Attitude, tone and ideas

Much of the meaning of a poem is conveyed by the attitude it expresses towards its subject matter. Attitude can be thought of as a combination of the poet's tone of voice, and the ideas he or she is trying to get across to the reader.

To decide on the tone, you need to think about the ideas and attitudes in the poem, and then decide how you would read it aloud.

Should the poem be read:

In a nightmarish tone, as in a horror film?
In a cold, dead tone, to emphasise all the horrors described?
In a warmer tone, to celebrate the love that does exist?

Choose a short quotation to justify your choice.

Ideas

The ideas in this poem concern the relationship between evil and love. In the first part, the vultures are used as a symbolsymbol: An image or thing (usually something physical, like a flag) that stands for or represents something else - usually something abstract, like a nation. A crucifix is a symbol of Christianity. for the paradoxparadox: An apparently contradictory, or impossible proposition that is actually true. that evil and love can co-exist; in the second part, Achebe uses the Belsen Commandant as an actual example of this. Have a look at the quotations below, and our suggestions about how they fit in to this theme.

Key phrases and how they fit into the theme

Images	Key phrase	Commentary
Picture courtesy of Caitlin Clark	Strange...	Strange is isolated in a single-word line. This makes us dwell on the word and prepares us for the image of love settled in an evil place. By the end of the poem, Achebe shows that even the most evil people experience kindred love, but that love is not powerful enough to halt the evil.
Picture courtesy of Frans Devriese	...they picked/the eyes of a swollen/corpse...	Achebe picks the most gruesome images he can find when describing the vultures to emphasise their evil. This prepares us for the human evil he goes on to explore.
Picture courtesy of Marco Masciovecchio	for in the very germ... is lodged the perpetuity of evil.	It is poignant that Achebe concludes the poem with the idea of the predominance of evil. Evil is lodged within love - and evil is the haunting final word of the poem.