THE LAND OF THE SUN

A contemptuous tone prevails almost throughout the entire poem, The Land of the Sun. Through a descriptive poem, the poet vents his indignation towards mother nature for her seemingly callous behaviour. The poem paints an appalling scene of a place profoundly affected by extreme drought. The poet heavily relies on imagery to create a lugubrious and somber atmosphere as death looms over every living creature.

Meaningful structural units in the form of parts have been employed. The poem is divided into three parts with the first part painting a gory picture of the effects of sweltering heat on humans, animals as well as plants. The second part captures the sorry sight at a school where teachers and pupils suffer the ramifications of drought and heat. Two characters, Molly and Suzie are juxtapositioned in the third part. Molly degenerates as a result of heat whereas Suzie seems to be unruffled by the excess heat because of her religious inclination.

Intense heat scotches the place as the sun casts its potent rays. Through zoomorphism and personification, the poet presents the sun as a terrifying monster with “razor-sharp” teeth while showing the baobabs as the victims of the ferocious monster. This description emphasises the destructive nature of the heat wave. The sun is portrayed as a cruel creature that can access the inside  part of a pregnant woman to “burn and blacken the sweating foetus”. The monster sun is void of compassion and mercy. This hyperbole underscores the intensity of the heat. The poet employs repetition on the word “hot” and the opening lines of the first stanza appear in other stanzas in the poem. This repetition creates the notion of a perpetual weather condition that lasts for a long time.

Baobabs are personified as they are given the ability to “sigh”, “sweat” and experience “aching susurrations” while the grass is now “bleached skeletons”. The the rocks “wish to dive beneath the soil” and the rivers are shown drying up “shyly” and “lying limply”. This portrays rivers as timid and weak creatures. The timidness and weakness of the rivers lie in the fact that they are drying up as the drought continues to fasten its vice grip. By making trees, rocks and rivers humans, the poet manages to appeal to the sympathy of the readers. The poet engages the readers emotionally by presenting the terrain as animate creatures with the ability to experience pain.

Drought threatens to annihilate all life. Snakes die in their desperate attempt “to swallow each other”. This bizarre scenario creates a lasting impression about the awful state caused by extreme weather condition.  The simile of “curling heated fingers” suggests the thinness of the snakes as a result of starvation. Their emaciated state is underscored by the metaphor of “biltong walls”. This indicates that the snakes are on the verge of dying out of famine and dehydration. When the poet says “there are no cattle”, he is being paradoxical because in the very next line he presents the same cattle as “thin rheumy contraptions of hide”, thus suggesting that the cattle are undernourished and wasted. Life is ebbing away from the dogs too. This is suggested by the visual appearance of stanza six of part one. One word lines on the words “dull”/”infirm” implies the fading away of life.

The poet alludes to the dire poverty that typify Makwati High school. Through the use of a simile, the  children’s shorts are compared to “rude, over ripe peaches”. This creates a disgusting visual image through which the poet registers his sympathy towards the poverty-stricken children of Makwati. The semantic field in stanza one of the second part signals want. The word “bare” suggests emptiness whereas “cacti” connotes a desert place since cacti normally grow in deserts. The school itself seems to be a warm and friendly place as indicted by the sign written in big letters bearing the positive message of warm reception. However, it is paradoxical that a place with such lofty claims is found wanting in terms of care and hospitality. The place is described as repulsive and scary as teachers are likened to “plasmolysed ostriches”. The word “weeping” implies sorrow and distress experienced by the Makwati community.

Drought and economic meltdown take their toll. Molly succumbs to both. Her physical deterioration is aptly captured by the word “melt”, suggesting that she is slowly wasting away. Dehydration has manifested itself on her so keenly resulting in her lips looking “like a peptic tomatoes”. This simile conjures up a frightening visual image of a person with a body blotted with painful ulcers. She can no longer maintain her standards of smartness as indicated by her permed hair which now looks like a “fibrous margarine”.Her wealth has “withered” due economic challenges that accompany the prevailing drought. She is contrasted with Suzie who is vivacious and bubbling with contentedness. The poet presents Suzie as a religious character. She finds spiritual succour in religion and as such, she is not perturbed by the prevailing weather atrocities. Her strategy involves devotion to God through “hymn-singing” and showing acts of love. The simile “like a showered shoot of lettuce” implies a vigorous and robust spiritual life. The poet maintains that humans have the ability to transcend beyond the harrowing circumstances and find inner peace amid “the burning world around” them.