Are You Still Playing Your Flute?

In the first stanza, the persona feels guilt in longing for the song of the flautist. The persona continues to pen about a conscience that is disturbed, in the third stanza.

What do you think is the reason behind the persona’s feelings of guilt and a disturbed conscience?

The reason she feels guilty in the first stanza could be because it is she who has distanced herself from her beloved. She therefore feels that she should not be longing for the melody of the flute nor the flautist himself. In the third stanza, her conscience is possibly troubled because her thoughts keep returning to the flautist despite the knowledge that there are more pressing and urgent matters that demand her attention.

The last line of the poem states: This world is too old and bleeding

This line makes reference to a world that seems ‘wounded’ and depleted. It has aged and lost its prime and freshness. There is only heartache and trouble now. In the lines before this, the persona also mentions violence, unemployment and political disunity.

Adapted from: STAR-NIE 19 September 2012