READ THIS
A penguin has been caught in an oil slick which has threatened him with death. He has been lucky,
however, for he has been cleaned up and is now being set free. His anxieties nevertheless persist.
ABOUT THE POET
Ruth Miller was born in 1919 at Uitenhage in the Eastern Cape.
She was apparently deserted by her father, whereupon she and her mother moved onto a farm with an
aunt, probably in what was then the Northern Transvaal -- now the Northern Province of South Africa.
She was educated at a convent school before moving to Johannesburg where she would spend most of
her adult life. There she became involved in school education, first as a secretary and later as a teacher
of English.
Her poetry has been described as invoking a "note of tragedy", probably influenced by the untimely
death of her teenage son in 1962.
She herself would die of cancer in 1969, just seven years later. She was just 50 years of age.
The poem "Penguin on the Beach" was written during the late 1960s, and portrays the impact on
a penguin of being caught in an oil-slick with its dreadful threat of extinction of whole colonies of sea-life.
Have you looked at the questions in the right column?
|
TEST YOURSELF!
Read the left column and then answer the following questions:
"Stranger in his own element,
Sea-casualty, the castaway manikin
Waddles in his tailored coat-tails."
- Why is the penguin described as a "sea-casualty"? (2)
[Need help?]
The penguin has been the victim of a massive oil spill which has coated his feathers and all but killed him.
Indeed, such a spill would have destroyed many of the birds through suffocation and loss of buoyancy,
making it impossible for them to swim and find fish.
|
- Why would the penguin be a "a stranger in his own element"? (4)
[Need help?]
The penguin, having been cleaned up, was being released into the ocean. Although the ocean was
indeed the penguin's "own element", the bird had been kept in captivity while it was being cleaned
and perhaps the seawater itself was having the oil removed.
The penguin's time in captivity, therefore, would have made him a stranger to the sea. Or perhaps the
penguin was being re-released at another site that was not its home -- as happened more recently when
the penguins of Table Bay were re-released at Port Elizabeth after they had been cleaned.
|
- Why was the penguin referred to as a "manikin . . . in his tailored coat-tails"? (4)
[Need help?]
The word "manikin" means "a little man" or "a small figure".
The African penguin stands only about knee high to an average adult but from a distance looks not unlike
a little man dressed in an old-fashioned black suit with tails, with a white shirt-front or bib.
|
"Oil has spread a deep commercial stain
Over his downy shirt front. Sleazy, grey,
It clogs the sleekness."
- Why does the poet refer to a "commercial stain" over the penguin's downy "shirt
front"? (4)
[Need help?]
Oil is the driving force of industry and is therefore at the centre of the commercial world.
In keeping with the idea of a "manikin" in his black suit with tails, the poet speaks of his white shirt-
front which has been stained with oil.
The penguin no longer has the dark, cloying oil on him but, despite having been washed free, his shirt-
front would still bear a brown stain.
|
- What is the connotation of the word "sleazy" to describe the oil stain? (4)
[Need help?]
The term "sleazy" is used to connote some lower form of life, a world of poor morality.
One does not admire something that is "sleazy". A person from the lower eschelons of life -- for
example, a prostitute -- would have been described as "sleazy".
The poet therefore wishes to ask moral questions about the oil spill.
Indeed, the poet is perhaps asking questions about the use of oil itself which is the driving-force of
industry. If so, Ruth Miller is a poet well ahead of her time.
|
- Explain how the writer creates a negative or critical attitude towards the oil? (4)
[Need help?]
The words "stain", "sleazy" and "clogs" each connotes a negative or critical attitude
towards the oil.
|
The poet, having described the penguin as a "manikin", uses clearly human characteristics to
describe the bird.
- Find some examples of this throughout this poem. (10)
[Need help?]
The penguin is said to be dressed in a black suit ("tailored coat-tails") and a white shirt ("his
downy shirt front").
The bird acts in a very human way, being afraid to go back into the water after the shock of pollution. It
"shudders" in fear while standing at the edge of the sea.
He "shoulders off" the hands that are trying to push him into the water.
He stands "in pained and silent expostulation", as though he was a rational being.
He "shudders" and "flinches" when the wave washes over him.
Finally, he is "immensely wise" and "trusts nobody".
|
|