Poetry I

LECTURE ONE

Introducing Poetry

What Poetry is.

Let me begin with a part-quotation from one of the many existing definitions of poetry this time, by a famous English poet and critic, William Wordsworth. He defined poetry as spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings. The uniqueness of human experience is largely responsible for the often controversial responses or reactions to poetry. What should be of concern to you as a student of poetry or me as a teacher of poetry, however, is the dimension of the controversy and its effect on both students and teachers of poetry. To many, poetry is a scary mystic. It is regarded as something inaccessible, a puzzle. Many teachers of poetry have also not helped matters. Some of them unwittingly compound the fear and the apparent helplessness or students by turning poetry into some nameless "crow" through unwholesome teaching methods, partly because they themselves are insufficiently equipped. The result is predictable as it literally kills poetry as an exciting study.

Definitions of Poetry

Poetry means different things to different people. Carefully read and digest the following excerpts from different attempts by some great poets and critics at the definition of poetry. They certainly will explain further the import of this statement. Poetry is:

i. "The power to define the undefinable in terms of the unforgettable." Louis Untermeyer and Carter Davidson in Poetry: Its appreciation and Enjoyment (New York, 1934), p.9.

ii. "The music of the soul, and above all of great and of feeling souls. One merit of poetry few persons will deny: it says more in fewer words than prose." Voltaire, in "Poets," a Philosophical dictionary, trans. William F. Fleming (New York, 1901), p.218

iii. "Simply the art of electrifying language with extraordinary meaning." Lascelles Abercrombie, The Theory of Poetry (New York, 1926), p.93

iv. "Simply the most beautiful, impressive, and widely effective mode of saying things." Matthew Arnold, "Heinrich Hein," Essays in Criticism: first Series (London, 1921)London, 1921), p.161

v. "Transfiguration, the transfiguration of the actual or the Real into the Ideal, at a lofty elevation, through the medium of melodious or nobly sounding verse." Alfred Austin, "The Growing Distaste for the Higher kinds of Poetry," Fortnightly Review, LXXIV N.S. (March, 1904), p.383

vi. "A comforting piece of fiction set to more or less lascivious music-a slap on the back in waltz time- a grand release of longing and repressions to the tune of flute, harps, sackbuts, psalteries and the usual strings." H. L. Mencken, Prejudices. Third Series (New York, 1922), p.151

vii. "The art of uniting pleasure with truth, by calling imagination to the help of reason." Samuel Johnson, "John Milton," Lives of the English Poets (London and New York, 1958), 1, p.100

viii. "The lava of the imagination whose eruption prevents an earthquake." George Gordon, Lord Byron, Letters and journals, III, ed. Rowland E. Prothero (London, 1922), p.405.

ix. "Man's rebellion against being what he is" James Branch Cabell, Jurgen (New York, 1927), p.333

x. "Poetry comes with anger, hunger and dismay; it does not often visit groups of citizens sitting down to be literary together, and would appal them if it did." Christopher Morley, John Mistletoe (Garden City, New York, 1931), p.55

xi. "I wish our clever young poets would remember my homely definitions of prose and poetry, that is, prose words on their best order, poetry - best word in the best order" Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Table Talk and Omniana of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, ed. T. Ashe (London, 1896), p.54

xii. "The business of words in prose is primarily to state; in poetry, not only to state, but also (and sometimes primarily) to suggest." John Livingstone Lowes, Convention and Revolt in Poetry(Boston and New York, 1919), p. 181

xiii. "Perhaps no person can be a poet, or can even enjoy poetry, without a certain unsoundness of mind by poetry we mean the art of employing word in such a manner as to produce an illusion on the imagination,

the art of doing by means of words what the painter does by means of colours." Thomas Babington Macaulay.

"Milton," Essays and Biographies (London, 1906). 1. p. 7

xiv. "I could add that in Africa poetry is our very essence, our being and life; it is our day-to-day interaction with one another, it is our music and dance, the prayers of the traumatized, the pain of the pauperized, it is the cries of abandoned babies, the aroma of our cuisine, the birds and their songs, the gouts and their bleating the glamour of our environmental decay, our democracy and its casualties ..." Ademola Dasylva

The list is inexhaustible. By the end of this course you should be able to add your own definition to the endless list

Recent development in modern poetry, particularly the emergence of modern African poetry, is a pointer to new efforts being made to bring about necessary and gradual de-mystification and de-mystification of poetry. It is with this in mind that I intend to introduce to you, using the DLC, University of Ibadan, adopted methodology for effective study of modern poetry. In addition, it is intended to stimulate students' interest in poetry and possibly assist them in writing their own original poems.

My choice of method in this course is primarily intended to meet the need of the different categories of students of poetry, especially the introductory, as well as the intermediate levels of poetry studies in the DLC, the University of Ibadan programmes. In the light of our target audience, I have designed a two-pan teaching method with two basic steps to facilitate the study and understanding of poetry. Part I informs students on the general background and possible sources, as well as the distinguishing features and forms of poetry. Part II focuses on major movements and traditions in English Poetry, except in the case of the epic whose peculiarities

I find expedient to draw, largely, from the Anglo-Saxon "Beowull," John Milton's Paradise Lost and other selected African epics. Besides, Part II introduces students to the study of some poets and their works, and to understand each poet's spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings." This is a culmination of the informing ethos that catalyses the poet's creative (manner of crafting of the poems) and critical sensibility (the poet's expressed opinions on different subjects, and his level of consciousness which in turn, informs his interpretation of the reality around him). It involves the poet's society-including his general background, experience and exposure, ideological alignment or philosophy, among other things.

Possible Sources of Poetry

Although it may not be easy in determining how long poetry has existed one may just as well be contented with simply tracing the likely sources that have given birth to poetry in general. Nature possesses distinct orderliness birth and death: night and day. The sun, the moon and the stars give their natural light or blackout at determined time, pace and space. The planets revolve at a terrific precision around their orbits round the sun. The Earth too rotates on its axis with similar speed and precision, and simultaneously revolves around the sun on its orbit. The orderliness, or the observable precision I have described above as real as they are poetic. Naturally, they in turn, provoke poetry.

Similarly, the relationship between man and man (woman); or the interaction between man and nature quite often leads to some experience, or specific human feelings such of, for example, joy, sorrow, laughter, disillusionment, etc. These intense human feelings, when expressed in words, could be poetic. For example, man's interaction with nature gave rise to his acknowledgement of a Supreme Being, or God, or gods and goddesses, believed to be capable of assisting him in any helpless or hopeless situation. That was the beginning of religious worship. In such worship, the greatness, the enduring mercy, the omnipotence and the omniscience of the Supreme Deity are celebrated. This is done with a touch of hyper exaggeration. And over exaggeration is a common feature of poetry. For example, in Yoruba praise worship of the Supreme Deity referred to as Olorun (from Olu-Orun, meaning the Ruler Creator Owner of the Heavens of heaven), or Olodumare (Ruler/Creator/Owner of the universe, to whom I must return) it 1s in this regard, among others, that God is referred to as:

· Eleti gb'aróyé (He whose cars are meant to receive all complaints). Something close to this is observed in the next example which gives the impression of some Being with a pair of cars the size of a giant satellite dish- atypical over exaggeration: Eléii gbòrogodo (He whose ears are extremely large).

· Olowo gbogborogbo (lHe who possesses extremely long hands).

· Ogbagbà ti i gba ará àdúghò (The Deliverer who protects our neighbours)

In the same vein, certain historical figures who were elevated to the pedestal of deities or demi-gods by virtue of what the people believed were unparalleled achievements or contributions to their respective societies have found their ways into indigenous praise poetry and, or heroic chants, and epic poems.

Regardless of man's geographical location or colour pigmentation, is naturally an animist, and as such tends to react or respond to some natural phenomenon the same way. Some Shakespearian plays, or D.O. Fagunwa's novels, among others, are eloquent testimony in this regard. Although through science and modern technology he has successfully cleared some of the mist, the residue of the old belief in the existence spirit or supernatural forces is still very much with the indigenous African society. Man's interaction with nature and subsequent awareness of his limitations led his quest into the possibility of applying metaphysical means, including the power of the spoken word as coping strategy to subdue as well as control some of the nature-elements for the purpose of serving his needs. The metaphysical powers are otherwise called magic. Incantations are imbued with magical potency. Examples of incantatory poetry can be found in, (a) the encounter between Odewale and

Oba Adetusa in Ola Rotimi's The Gods Are Not To Blame (III.i.):

ODEWALE. What are these before my eyes?

What are these before my eyes?

Are they mountains or are they trees?

They are human beings and not trees.

They are human beings and not mountains.

For trees have no eyes;

Then let these eyes around me close

Close, close in sleep, close in sleep.

That is my word the mountain always

Sleeps. Sleep...sleep...sleep...

Sleep till the sun goes to sleep.

and

(b) When a strainer takes in water,

All the water immediately goes out of it

When a wicker fish-trap takes in water

All the water immediately goes out of it.

The drake cannot even in a fit of anger, crow.

…Oriji leaf commands you to forgive me,

no matter what I may have done amiss...

(translated by Olabimtan in Senanu & Vincent's A Selection of African Poetry. 12)

Poetry in this regard is perceived in the use of over-exaggeration (hyperbole), repetition and anaphora, imagery, use of negative or positive correlates, and rapidity of delivery (in the case of incantation)

In institutional mediation, poetry arises from the effects of social life. For example, songs to celebrate the arrival of new baby: wedding songs: elegiac songs and dirges to mark the departure to the great beyond of a beloved, religious hymns: chants celebrating courage or mocking human foibles, all handed down, orally, from one generation to another.

Traditional chanters, palace minstrels (or griots) poets, among others, were at liberty to employ their skills to pull down their society or assist in lifting it up, (see Niyi Osundare's "A Dialogue of the Drum"). Poetry becomes especially localized as an art expressed verbally.

Language, it must be emphasized, is a cultural production. Similarly, poetry subsists in expressed words (spoke or written). By implication, certain developments become perceivable, such as increased capacity for mental retention of poetry, refreshing poetry as a specialized (verbal) art, as well as sophisticating its many aspects. The development of poetry became more enhanced with the arrival of printing technology. One of such areas of development is the separation into oral and written poetry. Oral poetry still retains its spontaneity and uniqueness.

Written poetry now becomes more specialized and formalized; and except in few cases as in Okot p'Bitek's Son of Lawino and Song of Ocol, Okinba Launko's Ire and Other Poems for Performance or Ademola Dasylva's Songs of Odumolugbe in which the poets consciously retain the orality, the original aesthetics and form of the indigenous African oral poetry while the topicality engages contemporary issues. An example from Ademola Dasylva's Songs of Odamolugbe:

The hoe nips at mother Earth,

Like a blowing wind, my mercuric song reveals

The naked anus of the fowl feigning god.

Kange-Kange, my song from the broken gong.

Barren of Osundare' pastoral images,

The untiring Odamolugbe himself;

Lingering lyrics of Olosunla yesterlores,

Wigwagging lores whipping delinquent adults

Who add salt to our noon sores!

Singers of lore incapable of weaving songs

Into fighting spirits should observe, learn from

My master the Odamolughe himself

A drummer with a drum does not beat his belly instead.

My song, devoid of Soyinka's verbal smithing.

The rhythmic stirrup of Ogun metalines ... (p.28)


Poetry Appreciation I

Introduction

The first step in the appreciation of poetry is to learn to read a poem correctly, with every word pronounced correctly, and aloud; if you cannot do this: learn to read it attentively so as to hear the sounds of its words in your inner car. The second step is to bear mind always that some poems are simple, some complex, but no good poem yields all its meaning easily, or at once. A good poem has to be read repeatedly before it can be fully appreciated. Note also the following:

· Do not start by worrying about the meaning of a poem.

· Begin by appreciating its sounds, noting the variety of sound repetitions.

· Move on to know the meanings of the words used in the poem, and to determine whether the words have been used denotatively or connotatively.

· Identify the figures of speech, the rhetorical devices used, and their meanings. Then try to determine who the speaker in the poem is, what is his/her situation, and what tone does he/she use.

· Go over the poem again and again and again and again and...). By this time, a meaning of the poem will have suggested itself to your mind - in fact, you will have arrived at the meaning without realizing it!

Distinguishing Characteristics of Poetry

What distinguishes poetry from other forms of literature besides the characteristic economy of words is its exploitation of the resources of language music. In other words, the distinguishing features of poetry are both intrinsic. The exploitation is intense, more frequent and more discriminate than we have in other forms of literature.

i. Poetry and the resources of language

Diction Until recent times, the uniqueness of poetry was linked with its specialized use of poetic diction. In the light of this, some words are considered more "poetic" than others, and poets naturally prefer such poetic words to common place words. We must emphasize, however, that there is a thin difference between the language of prose and that of poetry. A casual reading of the first few pages of Wole Soyinka's The Interpreters (a novel) will definitely prove this. What is important is how best words are put to use. A good poet finds the best words to effect the best expression. The tendency, however, is for a poet to prefer a choice of words that are imaginative and more figurative than a writer of, for example, prose fiction. Consider some lines in Okot p'Bitek's "Song of Lawino".

When the sun has grown up

And the poisoned tips

Of its arrows painfully bite

The backs of the men hoeing

And of the women weeding or harvesting (83)

Or Christopher Okigbo's "Idoto".

BEFORE YOU, mother Idoto

naked I stand

before your watery presence

a prodigal... ("The Passage", 3)

Denotation

It is the primary meaning of a word is called its denotative meaning. For example, "There is a rat in the room In this context, the animal, rat, is unwanted in the room and may constitute a health hazard.

Connotation

It refers to the secondary meaning of a word; its symbolic meaning E.g., "There is a rat in this room." At the secondary or symbolic level, the meaning of rat transcends the mere animal. It suggests that a traitor is in the room. The implication is that they must be more careful about what they say or do.

Imagery

This is often used interchangeably with figurative language, or figures of speech. It is the concretization of otherwise could have been a mere abstraction in a way that gives sense experience. Our sense or mental response makes imagery possible. Imagery, therefore, evokes concrete mental images which in turn inform our emotional or intellectual response We must emphasize too that while imagery makes use of images, not all images qualify as imagery. For example, compare the two statements below:

(1a) I have been to Bodija market before; it was rowdy and stank terribly.

(1b) I have been to Bodija market before, it was a ranch of disorderly cattle, the odour hit one right in the face like the fist of some deadly boxer

In (1a) the statement is straightforward. The image or picture suggested is that of a disorderly and stinking market. In (1b) the statement has not expressed anything less. In addition to this, however, the statement also evokes some mental pictures that make the speaker's experience more enduring in the mind of his audience:

The image of disorderliness among a herd of cattle in a ranch suggests the rowdiness of the people, "a ranch", in this context, is suggestive of a market that is more suited for animals (cattle) than human beings. "Disorderly cattle" "ranch" are used metaphorically. Similarly, the stinking odour merely stank in sentence (la), now assumes the picture of a human being - a boxer the punches of whom are mischievous and deadly. The idea of filthy odour hitting one is a personification, and since the fist blow is likened to that of a boxer, it is a simile. Since imagery contributes significantly to poetry, I shall give it further attention under figures of speech in other help your understanding.

Figurative language

This has to do with some relationship between that which is said and that which is non-literal language. The relationship is at different levels:

Simile

It involves a physical or emotional similarity made between a given image and what is intended. In other words, is an expressed comparison between two unlike things in which "like", or "as", or any other similar expression is used. I must emphasize however that it is not every statement where "like" or "as" occurs that qualifies as a simile, hence the emphasis on two unlike things in the subjective or the objective). For example:

(2a) Olugbenga plays football like Angulu.

(2b) Anselm plays football like a bull.

(2c) Kareem is as good as Weah on the football pitch.

In (2a) Olugbenga and Angulu are two-like (similar) personages, therefore, the statement does not qualify for a simile

In (2c) Kareem and George Weah (the Liberian footballer who was declared the World Footballer of the Year 1995/96), are two unlike personages. The international weight of Weah makes it possible for this comparison to be a simile. Similarly,

In (2b), Anselm and a bull are two unlike entities hence the statement simply suggests that Anselm is a very rough or aggressive footballer whose manner of playing gives one the mental picture of a bull on the field of play. Therefore, it qualifies as simile. Other example of simile are;

(2d) "Except that like some fish

Doped out of the deep

I have bobbed up belly wise

From stream of sleep

And no cockcrow... (J. P. Clark, "Night Rain")

Clark likens a deep sleep to a stream or flowing river. The poet compares the discomfort of his sudden waking from a deep sleep and the attendant fear and surprise, with the shocking fear of a fish caught with a hook or the net, and forcefully drawn out from the deep of the sea, onto an open, waterless space, panting for life. Also in the same poem, "Night Rain":

(2e) Great water drops are dribbling

Falling like orange or mango

Fruits showered forth in the wind

Or perhaps I should say so

Much like beads I could in prayer tell

Them on string as they break

In wooden bowls and earthenware.

The thickness, heaviness or intensity of the rain drops which fall on the rooftop under the impact of powerful wind is likened to the effect of orange or mango fruits dropping, and the regular intervals or pace at which the rain drops drop into "wooden bowls and earthenware," the poet compares with the pace at which prayers are said on the rosary or the tesbiyu.

Epic Simile is a type of simile. However, unlike normal or usual simile, the reference is not only drawn from classical events, figures, elements, etc., but forms a good basis for digression(s), giving detailed information (clarification) about the referent. For example, John Milton draws a parallel similarity between the striking beauty of Eve (immediately after leaving Adam's side to work separately) and that of a Greek goddess.

“...Thus saying, from her husband's hand her hand

Soft she withdrew, and like a wood-nymph light,

Dread or Dryad, or of Delia's train,

Betook her to the groves, but Delia's self,

In gait surpassed and goddess-like deport,

Though not as she with bow and quiver armed,

But with such gardening tools as art yet rude

Guiltless of fire - had formed, or angels brought

(John Milton, "Paradise Lost" IX: 385)

Metaphor

In this case the comparison between the two unlike things are implied. Remember that in simile, it is an pressed comparison; in metaphor it is an implied or compressed comparison. Often it is difficult to recognize a metaphor

For example;

3(a) Chigozie is a bull on the field (metaphor)

(b) Olusegun plays football like a bull (simile)

4 (a) The angry man butchered his helpless wife (metaphor)

(b) The angry man killed his helpless wife as one butchers a cow (simile)

No doubt, the example given in (3a) may appear quite unusual since the most common ones are derived from nouns, for example "a bull", etc., however, the verb "butchered", no doubt, is a verb that conjures a mental picture of an abattoir scene where a butcher runs his knife through the throat of a cow, and finally cuts the cow into pieces.

Extended Metaphor

This is a reference that involves not only a one-to-one comparison, but which provide for the purpose of clarification, provides more information about the referent, e.g:

“….But it's a common proof.

That lowliness is young ambition's ladder,

Whereto the climber-upward turns his face;

But when he once attains the upmost round,

He then unto the ladder turns his back,

Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees

By which he did ascend,

(W. Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, II.i)

Personification

In this literary device, human attributes are given to abstractions, inanimate objects and non-human beings. In other words, it is transferring personal qualities to a non-person. It is, therefore, a misapplication of term to talk of personification where real living human characters are the points of reference. This is so because human characters are understandably persons already. However, where or when a poet chooses to give anything other than a living person the attribute(s) human being he makes a person of it. That is personification. Very close to personification is apostrophe. Examples of personification "The cold and monstrous hands of Death snatched my love."
The trees in the forest opened their boughs attentively to our tired helpless waiting
"In those days

When civilization kicked us in the face

When holy water slapped our cringing brows"

(our emphasis)

(David Diop. "The Vultures", lines 1-3)

"Civilization", "holy water", and "brows" are personified in the above examples "The ripest fruit was saddest."

(W. Soyinka, "Abiku" line 29) "O, Conspiracy seek not to hide your face" (Julius Caesar. Brutus, addressing the conspirators in one their nocturnal meetings)
"Love is gentle, meek and kind

Love does not loath to anger". (1 Cor. 13:4-8)


Apostrophe

In apostrophe a character, or the poetic voice (persona) addresses directly an inanimate object, or an abstraction as one would a living human being. The direct address could be to a dead person (as Antoni addresses the body of Julius Caesar in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar: Antoni: O mighty Caesar! Dost thou lie so low?

Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils.

Shrunk to this little measure? Fare thee well. Antoni: O! pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth,

That I am meek and gentle with these butchers:

Thou art the ruins of the noblest man

That ever lived in the tide of times.

Woe to the hand that shed this costly blood!

Over thy wounds now do I prophesy,

Which like dumb mouths do open their ruby lips,

To beg the voice and utterance of my tongue, ...

(W. Shakespeare: Julius Caesar)

or the biblical David to the slain bodies of Jonathan and King Saul) as if they were alive:

Excerpt from Lament of the bow by King David;

Your glory, O Israel, lies slain on your heights.

How the mighty have fallen!

Tell it not in Gath,

Proclaim it not in the streets of Ashkelon.

Lest the daughters of the Philistines be glad.

Let the daughters of the uncircumcised rejoice...

How the mighty have fallen in battle!

Jonathan lies slain on your heights.

I grieve for you, Jonathan my brother;

You were very dear to me.

Your love for me was wonderful,

More wonderful than that of women

How the mighty have fallen!

The weapons of war have perished!”

(II Sam. 1:19-20. 25-27, NIV Topical Study Bible, p. 324)

Such addresses may also be directed to someone who is not at the scene of an event but addressed as if he were present.

Allusion

This is an implicit or explicit reference to person, places, things or events, with historical or mythological significance. It can be reference drawn from the Bible, the Qu'ran, the Olfa corpus, or any classical literature of a given culture Greck, Oriental, African, etc. Allusion can be considered on three levels:

1. Classical allusion: a reference to person, place, thing or an event in the ancient classical Greek, on or African culture, eg

a) "You are the Helen causing the cities in my head to be at war with passion. (Reference is made to the classical beauty Queen that was said to be the cause of the sporadic wars between the Greek and Trojans. The two cities (Greece and Troy), had contested for the possession of the controversial Queen.

b) "Like the seven children of the legendary Oduduwa, your princes have launched out to found new literary kingdoms for themselves." A reference to Oduduwa and his seven children. Oduduwa is believed to be the father of the Yoruba race. His seven children were believed to have founded seven notable Yoruba towns.

2. Historical allusion: reference to person, place, thing, or an event in the contemporary history, for example;

a) If General Abacha's rule was characterized by a Tsunami of extra judicial killings, President of Obasanjo's eight years of democratic rule revealed a country submerged under a Katrina of institutionalized corruption in high places. (relevant to contemporary Nigerian political development). Can you suggest other relevant examples?

3. Biblical/Qu'ranic allusion: reference to person, place, thing or an event in either the Bible or the Qu'ran. Can you identify any such allusion in the passage below?

"...most African countries today constitute the modern Babylon. The deluge of poverty drowns and drags aw the people into perdition, leaving a few self-seeking opportunists in the Ark, afloat." (A.O. Dasylva, "A rudderless State-ship").

Apposition

It is an additional statement or word(s) to a preceding word, for the purpose of clarification or explanation. E.g

i. "...Mother has dipped three fingers

three fingers of her left hand:

thumb, forefinger and middle finger

I have dipped three fingers

three fingers of my right hand

thumb, forefinger and middle finger."

(our emphasis)

(Birago Diop, "Viaticum" lines 7-12)

The idea of "three fingers" is given further clarification in "thumb, forefinger and middle fingers."

ii. "The great fall through the Adamic experience has earned man, among other things, sickness: Death's harbinger."

* "Death's harbinger" (i.e. messenger of Death) is in apposition to "sickness".

Metonymy: is a figure of speech in which the poet substitutes the subject, profession, or person with an object closely associated with what is substituted e.g. "the King" can be substituted with the crown", the labour(er) with spade; writer with pen, soldier with gun, lady with skirt, etc., for example; The English archery Struck the French horses (Drayton, "The Ballad of Agincourt").

Synecdoche: is a form of metaphor in which the poet uses a part to represent a whole of the referent. The choice of the part of referent must be the most important part if the synecdoche is to be effective. E.g. (i) "all hands are on deck" meaning "everybody is at work", (ii) "We shall need mote Hands as the work progresses", meaning, "More people shall be needed as the work progresses." Blind mouths! That scare themselves

Know how to hold.

A sheep hook, or have learned aught else

The lease...

(John Milton, "Lycidas).

Symbols/Images/Allegory

These are sometimes difficult to distinguish. The word "image" often suggests a mental picture, that is, something perceived in the mind's "eye". An image, on a more general note, is what it exactly is.

Symbols

A symbol is something other than what it states or shows. It operates on two levels; that which is the symbol and that which it represents

White (as in colour): purity, or innocence, or death (as in ghost, or a shroud)

Red (as in colour): danger, or sacrifice, or victory (as in the Blood of Jesus Christ)

Green (as in colour): a rich vegetation, or naivety or ignorance, or inexperience.

Lamb: innocence, purity

Sheep: ignorance, foolishness, stupidity.

Allegory

An allegory is a narrative or descriptive poem which has a secondary or symbolic meaning besides the prime or literal meaning. The emphasis in this case, is usually on the ulterior, symbolic or literary (secondary) meaning.

It is not common in short poems but in long narrative poems, e.g. "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner", by ST Coleridge, "Faerie Queen" by Edmund Spenser, and "Paradise Lost" by John Milton.

Oxymoron

It is a figure of speech in which a poet places two contrasting words side by side to suggest an idea that seems contradictory e.g. "Bitter-sweet" or as in Coleridge's "The nightmare Life-in-death was she" (The Rime of the Ancient Mariner).

Antithesis

It is a figure of speech in which a poet uses a sentence or a paragraph, words or ideas of expression that are contrasting. The difference between this and oxymoron is in the fact that while oxymoron involves contrasting words placed side by side, antithesis does not place contrasting words or ideas side by side, for example; "To live, you must die first",
"What goes up must come down.

Paradox

This can be likened to "truth standing on its head." It is a strange truth. This strangeness resides in the statement's apparent contradiction which contains (some) seminal truth when carefully analyzed, for example; "A child is the father of the man,"
"A child is a man in small letters."

Understatement

It is a figure of speech in which the poet appears to say or state far less than he actually means, or where the poet chooses to say what he means with far less a force than expected, for example:

The grave's a fine and private place

But nose, I think, do there embrace.

(Andrew Marvell "To His Coy Mistress").

Hyperbole/Exaggeration/Overstatement

They all refer to a figure of speech in which the poet uses deliberate exaggeration without the intent of literal persuasion. A poet uses hyperbole with the aim of heightening effect, for example:

Had we but World enough, and Time...I would

Love you ten years before the Flood:

Thine Eyes, and on thy Forehead Gaze.

Two hundred to adore each Breast:

But thirty thousand to the rest

An age at least to every part,

Nor would I love at lower rate.

(Andrew Marvell "To His Coy Mistress").

Irony

It is a situation or a use of language, involving some incongruity or discrepancy,

There are different types of irony. These include: Verbal irony: this is saying the opposite of what one means;
Dramatic irony: here, the poet/playwright implies a different meaning from that intended by the dramatis persona;
Irony of situation: this involves an incongruity between actual circumstances and those that seem appropriate and that which come to pass.

What I have tried to explain through the different illustrations, so far are, some of the uses of the resources of language in poetry. Let us now consider how the poet exploits the resources of music. Poetry and the Resources of Music (the sound of poetry)

For the purpose of this study, let me discuss two relevant basic musical elements. These are melody and beat. Poetry often makes use of sounds which are carefully selected and organized to give harmonious appeal through repetition, or metrical patterns, or rhythmic flow. I must emphasize also that since poetry is a product of human utterance, it naturally has rhythm. I also like to add, however that not all poetry has rhyme (rime), and not all poetry has meter. The rhythmic flow of a poem is enhanced by the use of any or a combination of alliteration, anaphora/repetition, assonance, and consonance.

Alliteration

Repetition of initial identical, mostly consonantal, sounds in two or more words on the same line in a poem for the purpose of creating lyrical effect to give meaning to the overall effect of the poem. e.g

1. "Solo speaking of complex ways" (s - sound)

2. "Is it indeed Rome and room enough?" (r - sound)

3. "The hissing snake sails swiftly across the green lawn" (s - sound)

In example (3), the effect of the 's' sound suggests the swiftness of the snake, the hissing sound and S suggesting a snake symbol. Occasionally, there can be alliteration of sounds within words on a line; example; murmuring of innumerable disgruntled commuters."

Accent

Emphasis that has to do with the combination of any of - loudness, duration timing), pitch (low or high), and timbre.

In poetry, accent is synonymous with stress.

Cadence

Recurrence of accent or emphasis accompanied by modulations of rising and falling of voice.

Caesura

The main internal (media) pause of a line of poetry usually indicated by the use of natural stops in speech, punctuation or rhetoric rendered orally. The pauses which contribute to the rhythm of poetry do vary in length. Where a line of a poem requires a pause at the end, it is called "end-stopped". End-stopped is a line of poem in which both the thought and sentence) structure conclude simultaneously. In John Keats "La Belle Dame Sans Merci", the poet makes use of double caesura to emphasize serenity and the barrenness of the natural setting: And no//birds//sing."

Anaphora Repetition of the same word(s) at the beginning to two or more lines of a poem, for example:

With her three fingers red with blood,

With dog's blood

With bull's blood

With goat's blood

(Birago Diop "Viaticum").

Note the repetition of the word "with". It is meant to function as anaphoric element.

Repetition The same line occurring in two or more places, or used as refrain in a poem. The repeated lines may slightly vary, in some poems, they still qualify as repetition. The repeated lines with slightly variation can be found in poems like "The Sun on this Rubble after Rain", by the South African Poet Dennis Brutus.

Parallelism

Repetition of words at the beginning of some lines in a poem. If a poet frequently stresses the equal parts of sentences, such is referred to as balanced. Parallelism, aside from providing emphasis enhances the musicality of a poem. Diop's Viaticum offers a good example.

Assonance

Repetition of internal vowel sounds followed by consonants in two or more words on the same line of a poem, and in more than one stressed syllable for the purpose of creating lyrical effect that suggests the mood and meaning the poet wishes to convey. This is usually more effective in oral rendition, for example:

(i) “feeble reeds" (ii) "often we will our real desires".

(iii) "Blake breaks the snaking flakes" (iv) "Float...goat".

Consonance

Repetition of similar consonantal sounds at the middle or end of two or more words on the same line of a poem e.g. "terrible trouble".

Sounds in poetry are similar to melody in music. Similarly, music has beat and so do some poems. Often, poems have meters and where they lack them there is rhythm. In other words, as we have mentioned much earlier, not all poems have meters and/or rhymes (rimes) but certainly all poems have rhythm. Besides the earlier mentioned musical sources, other elements of music employed by the poet include: rhyme (rimes), refrain, onomatopoeia, euphony and cacophony. Other ways by which lyricism is achieves in poetry is through a conscious arrangement of accents. There is the need to explain further this constituent in this arrangement of accents.

Rhythm

This wave-like recurrence of sounds in music is a unique phenomenon in poetry. It is the flow of words and phrases or the movement of thought which helps to convey mood and meaning in poetry. Any fixed pattern or rhythmic arrangement of words is called meter. In other words, meter is a special kind of rhythm. It is a pattern that has to do with the stressed and unstressed syllables. Foot usually this contains one or two syllables only. One unstressed syllable with one stressed:

an iamb/v:/ (arise) One stressed syllable with one unstressed:

a trochee /:v/ (welcome) Two unstressed syllable with one stressed:

an anapest /v v:/ (in my heart) One stressed syllable with two unstressed:

a dactyl /v v/ (photograph) Two unstressed syllables:

a spondee /v v/ (my name) A monosyllabic foot stressed or unstressed:

/;/ (come) or /v/ (a, of, in) One stressed syllable between two unstressed”

an amphibral /v: v/ (Jehovah)

Line: Usually a line can have one or more feet.

One foot - monometer

Two feet - di-meter

Three feet - tri-meter

Four feet - tetra-meter

Five feet - penta-meter

Six feet - hexa-meter.

Rhyme: It suggests simply the use of matching sounds at the end of two or more lines of poetry. Types of rhymes include; Alternate rhymes: a sequence of alternately rhyming lines e.g.

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness! –a

Close bossom-friend of the maturing sun; -b

Conspiring with him how to load and bless –a

With fruit the vines that round the thatch-leaves run; -b

(J. Keats, "To Autum") Couplet: a sequence of two rhyming

"Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack, -a

Pressed to the wall, dying, fighting back!"

(C. McKay, "If We Must Die")

Note: All Shakespearian sonnets end with an indented couplet. Initial or beginning rhyme: a sequence of two similar words, or words with similar syllable(s) at the beginning of the lines of a poem, e.g.

…… the tranquil souls,

the breaths of the ancestors,

the ancestors who were men, the ancestors who were sages...

(Birago Diop, "Viaticum") End-rhyme: rhyme that occurs at the end of the lines e.g.:

and I have raised my three fingers towards the Moon

towards the full Moon, the full, naked Moon...

beyond the seas and further still

beyond the sea and further, further still

(Birago Diop, "Viaticum") Visual or Eye-rhyme: a sequence of two or more visually (that appear correct from the spelling) sound effect or pronunciation is half-rhyme e.g

Come live with me and be my Love,

And we will all the pleasures prove,

And if these pleasures may thee move,

Come live with me and be my love,

(Christopher Marlowe, "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love") Half-rhyme: imperfect rhyme resulting from the use of consonance and at times of assonance e.g. as in (v) above.
Triplet, and multiple rhymes: a sequence of three or more rhyming lines e.g.

"With her three fingers red with blood"

"With dog's blood"

"With bull's blood"

"With goat's blood"

(Birago Diop "Viaticum").

* Rhyme generally helps the musical quality of a poem. However, frequent use of rhyme can become monotonous, too artificial and which, most often, allows for a distortion of the syntactic elements of the syntactic lexical structures in poetry.

Poetry Appreciation II

In terms of its subjects, technique and mode, poetry can be put into various uses. The subject of a poem can be either of two things, public or private, depending on what informs the subject. A private poem deals with private feelings, subject and emotions, for example, love or a poet's identity. Christopher Okigbo's "Idoto" belongs to this category. A public poem deals with public life, politics socio-economic matters, wars, etc. For example, Okigbo's "Paths of Thunder" or Niyi Osundare's Village Voices. The idea of public or private is a mere demarcation of convenience. Most often we do have a combination of the two.

The fundamental areas to address your mind to when appreciating a poem include the theme, subject matter, (setting), technique/style, languages, diction, mood, and tone. I shall briefly comment on them.

Theme and Subject Matter

Quite a good a number of critics believe that theme and subject matter is one and the same thing. Perhaps this is so because of the very narrow margin between the two which only a discerning mind can perceive. I need to emphasize that there and subject matter are, indeed, not the same thing.

Theme (Topicality)

Every poet has a purpose for writing a poem regardless of manner of presentation. A poet may choose to state directly his/her theme or such thematic preoccupations may simply be implied. In other words, the theme may be suggested through the poetic voice, atmosphere, setting, style, and plot in case of a narrative or dramatic poem (like the epic, romance, heroic chant). By implication, theme is a composite statement which requires our understanding of other basic elements.

Locating a theme in a poem may be a little difficult where a poem appears vague or ambiguous or inconsistent. Nevertheless, identifying a theme should not be a matter of guess work. In identifying a theme, you must know how the poet suggests his/her theme, whether through the use of symbols, allegory, irony, or satire. Or whether the poet chooses to state his/her theme through the poetic voice (persona), or through the conflict arising from opposing ideas, situations, or characters (as in a narrative or a dramatic poem). Contextually, the theme of a

poem, or of any other literary form, is informed by its social, moral, individual, political, or spiritual reality of the author's, and in this case poet's, universe. Therefore, in order to find meaning in, or derive full pleasure from a poem you must put yourself in the poet's universe and consciously subsume a part of yourself.

Since theme is the key or central meaning or message or idea in a literary work, in this case, a poem, it must therefore be emphasized that it is not the same thing as subject-matter. Subject matter is the content-summary that gives a clue to the central idea (theme). In other words, subject matter makes the theme deducible. The illustration below further explains the correctness of this latter position. It is a simple animal story, entitled, Rebellion

Once upon a time in the animal kingdom, the Cat also known as Zimbo the Prophet, announced to the animal community that there would be famine throughout the land. The famine, the prophet warned, would last seven cars. Nobody ever took Zimbo's earlier prophesies lightly because of their precision.

King Lion therefore summoned all his subjects to deliberate on how to avert the impending doom. At last, it was decided that the animals would, collectively, cultivate a very large farm and store its produce after harvesting them in a very big barn from which members of the community would receive their daily supply for the period of the famine.

The following week, all the animals including the young one's and their mothers set to work. After several months, the task was completed. A very hard task, no doubt. The animals left for their respective homes to attend to other personal matters while waiting for the harvest which, again, they agreed, was to be collectively carried out.

Throughout the period of the hard labour, a family was missing. It was the tortoise family. Tiroko had instructed his wife, Yanibo, and children not to participate in the communal farming. It was characteristic of him to have some tricks up his sleeve. He and his family members had cleverly avoided detection by other animals throughout the period of the hard labour. They spent their time for leisure, and nobody detected.

At last, the harvest day was announced. A night preceding the day, Tiroko instructed Yanibo and his four children to carry a big basket each and follow him. In the dead of the night, Tiroko led his family to the community farm. They picked the choicest of the farm produce in their baskets and made for home.

On the way, a light wind gradually gave way to violent storm, uprooting and felling giant trees. The tortoise family was forced to seek refuge under an Iroko tree with the hope that whenever the storm abated, it would continue on its journey. But the storm became more and more violent. Suddenly, the quaking Iroko tree was uprooted by the force of the violent storm. Before Tiroko and his family could move or think of anything to do, the Iroko tree came crashing heavily on the six-member family. Tiroko, Yanibo and their four children were crushed to death. The end of the story.

For you to identify the theme of the story you must pay close attention to the intention of the narrator. What does he want to achieve? What does he aim at? It is the story of a rebellious family, yes, but it is more than that. The core message of the passage is the same thing as the theme. In this passage, the core message is implied, not directly stated. You may suggest any of the following as the theme of the passage; Unpatriotic acts are evil
Rebellion against a common goal is self-destructive.
The wages of sin is death

The difference between a theme and a subject is that while the former expresses an author or a poet's intention the latter is a summary which brings out the major highlights of a story, or a poem. Therefore, a there is not summary in the strict sense of the word, whereas a subject matter, more or less, is a summary. It is in the light this explanation that the subject matter of the above passage must recognize the "topical issues that constitute the story and the development of the plot. The issues include, the cat's prophecy of famine; animal decision to have a communal farm; and hard labour, tortoise family and the attempt to cheat and steal; the storm and the tragic end of tortoise family. That summary is the subject matter. No more, no less.

Similarly, a poem can best be handled the way the above passage is treated. Another example: Christopher Marlow's "A Passionate Shepherd to his love":

Come live with me and be my love

And we will all the pleasures prove,

That hills and valleys, dales and fields,

And all the craggy mountains yields.

There we will sit upon the rocks,

And see the shepherds feed their flocks,

By shallow rivers to whose falls

Melodious birds sing madrigals.

And I will make thee beds of roses

With a thousand fragrant posies,

A cap of flowers, and a kirtle

Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle;

A gown made of the finest wool

Which from our pretty lambs we pull;

Fair lined slippers for the cold,