The wild doves at Louis Trichardt
by William Plomer
Morning is busy with long files
Of ants and men, all bearing loads.
The sun’s gong beats, and sweat runs down.
A mason-hornet shapes his hanging house.
In a wide flood of flowers
Two crested cranes are bowing to their food.
From the north today there is ominous news.
Midday, the mad cicada-time.
Sizzling from every open valve
Of the overheated earth
The stridulators din it in –
Intensive and continuing praise
Of the white-hot zenith, shrilling on
Toward a note too high to bear.
Oven of afternoon, silence of heat.
In shadow, or in shaded rooms,
This face is hidden in folded arms,
That face is now a sightless mask,
Tree-shadow just includes those legs.
The people have all lain down, and sleep
In attitudes of the sick, the shot, the dead.
And now in the grove the wild doves begin,
Whose neat silk heads are never still,
Bubbling their coolest colloquies.
The formulae they liquidly pronounce
In secret tents of leaves imply
(Clearer than man-made music could)
Men being absent, Africa is good.
Glossary:
Files – folder in which documents are stored; row of people or objects, one behind the
other.
Gong – hanging metal disk that gives off a ringing sound when struck.
Mason – a stone worker or builder who works with stone.
Ominous – threatening, potentially evil.
Cicada – tree-dwelling insect, best known for the high pitch sound it produces by rubbing its
wings together.
Stridulators – that which makes a shrill creaking noise.
Zenith – highest point.
Colloquies – formal conversations.
Pronounce – announce seriously or with authority.
Imply – suggest a secondary meaning not directly stated.
Alliteration – the use of words in sequence that all begin with the same letter.
Gesture – movement of the body or limbs in order to convey an emotion or meaning.
Summary:
The poem explores the human and non- human responses to an intensely hot day. The four
stanzas are ordered in a sequence, starting with morning and ending with the heat of the
afternoon and the conclusion that Africa is good when man is not present.
Interpretation:
Key:
Green – important connotation
Yellow – alliteration.
Blue – contrast.
Line:
1. The morning is full of activity. ‘Files’ suggests that the activity is organised and wellstructured.
2. Man is compared to ants. This suggests the lack of individuality of all of the men as
well as the number of men working and the set structure that they work in. This
comparison stands in contrast with the rest of the poem, where man is separated
from nature.
3. The sun is compared to a gong. This suggests its round shape and brassy colour.
‘Beats’ suggests the violent nature of the sun as well as its power. Man is
uncomfortable in the heat suggesting that they do not belong in Africa.
4. The hornet, in contrast, is suggested to be at ease in the African heat (see
alliteration).
5. Nature is portrayed using pleasant imagery, enforcing the tone of the last line.
‘Flood’ suggests a complete covering.
6. ‘Bowing’ is a graceful gesture of politeness. Again suggesting the ease of the animals
in the African environment.
7. ‘News’ may refer to the weather or a northerly wind.
8. The heat causes the cicada to start their shrill screeching. This is another example of
the sun being associated with the sun. This suggests its power over all of nature.
‘Mad’ may refer to the cicada and their uncontrollable reaction to the heat or it may
suggest that the sound they make is maddening.
9. The earth is compared to an overheated engine that...
10. is in danger of exploding.
11. The cicadas force their noise upon man.
12. Their noise is harsh and continuous and is compared to the praise...
13. of the midday sun. That it is white-hot suggests that the sun is at its hottest.
14. The cicada carry on increasing the pitch of their noise until it becomes unbearable
(maddening- see line 8).
15. The noise of the cicada is now contrasted with ‘silence’, showing the separation of
man from nature.
16. Man hides from the sun’s rays indoors or in the shade.
17. Man is drained by the heat, left to lie about in a daze until the coolness of the
evening comes. The use of ‘this’...
18. and ‘that’
19. and ‘those’ removes man’s individuality. They are all affected in the same way.
20. Man, unlike nature, becomes inactive in the heat. This further separates man from
nature.
21. This line suggests that the heat is life threatening. It is a build up from bad to worse
almost like the sun that goes from hot in the morning to unbearable at midday.
22. The wild doves now begin to coo.
23. The dove’s heads are described as ‘neat’, suggesting that they are well groomed,
composed and dignified, and ‘silk’, which is fine soft and precious material. This
contrasts with man’s tiredness and sweaty, uncomfortable state. That their heads
are never still also contrasts with man’s slowness in the heat.
24. The dove’s sounds are cool and are described as ‘bubbling’ which suggests water and
thus refreshment and coolness. Again a contrast to man in the heat of the day.
25. ‘Liquidly’ adds to the water image in the previous line. ‘Formulae’ suggests that the
noise they make is fixed and carefully structured.
26. That the doves are in secret tents suggests that man is unaware of their exact
whereabouts, that they almost live by their own culture and are much more than
what man sees of them. This is a further separation of man from nature as man does
not understand it.
27. The sounds of the doves is natural and is thus more effective than man-made music
in conveying that...
28. in man’s absence Africa (nature) is good.
Alliteration:
The alliteration causes the words to roll more easily off the tongue. The effect of this
suggests the calmness and ease with which the animals can exist in the intense heat, as if it
were an everyday occurrence of little importance. This contrasts with the awkward and
inactive behaviour of man during the hot day suggesting that man doesn’t really belong in
Africa.
Compiled by B. S. Seegers