lover. The speaker says, “sleep well, my love, sleep well,” addressing
the city tenderly. This personification has two effects: it creates an intimate, emotional
tone, and it intensifies the pathos of the poem by highlighting the speaker’s emotional
attachment to a place filled with suffering. The city is not simply a setting it is a beloved
subject in need of comfort. This duality creates tension: how can one love a place so
broken? This reflects the experience of many who live in cities afflicted by apartheid-era
violence or postcolonial oppression they love their home but are tormented by its
