One of many poems by Dennis Brutus reflecting on the prison experience, Robben Island Sequence is fairly typical of the poet’s later work, in which Brutus sought to eliminate the tight verse structure and ornate diction of his earlier work to achieve greater clarity and reach a wider audience.

Whereas Brutus had originally been influenced by the 17th-century English metaphysical poets, he draws more directly on the American free-verse tradition of Walt Whitman and Langston Hughes in this poem to describe from memory, in straightforward language, some of the hardships that he faced on Robben Island, the notorious prison facility off the coast of South Africa.

Comprising nearly 70 lines of varying length, Robben Island Sequence is divided unequally into three sections. The first and longest focuses on one of the meaningless jobs that convicts were forced to perform—collecting stones and seaweed from the sea. It begins somewhat impressionistically by recording the different shades of red discernible in the blood spilled by barefoot prisoners, who were assaulted by “the bright blade-edges of the rocks” (l. 14) on the beach. It ends with an image of man’s injustice to man, as the speaker recalls the warden “Kleynhans laughing” (l. 36) and holding a convict’s head under the water.

An aubade of sorts, in that it alludes ironically to songs of lovers parting at dawn, the second section of the poem explains what it was like “to be a prisoner, a political victim” (l. 51) faced with the prospect of a new day on Robben Island and the need to endure. Here again, the threat of violence is all too real, as the criminal prisoners, in search of their next sexual conquest, survey the young political prisoners.

The effects of such violence are addressed in the third and final section of the poem, which details the various injuries of those waiting in line at the prison infirmary, where most things are treated with castor oil. Robben Island Sequence ends on a quasi-nostalgic note, as the speaker observes, “what a bruised and broken motley lot we were!” (l. 69). Thus Brutus proudly identifies with the political prisoners who remain on Robben Island, although he is permanently removed from the struggle against oppression in South Africa as an exile.

Bibliography
Brutus, Dennis. Stubborn Hope. London: Heinemann, 1978.
McClatchy, J. D., ed. The Vintage Book of Contemporary World Poetry. New York: Vintage, 1996.

Categories: Literature, World Literature

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