“At the Seashore”

By Mbuyiseni Oswald Mtshali

Kasouga beach, Eastern Cape, South Africa.

Photo by Stan Galloway. Please do not use without permission.

The poem is found in Sounds of a Cowhide Drum, pages 46-47.

For Your Consideration:

What kind of person is characterized by the first stanza? What are the key words?

What do the following words and phrases from later stanzas connote: “rabbit from hounds,” carpet, cigar, mare … stallion, patio, “thick lips,” “master and missus”?

Is this seashore a pleasant one? Why or why not?

Compare this poem to “Beaches Again” by Lolly Hornby (Fidelities VIII, May 2001). What similarities and differences do you find in the poems? How do the people implied in the two poems differ?

Created by Stan Galloway, 3 January 2002. Send comments to sgallowa@bridgewater.edu.