Vultures

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Vultures

• Chinua Achebe

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Chinua Achebe

• Chinua Achebe is one of the most admired African
  novelists who write in English. His novels trace
  Africa's transition from traditional to modern
  ways. He writes with a mission, and he believes
  that any good work of art should have a purpose -
  an idea that stems from the oral tradition of
  storytelling in Africa. He is interested in
  speech and his novels present a wide range of
  language, from the English spoken by the Ibo to
  different levels of formal English. He also
  writes poetry and essays.
• He married in 1961 and has four children.
• He became an honorary professor at the University
  of Nigeria in 1985.

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Vultures

• In the greyness
• and drizzle of one despondent
• dawn unstirred by harbingers
• of sunbreak a vulture
• perching high on broken
• bone of a dead tree

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Vultures
Not what the poem is about, but symbolises evil
Depressing setting alliteration helps imprint
this in the readers mind

• In the greyness
• and drizzle of one despondent
• dawn unstirred by harbingers
• of sunbreak a vulture
• perching high on broken
• bone of a dead tree

Messenger/ a sign of things to come
The vultures live off death
5

• nestled close to his
• mate his smooth
• bashed-in head, a pebble
• on a stem rooted in
• a dump of gross
• feathers, inclined affectionately
• to hers. Yesterday they picked

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• nestled close to his
• mate his smooth
• bashed-in head, a pebble
• on a stem rooted in
• a dump of gross
• feathers, inclined affectionately

The vultures ugliness adds to the evil mood
This phrase stands out against the ugliness of
the vultures
7

• the eyes of a swollen
• corpse in a water-logged
• trench and ate the
• things in its bowel. Full
• gorged they chose their roost
• keeping the hollowed remnant
• in easy range of cold
• telescopic eyes

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Violent image suggests The horror of war (WWI?)

• the eyes of a swollen
• corpse in a water-logged
• trench and ate the
• things in its bowel. Full
• gorged they chose their roost
• keeping the hollowed remnant
• in easy range of cold
• telescopic eyes

Nothing is too disgusting for the vultures
Image of indulgence and greed
They see it as an object rather than
something that has been alive
is used to structure the poem Shows that a new
topic will start
Metaphorical, implies all seeing
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• Strange
• indeed how love in other
• ways so particular
• will pick a corner
• in that charnel-house
• tidy it and coil up there, perhaps
• even fall asleep her face
• turned to the wall!

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Having this word on its own sounds like hes
stopping to ponder on it
Personification of love

• Strange
• indeed how love in other
• ways so particular
• will pick a corner
• in that charnel-house
• tidy it and coil up there, perhaps
• even fall asleep her face
• turned to the wall!

The idea of love sleeping among corpses is a very
bleak image
Imagery of a snake - evil
Love ignores evil, instead of triumphing over it
they exist separately
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• Thus the Commandant at Belsen
• Camp going home for
• the day with fumes of
• human roast clinging
• rebelliously to his hairy
• nostrils will stop
• at the wayside sweet-shop
• and pick up a chocolate
• for his tender offspring
• waiting at home for Daddys
• return

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Links the first section to this one
Notorious Nazi concentration camp where many died

• Thus the Commandant at Belsen
• Camp going home for
• the day with fumes of
• human roast clinging
• rebelliously to his hairy
• nostrils will stop
• at the wayside sweet-shop
• and pick up a chocolate
• for his tender offspring
• waiting at home for Daddys
• return

Makes it sound like hes a normal person with a
normal job
Evil is personified too, as a persistent
reminder of what the Commandant has been doing
The Commandant is physically unattractive like
the vultures
The children are described as meat linking to
previous image
He has two sides to him the loved and the
evil side
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• Praise bounteous
• providence if you will
• that grants even an ogre
• a tiny glow-worm
• tenderness encapsulated
• in icy caverns of a cruel
• heart or else despair
• for in the very germ
• of that kindred love is
• lodged the perpetuity
• of evil

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Invites the reader to decide

• Praise bounteous
• providence if you will
• that grants even an ogre
• a tiny glow-worm
• tenderness encapsulated
• in icy caverns of a cruel
• heart or else despair
• for in the very germ
• of that kindred love is
• lodged the perpetuity
• of evil

Inhuman a monster
Contrasts of size and lightness
Love for an undeserving person is likened to a
disease
The poet believes evil is part Of human nature
and will never stop
Ends on a dark note