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Subject Matter
Picture courtesy of Brian R. Logan
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. Yesterday they picked the eyes of a swollen corpse in a water-logged trench and ate the things in its bowel. Full gorged they chose their roost
keeping the hollowed remnant in easy range of cold telescopic eyes ... 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! ...Thus the Commandant at Belsen Camp going home for the day with fumes of human roast clinging rebelliously to his hairy nostrils will stop at the wayside sweet-shop and pick up a chocolate for his tender offspring waiting at home for Daddy's return ... 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.
Vocabulary
| Words | Description |
|---|---|
| charnel-house (line 26) | A vault where dead bodies or bones are piled. |
| Belsen Camp (line 30) | 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. Anne Frank was interned there and died of typhus in 1945. The camp was liberated in 1945. |
| kindred (line 49) | Related by blood, close family. |
| perpetuity (line 50) | Going on forever. |
What is Vultures about?
The poem begins with a graphic and unpleasant description of a pair of vultures who nestle lovingly together after feasting on a corpse. The poet remarks on the strangeness of love, existing in places one would not have thought possible. He goes on to consider the 'love' a concentration camp commander shows to his family - having spent his day burning human corpses, he buys them sweets on the way home.
The conclusion of the poem is ambiguousambiguous: Open to more than one interpretation.. On one hand, Achebe praises providence that even the cruelest of beings can show sparks of love, yet on the other, he despairs - they show love solely for their family, and so allow themselves to commit atrocities towards others.
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