The Serf's Sullen Patience: A Sonnet of Oppression

The Serf Roy Campbell

The Serf • Type of poem: A Sonnet • Style: Irregular • A labourer or worker that is legally owned by his employer. • In the poem the serf represents the mass of oppressed people who were forced to work in the service of their masters.

His naked skin clothed in torrid mist • Metaphor: It is so misty, early in the morning,that it looks as if he is wearing the mist like clothes. • Metaphor: torrid mist is a metaphor for the dust created by the hooves of the oxen and the plough. • The serf is not fully dressed. Zulu warriors are not fully dressed, ironically, he is not a warrior now, but a ploughman, a servan. • Oxymoron: naked skin clothed – something that is naked is clothed. • Naked: vulnerable, defenceless

That puffs in smoke around the patient hooves • Personification: puffs and patient. The mist puffs, a human puffs. Hooves can not be patient. • The plough animal is used to this work and it will not be hurried. It moves at a slow and steady pace. • The cattle is walking patiently and slowly in front of the plow. • The undertone of the image of slow movement and mist is one of menace and hidden passions.

The ploughman drives, a slow somnambulist • Alliteration: s slow somnambulist • A somnambulist is someone who walks in his sleep. • Metaphor: the ploughman is a sleepwalker. • The serf is lethargic and listless. He is only performing the task because he is forced to do so.

And through the green his crimson furrow grooves • Assonance: crimson furrow grooves. • Crimson: read • Furrow: narrow trench in soil made by a plough • Green: the land is green and when the plough turns the green land over it turns red. • Grooves: is actually a noun but here it is used as a verb to describe the action of making a furrow. A deep groove is being formed and that groove is like a wound.

His heart, more deeply than he wounds the plain, • The plough makes a deeper scar on his heart than in the soil. • Plain: soil • Metaphor/Image: the act of ploughing is compared with inflicting a deep cut in somebody’s heart. • More deeply: comparitive degree of comparison

Long by the rasping share of insult torn, • Long: refers to the passing of time. For very long • Metaphor: he has been insulted and the insults were like that of a rasp or saw cutting wood. • Rasping: using a tool like a file to smoothen something • Insults have torn and rasped away at his heart. • Inversion: Insults torn at him like rasping. • It could be to force the rhyme so that torn can rhyme with corn.

Red clod, to which the war cry once was rain • Red clod: read earth • Metaphor: war cry once was rain Going to war was as important as rain is to a farmer. Like rain is part of farming so was war part of the Zulu’s lifestyle. They were warriors. • Like rain causes plants to stand up and grow so did the war cry cause warriors to stand up and fight

And tribal spears the fatal sheaves of corn • Tribal spears the fatal sheaves of corn: the spear was like the corn the farmer harvest. With the spear the Zulu inflicted death • Fatal: deadly • You cut sheaves of corn and spears cut down people. • Corn: wheat, barley or oats

And tribal spears the fatal sheaves of corn • Tribal speares the fatal sheaves of corn: the spear was like the corn the farmer harvest. With the spear the Zulu inflicted death • Fatal: deadly • You cut sheaves of corn and spears cut down people. • Corn: wheat, barley or oats

Lies fallow now. But as the turf divides • Although his proud heart no longer shows his warlike temperament it does not mean that the characteristic is gone. His emotions are sleeping (dormant) because he has been made subservient – been oppressed for so long. His heart has not received the invigorating cry of revolt, rebellion or war. • Fallow: land lies unplanted, without crops.The serf is not a warrior now but a labourer. He is like a fallow: a warrior without status and a war to fight. A land without crops. • But: indicates a change in the poem. • As the worker ploughs the ground and the soil turns over

I see in the slow progress of his strides • Alliteration of the s: the serf is now striding and not just walking. • There is progress not regression • There is hopeThe poet realises that the serf is displaying the eternal, sullen patience of those who, throughout the centuries, have had to endure their lot – and through history have proved that suppressed anger can be very dangerous.

Over the toppled clods and falling flowers • Alliteration: falling flowers • Nothing remains standing in the path of the plough. • The serf is able to stride over the destruction of the plough, it does not bring him to a standstill

The timeless, surly patience of the serf • Surly: bad-tempered, unfriendly, rude • The serf is not happy with his status or with what he has to do but he is patient and will await his turn. • His patience is timeless: he can wait for as long as he has to.

That moves the nearest to the naked earth • The people remaining the closest to earth, the worker will change his circumstances one day.

And ploughs down palaces, and thrones and towers • The hidden forces remain in the man and the speaker realises that one day this man will destroy all the wealth and authority that stands in his way. The repetition of the “and” means nobody will escape. All those that are now mighty and rich will be overthrown and brought down. • This will be the harvest of the serf.

The Serf's Sullen Patience: A Sonnet of Oppression