Subjects:
In the poem “African Beggar” the composer conveys his ideas by using very descriptive writing. He also paints a vivid portrait of the beggar and his surroundings by using similes, metaphors and adjectives.
He doesn’t just tell a story but rather paints a picture. The reader is in no doubt that this is a tragic story. On the other hand were one to live in an environment where this was an everyday scene then their response would be altogether different. The composer uses shocking descriptive language at first to disgust the reader. For example “sprawled” as opposed to “lying”, and metaphors such as “a heap of verminous rags and matted hair”.
The composer begins by showing us the beggars surroundings and also that the beggar is the object of ridicule by children, hence the metaphor “a target”, as well as being subjected to dogs and flies scavenging for survival like the beggar.
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Further on the reader discovers that the beggar is also physically detestable by the description of his teeth, his missing nose and pocked marked face. He is obviously in a run down place, hence “the crumbling wall” to spite the fact that he is “sprawled in the dust outside the Syrian store” Up to this point in the poem the writer has had the reader feel disgust and fear although in the third stanza Tong’s writing becomes more emotive toward the beggar which stimulates empathy and perhaps pity. Society feels compelled to destroy an injured animal and end it’s misery and suffering and yet a scene such as the composer has painted here has for the most part always been tolerated. The description of his face being “creased in a sneer” also adds to this feeling that perhaps the beggar is not to be trusted.
In conclusion the composer conveys his ideas in a most graphic way and it would be difficult for any reader not to respond with at least one of the emotions I have suggested above. The composer further stir’s fear with his description of the beggar’s eyes by use of the word “reptile”, in this case used as an adjective rather than a noun, and also the word “cunning” which makes one feel threatened and wary of the beggars intentions. “AFRICAN BEGGAR”
“a grotesque mask of death” leads the reader to think that if this man isn’t helped soon then he will in fact just die but on the other hand he may have worn this mask for a long time maybe to elicit sympathy?
The beggar is obviously thin “with hands like claws” however this simile conjures up thoughts of an animal.
By the third stanza we have a clearer picture of the beggar’s surroundings. One begins to ask the question what has brought this man to this place in this condition? What terrible thing has led him to live in such a poor way? One thinks of the beggar as wretched and indeed sad by the line “lost in the trackless jungle of his pain” a place from which he feels he can’t escape.
Fear and loathing are forgotten when the reader pictures the beggar “whimpering” and “clutching the pitiless red earth in vain”.
“Lying alone”, “lost in the trackless jungle of his pain” has the reader seeing the beggar as a fellow human being.
In the second stanza although the beggar is actually begging, the composer lets us know that while the beggar “whines for alms, perceiving that we bear the curse of pity” he must in fact feel enormous contempt for the people willing to give him money by suggesting that pity is a curse rather than a good human trait.
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