In the first poem ’The battle of the elephants’ there are two narrators,
The first one is describing the witch and the other one is the witch.
We know this because of this line ‘’they call her the demented witch’’ means that she lives on her own. This phrase describes the witch so this speaker can’t be the witch. The second speaker comes in; in the phrase ‘there will be a Battle of the elephants the mighty husky elephants with tusks reaching out into the sky there will be a battle of the elephants.’’ This line shows that it’s the witch speaking because it’s not describing the witch anymore. On the second poem ‘Lull-a-dirge’
There is only one speaker the father. We know this because he is the only one speaking and telling the story and with this quote ‘’ sleep my little baby sleep’’ he talks about his baby ‘’my little baby’’
In Battle of the elephants the witch is described as ‘‘demented’’ and a ‘’bitch’’ but very powerful,
By the quotes ‘She can see through the eyes of the needle’. Meaning that she has very good eye vision and ‘She can see the writings on the face of the cloud’. Tells us that not only can she see very well, she can also control the weather too. She lives alone in a solitary hut which is not common in Africa of you live alone Because most Africans have a large number of people in their family and help each other but the witch is on her own.
The father in ‘Lull-a-dirge’ is an African father so alone and very confused, because he has lost his wife. ‘She has gone far, far beyond the river’ this is a metaphor referring that he’s wife is dead or in heaven.
The title is ‘Lull-a-dirge’ ‘dirge’ meaning a funeral song and ‘’Lull’’ is a song sang to a baby to put it to sleep. It is unusual for African men to take care of their children normally the women do it and the men work but at this point he has to do it
He is also hallucinating he is talking to a bird asking the bird where his wife is and he keeps asking questions of what to do with he’s baby and where to bring it.
The poems are not really likely in mood because ‘Lull-a-dirge’ is sad because of a father losing his wife. ‘Battle of the elephants’ is a war between the people and the government. There is 1 same mood in the poems ‘loneliness’ because on ‘’lull-a-dirge’’ the father is lonely for losing his wife and in ‘’battle of the elephants’’ the farmers are because they are losing their land from the government. On both poems it mentioned the weather lull-a-dirge- the day is long and the sun grows hot, battle of the elephants- under the armpit of daylight. The way the poems end are different from each other ‘lull-a-dirge’ ends very calm but sad, ‘battle of the elephants’
Ends with anger and no hope. The poems mentioned the river in them because if you lived in Africa your life depended on it and that’s how you will be able to live.
