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Vultures. ‘Vultures’ is one of the famous poems of the Nigerian poet Chinua Achebe. It is a dark and somber piece that focuses on the Belsen concentration camp and a commandant who works there. In the greyness. and drizzle of one despondent. dawn unstirred by harbingers. of sunbreak a vulture.
- Chinua Achebe and A Summary of 'A Mother in A Refugee Camp'
- The Theme of 'A Mother in A Refugee Camp'
- Line-By-Line Analysis of 'A Mother in A Refugee Camp'
- Poetic Devices in 'A Mother in A Refugee Camp'
- Sources
'A Mother in a Refugee Camp' is one of Chinua Achebe's best-known poems. It focuses on the plight of a mother and her dead child, who she is about to bury, the son she will soon have to forget. The poem has strong imagery and pathos (evoking sadness) and juxtaposes the awful reality of the refugee mother's situation with that of the ideal icon of t...
The theme of 'A Mother in a Refugee Camp' is conflict, human suffering, love and sacrifice. These themes are interwoven within a narrative based on observation, contrast and empathy.
Lines 1–3
The speaker contrasts the bond between mother and dead child with that of the Madonna and baby Jesus, suggesting that the refugee mother's tenderness is beyond even what the Christian Madonna could achieve. This is a poignant introduction for the reader as it implies that the reality is more heartwrenching and genuine than a powerful representation of supreme love. Real life takes over from religious allegory. And why would the mother soon have to forget her son? Is he going away on a journey...
Lines 4–7
Now, the reader gets an idea of the surroundings in this camp. Here are many people displaced from their homes; they've made perilous journies, left everything behind and now face uncertainty and illness in a place of relative safety. But reality can't be ignored. Children get sick if they don't eat properly. They can also get diarrhoea (loose stools), which can be smelly and also very dangerous if it persists. When you have to leave your home and take to the road to survive, you don't think...
Lines 8–12
We're told that this particular mother, unlike some of the others, was still able to show her caring nature. Maybe the others were just too exhausted or had already buried their dead children? The language moves into slight surreality with ghost-smile held between her teeth which implies that her life has moved far away from normality and into the darker realms of survival. She only has a memory of a mother's pride in her eyes, again a clue as to the state she is in. But, in spite of all the...
Poetic devices can help deepen or enrich a poem by sound (phonetic) or understanding (metaphor, simile). Alliteration When two or more words close together start with similar-sounding consonant: Behind blown-empty bellies Assonance Similar sounding vowels close together: between her teeth Caesura A break in a line, often halfway, either naturally o...
Irele, F. Abiola. “Chinua Achebe as Poet.” Transition, no. 100, 2008, pp. 44–50. Accessed 12 Apr. 2022.Chinua Achebe obituary | Chinua Achebe | The GuardianChinua Achebe | Poetry FoundationIrele, F. Abiola. “Chinua Achebe as Poet.” Transition, no. 100, 2008, pp. 44–50. Accessed 14 Apr. 2022.In Chinua Achebe's "Vultures," a pair of grim birds nuzzling each other after devouring a rotting corpse become a metaphor for the uneasy fact that human beings are equally capable of love and evil. Just as vultures can feast on death and still cuddle, the speaker observes, the man who runs a Nazi death camp might pick up chocolates for his beloved children on the way home; cruelty and ...
Lee-James, a.k.a. LJ, is an English school teacher that has been a Poem Analysis team member ever since November 2015, providing critical analysis of poems from the past and present. Nowadays, he helps manage the team and the website. 'Vultures' by the Nigerian poet Chinua Achebe is a dark and somber piece that focuses on the Belsen ...
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Achebe’s poem here serves as a written analysis of that time period, a reflection based on what he saw that draws its strength from the imagery and language by painting a picture of words for the reader, one that brings suffering to life in a way that not many poems do. A significant part of the strength of this poem is the realization of how ...
Overview. “Beware Soul Brother” (1971) is a poem by Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe (1930-2013). The poem was published as part of Achebe’s book of poems Beware Soul Brother and Other Poems (1971), published in the aftermath of the Nigerian Civil War (1967-1970). The poem is written in free verse, and like all of Achebe’s writing, it ...
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Aug 29, 2022 · Chinua Achebe is a Nigerian poet and novelist. He is known for crafting his fiction around elements of reality – similar to how, in Vultures, he uses nature and human beings to depict abstract concepts like love, light, darkness, good and evil. This poem uses strong imagery. Achebe also employs extended metaphors and descriptions to portray ...
