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    It Is The Constant Image of Your Face - 1st Level

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    Atharva Satpute
    This poem explores a narrator's conflicted feelings about their country and a romantic partner. In two stanzas, the narrator describes being unable to forget their lover's face but sees their life as "dark". They state their land is more important than any love. In the second stanza, the narrator pleads guilty to their lover but feels they were "blackmailed" by their partner's beauty into committing "treason" against their country. The poem ends with the hope that the narrator's country will forgive them.

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    It Is The Constant Image of Your Face - 1st Level

    Uploaded by

    Atharva Satpute
    70 views2 pages
    This poem explores a narrator's conflicted feelings about their country and a romantic partner. In two stanzas, the narrator describes being unable to forget their lover's face but sees their life as "dark". They state their land is more important than any love. In the second stanza, the narrator pleads guilty to their lover but feels they were "blackmailed" by their partner's beauty into committing "treason" against their country. The poem ends with the hope that the narrator's country will forgive them.

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    It is the Constant Image of Your Face- 1st Level

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    This poem explores a narrator's conflicted feelings about their country and a romantic partner. In two stanzas, the narrator describes being unable to forget their lover's face but sees their life as "dark". They state their land is more important than any love. In the second stanza, the narrator pleads guilty to their lover but feels they were "blackmailed" by their partner's beauty into committing "treason" against their country. The poem ends with the hope that the narrator's country will forgive them.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    70 views2 pages

    It Is The Constant Image of Your Face - 1st Level

    Uploaded by

    Atharva Satpute
    This poem explores a narrator's conflicted feelings about their country and a romantic partner. In two stanzas, the narrator describes being unable to forget their lover's face but sees their life as "dark". They state their land is more important than any love. In the second stanza, the narrator pleads guilty to their lover but feels they were "blackmailed" by their partner's beauty into committing "treason" against their country. The poem ends with the hope that the narrator's country will forgive them.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 2

    It is the Constant Image of Your Face, 1st Level

    Atharva
    Plot
    This poem is a free verse poem in the form of a narrative, as it does not have any particular
    structure or rhyming pattern and it tells a story. We also learn that this poem is written in the
    first-person perspective, as on line 2, the writer uses a personal pronoun: ‘my’. The poem has
    two stanzas, each expressing a different message. In the first stanza, we learn that the persona
    is describing the face of a specific love interest. We learn that the persona cannot forget his/her
    lover’s facial expressions, as the love interest consistently watches/observes him. The narrator
    describes his/her life as dark/desolate, by describing it as a ‘world of knives’. The persona then
    proceeds to describe how he/she loves their country more than anything, resulting in it ‘taking
    precedence of all his/her loves’. This is then followed by the second stanza, where the persona
    pleads guilty to his/her lover. Despite pleading guilty, the persona still states that he/she does
    not feel remorseful, as it is believed by him/her that he/she had been blackmailed by the love
    interest’s beauty. The persona feels that he/she had committed treason to his/her country by
    engaging in a romantic relationship with the love interest. Finally, the poem ends by the
    persona hoping that his/her country will forgive him/her, by not blaming the mistress (the love
    interest).
    Setting
    This poem does not take place in any specific location, but on lines 9 and 15, the persona in the
    poem mentions the presence of his/her land and country. By giving regards to the context, the
    author of this poem, Dennis Brutus is from South Africa, which can make us infer that it is highly
    likely that this poem takes place in the land of South Africa, given the fact that no other specific
    locations have been mentioned.
    Characters
    The Persona: The persona’s name is never mentioned anywhere in the poem, but the writer
    gives us a very vivid description of the narrator’s personality traits. On line 1, we learn that the
    speaker cannot forget the ‘constant image’ of his/her lover’s face. This suggests that the
    speaker might have had an argument or disagreement with his/her lover. We also learn that
    the persona feels as through his/her life is very desolate and unpleasant, as on line 4, he/she
    says, “amid my world of knives”. By comparing his/her world to knives, the author suggests that
    currently, it is a very dark time for the persona. We also learn that the persona is very patriotic.
    This occurs on line 9, he/she states, “my land takes precedence of all my loves”. By prioritizing
    his/ country over his/her significant other, we can clearly see the love that this persona has for
    his/her country. We also learn that the persona has a very forthright personality, as he/she
    clearly tells his significant other that his/her land takes ‘precedence over his/her loves’.
    The Lover/Significant Other: Very little is stated about the persona’s lover. On lines 1 and 3 we
    learn that the lover has a very stern and attentive face, as it is describes as sus by the persona.
    Another physical trait that we learn about the lover is that he/she is incredibly beautiful. We
    learn this on line 12, where the persona describes how his love interest’s beauty blackmailed
    him/her. We also learn that the lover is very protective and safeguarding, as this is also
    described by the persona on line 13.
    Context
    Dennis Brutus is a poet from South Africa, whose works were primarily based on the hardship
    that he and other black South Africans faced in society. (Britannica.com) Due to this, it is can be
    inferred that Dennis Brutus is very patriotic of his culture and heritage. This could possibly be
    the reason why the persona in the poem preferred his/her country over all of his love interests,
    as the primary focus of the persona was to love his/her country.

    Works Cited
    The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Dennis Brutus.” Britannica.com. Encyclopædia
    Britannica, inc., published December 22, 2019. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Dennis-
    Brutus. Accessed September 30, 2020.

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