Oswald Mtshali and Fhazel Johannesse are highly respected authors who have portrayed their thoughts and emotions through their work in literature. Mtshali gained recognition after publishing his first book in 1971 titled Sounds of a Cowhide Drum. He obtained his diploma at the Premier School of Journalism and Authorship, affiliated with London University. Johannesse was initally recognized after his first publication of The Rainmaker in 1979. The following essay will focus on critically discussing how successfully did these poets managed to bring across the message of prejudice, fear and oppression in their poems. Mtshali’s poem is titled Always A Suspect and Johannesse’s poem is titled The Night Train.
The mood of Always A Suspect is dark
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The first element to be noticed about this poem is that it is written in lower case letters only (including the word “i”). This conveys the loneliness of the speaker and the lack of confidence that he experienced while in the train. Secondly, the speaker is sitting in third class, showing the oppression of the black population as they were not allowed to be in first class. On this occasion the seats in third class were lonely and uncomfortable and this intensifies the fear in him. Also, consider the preconceived judgement of black people being declared not worthy enough to sit in first class. The speaker looks around and he is worried about his own safety, and the fact that his own home country is no longer safe for him. In all that discomfort, the speaker needs something that will help take his mind off the loneliness of the train. He decides to look through the window, only to see his reflection. The reflection imitates his loneliness, not only in the train, but also in life. The use of the word ‘out’ in line 1 shows the discomfort he is experiencing and he immediately wants to get out. The longer he sits in train, the greater the smell “the whispering nagging smell of