The Oak and the peach: An anthology of poems

Macmillan South Africa, 1984-01-01. Paperback. Acceptable. Macmillan South Africa [Published date: 1984]. Soft cover, 337 p. Stated First Edition, Fifth Impression 1987. In acceptable condition. Green illustrated soft covers with blue lettering on front and spine. Light bumping and creasing to edges and corners of covers with a bit of peeling to the corner tips. Light overall scuffing and soiling to covers as well. Spine is creased but binding is still tight. Previous owner's name and date in ink at top corner of title page. Endpapers and insides of covers have staining from tape residue (book had a plastic cover taped on). Pages have light margin notes and underlining in pencil throughout. NOT Ex-library. NO remainder marks. A good reading copy. Contents include: Chronological list of poets and poems; Acknowledgements; Introduction; Southern African Poetry; British, American and Commonwealth Poetry; Pointers on discussing. a poem; Starting-points on some poems; Reference sources; Recommended reading; Supplementary material; Index of Authors and poems; Index of first lines [From Introduction] The title, The Oak and the Peach, was chosen to reflect the inclusion in one anthology of a selection of poems from British (including Commonwealth) and American sources, symbolically seen as an oak tree, as well as of poems from Southern African sources, symbolised by a peach tree. The anthology will be useful not only to a wide range of students among speakers of English as a second language but also to those whose mother-tongue is English. The emphasis in the selection is, however, on poems that have an immediate impact and speak for themselves, rather than on poems that require extensive mother tongue background and explanation.Included are those traditional mainstream British poems that have remained central from the point of view of poetic distinction, the reader's enjoyment and the encouragement of poetic discernment. A selection of American poetry has also been made, on the assumption that a great deal of it has already become part of the mainstream of poetry in the English language. The 'oak' of the title thus represents those poems in the anthology that are taken from traditional mainstream sources and can be said to embody the proverbial strength and stability of the oak tree. The peach tree, on the other hand, represents the section on poetry from Southern Africa. Sepamla's poem 'The Peach Tree' is included in the selection, and William Plomer uses the image of the peach tree in his 'Namaqualand After Rain'. Sepamla speaks of the manifold purposes of the peach tree in his daily life. Moreover, the peach tree grows not only in the backyard of most urban and rural homes but also next to railway lines and country roads throughout the region. Even where farms and smallholdings do not boast a peach orchard for commercial purposes, at least one 'pip' peach tree serves as a lonely sentinel near the house. The peach tree has, in effect, become a symbol of home, an anchor, as it were, for all the peoples in this region.