Perhaps in his loneliness he had acquired the silent conviction that he was 'the last', the one, the only. And, being the last, he ceased to be Benjamin, becoming Israel. And upon his heart had settled the history of five thousand years, no longer remote, but become as the history of his own lifetime. His "I" was the converse of the imperial "We. Unknown
About This Quote

Benjamin Zephaniah is a British poet and playwright. His poetry and plays often deal with race and identity. In “Possessed,” he writes about the black man in the white man’s world, which was very similar to his own life. It can be said that this poem was written when Zephaniah was not in reality the last black man in society but instead had become invisible to himself. He had lost his identity as a black man but had found something greater in his own life.

Source: A Canticle For Leibowitz

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