Presentation
IEB poem - Touch
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ToucBy Hugh Le
, • Born in 1939 in Lydenb
Mpumalanga, under ol
apartheid regime. Died
2019.
• He studied at Rhodes
University- liberal
university.
• He became a freedom
fighter and was found
of sabotage against the
government. Hugh Le
was an anti-apartheid
Background of South activist in South Africa
African poet
Hugh Lewin
, Hugh Lewin
•He spent 7 years in prison. He then went into exile- you are forced to flee.
•Hugh Lewin grew up during South Africa’s apartheid years. Upon leaving school, he became a
journalist, working for Pietermaritzburg’s Natal Witness, Drum and Golden City Post.
•His observation of the repressive South African regime eventually became too much for him a
resorted to fighting vehemently to bring about its downfall. In 1965 he was sentenced to seven
imprisonment for sabotage. The poem “Touch” is an attempt to capture his feelings during tho
horrific years in Gaol.
•Upon being released from prison in 1971, Lewin chose to leave the country on what was know
“permanent departure permit”. In other words, he could never return to the place of his birth. H
spend ten years in exile in London, followed by a further ten years in Zimbabwe.
•He returned to South Africa in 1992 upon the cessation of the apartheid system and thereupon
the Director of the Institute for the Advancement of Journalism in Johannesburg.
•Lewin has written several books and poems, and he has been the recipient of several literary a
, Structure and Format
• Structure: Free verse with one stanza of short, fragmented lines.
• Structure is important as it gives us the vessel - how the poem is deliver
• Significance: Reinforces fragmentation while in prison- needs healing tou
• Structure is important as it gives us the vessel- how the poem is delivere
Touch in prison makes him feel inhumane.
• The structure is free verse however, speaker is not free hence ironic.
• Tone: Plaintive - sounding sad and mournful.
• What comes to mind when touch comes to mind?
Important sensory experience. Important from birth for development.
, Touc
The Poem by Hugh L
,When I get out
I’m going to ask someone
to touch me
very gently please
and slowly,
touch me
I want
to learn again
how life feels.
I’ve not been touched
for seven years
for seven years
I’ve been untouched
out of touch
and I’ve learnt
to know now
the meaning of
untouchable.
,Untouched – not quite
I can count the things
that have touched me
One: fists
At the beginning
fierce mad fists
beating beating
till I remember
screaming
Don’t touch me
please don’t touch me.
,Two: paws
The first four years of paws
every day
patting paws, searching
– arms up, shoes off
legs apart –
prodding paws, systematic
heavy, indifferent
probing away
all privacy.
I don’t want fists and paws
I want
to want to be touched
again
and to touch,
I want to feel alive
again
I want to say
when I get out
Here I am
please touch me.
, Analysis
About his experience while being incarcerated. It was not easy as
he was Caucasian, liberal and against government.
If you're reading this it's too late
, Title
verb
come into or be in
Touch noun
an act of touching
contact with. someone or something.
A need for loving contact and connection that is disrupted with (ironically) harsh contact. Does not tell us wh
about positive touch or negative touch. In the poem the speaker wants loving touch but what he receives is br
from the prison guards which is violation. Guards hurt him and strip him of his humanity. Touch refers to a no
can also be seen as T-ouch : ouch showing pain.
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