Every Stone That turns analysis: Thomas Sukutai Bvuma

Analysis of the poem Farewell (pgs15-16)

Farewell is basically an emotional poem in which the persona, a fighter in liberation struggle, bids goodbye to the gun or firearm or weapon he used throughout the war. The weapon had become a part of his life, like his lover or sweetheart. The poet employs similes, personification, metaphors, symbolism, historical allusion, apostrophe, Irony and war imagery to put across and reinforce his themes of war, gratitude and hope of the future

In the first stanza, the persona bids farewell to his gun which he calls his love because of his long association with it. He is very grateful to his gun for being faithful like a shadow. The simile ‘like a shadow’ reinforces the idea of loyalty, of never abandoning his partner. The gun stuck or clung to him even when there was gunfire or ambushes at night. The gun was always ready to serve any time of the day.

The second stanza addresses the gun. The stanza is in the form of an apostrophe. The stanza addresses the gun, a silent listener. The persona reminisces on some nights in Manica Province of Mozambique when they met “surprise eruptions of bushes deadly mixed grill of bullets and grenades’. The persona employs personification. It looks like the gun is a human being that is listening to the persona reminiscing about the war.

Stanza three continues the address. The persona recounts how he and the gun clutched and rolled, his fingers stroking and tagging the sensitive trigger that in response discharged lead (bulkets)back into the bushes. The persona sort of romanticizes the war. It appears like it was play time yet it was war, serious war.

Stanza 4 ,the persona remembers again ‘the naked nights’. The nights are again personified as if they are humans that can undress or put on clothes. The images of the nights and generous stars also bring out the setting and theatre of war-that it was fought sometimes at night. It also reveals the tough conditions experienced by the fighters. They slept out in the bush where the stars provided light. That is why the stars are described as generous. The Dream was the strong hope of gaining independence and freedom.During this tough time, the hope seemed to shatter or fall apart or disappear due to fatigue (tiredness) and loneliness. However, the persona received reassurance from his or her gun that comforted him with its wooden smoothness of the butt and the steel slenderness of its body. The stanza is a pictorial illustration of a gun. It shows the persona was fond of the gun and very proud to be associated with it.

Stanza 5 shows the pride the persona and the gun have after surviving every trickle of danger. Legends are heroes for achieving great feats, for example, fighting and surviving such a brutal war.

Stanza 6 the persona gives an emotional farewell again similar to the one in stanza 1.The persona feels the job has accomplished. Dawn invades the cave. Dawn is a symbol of new life, a new beginning. In a cave there is darkness but when dawn comes, a new life is expected. The stanza captures the happiness, euphoria and high expectations that fighters had at the attainment of independence in 1980. The dissipation of the persona’s dream is a sign of very high expectations within the fighters and the masses at the attainment of independence. The persona sometimes dreams bursts of the gun’s giggling which is its spurt of bullets or fire showing his attachment to the gun even after war.

The last stanza reaffirms the strong partnership between the persona and his gun as history making. It is a partnership that surpasses even the slash of a razor. It is cast in stone.