CSEC ENGLISH
Hello there! You probably know that the Caribbean Exams Council has postponed this year’s exams, so we are wishing our 2022 candidates good success, and are turning our attention now to those of you writing the exams in 2023 and beyond. We are working on the new poems on the English B syllabus, and offering you various exercises to help brush up your English A skills too. Read on now, and enjoy your CSEC English page.
A Lesson for This Sunday
The growing idleness of summer grass
With its frail kites of furious butterflies Requests the lemonade of simple praise In scansion gentler than my hammock swings And rituals no more upsetting than a
Black maid shaking linen as she sings
The plain notes of some Protestant hosanna— Since I lie idling from the thought in things—
Or so they should, until I hear the cries
Of two small children hunting yellow wings,
Who break my Sabbath with the thought of sin. Brother and sister, with a common pin,
Frowning like serious lepidopterists.
The little surgeon pierces the thin eyes.
Crouched on plump haunches, as a mantis prays She shrieks to eviscerate its abdomen.
The lesson is the same. The maid removes
Both prodigies from their interest in science.
The girl, in lemon frock, begins to scream
As the maimed, teetering thing attempts its flight. She is herself a thing of summery light,
Frail as a flower in this blue August air,
Not marked for some late grief that cannot speak.
The mind swings inward on itself in fear Swayed towards nausea from each normal sign. Heredity of cruelty everywhere,
And everywhere the frocks of summer torn,
The long look back to see where choice is born, As summer grass sways to the scythe’s design.
SOLVING THE PUZZLE
This is not an easy poem, so you will need to take your time if you want to understand it and appreciate how skilfully it has been written.
Often the DICTION in a poem helps us to understand the message. As you read, then, check all the diction usually associated with church: praise, rituals, Protestant hosannah, Sabbath, sin, prays.
We can assume, then, that the message will be related to religion and spiritual things.
Now check for the diction usually associated with the beauty of Nature and the loveliness of life: lemonade, summer grass, butterflies, girl in lemon frock, summery light, frail as a flower, frocks of summer.
From this list we can see that the message will be related to the beauty of life and Nature.
Thirdly, check for the diction usually associated with suffering and cruelty: cries, hunting, pierces the thin eyes, eviscerate its abdomen, scream, maimed teetering thing, grief that cannot speak, fear, nausea, cruelty everywhere.
Screams disrupt the restfulness, the meditative quietness of the day, as cruelty and suffering take over. The message is about SIN spoiling everything that is lovely.
SITUATION
The speaker, then, is quietly enjoying his Sunday relaxing in a hammock in the garden as his children play at being doctors. Unfortunately, their ‘patient’ is a butterfly they have caught and are now dismembering: they pierce its eye and attempt to remove the gut from the abdomen. Still, the creature struggles to fly—eager for life, as we all are.
AND MESSAGE
The speaker is appalled, as is the reader, at the wanton cruelty displayed as the children play at being scientists—serious ‘lepidopterists’. Sarcastically, he refers to the two as ‘prodigies’—one of them a ‘little surgeon’. Without even going to a place of worship, the speaker has received a sermon for the day: a message about the glory of God’s creation, the giftedness of mankind, and, on the other hand, the wanton cruelty and destructiveness that seem to be everywhere we look—even in children such as these, with every privilege they could want.
Interestingly, it is the ‘black maid’ who stops the cruel game (we are reminded of the cruelty of slavery that her people endured and even ask ourselves about the justice of her current social situation), but the speaker’s peaceful mood has been shattered. He experiences ‘nausea’ as he thinks not only of the yellow butterfly that the children have mutilated, but also of the possibility that the little girl in her pretty yellow frock may also be the victim, later in life, of some wanton cruelty. ‘Everywhere the frocks of summer torn’, the speaker mourns, as he thinks how innocence and loveliness are destroyed by wickedness.
Where did it all start, he seems to ask himself. When and how did we human beings make the choice to turn to evil? Did we even have any choice? Or are we doomed as if we are grass being cut down by the scythe?
And with those thoughts, the speaker leaves the reader to meditate on the problem of evil—hence the poem’s title!
DISCUSSING THE “EFFECTIVENESS”
Those English B Examiners love to ask you to identify the poetic device used and comment on its effectiveness.
What do they mean by “comment on its effectiveness”?
They want you to identify the device and name it. Then you must say how the image makes you FEEL, and what it makes you THINK.
Here are two more examples from the poem (we have already talked about DICTION):
METAPHOR: frail kites. By referring to the butterflies as ‘frail kites’ the speaker reminds us of how easily the insects can be harmed and of the fact that they fly in a rather erratic way—rather likea kite. The reference to ‘kite’ makes us think of playfulness, so we are more distressed when we see the frailty and harmless fun of the butterfly’s life being cruelly destroyed.
REPETITION: The word ‘frail’ is used for both the butterfly and the girl, linking them as being destined for tragic suffering. Similarly, repetition of