Poem or Praise? Classifying a Setwana Text
A Literature class is given a short Setswana text with these features: it names a person and praises his cattle, his generosity, and his ancestry; it uses repeated openings, direct address, and vivid comparison; it has no regular line length and no end-rhyme. One learner says "it is not a poem because it does not rhyme and the lines are uneven". Another says "it is a poem because it is about feelings". The teacher wants the class to recognise that Setswana literary forms include traditional praise poetry, which works through repetition, naming, and comparison rather than rhyme, and that classification depends on conventions of the genre, not on English-language assumptions about what poetry must look like.
1. Decide what kind of text this is, and justify the classification using the features given.
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The text is best classified as traditional praise poetry (a praise poem). The decisive features are naming of a person, praise of his cattle, generosity, and ancestry, repeated openings, direct address, and vivid comparison. These are the working conventions of the genre. The absence of end-rhyme and regular line length does not disqualify it, because rhyme is not a defining requirement of Setswana praise poetry; its patterning comes from repetition and formulaic naming. The learner who judged by rhyme was applying a foreign template, and the learner who judged by "feelings" was too vague to be useful.
2. Explain why "it is about feelings" is an inadequate criterion, and propose a better test for classifying a Setswana literary text.
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"About feelings" is inadequate because many kinds of writing express feeling (letters, sermons, songs), so it does not separate literary genres. A better test asks: what conventions does the text use, and what is it doing? Does it name and praise a person, use formulaic repetition, address the subject directly, and invoke ancestry? Those point to praise poetry. Does it narrate events with characters and conflict? That points to prose narrative. Does it present action through dialogue and staging? That points to drama. Classification should rest on observable genre conventions and function, not on vague emotional impression, which cannot be checked or taught.