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Epitaph - Analysis
Epitaph - Analysis
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Epitaph
by Dennis Scott
ANALYSIS
EPITAPH
TITLE
An Epitaph is a short text honouring a deceased person, strictly speaking that is inscribed on their tombstone or plaque
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AUTHOR INFO
Dennis Scott was born in Jamaica in 1939. He had a distinguished career as a poet, playwright, actor, dancer in the Jamaican National Dance Theatre, an editor of Caribbean Quarterly and teacher. His first collection, Uncle Time (1973) was one of the first to establish the absolutely serious use of nation language in lyric poetry. He died at the early age of fifty-one in 1991
EPITAPH
They hanged him on a clement morning, swung between the falling sunlight and the women's breathing like a black apostrophe to pain. All morning while the children hushed their hopscotch joy and the cane kept growing he hung there sweet and low. At least that's how they tell it. It was long ago and what can we recall of a dead slave or two except that when we punctuate our island tale they swing like sighs across the brutal sentences, and anger pauses till they pass away.
FORM
What structure does the poem take? Is it a sonnet or is it written in free verse? FREE VERSE
LITERAL MEANING
What is the poem about? A man was hanged in the morning and left there for women and children to see.
FIGURATIVE MEANING
What literary devices can you identify in the poem? Why does the author choose to use these?
THEMES
Bearing in mind that: The theme reveals the connection between the literary work (the world created by the author's imagination) and the outside world What main ideas (themes) can you identify in the poem? Can you give examples to justify your choice of theme?
THEMES
Injustice
INTERCONNECTIVITY
After having discovered the themes How do these relate to other poems you have already covered or are yet to cover? How does the content contrast with other poems?
INTERCONNECTIVITY