‘Touch’ Hugh Lewin (1939-)
When I get out
I'm going to ask someone
to touch me
very gently please
and slowly,
touch me
I want
to learn again
how life feels.
I've not been touched
for seven years
for seven years
I've been untouched
out of touch
and I've learnt
to know now
the meaning of
untouchable.
Untouched—not quite
I can count the things
that have touched me
One: fists
At the beginning
fierce mad fists ‘
beating beating
till I remember
screaming
Don't touch me
please don't touch me
Two: paws
The first four years of paws
every day
patting paws, searching
—arms up, shoes off
legs apart—
Structure: Punctuation and
prodding paws, systematic
repetition.
heavy, indifferent Touch imagery/wordplay
probing away Violent imagery
all privacy. Dreams of future
Alliteration
, I don't want fists and paws
I want
to want to be touched
again
and to touch,
I want to feel alive
again
I want to say
when I get out
Here I am
please touch me.
Biographical Information
• Anti-Apartheid activist.
• Imprisoned and kept prison diary.
• After he was released, he went into exile.
Meaning/Message
• What does is mean to be human?
• Importance/ the gift of physical touch.
• To show how he yearns for touch, yet he is still so fearful due to the pain and trauma
that he endured during his imprisonment.
Tone/Mood
• Despairing and painful contracted with hope.
Structure
• Irregular and fragmented free verse: Chaos of prison life.
• Enjambment: Ongoing cycle of violence conflicted with ongoing hope.
• Short lines: He has uncertainty/ he is building up a sense of voice.
Imagery/Figures of Speech/Diction
• Wordplay of ‘touch’.
• Animalistic imagery with violence.
• Use of pronouns: ‘I’ shows personal strength.
, Title
• Pun
→ Physical touch: tactile.
→ Emotional/psychological touch: feelings and emotions.
When I get out
• Starts with a confidence and assertive tone.
• Subordinate clause of condition shows the speaker as hopeful about a future
outside jail.
I'm going to ask someone
• Wish to reconnect with someone in an intimate way – allowed to let walls down
and be vulnerable.
to touch me
• Simple act which offers a profound affect.
very gently please
and slowly,
• Poignant description of how he needs to be touched to recover from trauma.
• Longing/hopeful for physical affection.
• Comma indicates enjambment: His healing process will be ongoing.
touch me
• Repetition: Emphasize intense ongoing need for touch.
I want
• Expression of personal desire: Psychological resistance to the dehumanization of
prison.
to learn again
• Knows he will have to reintegrate and adjust (heal mentally).
how life feels.
• ‘Feels’:
→ Physically touch another.
→ Emotionally feel again.
→ Rejoin society and experience life.
Stanza 1
Assertion of change in the future despite present constrictions.
I've not been touched
• Simple sentence: Simple and direct fact.
When I get out
I'm going to ask someone
to touch me
very gently please
and slowly,
touch me
I want
to learn again
how life feels.
I've not been touched
for seven years
for seven years
I've been untouched
out of touch
and I've learnt
to know now
the meaning of
untouchable.
Untouched—not quite
I can count the things
that have touched me
One: fists
At the beginning
fierce mad fists ‘
beating beating
till I remember
screaming
Don't touch me
please don't touch me
Two: paws
The first four years of paws
every day
patting paws, searching
—arms up, shoes off
legs apart—
Structure: Punctuation and
prodding paws, systematic
repetition.
heavy, indifferent Touch imagery/wordplay
probing away Violent imagery
all privacy. Dreams of future
Alliteration
, I don't want fists and paws
I want
to want to be touched
again
and to touch,
I want to feel alive
again
I want to say
when I get out
Here I am
please touch me.
Biographical Information
• Anti-Apartheid activist.
• Imprisoned and kept prison diary.
• After he was released, he went into exile.
Meaning/Message
• What does is mean to be human?
• Importance/ the gift of physical touch.
• To show how he yearns for touch, yet he is still so fearful due to the pain and trauma
that he endured during his imprisonment.
Tone/Mood
• Despairing and painful contracted with hope.
Structure
• Irregular and fragmented free verse: Chaos of prison life.
• Enjambment: Ongoing cycle of violence conflicted with ongoing hope.
• Short lines: He has uncertainty/ he is building up a sense of voice.
Imagery/Figures of Speech/Diction
• Wordplay of ‘touch’.
• Animalistic imagery with violence.
• Use of pronouns: ‘I’ shows personal strength.
, Title
• Pun
→ Physical touch: tactile.
→ Emotional/psychological touch: feelings and emotions.
When I get out
• Starts with a confidence and assertive tone.
• Subordinate clause of condition shows the speaker as hopeful about a future
outside jail.
I'm going to ask someone
• Wish to reconnect with someone in an intimate way – allowed to let walls down
and be vulnerable.
to touch me
• Simple act which offers a profound affect.
very gently please
and slowly,
• Poignant description of how he needs to be touched to recover from trauma.
• Longing/hopeful for physical affection.
• Comma indicates enjambment: His healing process will be ongoing.
touch me
• Repetition: Emphasize intense ongoing need for touch.
I want
• Expression of personal desire: Psychological resistance to the dehumanization of
prison.
to learn again
• Knows he will have to reintegrate and adjust (heal mentally).
how life feels.
• ‘Feels’:
→ Physically touch another.
→ Emotionally feel again.
→ Rejoin society and experience life.
Stanza 1
Assertion of change in the future despite present constrictions.
I've not been touched
• Simple sentence: Simple and direct fact.
