21ST CENTURY LITERATURE FROM THE PHILIPPINES AND THE WORLD

SECOND SEMESTER
ACTIVITY #1- Read the poem AFRICA MY AFRICA BY DAVID DIOP and answers the following
questions.

1. What is the prevailing mood or tone of the poem?

2. How does the persona feels about the one being addressed to in the poem?
3. What major social concern is revealed by the poem?
4. What figures of speech appear in the entire poem? Cite the specific lines.
5. What sensory images are used by the author? Cite specific examples.
Africa, my Africa
By David Diop

Africa, my Africa
Africa of proud warriors in ancestral savannahs
Africa of whom my grandmother sings
On the banks of the distant river
I have never known you
But your blood flows in my veins
Your beautiful black blood that irrigates the fields
The blood of your sweat
The sweat of your work
The work of your slavery
Africa, tell me Africa
Is this you, this back that is bent
This back that breaks
Under the weight of humiliation
This back trembling with red scars
And saying yes to the whip under the midday sun
But a grave voice answers me
Impetuous child that tree, young and strong
That tree over there
Splendidly alone amidst white and faded flowers
That is your Africa springing up anew
Springing up patiently, obstinately
Whose fruit bit by bit acquires
The bitter taste of liberty.
Activity # 2: Read the poem TAJ MAHAL BY LUDHIANVI as translated by DALVI and answers the
following questions.

1. Who could be speaking in the poem?

2. What is the prevailing emotion revealed by the lines of the poem?
3. What does the Taj Mahal symbolize as implied by the persona?
4. How will you explain the repetition of the line “LET US MEET SOMEPLACEELSE”? What is the
possible purpose of having such line?
5. What is the central message of the poem?
6. What is the best thing that you did for the one you love?

Taj Mahal These edifices, these tombs,

translated by Mustansir Dalvi
For you, my love, the Taj
may well be the quintessence
of ardour; while full well
may you regard
this exquisite vale. Even so,
dear one, let us meet
someplace else.
What worth, these lowly ones,
loitering in the halls of the lords,
where on every path lie etched
remains of pomp and glory?
What worth then, the passing
of lovelorn souls?
these battlements, these forts,
haughty relics
of the conceit of emperors,
are left behind like resilient creepers
on the face of the world,
seeped in the blood
of our forefathers.
My love, those artful hands
who created this beauty
would have lived
and loved too; but their lovers
are long gone, nameless,
without a trace.
To this day, no one has lit
a candle in their memory.

My love, behind the veils The lush gardens and palaces,

of love’s proud proclamations, the Yamuna’s edge;
did you see the signs the exquisitely carved portals,
of imperious grandeur? the arches and niches,
You, who revel the handiwork of the one
in mausoleums of dead kings, emperor who, buttress’d
did you not heed the dark hovels by infinite wealth
that fostered us? has mocked our very love,
our impoverish'd, destitute love.
Beyond count are those, in this world
who have lived and loved. Even so, my love,
Could anyone deny the truth let us meet
of their passions? someplace else.
But they, like us, stay destitute,
without the means
to erect monuments to their love.
Activity # 3: ANSWER THE FOLLOWING ITEMS.