Touch Q and MG

Poetry Pack: IEB HL 2023ff Touch ~ Hugh Lewin Hugh Lewin (1939–2019) was born in Lydenburg, South Africa. His parents were English missionaries. He graduated from Rhodes University with a degree in Journalism, and spent some time working at the Natal Witness, Drum Magazine and Golden City Post. He was arrested and imprisoned for sabotage – he was an anti-apartheid activist, and he spent 7 years at Pretoria Central Prison. In 1971 he left South Africa and spent 10 years in exile, living in London, then another 10 in Zimbabwe. Finally, in 1991, he was permitted to enter South Africa again. Despite his brutal treatment at the hands of the Security Branch, he emerged haunted but forgiving. He became director of the Institute for the Advancement of Journalism in Johannesburg and was a member of the Human Rights Violations Committee of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Bishop Tutu describes Lewin as ‘a man endowed with Ubuntu, or humanness… a resilience that prevented him from going to pieces… He writes like a journalist who is a poet’. He worked as a freelance media trainer, and died early in 2019 of Lewy’s Body Disease, a degenerative condition. His memoir is entitled ‘Bandiet out of Jail’ (2002). A subsequent memoir called ‘Stones against the Mirror’ was published in 2012, and in it we read of his journey to England to meet and forgive his best man, and former best friend, who had informed against him, leading to his arrest. He also shares his grief at being a part of a network of informants whose tips helped the African Resistance Movement. He did not plant bombs but he knew that his information helped those who did. Paul Trewelha, a lifelong friend of the writer, says Lewin was ‘a person of exceptional goodness. He sought for no high office, and never trumpeted his name. He always did what he thought was right, no matter what the cost’. 1. In the opening lines, you read ‘When I get out’ what is your impression of where the poet might be? 2. If someone asks to be touched ‘very gently please’ what can you infer has happened prior to this request? 3. What is the effect of repeating ‘for seven years’? 4. Suggest possible meanings of ‘untouchable.’ 5. Should fists be associated with ‘touch’? Motivate your answer. 6. Why has the poet mentioned ‘paws’ rather than hands? Ironically, being ‘untouchable’ can also mean being very powerful. Discuss. 7. What effect is achieved by the use of alliteration in stanza 5? 8. Many people, after being held in prison, in isolation, or after being abused, might not want to be touched at ALL. How does the poet differ? Quote to support your answer. Include a comment about the poet’s tone in your answer. © Macrat Publishing Poetry Pack: IEB HL 2023ff SUGGESTED ANSWERS: Touch 1. It suggests he has been imprisoned somehow. If you have read the biographical information, you realise that he spent 7 years in jail. ‘get out’ suggests that he has been incarcerated. 2. It suggests that previously they have been exposed to some level of harshness or abuse. Very adds to the plea, emphasising what degree of gentleness is required. The please at the end also adds an intensity to the appeal. 3. The repetition stresses the duration. The poet emphasises how long that period was for someone imprisoned. 4. Untouchable literally means one who cannot or may not be touched but it could also refer to the lowest caste of people in India, known as the untouchables. These people are looked upon with much disdain and others will not reach out or touch them. They are seen as pariahs or sub-humans. 5. Personal opinion. Touch is meant to be something sensitive, gentle – there are many nerve endings in hands and the ideal movement of someone touching you is meant to be an act of kindness, comfort and compassion. We speak about moments of pathos as being ‘touching’ for they affect us emotionally. We find them sensitive and moving. But to touch only in an abusive manner is harsh, discordant. Lewin describes the fists as ‘fierce mad fists/beating beating’ and the effect of this is that all he remembers is screaming ‘don’t touch me’ – an appeal for no contact at all, rather than contact that is so harsh and malicious. 6. Paws are associated with animals. To hurt another human being the way he was beaten and tortured is surely not human (is inhumane). We are meant to be compassionate to one another, not abusive. If someone is described as ‘pawing’ you, it suggests unwelcome, animal like gestures or sexual harassment – this is NOT the way humans are meant to touch one another. 7. The ‘p’ sound is alliterated throughout the stanza. It is a quiet plosive sound which suggests the quiet intrusion of the searching hands. It emphasises the indignity suffered by the poet over the four years that he was subjected to body searches. The alliteration also links the words which are progressive in their intrusion, reaching a peak in the final word of the stanza – ‘privacy’. 8. He is not asking for no human contact. He is not isolating or withdrawing himself. He is making a tender appeal to be touched ‘I want/to be touched/again/and to touch’. He expresses that touch is linked to his sense of being alive ‘I want to feel alive again’. He links kind, compassionate touch with being alive, and being free. His tone is dignified; he is not pleading, nor is he begging. He asks politely, but there is a poignancy, a vulnerability in his request. © Macrat Publishing