By: Zindziswa Mandela

My Country For Mandela

Mandelas daughter articulated her feelings of watching her father taken away. In it we hear the innocence and dispair; written in free verse -- her point-of-view of how she felt the day her father was taken as a political prisoner - she was only 4 when he was taken away for opposing apartheid

My Country for Mandela

Prediction

• By looking at the picture on the first page we can see a lot of details and predict something . I think this poem is going to be about the slavery of Africa and how Nelson Mandela fought it.

1. Gate.2. Wipe.3. Forceful.4. Supper.5. Roughly.6. Van.7. Aches.8. Comfort.9. Bravely.10. Tears.

Vocabulary Words

Definitions

• Gate: Any means of entrance. • Wipe:to rub something over a surface.• Forceful: Acting or driven with force.• Supper: The evening meal.• Roughly: Violent ion action or motion.• Van: Small closed trucklike vehicle.• Aches: Continous dull pain.

• Comfort: Person or thing giving consolation.• Bravely: Courageous.• Tears: Drops of saline fluid that lubricates and

flows from the eye.

Vocabulary Words

• I thought the story as going to be about Nelson Mandela and slavery in Africa , but this story only deals with slavery. In the story a boy thinks his father is leaving his mom because of some reason, but actually he is been taken away to be a slave. Later on in life he understands what really happened that day and learns that his father did not leave his mom for his own reasons.

Comparison

I stand by the gate School's out Smoke fills the location Tears come to my eyes

My Country for Mandela

I wipe them away I walk into the kitchen To see my mother's Black hard-washing hands A forceful smile from A tired face

My Country for Mandela

We sit and have supper I pick up a picture of My father and look My mother turns away Tries to hide

My Country for Mandela

My father left my mother In his arms He is roughly separated From her

My Country for Mandela

The van pulls away Mother watches bravely enough I as a child do Not understand

My Country for Mandela

My heart aches How I long to see my father At least to hold his hand And comfort him Or at least to tell him He'll be back some day

My Country for Mandela

Questions for Analyzing Poetry

1. Can you paraphrase the poem?2. Who is the speaker (persona) in the poem?

How would you describe this persona?3. What is the speaker’s tone? Which words

reveal this tone? 4. What images does the poet use? How do the

images relate to one another?

Questions for Analyzing Poetry

5. Are there any symbols? What do they mean? Are they universal symbols or do they arise from the context of this poem?6. What is the theme (the central idea) of this poem? 7. How important is the contribution of form, such as rhyme scheme and line arrangement? How does form influence the overall effect of the poem?