"Symbiosis or Death": - Rhodes University

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evident. The theme of humankind as part of nature, or the possibility of a symbiotic
relationship between the two, disappears and is replaced by ecological despair. However,
symbiosis is mentioned twice in the anthology: in a tone of yearning in “Eland About
Station 17” where Livingstone refers to the now marginalized San as “symbiotic man
about / the business of getting on with the earth” (lines 21-2) and as a dire warning of
humanity’s future extinction in “Road Back” where the option is given as “symbiosis or
death” (line 36) because “The planet counterattacks. / Its choice is plain: kill or be killed”
(lines 34-5).
Humankind’s abuse of nature is explored through pollution of the Earth
(“Christmas Chefs at Station 1a”), materialistic concerns (“Old Harbour”), cruelty
towards animals (“Beach Terminal”, “Bad Run at King’s Rest” and “Carnivores at
Station 22”) and abuse of other human beings in, amongst others, the holocaust poems
“South Beach Transients” and “The Metallic Aviator”. Ecological destruction through the
erosion of social structures is strongly evident in “Eland About Station 17” and “Children
at Station 16”.
In “Christmas Chefs at Station 1a” (12) the disgusting mess left on the beach
after a Christmas party causes Livingstone to ponder humanity’s imperfections. The tone
of the poem moves from disgust at the “incredible” mess on the beach to despair in the
second and final stanza where he laments humankind’s inability to attain “truth” (line
12). He implies that humanity’s psychic evolution is still in its infancy and that we need
to strive (line 15) to attain the following ideals:
The approximation to justice,
the perfectability of man,
the conservation of beauty,
the final attainment of truth
(lines 9-12)
The argument in these lines is that if humankind could approximate the idea of justice, if
we could understand that man contains the possibility of perfection, and if we could
appreciate and therefore conserve beauty (or live ecologically), then we would finally
arrive at “truth”. But these are “salients that ever evade” our consciousness (line 13). The
final three lines explore this ‘but’. The problem is humanity’s youth, or ignorance, which
precludes responsibility. Even though the apprehension of these eternal verities is
“salient”, is a prominent if not vital part of our consciousness, we are too stupid or