ENGLISH FORM SIX POEMS:When it Comes to Politics By Charles Mloka

 When it Comes to Politics By Charles Mloka ~ The Wonderful Surgeon and Other Poems

When it comes to politics, relays are downright,
When it comes to politics, there is a lot of rhetorics,
When it comes to politics, interests are conflicts,
When it comes to politics, lawyers throw ethics,
When it comes to politics, the mighty dictates rights,
When it comes to politics, people always fight,
When it comes to politics, there is a lot of politics.

When it comes to politics, graft is in the list,
When it comes to politics, there are ruling elites,
When it comes to politics, choice is in the minds,
When it comes to politics, leaders become chameleons,
When it comes to politics, laws are the ruling means,
When it comes to politics, courts are human rights,
When it comes to politics, there is much to appreciate.

When it comes to politics, lies compete with truth,
When it comes to politics, promises queue,
When it comes to politics, propaganda dominates,
When it comes to politics, opportunism is the wind,
When it comes to politics, friends become fiends,
When it comes to politics, mudslinging the game,
When it comes to politics, ideologies are theses.

When it comes to politics, inevitable are changes,
When it comes to politics, justifications are winding,
When it comes to politics, armies are ruling hand,
When it comes to politics, the mandate is polity,
When it comes to politics, critics are enemies,
When it comes to politics, wounds always sound,
When it comes to politics, there is a lot of gimmicks.

When it Comes to Politics By Charles Mloka

POEM ANALYSIS

[1] THE POET

Charles Mloka was born in Arusha, Tanzania. He attended primary and secondary education between 1965 and 1975. He studied Bachelor of Laws (LLB) and Master of Laws (LLM) from the University of Dar es Salaam. He worked as clerk Assistant in the Parliament of Tanzania from 1998-2006. Currently, he is the Assistant Director in the Hansard Department of the Parliament of Tanzania.

[2] THE TITLE OF THE POEM

The title of the poem is direct as it reflects the contents of the poem. It tells about the politics and how the politicians are involved in the game of politics.

[3] THE SUMMARY OF THE POEM

The poem is about the political activities and how these politics are exercised by the politicians together with the effects they bring in the society.

[4] PERSONA

The persona of the poem is ironical and angry with bad politics and irresponsible politicians.

[5] ADDRESSEE

The addressee is the community which have the experience of unsuitable politics as well as selfish and hypocritical politicians.

[6] TONE

The tone of the poet towards the audience and the topic is ironic and satirical.

[7] MOOD

The mood of the poem to the audience is sad and angry.

[8] STRUCTURE OF THE POEM

The poem has unique and regular structure. It has four stanzas and all stanzas have equal number of lines, namely, seven lines per each stanza.

[9] KIND OF THE POEM

The kind of poem is modern lyrical poem. It is short and it expresses strong feelings of the poet towards the subject.

When it Comes to Politics By Charles Mloka

[10] SOUND DEVICES

Several sound devices have been harnessed by the poet. Some of them are;

(1) Parallelism.

The poet has applied this sound and poetic technique almost throughout the poem. This involves the arrangement of lines or verses in parallel, that is, to make sentences identical in some way. For example, in all stanzas, the poet begins the line with ‘When it comes to politics’,. This line parallels all the lines of the poem. This method is utilized by the poet to emphasize the matter.

(2) Repetition.

This technique is also obvious. The utterance ‘When it comes to politics’ has been repeated so as to emphasize the point.

[11] LANGUAGE

The poet has put into operation the simple language that is well understood by the ordinary readers of the poem. He has used the simple vocabulary to make the reader grasp the meaning of the poem easily.

When it Comes to Politics By Charles Mloka

[12] THEMES

The themes of the poem are many. Some of them are:

(1) Conflict.

“When it comes to politics, people always fight” in the 1st stanza. Or “When there is politics, friends become fiends” in the 3rd stanza.

(2) Violation of leadership ethics.

“When it comes to politics, lawyers throw ethics” in the 1st stanza.

(3) Oppression.

“When it comes to politics, mandate is polity” in the 4th stanza.

(4) Lack of freedom of speech.

“When it comes to politics, critics are enemies” in the 4th stanza.

(5) Classes.

“When it comes to politics, there are ruling elites” in 2nd stanza.

(6) Hypocrisy.

“When it comes to politics, there is a lot of rhetorics” in 1st stanza.

(7) Irresponsibility.

“When it comes to politics, leaders become chameleons” in the 2nd stanza.

(8) Injustice.

“When it comes to politics, the mighty dictate rights” in the 1st stanza.

(9) Disillusionment.

“When it comes to politics, wounds always sound” in the 4th stanza. Or “When it comes to politics, inevitable are changes” in 4th stanza.

(10) Torture.

“When it comes to politics, armies are ruling hand” in 4th stanza.

(11) Betrayal.

“When it comes to politics, promises queue” in 3rd stanza.

[13] MESSAGE OF THE POEM

The message of the poem is the practice of politics in the modern countries like Tanzania. The political that involves political parties is practiced but with a lot of negative effects that affects the people.

[14] LESSON OF THE POEM

The poem gives us various lessons. We learn from the poem that politics should be handled fairly by the politicians lest it can bring devastating results to the people like conflicts and underdevelopment to the respective society.

[15] RELEVANCE OF THE POEM

The poem is relevant to most contemporary societies that practice politics. Even in Tanzania, politics is practiced unfairly in the sense that politicians are not responsible and people are affected dearly.

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