1. LIMBO

2. Analysing Imagery - Assonance
What is Assonance?
Assonance is the use of repeated vowel sounds to create a sound picture. The sounds may be repeated at the start or (rarely) the end of each word, or within the words themselves. Remember, as with alliteration it is the sound that is important, rather than the letter.
Assonance affects the way that a poem flows. It can suggest the object or action that it is describing through the sounds it creates. Assonance can also affect a poem’s tone.
Do be careful when identifying the use of assonance - there are only five vowels, and their repetition is therefore inevitable. Only discuss assonance where the sound adds to the image being created.

3. Analysing Imagery - Assonance
What is Assonance?
“The plane swooped low over the open ground.”
In this example, the image of the plane’s low flight is enhanced by the assonance of the letter ‘o’. Read the sentence out loud to see the effect more clearly.
“The plane sw ped l w ver the pen gr und.” oo o o o o

4. Analysing Imagery - Assonance
What is Assonance?
When you are discussing the effects that assonance creates within a poem, you should describe how the sounds you hear add to the ‘word picture’ that you see in your mind.
“The plane swooped low over the open ground.”
The use of assonance here makes the line ‘swoop’ when read out loud, just as the plane is swooping low over the ground, because of the rhythm created by the use of assonance. We can almost see the plane sweeping down and then up again, just missing the ground as it does so.

5. Analysing Imagery - Assonance
What is Assonance?
Here are two examples of assonance for you to analyse. Remember, assonance is often found within the words, as well as at the start or end.
“The ants attacked Tania’s arm and afterwards she ached for days.”
“The elephant edged ever closer to the excited men.

6. Analysing Imagery - Assonance
What is Assonance?
Here are some possible ways of analysing these examples of assonance.
“The ants attacked Tania’s arm and afterwards she ached for days.”
The use of assonance here gives a picture of the ants attacking the girl, and also the itching and aching that she felt. Although we hear a variety of different ‘a’ sounds here, they all give a strong, hard noise, which increases the sense of an attack.

7. Analysing Imagery - Assonance
What is Assonance?
“The elephant edged ever closer to the excited men.
Here, the use of assonance slows down the speed at which we read the line. As we read the line out loud, we are forced to slow down our reading, because of the stress of the ‘e’ sounds. This in turn echoes the slow speed of the elephant, moving towards the men.

8. Objectives
By the end of today’s lesson you will be able to:
Understand the skills and techniques used during this poetry module
Understand key ideas in Limbo using these skills

9. Limbo Two narratives going on:
The actions of the dance
The history of the people re-enacted
History suggest the dance was created as exercise on the cramped slave ships

10. Being caught in “limbo” between cultures?
Slavery – not knowing where you are going – hell?
The rhythm of a dance – the pride of a culture full of rhythm.
Being caught in “limbo” between cultures?

11. Culture
West Indies:
Colonised by European countries in the 18th century
Slaves brought from Africa by these European countries to work in the sugar cane fields and other crops

12. Surface Meaning
During a customary limbo dance the dancer is reminded of the history of Afro-Caribbeans as slaves

13. Limbo Edward Kamau Brathwaite
And limbo stick is the silence in front of me
limbo
limbo like me
long dark night is the silence in front of me
stick hit sound
and the ship like it ready
and the dark still ready
Various interpretations of the title
Many words linked with violence and beating
Likens the limbo stick to going in to the hold of the ship which takes them to slavery
Chorus provides shape and a refrain, looking like oars of a ship and the Limbo dance itself
Articles (i.e. ‘a’ and ‘the’ ) are omitted to mimic the drummer’s beat
Poems has strong beat which suggests the drum

14. long dark deck and the silence is over me limbo limbo like me
Repetition of adjectives and feelings of imprisonment
long dark deck and the water
surrounding me
long dark deck and the silence
is over me
limbo
limbo like me
stick is the whip
and the dark is slavery
drum stick knock
and the darkness is over me
Limbo is a place which is neither heaven or hell, it is a place for people who have never been given the chance to find god, i.e unbaptised
Alliteration to draw attention, increase feeling of foreboding, echoing drum beat
Many references to heat, dark, water and other ‘hellish’ features

15. and the water is hiding me limbo limbo like me
knees spread wide
and the water is hiding me
limbo
limbo like me
and the dark ground is under me
down
and the drummer is calling me
First person
Singular used to personalize the experience for the reader
Suggests a very vulnerable submissive position
Use of single-word lines to emphasise movement and rhythm

16. and the drummers are praising me out of the dark
sun coming up
and the drummers are praising me
out of the dark
and the dumb gods are raising me up
and the music is saving me
hot
slow
step
on the burning ground.
Who are these ‘gods’ and why are they Dumb?
Poem’s pace slows where poet suggests some sort of ‘salvation’
Final full stop is the only punctuation in the poem
The rhythm ends here, completing the narrative

17. Ideas and Attitudes Ideas: Attitudes:
Although the limbo dance is now thought of as a spectacle for tourists, its history comes from the exercises slaves used to do to keep themselves fit on the slave ships
Attitudes:
If the limbo stick represents the shackles of slavery or life, then the dance is an act of liberation and a way to be free of these ties (figuratively and literally) (“up up up / and the music is saving me”)

18. Feelings
Oppression
Suffocation and being overwhelmed (“the water surrounding me”, “the silence is over me”)
There is no real sense of anger at slavery as you might expect but rather the sense of it, like the limbo stick, is an obstacle that can be overcome
Release / Joy (“and the drummers are praising me”, “and the dumb gods are raising me”, “and the music is saving me”)

19. Imagery
Simile = “limbo like me” – either join me in this dance or I am in limbo
Metaphor:
“And limbo stick is the silence in front of me”
“long dark deck is the silence in front of me”
“stick is the whip / and the dark deck is slavery”
Personification:
“and the dark still steady”
“long dark deck and the silence is over me”
“and the water is hiding”
“and the music is saving me”

20. Sound Patterns Assonance: Alliteration:
“stick hit” (harsh “i” sound like something being struck)
“stick is the whip” (as above)
“stick knock” (“ck” sound again like something being struck)
Alliteration:
“limbo limbo like me” (musical)
“dark deck”

21. Repetition “Limbo” x 19 (including title) “stick” x 6 “me” x 18
“dark” x 8

22. Puns “Limbo” = “Stick” = A dance from the Caribbean
Place between heaven and hell
The place outside of heaven and hell where babies who have not been christened go if they die
“Stick” =
The limbo beam which the dancer has to go beneath as well as
The pole the slaves were chained to as they rowed the slave ships
The stick that the slaves were beaten with

23. Imagine…
Imagine I am not the hard working, dedicated (handsome) teacher I am.
Imagine I couldn’t be bothered to give you notes on this poem.
Fill in the analysis grid, making notes on
Surface meaning
Language (similes, repetition, metaphor, assonance, alliteration, personification etc)
Ideas, attitudes and feelings
Structure (rhyme, stanza length, punctuation etc)

24. Limbo by Edward Kamau Brathwaite
Surface meaning
Language
Ideas, attitudes and feelings
Structure