1.

Goats and Monkeys

Epigraph : “... even now, an old black ram
Is tupping your white ewe.”

Analysis- These are the lines from Shakespeare’s play Othello which were uttered by
Iago the mastermind behind Othello’s doom.

Lines 1 – 8:
The owl's torches gutter. Chaos clouds the globe.
Shriek, augury! His earthen bulk
buries her bosom in its slow eclipse.
His smoky hand has charred
that marble throat. Bent to her lips,
he is Africa, a vast, sidling shadow
that halves your world with doubt.
'Put out the light', and God's light is put out .

Analysis- Owl is a symbol of night time and a bad omen. There is a loud voice heard that
indicates the act of murder has been committed. The earthen bulk is a reference to the heavy
body of the coloured brown Moor (Othello) who is descending over Desdemona’s fair body
like passing of Earth’s shadow over the glowing silvery moon during a lunar eclipse. The
smoky hands and the image of charring is a racist description of Othello due to his black skin
to draw a contrast to the marble i.e. white skin of Desdemona. He kills her by pretending to
kiss her when he actually strangles her. He is Africa is an another remark on Othello’s nativity
that just reduces his entire identity to being African and nothing more. Othello’s world is
halved with doubt that means he is not completely sure of Desdemona’s infedility.
Here “God’s light” means that the life given by the Creator is extinguished in this murder.
Lines 9-18:
That flame extinct, she contemplates her dream
of him as huge as night, as bodiless,
as starred with medals, like the moon
a fable of blind stone.
Dazzled by that bull's bulk agaisnt the sun
of Cyprus, couldn't she have known
like Pasiphae, poor girl, she'd breed horned monsters?
That like Euyridice, her flesh a flare
travelling the hellish labyrinth of his mind
his soul would swallow hers?
 Analysis- At the time of her murder, Desdemona in her sleep is dreaming of her
husband and lover, Othello, coming to her. Starred with medals tell you about the various
achievements of Othello as a military man. Their love was blind (literally because they
ignored their racial difference) and metaphorically as their true love was so blind that they
couldn’t see Iago’s manipulative plot. Desdemona’s fate is similar to that of Pasiphae,
daughter of Helios by Perse who became the wife of Minos, King of Crete. She was
passionately attracted to a splendid bull gifted to her by the god Poseidon for sacrificial
purposes. Strangely enough, she gave birth to a monster (Minotaur) after having sexual
relations with the bull. The bull image is again a reference to the animal stereotypes
associated to the blacks. Then the poem refers to Eurydice, wife of the legendary Greek poet
and musician Orpheus, son of the King of Thrace, who was bitten by a shake; she died and
was taken to Underworld. The mention of Pasiphae and Eurydice comes as a warning for they
too have been punished. Eurydice’s fair skin was also like a light, but she was swallowed by
the Underworld. Pasiphae was punished for her sexual desires and became the mother of a
monster, Minotaur. “The labyrinth of his mind” also refers to Othello’s mind and his doubts
and suspicion of infidelity.

Lines 19-31
Her white flesh rhymes with night. She climbs, secure.
Virgin and ape, maid and malevolent Moor,
their immortal coupling still halves our world.
He is your sacrificial beat, bellowing, goaded,
a black bull snarled in ribbons of blood.
And yet, whatever fury girded
on the saffron-sunset turban, moon-shaped sword
was not his racial, panther-black revenge
pulsing her chamber with its raw musk, its sweat
but horror of the moon's change,
of the corruption of an absolute,
like a white fruit
pulped ripe by fondling but doubly sweet.

a) Analysis: The starting lines again draw a contrast between darkness and light and refer
to the act of their consummation. Desdemona is described as a virgin maid while Othello is
again associated to an animal i.e. an ape and bull. “A black bull snarled in ribbons of blood”
indicate the misplaced handkerchief by Iago to sow the seeds of suspicion in Othello’s mind
that ultimately leads to her death (blood). Also, discrimination between the black and white
being a manmade law, Othello must be made the “sacrificial beast”. This image is enhanced
by the Spanish spectacle of bullfighting where the animal is provoked, tortured, and then
killed to the delighted roars of the crowd. This bloodthirsty sport is used to show that the
downfall of a black man is a legitimate act.

The poet here attributes Othello with a “saffron-sunset turban” that bears his fury and tells
that it was not a racial cause that made him seek revenge. Saffron turban testify Othello’s
otherness because it is typical of African men to wear them. The panther imagery is the
animal association to Othello as well as the hunt like action that Othello did to kill
Desdemona. It is also suggestive of the fact that Othello might have killed her due to
inferiority complex. The corruption indicates that Desdemona’s pure, white body got tainted
with Othello’s touch. The last line gives you a fruit imagery that has sexual connotations. The
ripening of a fruit is suggestive of a woman’s sexuality and the doubly sweet indicate that
Desdemona might have an extra marital affair.

Lines 32-39:
And so he barbarously arraigns the moon
for all she has beheld since time began
for his own night-long lechery, ambition,
while barren innocence whimpers for pardon.
And it is still the moon, she silvers love,
limns lechery and stares at our disgrace.
Only annihilation can resolve
the pure corruption in her dreaming face.

Analysis: After murdering her, Othello barbarously accused Desdemona(moon) for all she
had done since time started but it was his own night long lechery(sexual prowess) –
wickedness driven by ambition and lust, which was to be blamed. Innocent and poor
Desdemona could only cry for forgiveness. And it is still her silvery love (pure and
enlightened love) that questions over disgrace. Only total destruction(death) can resolve the
corruption in Desdemona’s face which is stained like the moon. It is to be noted here
 that oxymoron in the “pure corruption” is upon Desdemona’\s dreaming face – Desdemona
can be paralleled to many pure and innocent girls who were tricked and then looted of their
innocence by people like Othello)

Lines 40-49:
A bestial, comic agony. We harden
with mockery at this blackamoor
who turns his back on her, who kills
what, like the clear moon, cannot abhor
her element, night; his grief
farcially knotted in a handkerchief
a sibyl's
prophetically stitched rememberancer
webbed and embroidered with the zodiac,
this mythical, horned beast who's no more
monstrous for being black.

Analysis : In the later or so to say the last stanza, Othello is savage in his approach and we get
to harden our hearts with ridicule at this black man. He turns his back on her after having
murdered her. Desdemona is like a clear moon that can never hate her night (love). Othello’s
grief was caused by the handkerchief (here a false evidence by Iago to prove Desdemona’s
disloyalty). A sibyl is a wicked woman who were capable of making prophecies in the ancient
Greece. The poet suggests that Desdemona’s handkerchief played the role of a
rememberancer( reminds Othello of her infedility) which led to the act of murder as if it was
some pending task to be necessarily completed. The last two lines again bring the animal
imagery back to its play to point towards Othello’s African ancestry.

The title of the poem is not very clear in its context but for simple understanding it can be
assumed that Lecherous men are sometimes called goats, and when made to act like fools they
are dubbed monkeys.
Walcott’s poem urges its readers not to locate Othello’s impulsive, uncontrollable rage in his
‘black’ identity but rather see it as the foolish, jealous behavior of an insecure husband. While
Iago uses a lot of racist stereotypes to incite Othello’s insecurities as a black, older husband, the
poem urges us not to fall prey to such stereotyping of black characters like Othello. Once we see
his murderous rage not through the prism of racial identity but through his identity as an anxious,
jealous husband being manipulated by an arch-manipulator like Iago, we can see him without
feeling any racist contempt for him/his actions. Clearly the poem is asking us not to allow racist
stereotypes to colour our attitudes and responses to the behavior and actions of so-called blacks.

2. Names : Published in 1976 as a part of the anthology Sea Grapes

This poem is dedicated to Edward Braithwaite

I
My race began as the sea began,
with no nouns, and with no horizon,
with pebbles under my tongue,
with a different fix on the stars.

Analysis: The speaker refers to the history of his nativity as the history of the sea( no one
knows its origin). Since men were brought to the Caribbean Islands on the pretext of
slavery, they had to leave their homes and culture. The children of such slaves therefore
have no connection to their past. He negates the fact that identity can be named, for he has
“no nouns” with which to introduce himself. The pebbles under my tongue tells about the
language difficulty the speaker had to face because English was not his native language.
There is a pun on the word race which refers to his racial identity as well as his own life as
if it was in some race against the time. The sea also symbolises the medium through which
colonisers could reach Africa in the first place. The stars used to tell the directions to
navigate to early sailors.

But now my race is here,

in the sad oil of Levantine eyes,
in the flags of Indian fields.

Analysis: Here refers to the Caribbean Islands and Levantine refers to the Europe. So he
is saying that people have been brought to these islands which is under the rule of the
colonisers. The sad soil gives a picture of not so happy environment there and also the fact
that even the colonisers have left their homelans so it must be saddening for them too to
live in a different land. The flags refer to the labour brought from India.

I began with no memory,

I began with no future,
but I looked for that moment
when the mind was halved by a horizon.

Analysis: Since the children of such labours have no connection to their homeland, they
do not have any history or memories. Slaves were never guaranteed a good future (had to
labour all day with cruel treatments). When he repeats that “the mind was halved by
horizon”, he, as an intellectual, perceives that his world has indeed been divided into white
and black by colonial history, language, education, and racial prejudice.
The mind was halved in the sense of the earlier identity that they lost touch with and the
new identity that were adopting.

I have never found that moment

when the mind was halved by a horizon--
for the goldsmith from Benares,
the stone-cutter from Canton,
as a fishline sinks, the horizon
sinks in the memory.

Analysis: The first line refers to the struggle and inability to locate the beginnings of the
postcolinial identity. Benares, Canton and Benin respectively refer to Indian, Chinese and
Arabic immigrants. All of them have come under the singular category of dislocated
people away from their culture with no claim for the history.

Have we melted into a mirror,

leaving our souls behind?
The goldsmith from Benares,
the stone-cutter from Canton,
the bronzesmith from Benin.

Analysis: Melted into a mirror is again the establishing of the fact that the poet is facing
an identity crisis.

A sea-eagle screams from the rock,

and my race began like the osprey
with that cry,
that terrible vowel,
that I!

Analysis: An imagery through the sea eagle is drawn to imagine the source of the
beginning. An immigrant’s identity crisis is painful (cry) and the ‘I’ leads to asserting his
subjectivity. He is longing to claim that subjective identity.
“I’ stands for one – and all can activate it. This “I” is literally the sound of a scream, “aaa
iii eee!” It is an agonized voice raised in a shrill and assertive cry, trying to drown out
those who may deny existence.

Behind us all the sky folded

as history folds over a fishline,
and the foam foreclosed
with nothing in our hands

Analysis: For the poet, history seems nothing because it only causes you burden. A
colonised man can be free only if he starts believing that there is no history.

but this stick

to trace our names on the sand
which the sea erased again, to our indifference.
Analysis: But somehow these men are longing to establish their lost identity. Naming
something or someone gives you an agency and power. However, their wishes are not
practical. They can only hope. This section of the poem ends in childish play. Just as
children write their names in the sands of the seashore, so too Walcott and his people try:
“to trace our names on the sand/which the sea erased again to our indifference.”

II

And when they named these bays

bays,
was it nostalgia or irony?

Analysis: Its a question raised by the speaker that why did the European colonisers
named the foreign conquered islands? Were they experiencing nostalgia for the great
European past or to clearly establish the contrast between Europe and the now found New
World?

In the uncombed forest,

in uncultivated grass
where was there elegance
except in their mockery?
Where were the courts of Castille?
Versailles' colonnades
supplanted by cabbage palms
with Corinthian crests,
belittling diminutives,
then, little Versailles
meant plans for a pigsty,
names for the sour apples
and green grapes
of their exile.

Analysis: In this section of the poem, Walcott shifts from his own confused state of mind
to the condition of the colonizers who, too, are dislocated and displaced just as his
ancestors have been. They, too, have left behind their own histories and glories of Castille,
Versailles, and Valencia, and are trying hard to recreate their homelands on these distant

shores.
The speaker asserts that the naming was done because the colonisers wanted to tell the
immigrants that Europe was far better than their new world. The untamed terrain of the
new world has no resemblance to the sophisticated elegance of Europe. Castille,
Versailles are all representative of the grand past of the coloniser. So the speaker lays
down the fact that the grandeur of the Old World cannot be reinvented in the new.

Their memory turned acid

but the names held;
Valencia glows
with the lanterns of oranges,
Mayaro's
charred candelabra of coca.
Being men, they could not live
except they first presumed
the right of every thing to be a noun.
The African acquiesced,
repeated, and changed them.

Analysis: The poet refers to the Eurocentric need for order, structure and classification.
The Africans received the foreign language and names and while speaking them with their
native tongue, they altered and appropriated that very language as their own.
Listen, my children say:
moubain: the hogplum,
cerise: the wild cherry,
baie-la: the bay,
with the fresh green voices
they were once themselves
in the way the wind bends
our natural inflections.

Analysis: The poet seems to indicate the derogatory and patronising way in which the
coloniser would speak to the African natives presuming that the natives were without
intelligence. It could also allude to a classroom scene. French and English both were
taught. The fresh green voice refers to the untutored speech of the native trying to learn a
foreign language.

These palms are greater than Versailles,

for no man made them,
their fallen columns greater than Castille,
no man unmade them
except the worm, who has no helmet,
but was always the emperor,

and children, look at these stars

over Valencia's forest!

Analysis: Rather than comparing architectural marvels of Europe with those of the
Caribbean, the poet draws attention to the natural beauty and vegetation of the islands
which have no replica in Europe. Many kings come and go that result in the destruction of
the architecture like the vegetation which can be spoiled by worms. Worms are part of
nature but emperor rule is man-made and conscious.
 Not Orion,
not Betelgeuse,
tell me, what do they look like?
Answer, you damned little Arabs!
Sir, fireflies caught in molasses.

Analysis: Refering to the constellation that appears like a hunter with a sword and belt
and the Arabs here reflect the racial slurs that the colonisers used for the colonised.
Fireflies caught in molasses is same as the natives trapped in appeal of the coloniser’s
language, history and culture.

3. The Voice of the Mountain

a) ‘The Voice of the Mountain’ is nothing but the macrocosmic representation of nature’s

egalitarianism.

b) The anxiety of her people and the uncertainty of their future is highlighted through her
reference to the “cloud”
c) The consciousness of being drawn into a homogeneous national identity perhaps
underlies the poet’s urgency to highlight the cultural identity of her ethnic group.
Importance of memory in the face of the rapid changes in history

Lines 1-3: The Voice of the Mountain’ by Mamang Dai talks about the mountain in the
first stanza. The mountain being at a higher platform visualizes everything like God. The
mountain says that he can see the ferry lights that cross the big river below. As it is at a
distance, the movement of the ferry appears as the “criss-crossing” light works on the
river.
Lines 4-7 : the mountain says he knows about the towns and estuary of the rivers. His
omniscient view of the landscape makes him appear like the almighty. Moreover, the
mountain point at the sea and says he can see the colors of the sky getting reflected on the
seawater. Here, he metaphorically outlines the chapters of the world. It might be a
 reference to the rivers. The metaphor can also refer to the past episodes that the sea
observed as it is also ancient like the mountain. Collectively, they have watched many
things that happened in the past.
Lines 8-3: Mamang Dai talks about a young man. He brought a fish as an offering to the
spirit of the mountain as he couldn’t speak. The person thought if the mountain took pity
on him, he would grant his voice back. According to the mountain, such acts of pleasing
him are repeated. Moreover, he says as the territories are forever ancient as well as new,
there is always a shift. However, the essence remains the same at the end.

Lines 14-15: the second speaker remarks, like the person who believed in the god-like qualities
of the mountain, the speaker also makes a sign of reverence when the mountain comes in the
sight. It seems that the second speaker is the poet herself. Through this section, she participates
in the dramatic monologue of the mountain.

Lines 16-22: the poet again comes to the soliloquy of the mountain. The mountain says he is like
an old man who is sipping the forever young breeze to keep his soul fresh. In this section, the
poet uses the breeze as a symbol of youthfulness and vigor. Moreover, the mountain says it is the
macrocosm of the universe. Within his voice, one can hear the sea waves, and the wind circling
the mountain peak. Whereas the language of humans changes gradually, the voice of the
mountain doesn’t change. It’s eternal. According to the poet, it is like the “chance syllable” that
orders the world. It is the voice of the creator. In the mountain’s ancient language one can find
the history and miracles of mankind.

Lines 23-33: Thereafter, in the sixth stanza of ‘The Voice of the Mountain’ by Mamang Dai, the
mountain asserts his universality. He says he has the aridity of the desert and the moisture of the
monsoon. The mountain even finds its manifestation in a bird that lives in the west. Several
episodes of the past reiterate their importance through the voice of the mountain. Each particle of
life that clutch and cling for thousands of years, was nothing but the echo of the mountainous
spirit. Thereafter, the mountain, like an old man who recollects his thoughts while speaking, says
“I know” twice to emphasize his wisdom and experience. There is a gift from Mamang Dai to the
readers in this simile, “as rocks know, burning in the sun’s embrace,/ about clouds, and sudden
rain”. As for the rocks, the mountain knows about every little thing that occurs in the world. In
the last two lines of this stanza, the mountain refers to the clouds that embrace its heart. Here, the
“clouds” symbolize grievous thoughts.

Line 34-37: refers to the hopelessness at the end of the universe. What remains, is a dream of
permanence. This dream is what keeps every living embodiments moving with the spirit of the
world. Thereafter, the poet uses a paradoxical affirmation that “Peace is falsity” or daydream.
Only “a moment of rest” comes after long combat. Whereas, the war of life continues. There are
only pauses in the sentence of the universe. To live in peace is to live in an illusion.

Lines 38-45: The first two lines are connected using enjambment with the idea of the last stanza.
Here, the poet refers to the warrior who returns with the “blood of peonies”. Such a contrasting
image refers to the coexistence of struggle and beauty. Thereafter, the mountain says that his
child-like spirit died at that edge of the world where he stands firmly. Moreover, the poet creates
another contrast in the following lines. Here, she refers to the starlit sky and the scorching
summer. However, he still survives in eternal happiness.

Lines 46-50: The mountain refers to its magnanimity. He creates a passage for the canyon to
breathe. Moreover, he is like the sunlight on the tip of trees. Thereafter, he refers to the narrow
gorge where the wind is always in haste. He is also there. Apart from that, the mountain is a
place where memory escapes from one’s mind. Here, the “myth of time” doesn’t work. One loses
the track of time as if it halts near the mountain in awe. At last, the poetic persona says she is the
sleep that exists in the mind of the mountain. In this way, the poet presents her similarity with the
spirit of the mountain.

4. Small Towns and River : belongs to the poetry collection “River Poems” (2004).

a) Small Towns and The River’ by Mamang Dai is a poem about life and mortality. The
town symbolizing death presents a weeping picture of those who have lost their dear ones. In

this poem, not only the poet grieves but the town also mourns the loss .
b) Moreover, the poet presents a contrast in the image of the river that lives eternally.
Whereas, humans are prone to death and decay.

Lines 1-6: introduce the first paradox of the poem. The poet says the “small towns”
remind her of nothing other than death. She lives in a town amidst the trees but the life
there is the same. According to the poet, living in the town is a monotonous journey that
ends at the hands of death. Here, the dust is a synecdoche( when a part of something is
used to represent the whole) that presents another symbol of death in this section.
Moreover, the howling of the wind creates a gloomy mood. Here, the use of howling is
an onomatopoeia (a word that imitates the natural sound of a thing) resonates with a
pessimistic note.

Lines 7-11: present the theme of death in the second stanza. Just the other day someone
dies in small towns. The news makes the poet sad and she mourns the loss. After seeing
the sad wreath lying on a dead person’s bosom somehow reminds the poet of her
mortality. Here, the poet presents the tuberose as a messenger of death. Moreover, there is
a repetition of “Life and death” in this stanza. It refers to a continuous cycle of life and
death. These two things are temporary. According to the poet, “only the rituals are
permanent”. Here, the poet turns the maxim, “Nothing is permanent except birth and
death”, upside down. The last two lines reflect the poet’s disillusionment about life after
seeing many deaths.

Lines 12-16: the poet presents a contrast. Whereas in the previous section she discussed
mortality, in this section, she highlights the permanence of the river. She says the river has
a soul. In summer it flows across lands. Here, she uses the metaphor of “torrent of grief”
to portray the river’s course in the dry season. Moreover, the poet personifies the river to
invest it with the ideas of holding the breath and seeking something. She thinks as if the
river is an explorer who seeks the land of fish and stars. This imagery reflects the course
of the river water and its flow. There is an another significance of the word river: water is
considered as a provider if life on one hand but also a destroyer too through floods.
Lines 17-22: The river knows about the towns where death lays her icy hands. Her
knowledge isn’t limited to towns only. She knows the first drop of rain that rejuvenates
the dry earth and the mist on the mountaintops that circles the mountain like a scarf. Last
but not least, she is aware of the immortality of water. In this way, the poet also
immortalizes the river.

Lines 23-30: These lines present another contrast. Firstly, Mamang Dai refers to the
“shrine of happy pictures” of childhood. Childhood is the beginning stage of life. The
happy pictures of one’s childhood remind her of the purity of the soul at its dawn. That’s
why she compares the childhood days to a shrine. In contrast, small towns grow anxious
about the future. It’s the poet’s anxiety about death that eagerly awaits in the future. In the
following lines, the poet refers to the eternity of the soul. The hope of shedding off the
mortal burden and ascending to the “house of the sun” in the “golden east” revives the
poet with new energy.

Lines 31-35: the meaning of life and its importance is reflected in this short stanza.
According to the poet, life is like the sunlight that warms the cool bamboo. It’s temporary
and still beautiful. Moreover, the “cool bamboo” is a reference to the body and the
sunlight is a symbol of the soul. Apart from that, the poet says sunlight is important to any
living plants. Likewise, life is also important for keeping the spirit of the universe alive.
Mamang Dai transplants her dead thoughts from her mind. She says living in small towns
has made the poet strong. Now, the thoughts of spirituality and eternity are in her mind.
Like the poet, others of the “small towns” only wish to “walk with the gods” after their
death. This section highlights the poet’s belief in the afterlife and eternal bliss. Apart from
that, there is a repetition of the “w” sound in the last line (alliteration). Such a harmonious
rhythm reflects the poet’s peaceful state of mind.

Thematically this poem talks about the regional isolation of the north-east India. The
people from these areas have faced internal colonization through the conflicts between the
central and the state government and also war like situations due to illegal migrants. The
natives of these areas face anxiety and their idea of home is turning complex because
foreign forces like the migrants are coming and occupying their lands.
North-east is known for its landscape and calmness and the poet is remembering the same
to present a stark contrast with the present scenario.