Nightsong City – Dennis Brutus
· Author: coloured South African who fought against Apartheid
The author was separated from his lover (who was a white citizen) – had to separate as their affair
was forbidden (this gives the personal aspect of the poem – ‘my love’)
· Title: contrasts/juxtaposes the connotations of a lullaby (peaceful, comfortable, soothing, calm,
safe) with the connotations of a bustling city (busy, crime, hectic, social standards)
· Tone: soft, gentle, calming – almost like a lullaby – but this softness covers up the underlying
meaning of the poem
· Speaker is speaking to someone he loves –
wishing them a good/peaceful night’s rest
1 Sleep well, my love, sleep well: · Repetition: emphasises desire/yearning for a
calm night (as opposed to violent reality of
Apartheid – night was a time of terror/conflict)
· Glaze: the lights are reflecting onto the water
· Atmosphere: soothing/calming/romantic OR
eerie/restless/uneasy
· Restless: shatters the reader’s perception of any
sense of calmness – eerie
2 the harbour lights glaze over restless docks, connotations/atmosphere is created
· Personification:
(1) Restlessness represents the activity on the
harbour
(2) Restlessness represents the docks
themselves
· Cockroach: connotations are
creepy/sinister/dirty/repulsive/unwanted
· Emphasis: using ‘cockroach’ as a verb highlights
the scuttling/quick movements of the night –
negative connotations of the police
· Highlights how the police work silently and go out
police cars cockroach through the tunnel
3 of their way to catch people (especially non-
streets;
whites) breaking the curfew
· Tunnel: sinister connotations – dark, theft, drugs,
attacked, dangerous, trapped
Emphasis: highlights the lack of freedom
experienced by the non-white people during
Apartheid
·
· Shanties: townships – poverty, overcrowded
· creaking iron-sheets: a familiar sound to the
reader/any South African (iron contracts in the
4 from shanties creaking iron-sheets heat and when it cools again at night it makes
creaking sounds)
· Represents the non-white population – poverty,
segregation
· Violence: indicates the high level of crime and
lack of education
· Bug-infested rag:
(1) when the rag is shaken, the bugs disperse in
the same way that violence spreads
throughout the poverty-stricken shanties
5 violence like a bug-infested rag is tossed (2) bugs represent the police – the police are
causing more violence (which is unwanted –
tossed)
Negative connotations/symbolism
· Tossed: connotations of carelessness/unwanted
– indicates a lack of care towards people in the
township
and fear is immanent as sound in the wind-
6 · Immanent: unquestionable – it WILL happen
swung bell;
· Author: coloured South African who fought against Apartheid
The author was separated from his lover (who was a white citizen) – had to separate as their affair
was forbidden (this gives the personal aspect of the poem – ‘my love’)
· Title: contrasts/juxtaposes the connotations of a lullaby (peaceful, comfortable, soothing, calm,
safe) with the connotations of a bustling city (busy, crime, hectic, social standards)
· Tone: soft, gentle, calming – almost like a lullaby – but this softness covers up the underlying
meaning of the poem
· Speaker is speaking to someone he loves –
wishing them a good/peaceful night’s rest
1 Sleep well, my love, sleep well: · Repetition: emphasises desire/yearning for a
calm night (as opposed to violent reality of
Apartheid – night was a time of terror/conflict)
· Glaze: the lights are reflecting onto the water
· Atmosphere: soothing/calming/romantic OR
eerie/restless/uneasy
· Restless: shatters the reader’s perception of any
sense of calmness – eerie
2 the harbour lights glaze over restless docks, connotations/atmosphere is created
· Personification:
(1) Restlessness represents the activity on the
harbour
(2) Restlessness represents the docks
themselves
· Cockroach: connotations are
creepy/sinister/dirty/repulsive/unwanted
· Emphasis: using ‘cockroach’ as a verb highlights
the scuttling/quick movements of the night –
negative connotations of the police
· Highlights how the police work silently and go out
police cars cockroach through the tunnel
3 of their way to catch people (especially non-
streets;
whites) breaking the curfew
· Tunnel: sinister connotations – dark, theft, drugs,
attacked, dangerous, trapped
Emphasis: highlights the lack of freedom
experienced by the non-white people during
Apartheid
·
· Shanties: townships – poverty, overcrowded
· creaking iron-sheets: a familiar sound to the
reader/any South African (iron contracts in the
4 from shanties creaking iron-sheets heat and when it cools again at night it makes
creaking sounds)
· Represents the non-white population – poverty,
segregation
· Violence: indicates the high level of crime and
lack of education
· Bug-infested rag:
(1) when the rag is shaken, the bugs disperse in
the same way that violence spreads
throughout the poverty-stricken shanties
5 violence like a bug-infested rag is tossed (2) bugs represent the police – the police are
causing more violence (which is unwanted –
tossed)
Negative connotations/symbolism
· Tossed: connotations of carelessness/unwanted
– indicates a lack of care towards people in the
township
and fear is immanent as sound in the wind-
6 · Immanent: unquestionable – it WILL happen
swung bell;
