"Symbiosis or Death": - Rhodes University

94
• Humankind as apart from nature
In contrast to the few poems which reflect humankind as united with nature (and, even
then, tensions exist) there are many poems in the five earlier collections which explore
the theme of humankind as decidedly apart from nature.
In the final stanza of “Africa” (The Skull in the Mud, also in SP 13) Livingstone
uses the anvil as a metaphor for the African land which suffers the ‘hammer blows’ of
modern technology. The image of a foundry, suggested in the “night’s black mouth” (line
4), is initially used as a metaphor for the geomorphological formation of the Earth and,
particularly, of Africa. In geological time the “hammer suns” (line 1) work with the
earth’s molten lava (“ruby freshness furnaced” (line 2)). In the “dawn” (lines 1 and 6) of
the birth of Africa the land is formed through geomorphological processes, “the
avalanching anvil rush” (line 7). The first two stanzas describe this process and the third
stanza personifies the birds and amphibians (herons and newts) as they go about the
business of earning a living. This serves as an introduction to the “linear mistakes” (line
13) or technological abuse of the Earth, which are explored in the final stanza.
The smothering, unecological effect on the Earth of modern science and
technology is shown in:
A sanguine Earth bowls languid through the lakes
of Einstein’s field of linear mistakes,
and Africa spreads sideways to the crush.
(lines 13-15)
The Earth is “sanguine” and “languid” and this inherent contradiction of fullbloodedness
and torpor indicates that the Earth is both brave or optimistic and patient or
uncaring. The lines imply that the Earth is unconcerned about the appropriating actions of
humankind. The inclusiveness of the Earth, or nature, is juxtaposed with the
exclusiveness of human action, the “linear mistakes” or misuse of scientific knowledge.
The land’s initial and formative “hammer suns” have been replaced by human hammer
blows. (The anvil as an image for “stalwart nature” resurfaces in the later collection The
Anvil’s Undertone. See analysis of “The Paladin”, p 120.)
The ravaging effects of our modern lifestyle, brought about by the misuse of
science and technology, are indicated through “the crush” which impacts on Africa so
that it has to “spread sideways”. In the previous stanza humans (signified as personified
herons) start this technological process through agriculture and mining when “they stalk