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"Small Passing" deals with the shock of losing one's baby in a society where death is an
everyday reality.
For the mother, the death of her own child is a tragedy beyond parallel and yet the poet gets
reminded often -- mainly by males -- that this is nothing compared with the greater tragedy
happening all around her in apartheid South Africa, where death is the norm.
On the other hand, the Black women do not see it that way. They are able to comfort her and
see in her loss a genuine catastrophe which is indeed comparable with all the other tragedies
happening around them. Hers is literally no small passing.
ABOUT THE POET
Ingrid de Kok is the professional name of Ingrid Jean Fiske. She was born in Johannesburg
in 1951 and grew up in Stilfontein, a gold mining town in what is now the North-West Province
of South Africa.
She studied at Queens' University in Canada before returning to South Africa. Today she is an
Associate Professor at the University of Cape Town's Centre for Extra-Mural Studies.
To date she has published three collections of poetry, and her poems have appeared in at least
eleven overseas anthologies. They have also been translated into several different languages,
including Turkish.
She has been the recipient of at least three prestigious prizes for her contribution to English
Literature.
Have you looked at the questions
in the right column?
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TEST YOURSELF!
Read the left column and then answer
the following questions:
"In this country you may not
suffer the death of your stillborn,
remember the last push into shadow and silence,
the useless wires and cords on your stomach,
the nurse's face, the walls, the afterbirth in a basin."
- The poet refers to "this country". Which country is being referred
to? (1)
[Need help?]
The country is definitely South Africa.
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- Did this mother go through the whole birth process or was the child removed from her womb
prematurely? Quote to support your answer. (2)
[Need help?]
The speaker had endured the full birth process and then discovered that her baby was dead.
The words "the last push" indicate that she underwent natural birth.
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- What do you think the expression on the "nurse's face" would have
been? (2)
[Need help?]
The nurse would have had a pained expression on her face. She felt sympathy for the mother.
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"Do not touch your breasts
still full of purpose.
Do not circle the house,
pack, unpack the small clothes.
Do not lie awake at night hearing
the doctor say 'It was just as well'
and 'You can have another.' "
- The poet says that her breasts are "still full of purpose". What is she referring
to? (4)
[Need help?]
Her breasts would have filled with colostrum and then milk, ready to nurse the baby but the
life-giving nourishment is now useless. The purpose of her breasts was to nourish her baby.
Even though the baby is dead, however, the nourishing fluid is still in her breasts.
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- The words "Do not" are repeated in the first stanza. What is the effect of the
repetition of these words? (4)
[Need help?]
The poet is remembering all the instructions that she received after the still-birth. People kept
telling her what not to do, yet she does not remember anyone being sympathetic. These words
reflect the indifference that she encountered.
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"In this country you may not
mourn small passings."
The poet refers to "small passings".
- Whose words are these? (2)
[Need help?]
These are the words used by the man who gave her advice. The mother certainly does not feel
that this was an insignificant death.
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- Is "small" meant literally or figuratively? Explain your choice. (3)
[Need help?]
It is meant figuratively. Although the baby is small, "small passings" refers to the stillborn
baby whose death some people regard as less important or less significant in comparison with
the suffering experienced by others in South Africa. People feel that her suffering is not
significant enough when compared with the suffering that others in the country have to endure.
People are telling her that she is making a mountain out of a molehill.
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"See: the newspaper boy in the rain
will sleep tonight in a doorway.
The woman in the busline
may next month be on a train
to a place not her own.
The baby in the backyard now
will be sent to a tired aunt,
grow chubby, then lean,
return a stranger.
Mandela's daughter tried to find her father
through the glass. She thought they'd let her touch him."
- What is the overall purpose of these lines? (4)
[Need help?]
The poet recalls how the man pointed out the suffering of the black people around her in an
attempt to make her realize that her suffering is nothing in comparison with theirs. She is
informed how their existence is a struggle every single day. Her suffering will be over quickly,
while the people referred to in this stanza face anguish every day. There will be no escape for
them, while time will heal her pain. She is basically being told to count her blessings and be
grateful that she only has the death of a baby to contend with.
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- What is meant by "grow chubby, then lean, return a stranger"? (3)
[Need help?]
Growing chubby, then lean, then returning as a stranger refers to the passing of time. The baby
is taken away from his parents to live with an aunt, grows into a chubby child, becomes lean
with the onset of adolescence, and will be a total stranger by the time he returns to see his
parents.
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[Need help?]
"Mandela" refers to Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela who became the first President of a
liberated South Africa. At the time of the writing of this poem, he was still being incarcerated
in a high security prison for an alleged plot to overthrow the state.
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- In what way would the daughter be trying "to find her father through the
glass"? (3)
[Need help?]
Mandela, being in prison, would not have been allowed to hold his child but could only see her
through a glass partition. The daughter therefore had her hand against the glass as though
trying to find a way through it to touch her father.
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"On the pavements the nannies meet.
These are legal gatherings.
They talk about everything, about home,
while the children play among them,
their skins like litmus, their bonnets clean."
- Identify the figure of speech "their skins like litmus". (1)
[Need help?]
"their skins like litmus" is a simile.
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- What is the poet's intention? (4)
[Need help?]
Litmus is white-coloured paper which is used to gauge and test for acidity and alkalinity. (It
turns reddish in the presence of acid and blue in the presence of an alkaline.) Like the paper,
the children are white, and are in contrast with their black nannies who are caring for them.
The fact that there are white children at this gathering is a gauge or indication that this is not
a political but rather a social gathering. The presence of the white children is an indication that
the black nannies are not contravening the South African "Riotous Assemblies Act of
1956" which forbad the public gathering of three or more people.
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"Child shot running,
stones in his pocket,
boy's swollen stomach
full of hungry air.
Girls carrying babies
not much smaller than themselves.
Erosion. Soil washed down to the sea."
- Explain the historical relevance of "Child shot running, stones in his
pocket". (4)
[Need help?]
The black children in Soweto and other South African townships used to gather and throw
stones at the military or the police when the authorities arrived to break up the gathering. Many
children were shot while running away from the shooting. A famous death which was reported
in papers around the world was that of Hector Peterson, a school boy who was shot by police
during a protest gathering when Afrikaans was made a compulsory subject in Black schools.
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- Identify and explain the figure of speech in "boy's swollen stomach full of hungry
air." (4)
[Need help?]
"hungry air" is an example of a metaphor. Air cannot be hungry, thus it is given the
qualities of a person or animal.
Although the boy's belly looks full, it is actually distended due to malnutrition. He is starving,
so even the empty space in his belly is hungry. The poet thereby emphasizes the extent of his
hunger.
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