"Symbiosis or Death": - Rhodes University

ief stillnesses out from time…
(lines 2-4)
So, the rose – traditionally a symbol for love – comes to represent aspects of
nature, science and art in this complex poem about humankind’s attempt to manipulate
evolution through the science of genetics. It explores the effects of man’s interference
with the given natural order. Stanzas four and five list the results of this interference in a
series of ‘not, buts’ where the natural function is juxtaposed with the ‘artificial’ use
humankind makes of the basic components of the universe:
not law but its consequence,
not organ but impulse,
not synapse but memory,
not cells but their function,
not atoms but their temper,
not extent but intent…
Humanity’s “intent” is criticised and the consequences of this intent or interference are
contained in the “flawed rose” which, although as beautiful as a work of art, harbours in
its compromised genetic blueprint humankind’s folly, which is described as “willed
perfection” (line 18).
The Anvil’s Undertone contains many poems which examine humankind in its
alienation from nature. “August Zulu” (10), a dense poem which examines Zulu culture
on the cusp of change, reflects the speaker’s shifting perspective of nature as he travels
into the hills and finds a polluted river. The interrelationship of these themes, particularly
the debilitating effects of technological progress which result in water pollution, can best
be interpreted ecologically. The poem, broadly, explores how change may or may not be
reshaped into a new form. The potter, as an image of the remoulder, is introduced in the
first section, “throwing his best” (line 14), and reappears at the poem’s closing:
The potter has not revoked,
But paused to rethink a handful of cups:
A potential lives longer than a truth.
Sanibona, greetings, peace and good luck!
There is a possible allusion to Isaiah, where God or the designer moulds humankind: “we
are the clay, and thou our potter; and we are all the work of thy hand” (64:8). But
Livingstone’s potter is, I think, the Creative Principle which forms and regulates Earth’s
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