Literary Devices In Poems: Sharing The Lift By Mongane Wally Serote
Poets, as any other authors, make use of literary techniques to capture readers in their work and the impact of these literary techniques has proven to be effective in enabling readers to grasp the poems. Literary devices in poems enable the poets to communicate themes and messages within a poem to an audience with a compelling and long-lasting impact. The poems which utilise these literary devices include, Sharing the Lift by Kavevangua Kahengua, For Don M - Banned and City Johannesburg, both written by Mongane Wally Serote. Literary devices in poetry improve the audience comprehension of the poems and their underlying messages a great deal by developing ideas within the poem, emphasizing the message and intriguing the reader.
Firstly, …show more content…
Narrative engages the reader with the use of descriptive language, causing the reader to be drawn in by the messages in the poems. Narrative combines the use of emotive language and a personal point of view to truly aid the reader to connect to the poem as he/she is able to easily visualize oneself in the poet’s position and immerse oneself in the text, as opposed to simply reading a list of facts which would carry no emotional weight and no significance to the reader. In City Johannesburg, Sharing the Lift and For Don M - Banned narrative is key in allowing the poets to express the extent to which ideas of racial supremacy have impacted black people’s lives. This impact is illustrated in For Don M - Banned and City Johannesburg, In For Don M - Banned the poet states “dark leaves don’t last, their brief lives dry out” verse 2 and in City Johannesburg the poet states “For my pass, my life,” verse 4. Both poems use descriptive metaphorical language to akin the black people’s lives to something as insignificant as a piece of paper or leaf, showing how lowly they were thought of during apartheid. The impact of the people is more subtle in Sharing the Lift, and an example of this is found in verse 4-5 “mine predominantly black // like those of a crow” this simile of a feature characteristically common to black people shows that the opinion of black people regarding themselves has been warped by the apartheid regime, so much so that they themselves regard the black race as
Firstly, …show more content…
Narrative engages the reader with the use of descriptive language, causing the reader to be drawn in by the messages in the poems. Narrative combines the use of emotive language and a personal point of view to truly aid the reader to connect to the poem as he/she is able to easily visualize oneself in the poet’s position and immerse oneself in the text, as opposed to simply reading a list of facts which would carry no emotional weight and no significance to the reader. In City Johannesburg, Sharing the Lift and For Don M - Banned narrative is key in allowing the poets to express the extent to which ideas of racial supremacy have impacted black people’s lives. This impact is illustrated in For Don M - Banned and City Johannesburg, In For Don M - Banned the poet states “dark leaves don’t last, their brief lives dry out” verse 2 and in City Johannesburg the poet states “For my pass, my life,” verse 4. Both poems use descriptive metaphorical language to akin the black people’s lives to something as insignificant as a piece of paper or leaf, showing how lowly they were thought of during apartheid. The impact of the people is more subtle in Sharing the Lift, and an example of this is found in verse 4-5 “mine predominantly black // like those of a crow” this simile of a feature characteristically common to black people shows that the opinion of black people regarding themselves has been warped by the apartheid regime, so much so that they themselves regard the black race as