Before The Sun by Charles Mungoshi-full description

Before the Sun is written in free verse and provides a contemplative voice of a boy who is on the threshold of maturity and is trying to come to terms with adolescence and its problems.He thus communes with nature ,mainly the sun and intuits an understanding of life.Charles Mungoshi was the son of a farmer and helped his parents out in the field which clearly indicates his secret relationship with nature.Often he would walk alone ,herding cattle and pondered on the complexities of life.Through this poem he explains the difficulties of growing up and the phase of puberty.

The poems begins by setting up a bright healthy atmosphere by the use of words ‘Intense blue morning’.Its morning, a time when all things come to life and there is activity ,all processes start and there is a new existence marked in this world. The words ‘morning,afternoon,rain’ all suggest the changing weather pattern...

Mother and Child watching each other

Poets Kalymnos

Poets Kalymnos

The weather forecast given can also be read as a metaphor for stages of life ,morning being childhood, middle age as afternoon and rain might be symbolic of old age. The word ‘intense’ suggests the excitement about entering a new phase of life,his overflowing emotions . ‘Intense blue morning promising early heat’ gives us the idea about youth and adolescence where one is at the brink of childhood and finds the next stage of life very promising, bright and intense. He is very passionate and is looking forward to what life has to offer to him in the form of heat and warmth associated with youth. But ‘later in the afternoon’ gives us a picture of the waning youth where one is viewed as an adult. The intense blue morning has given way to the ‘afternoon and heavy rain’.The life is now taking a turn...