BATCH 5
Subject : Poem : Tread carefully, Canada…
- **Poetic Irony**: The archaic “doth” contrasts with high-tech reality—suggesting **old forms masking new dominations**.
> 🔍 **Parallel**: W.H. Auden’s *“The Shield of Achilles”*—where modern war reduces human agency to mechanized control.
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### **Section 5: “The former colonizer / Into a colony turn’d itself…”**
> *The former colonizer
Into a colony turn’d itself
Since three-quarters of a century,
And hath ne’er struggl’d free :
‘Tis a one-way ticket…
The appetite cannot be appeas’d …*
- **Interpretation**: Likely refers to **Britain**—once imperial master, now politically and culturally subordinate to U.S. hegemony (e.g., “special relationship” as dependency).
- **Broader Warning**: Even powerful nations can become **vassals** under unipolar order. Canada, though never a formal U.S. colony, may follow this path via **economic, military, and cultural alignment**.
- **Philosophical Depth**: Echoes **Frantz Fanon**—colonization isn’t just territorial; it’s **psychic and structural**. Consent becomes complicity.
> 🔍 **Parallel**: Derek Walcott’s *“The Spoiler’s Return”*—on postcolonial elites internalizing imperial logic.
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### **Section 6: “About Gaza they spoke of being…”**
> *About Gaza they spoke of being
A fine piece of real state…
The wrecking hath been done :
Now the bulldozing be need’d …
A brand-new fifty-third state
Be they charting…
They be already talking of
Skyscrapers :
Do Gazans need those ? ! ...
The writing be on the remaining walls…*
- **Devastating Satire**: “Real state” = **real estate + nation-state**. Gaza—bombed, blockaded—is fantasized as future luxury development zone. This mirrors **settler-colonial erasure**: destroy, then rebrand.
- **Global Pattern**: From Palestine to Puerto Rico, **dispossession is followed by speculative reinvention**. Canada, though wealthy, shares vulnerability: if useful land exists, empire will redefine its ownership.
- **Moral Outrage**: The rhetorical question (“Do Gazans need those?!”) channels **prophetic anger**, akin to Amos or Darwish.
> 🔍 **Parallel**: Mahmoud Darwish’s *“We Are All Gaza”*—land as memory, not commodity.
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### **Section 7: “Tread carefully, Canada…”**
> *Tread carefully, Canada…
Neither China
Nor Europe,
Nor anybody else
Of any succour for thee could be :
Of thy independence the days
Might be number’d …
Keep both feet on the ground :
Or the ground might shake terminally…*
- **Isolation Theme**: In a unipolar world, **no external ally can shield Canada** from U.S. pressure. Multilateralism (UN, NATO) offers no real counterweight.
- **Existential Warning**: “Ground might shake terminally” merges **geological metaphor** (earthquake) with **political collapse**—suggesting systemic rupture, not gradual change.
- **Voice**: The speaker shifts from observer to **mourner**, acknowledging Canada’s tragic bind: too close to resist, too large to ignore.
> 🔍 **Parallel**: Seamus Heaney’s *“Whatever You Say, Say Nothing”*—on trapped identities in occupied spaces.
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### **Section 8: “The writings be on the wall…”**
> *The writings be on the wall,
Quoth the Bard
Of Stanley-upon-Grand Canal…*
(To be continued)
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