Bebo

Twinkle Twinkle <TearsOnDarkShadows>

"...and keep falling over and over again Kris ღ"

	English Language Exam Notes	914 days ago
	Limbo This poem is the story of the African people being transported to the Caribbean colonies to work as slaves; they are transported as human cargo in cramped dark conditions on a slave ship. The reference to the Limbo dance (game) is because it is believed that the dance originated from those slave memories of travelling in the cramped slave ships – having to bend over backwards to be comfortable, to have space to breathe. Also the word limbo in Christianity is a place in between heaven and hell you are at neither, you are unsure of where you are. The slaves in this poem are unsure of whether they have died on gone to hell or whether they are just waiting on better times – when they die and go to heaven. Through this poem the poet is expressing his anger at the conditions those slaves had been put in but he is also expressing his awe and admiration at the personal strength of those slaves. The poet is celebrating the slaves past and their survival. The unusual layout of the poem separates the song-like words of the Limbo dance through the separate stanzas and the italics, the rest tells the story of the slave journey. And towards the end of the poem from line 40 onwards there is no more reference to the limbo dance and this shows the end of the suffering, the end of bending over backwards in the ship. The ending is unsure though, at first you believe that they will have been freed from slavery with the ‘up up up’ but then the last line states ‘on the burning ground.’ This shows a definite ending but whether it shows that the slave has died and gone to hell (the burning fires of hell), or whether the slave has arrived at his masters work where he will slave away and in that sense it is a type of living hell worse than the ship, or whether the place that the slave has arrived at is so hot compared to where the slave came from with the ground burning up from the heat of the sun.
	posted by Twinkle Twinkle

1 Comment:

	Kris said...	914 days ago
	Havent read the poem but it looks like you covered all critical view points apart from freudian and feminist. lots aof detail you make notes like that then you are sure to do well best of luck angel love you xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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