Lullaby: Usually sung by parents to By Dennis Brutus
Nightsong City
get children to sleep peacefully.
Love song to the poet’s homeland.
Stanza 1 Begins with a soft gentle tone. Sleep well, my love, sleep well: South Africa
Admiration: physical landscape
Discontentment (tense atmosphere) the harbour lights glaze over restless docks, Not paying attention
Coastal
many, brutality police cars cockroach through the tunnel Can’t escape cramped, compartmentalisation,
insect like living conditions
Constant crime, need for supervision streets;
Typical night in a township Conveys impermanence
Not intended for homes – humans were never
Poverty/shacks
from the shanties creaking iron-sheets intended to be treated with such degradation
Stanza 2
and cruelty.
Permeation of violence and fear violence like a bug-infested rag is tossed dirty Violence is thrown around freely, it is
rife, volatile situation
Poverty breeds violence, Both are and fear is imminent as sound in the wind-
very dirty and destructive
Fear is as prevalent as the sound of a bell in the wind,
swung bell; constant.
An inherent part of life for black people in townships
Black people working hard for white the long day’s anger pants from sand and Not just people who are angry/ in pain
Stanza 3
people all day long
mines Anger and frustration in the land is bubbling
Metaphor for entirety of apartheid rocks; over
The suggestion that his country is hope but for this breathing night at last; Rest, away from reality
his love, he feminises the country.
This was common in protest poetry
that spoke of freedom and Longing for the country to rest
emancipation. Connects love for my land, my love, sleep well.
woman with land.
Nightsong City
get children to sleep peacefully.
Love song to the poet’s homeland.
Stanza 1 Begins with a soft gentle tone. Sleep well, my love, sleep well: South Africa
Admiration: physical landscape
Discontentment (tense atmosphere) the harbour lights glaze over restless docks, Not paying attention
Coastal
many, brutality police cars cockroach through the tunnel Can’t escape cramped, compartmentalisation,
insect like living conditions
Constant crime, need for supervision streets;
Typical night in a township Conveys impermanence
Not intended for homes – humans were never
Poverty/shacks
from the shanties creaking iron-sheets intended to be treated with such degradation
Stanza 2
and cruelty.
Permeation of violence and fear violence like a bug-infested rag is tossed dirty Violence is thrown around freely, it is
rife, volatile situation
Poverty breeds violence, Both are and fear is imminent as sound in the wind-
very dirty and destructive
Fear is as prevalent as the sound of a bell in the wind,
swung bell; constant.
An inherent part of life for black people in townships
Black people working hard for white the long day’s anger pants from sand and Not just people who are angry/ in pain
Stanza 3
people all day long
mines Anger and frustration in the land is bubbling
Metaphor for entirety of apartheid rocks; over
The suggestion that his country is hope but for this breathing night at last; Rest, away from reality
his love, he feminises the country.
This was common in protest poetry
that spoke of freedom and Longing for the country to rest
emancipation. Connects love for my land, my love, sleep well.
woman with land.
