Sleep Without Wake Cockcrow Questions (Summary, Analysis, Discussions and Literary Devices)
This write up will seek to present to students and lovers of poem summary, line by line analysis, commentary, literary devices and questions with answers from the sleep without wake poem.
Before we dive into the intricacies of this Sleep Without Wake Cockcrow Questions, analysis and others, let us take a look or read through the poem.
Cockcrow Literature Poem: Sleep Without Wake
Sleep Without Wake
A. Amoako
Mother’s milk gave me suck
Mother’s fingers soothed my skin
The night kept Mother awake
When baby was sour
5 And that was me!
You vanished into the morning mist of
April’s last days, 1998
Precisely how and when is
Locked up in your wooden box
10 Thus severing the Korlebu Cord between
You and me, Premier son of a Premier daughter
Abenaa’s Pioneer child Kwabena
You put me through my infant paces
On Gold Coast’s Ga Shikpon
15 Taa taa, tuu tuu, in your maternal steps,
Maame Tutuaa, condolences!
You were brought into view again after
A long chilling month, your face frozen
Into a grim Visage
20 Till you thawed somewhat
Into your familiar self but,
Still, inert, immobile like a
Sculptured bride
To the Mourners’ wailful gaze.
25 Your last Odumase words to me Only a week before were,
“Go in peace, it looks like rain”
Words as auspicious, puzzling, portentous, Looking back.
This is the end of the poem,
Now, we can look at some of the meaning of words and issues the poet tried to raise in this beautiful poem, title, Sleep Without Wake by A. A. Amoako.
Meaning of words used in the poem
Sour: bitter, disagreeable, protesting You
vanished: disappeared, missing; gone Precisely: exactly, accurately,
Severing: separating, cutting, ending Cord: string twine, cable, rope, link
Premier: foremost, leading, (first born) Pioneer: early, forerunner
Infant paces: child steps or speed
Maternal steps: mother walking
Condolences: funeral sympathies, empathies
Chilling: freezing, frightening, terrifying, distressing
Grim: unattractive, ugly, serious
Visage: appearance, form, facial expression
Thawed: melted, defrosted, softened
Inert: slow, inactive
Immobile: immovable, still, motionless Wailful
gaze: mournful gaze, sad expression,
Auspicious: promising, favourable, positive,
Puzzling: bewildering, confusing, perplexing
Issues the poem raises(Cockcrow Literature –Sleep Without Wkae)
Death is sudden and unpredictable; it deprives parents of their children and children of their parents. Family relatives suffer the consequences of death.
Theme: A tribute by a son to his mother at her death, showing the bond between mother and son.
Read Also: Home Sweet Home by Ken Saro-Wiwa: Characters, Summary and Literary Devices (COCKCROW LITERATURE)
Description: Note how the narrator employs the use of special descriptive adjectives in the poem to make the expression more graphic: Korlebu Cord (line 10); “Premier son” (line 11); “Pioneer child” (line 12); Premier daughter (line 11); Odumase words (line 25). Other descriptive words include the use of pos- sessive pronoun: Mother s milk, Mother’s fingers, Abenaa s pio-neer child, Gold Coast s Ga Shikpon. Mourners’ wailful gaze
Title: When people sleep, they wake up again. Sleep Without Wake, therefore, means something more than normal sleep; it means death.
Form/Structure: The lines of the poem are uneven and there are no end-line rhymes.
Some Literary Devices used in the Sleep Without Wake Cockcrow Literature Poem
Personification: The night kept Mother awake (line 3)- as “night” is given human quality.
Euphemism: … Wooden box … (line 9) – used in place of coffin or casket (Euphemism is a word or expression used to talk about unpleasant or embarrassing subjects without mentioning the thing itself. Example: Sleep for “death”.
Alliteration: Taa taa, tuu tuu… / Maame Tutuaa. The literary term is created by the repetition of the same initial sounds of the consonant “T”. Notice the rhyming sounds. Also, the literary term Assonance is created in the sound Taa taa, tuu tuu… / Maame Tutuaa because of the same vowel sounds that appear close in the same line.
Onomatopoeia: The words Taa taa, tuu tuu…/Maame Tutuaa contain sounds that are similar to the noises they describe. The line describes the sound as a child takes shaky
steps learning to walk.
Simile: … immobile like a / Sculptured bride…” (lines 21 and 22) in which the “still, inert” (body) is compared to a Sculptured bride.
Cockcrow Literature on Sleep Without Wake – Commentary/Analysis
Line-by-line explanation
The night kept Mother awake (line 3): Note the delicate use of the word “awake” in the title and line 3. The mother, now “asleep” without wake, used to be kept awake at night because the “baby was sour” (line 4) and needed to be fed breast milk and soothed (lines 1 and 2). Mother’s milk gave me suck: it was Mother who gave the suck, feeding the baby with breast milk.
Mother s fingers soothed my skin: Mother was kind- hearted, gentle, caring. The night kept Mother awake: “Night” is personified (giving human quality of being able to keep Mother awake).
Till you thawed somewhat (line 20): that is, when the hard, stiff, cold body removed from the mortuary was allowed to defrost (or the ice melt). a long chilling month…: what is chilling (or very cold)? Certainly not the month, for we don’t have chilling months in the tropics.
Rather, the poet is making an indirect reference to the cold receptacles of the morgue (mortuary) where the body was kept for a month.
Into a grim Visage: describing the facial appearance of a lifeless body as being unattractive, ugly, sorrowful.
Premier son of a Premier daughter (line 11): the narrator is a first son of his mother, who, in turn, was the first daughter of her mother.
Odumase words… (line 25): the last conversation between the narrator and his mother took place at Odumase, given birth, is herself picking up her steps alongside those of her child. (… in your maternal steps…) Such an intimacy bounded mother and child together.
Sometimes dead bodies are laid in state wearing their wedding gowns like a bride! The gowns worn by brides on their wedding day are often not used again in that form until they (the former bride) are laid in state at death.
Now it is time for use to solve some Sleep Without Wake Cockcrow Questions
- Mention two themes of this poem.
- What happened in April’s last days, 1998? 3. Identify three lines that describe Mother as kind, gentle, and caring.
- How long ago, and where, did Mother say, “Go in peace, it looks like rain” (line 7)?
- This phrase: Premier son of a Premier daughter (line 11) refers to whom?
- What is described in the poem as: Still, inert, immobile like a / Sculptured bride (lines 22 & 23).
- Who was Maame Tutuaa (line 16)?
- Name two literary terms found.in line 15: Taa taa, tuu tuu, in your maternal steps.
- What literary device is found in the lines, Into your familiar self but, / Still, inert, immobile like a… (note the word “like” that is used to make a comparison.
- What is said to be … Words as auspicious, puzzling, portentous, (line 28)?
Answer to the Discussion Question on Cockcrow Sleep Without Wake
- Two themes of this poem are:
- The sudden and unpredictable nature of death, which deprives both parents of their children and children of their parents, causing suffering among family relatives.
- The bond between a mother and her son, as portrayed through the son’s tribute to his mother at her death.
- In April’s last days, 1998, the mother of the narrator passed away.
- Three lines that describe Mother as kind, gentle, and caring are:
– “Mother’s milk gave me suck” (line 1)
– “Mother’s fingers soothed my skin” (line 2)
– “Mother s fingers soothed my skin: Mother was kind-hearted, gentle, caring.” (line 14)
- Mother said, “Go in peace, it looks like rain” (line 7) a week before her passing. This occurred at Odumase.
- The phrase “Premier son of a Premier daughter” (line 11) refers to the narrator, who is the first son of his mother, who in turn was the first daughter of her mother.
- The lines “Still, inert, immobile like a / Sculptured bride” (lines 22 & 23) describe the appearance of the deceased mother, who is lying still and motionless like a sculptured bride.
- Maame Tutuaa (line 16) is likely a reference to a relative or acquaintance who is offering condolences to the narrator upon the death of his mother.
- Two literary terms found in line 15 “Taa taa, tuu tuu, in your maternal steps” are:
– Alliteration
– Onomatopoeia
- The literary device found in the lines “Into your familiar self but, / Still, inert, immobile like a…” is a simile, as it compares the inert and immobile state of the deceased to that of a sculptured bride, using the word “like” for comparison.
- The phrase “…Words as auspicious, puzzling, portentous” (line 28) refers to the last words spoken by the deceased mother to her son a week before her passing, which are seen as significant, perplexing, and possibly foreboding in retrospect.
Not Done yet, Get to Answer the Sleep Without Wake Cockcrow Questions
Sleep Without Wake, the answers to these questions are in bold format.
- In the line “Mother 50 milk gave me suck, “we find the literary device-
- Assonance
- Personification
- Imagery
- Symbolism
- Where did mother vanish into?
- Vanished into the dark night
- Vanished into nothingness
- Vanished into the morning mist
- Vanished into the eternal abyss
- Wooden box is a figure of speech used in place of casket or coffin. What figure of speech is that?
- Hyperbole
- Sarcasm
- Euphemism
- Paradox
- The poem Sleep Without Wake is about whom?
- Ga Shikpon
- Maame Tutuaa
- An unknown mother
- All African mothers
- Who is referred to as Premier son?
- Kwabena
- Korlebu Cord
- Maame Tutuaa
- The Pioneer child
- Which of the following lines is NOT from the
poem?
- The night kept Mother awake
- Taa taa, tuu tuu, in your maternal steps
- To the Mourners’ willful gaze
- Your Krobodumasi words to me
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