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Poem Analysis : Civilization And The Leopard

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This poem is written in the form of a rhetorical, persuasive, legalistic plea made on the behalf a leopard that has been displaced from its natural habitat and placed in the confines of a “cage” or confines of civilization. This poem through its use of the symbolism and metaphors the of civilization and the leopard explores the relationship between an imperialistic western colonial power and its colonies as being exploitative, hypocritical and structural.
In the first line, two entities are mentioned, who continue to substitute the opposing characters throughout this poem; Civilization and the Leopard. The kind of civilization can be largely inferred from the poem as being Western, Globalized, Industrialized, Principled, Educated and Colonialist; Western mainly due to the mention of Asia as belonging to the leopard, to whom the civilization is unaccustomed to, and the imagery such as a leopard, deserts, Ethiopia, gold, palms portrayed as “exotic”, distant and foreign geographically as well as culturally to the civilization, the use of English and the setting of the poem of which this plea takes place is to a western English speaking audience and adjudicator; Globalized in that this seemingly western civilization has exposure to other geographical locations such as Asia and Ethiopia and palms and deserts, which are not native or culturally associated with western culture or countries; Industrialized since in order to have been exposed and aware of other cultures in the
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