Half-ballad of Waterval
Non-commissioned Officers in Charge of Prisoners
Half-ballad of Waterval - context Summary
Waterval Prison Camp
Set at the Waterval Prison Camp, the ballad voice is a non-commissioned officer who escorts prisoners and reflects on what he has seen. The speaker describes daily humiliation, guarded watchfulness, and the shame prisoners carry, and he gains sympathy for them despite fulfilling his duty. The poem registers a moral unease about incarceration and the treatment of captives, grounding its emotional claim in the speaker's firsthand experience at Waterval.
Read Complete AnalysesWhen by the labor of my 'ands I've 'elped to pack a transport tight With prisoners for foreign lands, I ain't transported with delight. I know it's only just an' right, But yet it somehow sickens me, For I 'ave learned at Waterval The meanin' of captivity. Be'ind the pegged barb-wire strands, Beneath the tall electric light, We used to walk in bare-'ead bands, Explainin' 'ow we lost our fight; An' that is what they'll do to-night Upon the steamer out at sea, If I 'ave learned at Waterval The meanin' of captivity. They'll never know the shame that brands-- Black shame no liven'' down makes white-- The mockin' from the sentry-stands, The women's laugh, the gaoler's spite. We are too bloomin'-much polite, But that is 'ow I'd 'ave us be . . . Since I 'ave learned at Waterval The meanin' of captivity. They'll get those draggin'' days all right, Spent as a foreigner commands, An' 'orrors of the locked-up night, With 'Ell's own thinkin'' on their 'ands. I'd give the gold o' twenty Rands (If it was mine) to set 'em free For I 'ave learned at Waterval The meanin' of captivity!
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