Vultures - Explanation of poem

 

 

Vultures

Chinua Achebe

 

In the greyness
and drizzle (light rain) of one despondent (miserable)
dawn unstirred (undisturbed) by harbingers (indicates arrival of someone – associated with death and doom)
of sunbreak a vulture
perching high on broken
bones of a dead tree (Personification)
nestled(settled) close to his
mate his smooth
bashed-in head, a pebble
on a stem (twig) rooted in
a dump of gross (unpleasant)
feathers,[YB1]  inclined(motivated) affectionately
to hers. Yesterday they picked
the eyes of a swollen
corpse[YB2]  in a water-logged (wet)
trench (drain) and ate the
things in its bowel. Full
gorged (overeat) they chose their roost (branch)
keeping the hollowed (dug out) remnant (remaining)
in easy range of cold
telescopic eyes...(Section 1 ends with the description of vultures with ellipsis)
[YB3] [YB4] 
Strange
[YB5] indeed how love in other
ways so particular
will pick a corner
in that charnel-house (storage place for bodies)
tidy it and coil up there, perhaps
even fall asleep - her face
turned to the wall!

(tries to ignore the presence of evil)

(Section 2 is about the description of nature of love)
[YB6] 
...Thus the Commandant at Belsen [YB7] 
[YB8] Camp going home for
the day with fumes (burning smell) of
human roast clinging (connected - fitted)
rebelliously to his hairy
nostrils[YB9]  will stop
at the wayside sweet-shop(shop at the edge of the road)
and pick up a chocolate
for his tender offspring (children)
waiting at home for Daddy's
return...[YB10] 

(Section 2 is about the description of commandant starts and ends with ellipsis)

Praise bounteous[YB11]  (plentiful)
providence (nature or God) if you will
that grants even an ogre(Monster – cruel person)
a tiny glow-worm (beetle)
tenderness encapsulated (captured in)
in icy caverns (cold caves) of a cruel
heart or else despair
for in the very germ (root)
of that kindred (familiar) love is
lodged the perpetuity (eternity)
of evil.[YB12] 

(Section 4 is the conclusion of the poem with two options)

---

 [YB1]Unpleasant bird – ugly looking bird with affection that it is with it mate

 [YB2]Eating in a ugly way

 [YB3]Cruelty of vultures – telescopic is mechanical here – refers to the telescope of gun

 [YB4]A body without much flesh lying and vultures are still having their eyes on it

 [YB5]Subject matter changes

 [YB6]Love is as woman – not hard to please – finds a way of existing in unpleasant environment (Charnel house) by cleaning a corner and turning her face ‘to the wall’

 [YB7]Belsen camp – Nazi concentration camp – commandant has supervised brutal torture of thousands of jews

 [YB8]Subject matter changes

 [YB9]Burning smell of human flesh forcefully enters in his nostrils

 [YB10]After killing these Jews – he is buying chocolate for his child – contradictory image – makes us uncomfortable – commandant as a family man

VULTURES NESTLING – Connection here – real evil

Nazis – vultures

Vultures are helping in ecological services and humans are destroying nature and human

 [YB11]Conclusion of ideas presented above

 [YB12]Two options

1. Tiny goodness in cruel hearts of people is still there (Commandant)

2. Sense of hopelessness because though they have capability to love they will always become to choose evil (as commandant)