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Vultures – Chinua Achebe The poem begins with an unpleasant description of a pair of vultures who nestle lovingly together after feasting on a corpse. The poet considers how strange it is for love to exist in places you would not have thought possible. He goes on to consider the 'love' a concentration camp commander shows to his family. After spending his day burning human corpses, he buys his child sweets on the way home. Bergen-Belsen was one of the most notorious concentration camps of the Second World War. It became a camp for those who were too weak or sick to work and many people died because of the terrible conditions.
In the greyness and drizzle of one despondent dawn unstirred by harbingers of sunbreak
a vulture perching high on broken bone of a dead tree nestled close to his mate his smooth bashed-in head, a pebble on a stem rooted in a dump of gross feathers, inclined affectionately to hers.
Vultures eat dead bodies but they act in an affectionate way to each other. Contrast of emotions. Yesterday they pickedthe eyes of a swollencorpse in a water-loggedtrench and ate the things in its bowel
Strange indeed how love in other ways so particular will pick a corner in that charnel-house tidy it and coil up there, perhaps even fall asleep - her face turned to the wall! The vultures in the poem eat things that are already dead. This is different to the Commandent, as he kills humans. Similarly, the vultures are eating the bodies to survive. The Commandent does not need to kill people. Charnel-house = a vault where dead bodies are piled.
‘…the commandant at Belsen…’ He was responsible for the deaths of thousands of people.
“going home for the day with fumes of human roast clinging rebelliously to his hairy nostrils” The Commandant cannot forget what he has done at work – the smell of burning bodies stays with him.
“will stop at the wayside sweet-shop and pick up a chocolate for his tender offspring waiting at home for Daddy's return” Image of the Commandant buying sweets for his child. The words “tender” and “Daddy” suggest that the child is young and innocent.
Praise bounteous providence if you will that grants even an ogre a tiny glow-worm tenderness encapsulated in icy caverns of a cruel heart or else despair for in every germ of that kindred love is lodged the perpetuity of evil. bounteous providence = all good things that God gives to mankind. kindred = related by blood, close family. perpetuity = going on forever.
Praise bounteous providence if you will that grants even an ogre a tiny glow-worm tenderness encapsulated in icy caverns of a cruel heart or else despair for in every germ of that kindred love is lodged the perpetuity of evil. The end of the poem is ambiguous – this means that the meaning is unclear. There are two different things that Achebe could be saying.
On the one hand, Achebe is saying that we should give thanks that even someone terrible can have a little spark of love and tenderness. Even and “ogre” or monster can have a “tiny glow-worm” of tenderness. This means the poem ends on a positive note. On the other hand, Achebe despairs. Some people only show love for their own family and allow themselves to be evil to others. For every “germ” of love the Commandant has for his family, evilness still continues. Should we despair that terrible evil can be found in love?
