ENG2603 ASSIGNMENT

NAME: ANDILE
O1; UNIQUE NUMBER: NDANDA

769949
STUDENT NUMBER:64773663
ENG2603 769949 64773663

TABLE OF CONTENTS
THE NEW CENTURY OF SOUTH AFRICAN POETRY page 2

BIBLIOGRAPHY page 3

PLAGIARISM DECLARATION page 4

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THE NEW CENTURY OF SOUTH AFRICAN POETRY

“A Hen Crowed” by Mzi Mahola
I agree wholeheartedly with the comment that says the poet used metaphor and
euphemism effectively to expose immoral conduct. This essay will set forth the reasons
why I am taking that stance with sufficient evidence from the text.

Firstly, in the fourth stanza of the poem, the poet let us know that the father-in-law was
a widower for a period of eight months in the poem. He further points out, through the
lady in the poem, in the same stanza, that the widower’s son who is this lady’s husband
had been gone for a long period of time, possibly months. This tells us that in that
household, the only adults were the widower and his daughter-in-law. The only other
person mentioned is the child and from the words “Throwing the child onto her back” we
can deduce that the child was an infant.

Furthermore, judging from the fact that the lady relied on written communication to
speak to her husband, we can deduce that the setting of the poem must have been in
the period of sixties to the eighties where there were no cellphones. Also, from the fact
that she lived in a hut, we can deduce that they lived in a village. Being familiar with
these times myself, I can also see that they practiced the tradition where a young man
was given a wife by his parents from a respectable family and after marriage would
leave the wife with his parents and go to the big cities and to the mines to look for work
and send money home every payday to support the wife and parents. This being the
case, it is evident that this lady’s husband had left her for many months with his parents
and that she was lonely.

The euphemism that hides the harsh truth of immoral conduct begins with the words
“’Tata, I’m here for I’m scared…And I was alone.’” This communicated her loneliness to
her father-in-law who himself was lonely, having been a widower for eight months. Now,
in the village, a yard had multiple houses or huts. The son of the widower must have
built a hut for himself and his wife in the same yard as his parent’s hut or house. This is
where the daughter-in-law was staying. The poem says that both of them went back
home in the fourth stanza.

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The words “The man relighting his dead pipe” can be taken literally and figuratively.
Figuratively, they qualify as metaphoric language referring to the widower’s manhood or
sexual appetite. As a euphemism they refer to the sexual act and advances he made to
his daughter-in-law. To further prove that this is the case, after the howling of the dog,
the poet records that the widower was “Embarrassed and trouble…” He was feeling
ashamed of the immoral act he had performed to and with his daughter-in-law. The
shame is seen in the words “…spoke looking down, Avoiding her stare”.

The very next verse of the poem says “As if blaming the earth for his problems”
speaking about the death of his wife and the eight month period since her death. By
pointing out these things, the poet is letting us know that the eight lonely months and
lack of the companionship of a wife, had drove the widower to commit this immoral
conduct with his daughter-in-law.

It is evident then that there was an immoral conduct from the evidence of the text I
presented. The poet used metaphoric language and euphemism very effectively to
mask the harsh truth of immoral conduct to an extent that casual reader can miss it.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Dambe, D., Janari, M., Maithufi, D., Masemola, P., Murray, P., Musvoto, D., Raditlhalo,
P. and Vambe, P., 2013. COLONIAL AND POSTCOLONIAL AFRICAN LITERATURE
ENG2603. Pretoria: University of South Africa.

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DECLARATION REGARDING PLAGIARISM

NAME: ANDILE NDANDA

STUDENT NUMBER: 64773663

ASSIGNMENT TOPIC: ENG2603 The New Century of South African Poetry

ASSIGNMENT No. 01; UNIQUE ASSIGNMENT NO. 769949

I declare that this assignment is my own original work. Where secondary material has
been used (either from a printed source or from the Internet), this has been carefully
acknowledged and referenced in accordance with departmental requirements. I
understand what plagiarism is and am aware of the department’s policy in this regard. I
have not allowed anyone else to borrow or copy my work

Signature :

Date: August 16, 2020