Droogte in Namakwaland Thomas Deacon

Poem in context:
Namaqualand's name comes from the Namaqua or Namastam, who lived in this part of the
country. Many of today's Namaqualanders are descendants of the Namas. Namaqualand is
an area in the Northern Cape and lies between the Atlantic Ocean, North West, Bushmanland
and Namibia. The main town is Springbok and Namaqualand has about 70,000 inhabitants.
The Namaqualanders' pronunciation and idiomatic use of language is very characteristic and
because the area is sparsely populated and people depend on each other, there is little
difference in pronunciation.

Even though Namaqualand is semi-desert, it is extremely rich in plants. Parts of

Namaqualand have four times more plant species than any other desert area in North
America. Here is also the richest succulent variety in the world. There are numerous bulbous
plants and other plants with woolly, fatty, fine or hairy leaves that enable them to survive the
extreme conditions. The plants have incredibly beautiful names. In the fig family (succulent
plants with colorful flowers) you find sand lettuce, ostrich fig and pig's turner, and then there is
also sporrie, cent cans, peetsnut, tortoiseshell bush, thorn violet, mouse dog bush,
coggelmanderfoot, noerap and wolfhorn. In August and September Namaqualand is covered
with flowers. When the rainy season is over, the dry hot wind comes from the east and
scorches everything. The perennials then prepare for the long dry summer, and the annuals
survive in the form of germinative seeds. In Namaqualand you come into contact with who
you really are; you realise that you are actually nothing on the earthly timeline– nature is
bigger, tougher and older than you.

Analysis:

alleenplasing Poets use solitary placement when they want to emphasize

(solitary placement) something. They do this by leaving a word alone in a line of
verse while the other lines are long.
enjambement Where one line overflows to the next without a resting point at
(enjambment) the end of the line. If there is no punctuation, but one still has
a natural rest at the end of the line, it is not enjambment.
(continuation of a sentence)

inversie (omgekeerde This is when the poet changes the word order of a sentence
woorde) to, for example, to emphasize certain words for the sake of
(inversion) the rhyme or the rhythm in the poem.

metafoor A figure of speech that is used to make a comparison

(metaphor) between two things that aren’t alike but have something in
common. Example, your stone brown eyes.
sinestesie It is imagery where a poet stimulates the meaning of one
(synesthesia) sense to describe another sense, e.g. "see how your hand is
almost like whispers around her little finger. "A sound word
describes an action that the speaker sees.
vergelyking The poet forms a picture through the words. Words like
(comparison) “soos” or “net soos” is used.

progressie It indicates development and change. For example,

(progression) there may be development in the course of time or in the
course of events (chain of events).
vrye vers When a poem does not follow specific rules, such as a
(free verse) fixed rhyme pattern, line length or stanza structure, it is
called a free verse. Capital letters, punctuation and
normal sentence construction are not applied according
to fixed rules. Such a poem, however, needs other
binding elements, for example, the repetition of sounds,
words, images, thoughts or verses.
wending When the content of the poem suddenly changes and
(turn) takes a different direction. The conjunction “but” often
stands at the beginning of the turn.

Outline
Tema A broken heart. (puppy love)
(theme)
Stemming Sad, disillusioned
(appearance)
Bou Outer construction: A free verse with 3 stanzas.
(structure) Stanzas 1 and 2 are each three lines long and stanza 3
has five lines.

Inner construction: There is progression in terms of

time and development. Stanza 1: The speaker sees the
boy for the first time, Stanza 2: The speaker is now
completely inlove. Stanza 3: The speaker sees how he
takes another girl’s hand. The poet makes use of
inversion/ reverse word order to emphasize the verbs
and enjambment to unfold the different chapters in the
story. The last chapter begins with a twist.
Titel The title The title sums up the content in one word:
(Title) heartbreaking – hence a love disappointment.

Strofe 1 The word order of the first line was swapped to allow
(stanza 1) time in the favoring position place and thus emphasizes
the line: “just before first break”. This specifies the
speaker, the space and time. The speaker focuses on
the “jou” (“your”) outward appearance that fascinated
 her: she noticed his “fringe”. The description is visual so
that the reader can form a picture of what she saw:
“winter pale crest” and that he stood “at the back of the
line”.

The enjambment in the stanzas, the e-assonance and

repetition of the v/f sound in the line “winter pale crest”
binds the stanza.
Strofe 2 The inversion once again places emphasis on time and
(stanza 2) progression in the second phase of her short-lived love:
“against second pause”. There is also progression in
development of her feeling, because the “I
have…notice” (stanza 1) changes to “my heart
finally…get lost”. Now she not only sees, but also
experiences emotion. The reader concludes that she
probably dreamed like that for six periods of the day of
the guy
Strofe 3 The word "but" shows that there is a twist, a romantic story.
(stanza 3) There is progression in time again and her emotions. "Home
time" suggests that all her dreams are destroyed. The hard
and harsh rhyming words in lines 7 and 8 reflect her
emotions.
The s-alliteration in line 8 ends in the rhyming word and thus
places extra emphasis on the word. Enjambment and
rhyming words connect these two verses.

“toe”(line 9) takes the progression further. This time she feels

she moves as if she is outside her body and is pulled back to
reality from another perspective: the "you" is in love with
someone else. Also the way he treats her,
confirms her suspicion that he is a sensitive, tender person:
the comparison "like a whispering "- and it aggravates her fall
and her "heartbreak ". This last image
make use of synesthesia and enjambment.

Contextual questions (Translated)

1. What does the title of the poem mean?

2. The “I” is the speaker.

a. Explain who the speaker is in this poem.

b. Is the first-speaker the writer of the poem? Motivate.

3. Where does the poem take place? How do you know?

4. Explain what happens in every stanza?
5. There are two areas of progression in this poem. Name those two.

6. Say if the following statement is True or False and motivate.

The boy in the poem exchanged the speaker for someone else.

7. Why is the last three lines an example of synesthesia?

a. It is a metaphor and a comparison mixed.

b. It suggests to the reader what she thinks.
c. Stimulation of one sense to experience another.
d. Sensory perception that does not succeed

8. One of the following imagery is a similie. Which one is it?

a. “het ek jou wintervaal kuif gewaar”

b. “in jou klippiebruinoe verdwaal”
c. “my sonderasemstil geskok”
d. “jou hand soos n amperfluister”

9. Do you think the information is realistic? Say yes or no and motivate.

10. a. What do you think the speaker did, thereafter?

b. What would you have done?

11. Would you like to live in a dry, deserted land? Say yes or no and motivate.