English : Epitaph by Dennis Scott

Epitaph by Dennis Scott (Jamaica 1939-1991)

The image is vivid, stark and gruesome. Amidst the beauty of the “falling sunlight” the dead body of a slave hung. The image evokes in the reader:

· Anger against human brutality

· Compassion for the fate of the slave

Through the sad tale, the poet achieves his intention of giving the reader insights into the brutality faced by slaves, in the time of their enslavement. The poem is a TRIBUTE to the dead slave, and is melancholic in mood and tone.

The poet uses certain words and expressions (to describe the morning’s atmosphere) that should be taken note of. The poet compares the swinging body to “a black apostrophes to pain” the black merely represents skin color.

The use of the word apostrophe is a comparison on two levels:

1. Apostrophe, the punctuation sign that is hung above a line

2. Apostrophe, the literary device that is an address to an absent person

In the first half the poet describes a horrible scene through literary language that ironically suggests beauty, happiness and peace. The second half starts by callously dismissing the hanged slave as irrelevant to this generation so long after slavery. However the last four lines assures us that the deaths are still felt (how we look, and our island’s heritage). The poet separates the angry response to racist brutality from the mourning like sights appropriate to death.

The poem is written in free verse allowing the shift to a new line to act as a pause and add some significance or surprise to the first or last word in a particular line. The unusual indentation in line 7 suggest a change in tone, a shift in focus, both are emphasized by the divide (use of eye rhyme). Only two lines rhyme perfectly.

1^st half describes the scene (exploitation of slaves)

2^nd half response of readers (apathy of current generation)