|
READ THIS
"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?
|
TEST YOURSELF!
Read the left column and then answer
the following questions:
"Small wrist in the grave.
Baby no one carried live
between houses, among trees."
- Why does the poet refer to the "small wrist" and not to the baby as a
whole? (4)
[Need help?]
The words depict the small details a mother would remember. A mother would have more than
the whole image of her baby in his coffin. She would remember every single aspect of her
child. Even a body part -- like a wrist which seems insignificant -- is important to the grieving
mother. She would remember small things like the shape of her child's cheek or the folds the
skin makes around the wrist.
The poet is therefore portraying very clearly a mother's grief. She has experienced it herself and
this is also the image she has of her own baby. She demonstrates how mothers of every colour
experience the same grief and are able to relate to each other.
|
- Why does the poet speak of "baby no one carried live"? (4)
[Need help?]
The baby was stillborn. No one therefore had the joy of carrying the baby anywhere in its live
state -- "between houses, among trees". Perhaps it was carried "between houses,
among trees" on the way to the cemetery for the funeral.
|
"I think these mothers dream
headstones of the unborn.
Their mourning rises like a wall
no vine will cling to."
- What does the poet mean by these words and why have the lines been
included? (4)
[Need help?]
Headstones are placed on graves. These mothers dream of children dying even before they
are born because they have become so accustomed to death. They almost expect to outlive
their children. The death of children is very real to these mothers, which is why they understand
the poet's plight. They have also had to erect headstones on children's graves.
|
- Identify the figure of speech in "like a wall | no vine will cling to". Explain its
significance. (4)
[Need help?]
It's a simile.
Their mourning is compared with a wall being built. The wall is not tangible. It is not a real wall,
which is why the vine will not grow against it. The wall symbolizes protection and safety. Their
mourning will shut out the rest of the world.
They mourn in a protected environment where they are not confronted by people telling them
that they are overdoing the mourning process. They are able to work through their grief at their
own pace. They are allowed to grieve without interference from others who tell them to
compare the extent of their loss with that of others.
|
"They will not tell you your suffering is white.
They will not say it is just as well.
They will not compete for the ashes of infants."
- What does the poet mean when she says, "They will tell you that your suffering is
white"? (2)
[Need help?]
The black mothers will not distinguish between your suffering and theirs. To them, the death
of any child is significant, whether it is a white child or a black one. They will not use colour to
reduce the anguish felt with the death of a child.
The males, on the other hand, would be inclined to see the anguish as a racial thing. The poet
therefore appears to believe that they have less sensitivity than the women but are driven rather
by racial prejudice.
|
- Why would the males say, "It is just as well"? (2)
[Need help?]
Presumably the baby would have suffered complications had he survived. To say, "it is just
as well", is a way of trying to say that it is a good thing the child did not live. The poet,
however, says that even a child with birth deformities is welcomed and loved. The death of a
deformed child is mourned just as much as the death of a healthy baby.
|
- What does the poet mean when she says, "They will not compete for the ashes of
infants"? (4)
[Need help?]
"To compete" means you are trying to say that one thing is more important than the
other. The poet says that the black mothers would not say the death of their children is more
significant simply because they are black. Black mothers would understand the anguish felt
with the death of a child, regardless of the colour. They would not feel that they upstage the
white mother with the stillborn baby. This is not a competition in which one mother is the
"winner" because her child's death is more significant.
|
- What is the poet's underlying criticism of men? (4)
[Need help?]
These lines convey the poet's belief that mothers are united in their grief. It is men who give
the advice to her to place her child's death in the context of the suffering of the whole country.
It is men who tell her to consider the black mothers and that her suffering is nothing in
comparison with theirs. The poet believes that women would never have such an attitude.
Women empathise with each other, regardless of colour.
|
"Come with us to the place of mothers.
We will stroke your flat empty belly,
let you weep with us in the dark,
and arm you with one of our babies
to carry home on your back."
- What is the effect of the words "We will stroke your flat empty belly"? What attitude
do these words convey? (4)
[Need help?]
The words are soothing and provide solace. The poet enables the reader to imagine the
comfort of being stroked by someone who understands her pain. The tender attitude of the
mothers is depicted by this image. The understanding, sympathy and empathy of these mothers
towards her are conveyed.
|
- The word "arm" seems strange to use in these circumstances. Why has the poet
used this word? (4)
[Need help?]
"To arm" yourself means to carry a weapon to protect yourself. The baby is a
"weapon" in the sense that it will keep the rest of the world at bay. Having a baby will
replace the stillborn, so the rest of the world will then stop telling her to end her mourning. The
baby will be a form of protection so that she will not have to listen to the comments about the
insignificance of her own grief compared to that of others.
|
|
