JUDAS

JUDAS

              This poem was written by Mervyn Eustes Morris a Jamaican poet. Morris usually stresses upon the importance of nation and its language through his verse. He wants to redefine the aspect of Jamaican culture and their Creole language. In the first stanza it had told that the master gave Judas a mocking smile. But actually Christ simply smiled at Judas , but in these lines Morris has exaggerated the smile into a mocking smile. The word 'mocking' seemed to be the striking word and therefore poet wanted to highlight the 'mocking glance' of the master.

            The poet explains the Judas feeling of being partial by his master who had given the priority for John to sit in his right. This was again the poets’ partial feeling even in his own homeland by the colonizers. He has said that the truth which is in the side of colonized is always complicated in the foreign eyes. also the colonizer is the ''knowing judge of man''  in the sense whatever they say is believed by the world.

           On the whole the poem 'Judas' by Mervyn Morris is nothing but a representation of history by the point of view of the victim. He had deconstructed the real and the past i.e. deconstructing the already existing ideas. Also he wanted to say that the colonized people's ideas and life thoughts are not accepted whereas the colonizers ideology, life and thoughts were accepted. The poet uses the word 'master' and 'lord' for Christ in order to avoid the religious conflict. Though he describes the pathetic condition if 'colonized' people in the poem the comparison used in this poem is quite controversial however the poet tried to escape of controversies through his careful selection of words and diction.

I Have a Dream essay

I Have a Dream  
The speech took place at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington,D.C. and was given by Martin Luther King Jr.In his speech he used metaphors,similes,a little personification, and allusions to describe the treatment of colored people by whites and the actions that colored people had to take to right the wrong.He mentioned four documents,one being a song:The Declaration of Independence,the Emancipation Proclamation,the Bible, and the song America:My Country 'Tis of Thee.His unspoken message in mentioning and quoting from the documents is quite clear:It wasn't equal in America as three out of the four documents claimed.The themes of the speech are equality,the four documents;their message,his dream,freedom and segregation.

     King used repetition when mentioning specific states in the South:Georgia,Mississippi,Alabama,and South Carolina.Those were some of the most racist states back then.He also mentioned California,New York and New Hampshire to convey that his dream included all states,from the Pacific coast to the Atlantic coast.King's uses the Declaration and Proclamation because they are both documents promising freedom,justice and equal rights to all people--white or otherwise.He describes slavery and people being in mental chains and implies that the documents weren't being taken into effect.

     The purpose of this speech was:to inform people that living together peacefully as friends and family was possible;To expose the cruelties against colored people and people of different religions;To put the idea of freedom,equality and a future with no segregation in peoples' head.

Summary:-

On August 28, 1963, King gives his speech for freedom. He begins his speech with the emancipation of the slaves, issued by Abraham Lincoln, and later mentions that after being freed from slavery, blacks are still not free. King claims all men were issued a check and a promise of freedom, yet for black men and women that check has come back with “insufficient funds.” The members of the civil rights union issue a check to America, they return America’s unkept promise with one they are sure to keep: the continued pursuit of justice. King, along with his many supporters, demand their freedom now, they demand things to change with a sense of urgency and without procrastination from the oppressor. They do not want to see slow change over time; they would rather see significant change immediately. King roars, “now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.” However, King hopes to obtain equality through non-violent movement. He tells fellow black people to not have hatred or bitterness in their heart or turn to guns and fists. He knows that violence to obtain peace only leads to an endless cycle of fighting, unnecessary death, and cruelty. Also King believes blacks must not let this one incident lead them to hate all people of different races and nationalities. He knows that only leads to the same kind of discrimination he is fighting against with his “I have a dream” speech. Black people are not fighting for their own satisfactions, to fight until they feel content with what they have accomplished. Black people are fighting for continuous freedom and equality, not just to be stopped with King’s 1963 speech

A Far Cry from Africa Essay

 "A Far Cry from Africa"
 "A Far Cry from Africa" is poet Derek Walcott's cry of pain over the situation in Kenya in the 1950s. At that time, Kenya was still a British colony, and local Kenyans chafed under the long term injustices of British rule. A nationalist uprising of Kenyan nationalists called Mau Mau led to the death of about 13,000 people, most of them Kenyan, along with a huge number of animals.
In the poem, Walcott decries man's inhumanity toward man in trying to enact justice through slaughter, and compares it unfavorably to nature and the animal kingdom. He also expresses anger at the way the deaths are reduced to statistics or abstractions. This obscures the reality of the dead and their suffering, whether they are white or so-called "savages."
Walcott, in his second stanza, then expresses how torn he feels in his loyalties. He is from a British Caribbean colony, so he understands the plight of a colonial, but he also perceives himself as British. He is frustrated with both sides over the violence.
Because he is writing this in the Caribbean, his title is a pun. He is physically "a far cry" from Africa, but he is also hearing a cry of pain that has reverberated far and wide across the earth.
It is the heartfelt emotional intensity of the poet's voice, as well as the vivid natural imagery, that gives this poem its power.