William Charles Franklyn Plomer was a South African and British
author, known as a novelist, poet and literary editor. He was educated
mostly in the United Kingdom, but he described himself as an "Anglo-
African-Asian".
He became famous in the Union of South Africa with his first novel,
Turbott Wolfe, which had inter-racial love and marriage as a theme. He
was co-founder of the short-lived literary magazine Voorslag
("Whiplash") with two other South African rebels, Roy Campbell and
Laurens van der Post; it promoted a racially equal South Africa.
‘Namaqualand After Rain’ is a
loving celebration of the
beauty and rejuvenating
powers of nature. In the
poem, the dramatic annual
transformation of the arid
semi-desert of Namaqualand
into a magnificent, vibrant
carpet of wildflowers is used
as a reminder that life finds a
way to survive and renew
itself, even in the harshest
conditions.
‘veld’ confirms that the
events described are in
Dramatic opening: southern Africa ‘revives’ emphasizes
‘Again’ emphasizes that that the event is a
this has happened
before
Again the veld revives, repetition and that the
land is being brought
Imbued with lyric rains, back to life
‘lyric’ suggests
something light, And sap re-sweetening dry stalks
flowing and melodic
Perfumes the quickening plains;
Glossary: Lines 3-4 are suggestive of blood coursing in the veins as
imbued – saturated, ‘sap’ is the fluid that circulates in the vascular system of a
impregnated, soaked plant; the word ‘quickening’ refers to the time when a
quickening – awakening, pregnant woman starts to feel her baby moving in the
reviving, resuscitating womb – the landscape feels alive
Again the veld revives
Imbued with lyric rains,
And sap re-sweetening dry stalks
Perfumes the quickening plains
delicate, thin roots, possibly
glistening with rain drops
The word ‘explode’
captures the intensity of Small roots explode in strings of stars,
the burst of activity and
the way the roots are
Each bulb gives up its dream, The bulbs wake up from their slumber
spreading out in every Honey drips from orchid throats,
direction
Jewels each raceme;
Lines 7-8: Sensuous, opulent imagery, almost sexual
connotations; spring is a time commonly associated with
reproduction and birth
‘Small roots explode in strings of stars,
Each bulb gives up its dream’
‘Honey drips from orchid throats,
Jewels each raceme.’
The desert sighs at dawn –
As in another hemisphere
The temple lotus breaks her buds
On the attentive air –
‘The temple lotus breaks her buds
On the attentive air –’
Glossary:
frou-frou – showy
or frilly
ornamentation,
rustling,
especially of
women’s skirts
beveined –
marked with A frou-frou of new flowers,
veins
Puff of unruffling petals,
While rods of sunlight strike pure streams
From rocks beveined with metals;
‘A frou-frou of new flowers,
Puff of unruffling petals’
…rocks beveined with metals
Far in the gaunt karoo
That winter earth denudes,
Ironstone caves give back the burr
Of lambs in multitudes;
Glossary:
gaunt – lean,
haggard, scrawny,
thin, angular or
bony
denudes – strips,
deprives, lays bare,
exposes
‘Ironstone caves give back the burr
Of lambs in multitudes’
Sheep’s Burr
Grass waves again where drought
Bleached every upland kraal,
A peach-tree shoots along the wind
Pink volleys through a broken wall,
‘Grass waves again where drought
Bleached every upland kraal’
‘A peach tree shoots along the wind
Pink volleys through a broken wall’
And willows growing round the dam
May now be seen
With all their traceries of twigs
Just hesitating to be green,
Glossary:
traceries – delicate
branching patterns,
outlines
‘And willows growing around the dam
May now be seen
With all their traceries of twigs
Just hesitating to be green’
Soon to be hung with colonies
All swaying in the leaves
Of pendant wicker love-nests
The pretty loxia weaves.
Glossary:
pendant – hanging,
dangling, suspended
loxia – weaver bird
All swaying with the leaves
‘
Of pendant wicker love-nests’
‘The pretty loxia’
