Creative texts
ACTIVITY 7
Read the poem, A young man’s thoughts before June 16th, by Fhazel Johennesse before you answer the questions.
A young man’s thoughts before June 16th by Fhazel Johennesse
tomorrow i travel on a road that winds to the top of the hill i take with me only the sweet memories of my youth my heart aches for my mother
Glossary
aches – yearns/longs for belch – loud burping drenched – soaked/ thoroughly wet strummed – played casually and unskilfully on a guitar winds – twists and turns
for friday nights with friends around a table with the broad belch of beer i ask only for a sad song sung by a woman with downturned eyes and strummed by an old man with a broken brow
o sing my sad song sing for me for my sunset is drenched with red
Background Te historical background to the poem is 16 June 1976. On this day black high school students from Soweto were protesting against being taught in Afrikaans in their local schools. Te demonstration was secretly planned and was meant to be peaceful. On the morning of 16 June, thousands of youths gathered with the plan to march to Orlando Stadium to hold a rally to air their grievances. However, their intended route was blocked by riot police, and what had started as a peaceful march turned bloody as police used live ammunition on the protesters. Evidence shows that many protesters were shot in the back as they were running away.
Adapted from
http://www.studymode.com/essays/An-Analysis-Of-a-Young-Man-s-977409. html [Readers Digest Illustrated History of South Africa, (1988: 440) and Wikipedia (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soweto_uprising)]
1. Explain the title in your own words.
4. When will the young man’s journey start? 5. Why has he decided to embark on this journey? 6.
8. Te young man has one request. 8.1 What is it?
8.2 Why should the woman sing with ‘downturned eyes’?
9. Say whether the following line is an example of LITERAL or FIGURATIVE language. Give a reason for your answer. ‘and strummed by an old man with broken brow’
(2)
2. Who do you think the young man is? Give a reason for your answer. (3) 3. Te poem has a first person narrator (I, my). Explain why you think this technique is effective?
(2) (1) (2)
Is it going to be an easy or difficult journey? Quote one line to motivate your answer.
7. Briefly describe any two special memories he will take with him as he climbs the hill.
(3) (4) (1)
(2) (3)
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