Poetry Revision
Session 2: “Parade’s End” and “Our
Sharpeville”
SIMILES
What is a SIMILE?
A SIMILE is when one thing is compared to
another to describe it using ‘like’ or ‘as’.
EG: ‘He was as tall as a house’ or ‘she was like a
princess’
“Parade’s End” by Daljit Nagra
Read through the poem. What do you think are
the main themes or ideas explored in the poem?
Class
Race
Prejudice
Divisions
Judgements
Difference
Themes
Conflict
What kind of conflict is present in this poem?
What kinds of clashes and collisions are
occurring in this poem?
Voice
Who is the voice?
Find a quote to show how the voices feels about:
• The area the superstore is in:
‘my brother’s eyes scanned the men’ – scanning = suspicious
• The locals:
‘council mums’ – emphasising the fact they live in council
houses, concerned about class, condescending?
• Locking up the shop:
‘two metal bars’ – locking up carefully, cautious, happened
before
Imagery
How does the author use….
• Images of wealth vs images of poverty
‘champagne gold’ – success (gold colour of riches / royalty etc)
• The image of the meat counter
Image of plenty
• The images of the locks - protection
• The scene in the fourth verse: ‘graffiti’ and ‘high-rise flats’ –
not a good area(contrast with ‘cul-de-sac emphasised by
half-rhyme)
What imagery is present in the final stanza?
Golden leaves fall away to reveal bare trees – dead, winter,
negative
Language choice
Why has the author used these particular
words….
• ‘scanning’ – suspicious, looking for danger
• ‘Yorksha, mekkin claaaaims on aut theh’ –
accent / dialect
• ‘throbbing red’ • ‘pucker’
- Both of these are evocative of pain / skin etc
Rhyme and Rhythm
Is there any rhyme or rhythm used consistently
in the poem?
Form and Structure
• How many lines are in each stanza?
- There are seven lines in each stanza except the last one –
could represent disappointment, or the characters feeling
smaller by the end.
• How does the author use enjambement?
- The tone of the poem seems casual but hidden in the lines
without much emphasis are clues that hint at prejudice and
discrimination.
• Is there a structure to the poem? (stanza by stanza? How
does the poem begin and end?)
- The structure is almost circular as we start with colour and
end with colour – but the family have regressed to their
‘former’ colour. They have been prevented by moving on / up.
Practise Question!
Now, try PLANNING an answer to the following
question:
Examine how Daljit Nagra explores the themes of
cultural tensions and conflict in “Parade’s End”.
How does the author present what has happened?
How are divisions and tensions created and
described for the reader?
“Our Sharpeville” by Ingrid de Kok
• Ingrid de Kok grew up a white South African in the
mining town of Stilfontein near Johannesburg during
the time of Apartheid in South Africa
• Apartheid was a system of racial discrimination
where people of different skin colours had to live
apart, eat apart and weren’t allowed to spend time
together
• There were even Pass Laws introduced that meant
black people had to wear a pass at all times.
• In March 1930 in Sharpville, a mining town, there
was a peaceful protest against the Pass Laws.
• The police opened fire on the protest and over 180
were injured, and 60 people were killed.
Voice
• First person – personal
• Past tense – memory ‘I was playing hopscotch’
– childhood, simple, innocent
• Moves to shame and knowledge ‘come inside;
they do things to little girls’
• ‘our Sharpville’ – her experience as a white
South African whose family was distrustful of
black people.
• ‘I returned to the closed rooms, home’ – shut,
narrow existence and viewpoint
Stanza 1
• ‘building hot arteries’ – metaphor for building
tunnels / pipes in the mine. Important. Land
figured as a body. ‘hot’ – dangerous,
uncomfortable.
• ‘and it seemed like a great caravan’ – a caravan of
people travelling. Nomadic people (travellers) in
hot countries would travel in groups with tents
and carts – called caravans. Positive, interesting
image, like something from her ‘Sunday School
book’
Stanza 2
• ‘and it seemed like a great caravan’ – Simile: a
caravan of people travelling. Nomadic people
(travellers) in hot countries would travel in groups
with tents and carts – called caravans. Positive,
interesting image, like something from her
‘Sunday School book’
• ‘olive trees, a deep Jade pool’ – calming and
relaxing.
• ‘night falling, its silver stars just like the ones /
you got for remembering your Bible texts’ –
Simile: child’s association with the scene is
innocent
Stanza 3
• A short stanza – interruption from her
grandmother into her daydream.
• ‘her voice a stiff broom’ – metaphor, sweeping
out what she had been thinking about.
• ‘Come inside; they do things to little girls’ –
sexually threatening
Stanza 4
• ‘there was no jade pool. / Instead a pool of blood’ contrast
/ juxtaposition shocking and highlights violence and
childhood ignorance.
• ‘…and grew like a shadow as the day lengthened’ – grew
like darkness, negative, inevitable
• ‘the dead, buried in voices’ – metaphor, weren’t aware of
people dying because of the noise of what was going on
• ‘these were not heroes in my town / but maulers of
children’ – contrast highlighted by line break ad short lines
in the middle of the stanza
• ‘that might tempt us’ – evil, temptation, not to be trusted
(but interesting… questioning…)
• ‘across the wellswept streets’ – like her grandmother’s
voice, clean and tidy, nothing our of place and nothing
going wrong
Stanza 5
• ‘If I had turned I would have seen’ – hindsight, imagining
as an adult looking back
• ‘known there were eyes behind’ – people were watching
like she was, she didn’t need to feel ashamed
• ‘all I felt was shame, / at being a girl, at being found at the
gate’ – a kind of loss of innocence. Done something
wrong, linked to her gender
• ‘at having heard my grandmother lie / and at my fear her
lie might be true’ – realises her grandmother is lying –
knowledge – but also ashamed that she wonders if those
men are maulers of children – is she herself prejudiced?
• ‘walking backwards, called back / I returned to the closed
rooms, home’ – regression back to safety and ignorance,
not looking at the world.