A Strange Wind Poem Analysis
A Strange Wind – Timothy Wangusa
A strange wind is blowing, dust fills our eyes.1
We turn and walk the unintended way.2
We press our eyes and reopen them,3 to expanded horizons, to a new day.4
The narrow circle of our cherished experience breaks.5
Our trusted gods dissolve and ghosts vanish,6 these embodied voices announce the world news.7
We see the hidden side of the moon;8
The dead man’s eye transfers to the living.9
The atom splits and the nightingale croaks;10
Economics opposes charity,11
Law protects wizards, forbids justice.12
The small nation shouts, and the big one brags;13
Futile raids cease and global wars commence.14
And the rude son strikes the father – a sword!15
Commentary:
Timothy Wangusa, a Ugandan professor, has written a fifteen line poem – ‘A Strange Wind’. In this poem, he addresses the growing rivalry between the developing and developed nations in the world and portrays the differences between the two. Professor Wangusa is looking at the world after the process of globalization from a developing country’s point of view. This makes sense as Professor Timothy Wangusa is a citizen of a developing country – Uganda.
Professor Wangusa is clearly comparing the developing and developed nations from the developing nation’s point of view. This can be seen in his first line:
‘A strange wind is blowing, dust fills our eyes’
The strange wind that is being talked about is the turmoil that is being caused due to the inequality of power between the developed and developing countries. The dust symbolizes the lag in national development. We usually expect the developed countries to have tarmac roads that are clean all the time. The fact that there is dust, shows that the place the persona is in is under-developed.
Further proof of the persona being in a developing country can be obtained from line four of the poem:
‘…to expanded horizons, to a new day…’
This shows that the people of the nation that the persona is in are still expecting
A strange wind is blowing, dust fills our eyes.1
We turn and walk the unintended way.2
We press our eyes and reopen them,3 to expanded horizons, to a new day.4
The narrow circle of our cherished experience breaks.5
Our trusted gods dissolve and ghosts vanish,6 these embodied voices announce the world news.7
We see the hidden side of the moon;8
The dead man’s eye transfers to the living.9
The atom splits and the nightingale croaks;10
Economics opposes charity,11
Law protects wizards, forbids justice.12
The small nation shouts, and the big one brags;13
Futile raids cease and global wars commence.14
And the rude son strikes the father – a sword!15
Commentary:
Timothy Wangusa, a Ugandan professor, has written a fifteen line poem – ‘A Strange Wind’. In this poem, he addresses the growing rivalry between the developing and developed nations in the world and portrays the differences between the two. Professor Wangusa is looking at the world after the process of globalization from a developing country’s point of view. This makes sense as Professor Timothy Wangusa is a citizen of a developing country – Uganda.
Professor Wangusa is clearly comparing the developing and developed nations from the developing nation’s point of view. This can be seen in his first line:
‘A strange wind is blowing, dust fills our eyes’
The strange wind that is being talked about is the turmoil that is being caused due to the inequality of power between the developed and developing countries. The dust symbolizes the lag in national development. We usually expect the developed countries to have tarmac roads that are clean all the time. The fact that there is dust, shows that the place the persona is in is under-developed.
Further proof of the persona being in a developing country can be obtained from line four of the poem:
‘…to expanded horizons, to a new day…’
This shows that the people of the nation that the persona is in are still expecting