Live Burial - Wole Soyinka - poem explanation

 

 

Live Burial[YB1] 

Wole Soyinka

 

Sixteen paces
By twenty-three (dimension of Soyinka’s prison).[YB2]  They hold
Siege (Barrier) against humanity
And Truth
[YB3] Employing time to drill through to his sanity [YB4] 

Schismatic (Controversial)
Lover of Antigone (Greek mythology) !
[YB5] You will? You will unearth
Corpses of yester-
Year? Expose manure (dung) of present birth?

Seal him live
In that same necropolis (cemetery).
May his ghost mistress
Point the classic
Route to Outsiders' Stygian [YB6] (gloomy and dark) Mysteries.

Bulletin[YB7] : (statements or news from the prison)
He sleeps well, eats
Well. His doctors note
No damage[YB8] 
Our plastic (fake) surgeons tend his public image[YB9] .

Confession[YB10] 
Fiction ? Is truth not essence
Of Art, and fiction Art? (Fiction is art – truth is part of art – fiction is truth)

Lest (in case) it rust (decay)
We kindly borrowed his poetic licence.[YB11] 

Galileo[YB12] 
We hoped he'd prove - age
Or genius may recant (reject/renounce/abandon) - our butchers (killers of these genius people)
Tired of waiting
Ordered (without proving anything with facts); take the scapegoat (innocents), drop the sage (learned).

Guara'l The lizard:
Every minute scrapes (fixes)
A concrete mixer throat (tobacco).[YB13] 
The cola slime (spit)
Flies to blotch (stain) the walls in patterned grime (dirt)

The ghoul: (eats dead body/ghost)
Flushed (red-faced) from hanging, sniffles[YB14] 
Snuff (consumes drug), to clear his head of
Sins -- the law
Declared -- that morning's gallows load (the man who was hanging) were dead of.

The voyeur: (Sadist)
Times his sly patrol (to take a round)
For the hour upon the throne (toilet seat[YB15] )
I think he thrills
To hear the Muse's[YB16]  (Greek mythology) constipated groan

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 [YB1]Suggests the torture he gone through the imprisonment of two years – the military government in Nigeria tried to impose on the mind of poet

 [YB2]Description of the prison – only 16 paces to live for 23 months.

 [YB3]The walls are referring here the barrier to the freedom of poet – it was a kind of barrier towards humanity and truth

 [YB4]These months were difficult for him to pass – it was enough for him to harm his sanity

 [YB5]Antigone performed her brother’s funeral – her uncle was resisting this because of her duty – Christianity cannot allow the burial of the one who commits suicide – Poet connects himself with Antigone

 [YB6]Stygian is again a Greek mythology’s reference – the river is for deal – it is an underworld for the dead – isolates dead souls from living

 [YB7]News or statement given by the officials of prison

 [YB8]Officials were giving statements that the prisoner – poet is having a good life in prison – even medical check-ups also says the same thing

 [YB9]The word ‘plastic’ here refers to lie – surgeons were spreading untruthful conditions of prisoners – guard used to beat the poet but just to maintain the image they were not revealing the truth

 [YB10]Confession word refers to the real reason of the imprisonment of the poet – supplying arms to one side – but officials created a story that the poet was supporting the rebel in the war

 [YB11]Satire on officials/police/guards – he imagines them saying these lines – they have taken the right of Soyinka to write poetry

 [YB12]He refers to Galileo and says that his genius has got rejected by the authorities – they killed the people who were telling the truth by making them scapegoats

 [YB13]Description of a first guard – he eats tobacco and spits on the wall – that makes the wall dirty – the condition in which the poet is living

 [YB14]The second guard who was on duty for the hanging/morning gallows – the government killed the man who was hanging – this was inhuman and the guard was aware with this – to get rid out of the thoughts of committing the sins he used to consume drugs/snuff

 [YB15]The third guard is having a sadist mentality – when poet sits on toilet seat which he refers to ‘throne’ here – he comes at the same time –and poet observes that he feels thrill (which makes him sadist) when he watches poet like this

 [YB16]Daughters of Zeus (group of nine daughter) – goddesses on poetry inspiration – here Muse refers to poet himself

The Piano and The Drums - Gabriel Okara - Explanation of poem

 

The Piano and The Drums[YB1] 

Gabriel Okara

When at break of day (sense of beginning) at a riverside (life)

I hear jungle drums telegraphing [YB2] (giving a message)

the mystic rhythm (Spiritual - supernatural), urgent, raw (fresh)

like bleeding flesh , speaking of

primal (primitive/original/early) youth and the beginning,

I see the panther ready to pounce,

the leopard snarling about to leap

and the hunters crouch with spears poised.[YB3]  (African jungle – culture – as primitive)

 

And my blood ripples (blood flow), turns torrent (blood flows with rush),

Topples (falls into memories) the years and at once I’m 

in my mother’s laps a suckling (infant);

at once I’m walking simple

paths with no innovations

rugged (rough), fashioned with the naked

warmth (connection with nature and love for culture) of hurrying feet and groping hearts (hearts full of feelings)

in green leaves and wild flowers pulsing.[YB4] 

 

Then I hear a wailing (crying) piano

solo speaking of complex ways (Western culture)

in tear- furrowed concerto[YB5]  (seductive but multi-layerd);

of far away lands (Western land – difference between the culture)

and new horizons with

Coaxing (sweet-talking) diminuendo (a decrease in loudness in a piece of music), counterpoint (a melody in conjuction with another melody), 

Crescendo [YB6] (increasing and leading to the climax), but lost in the labyrinth of its complexities, it ends in the middle of a phrase at a dagger point

And I lost (because of the mixing) in the morning mist[YB7] 

of an age at a riverside keep

wandering in the mystic rhythm

of jungle drums and concerto[YB8] .

 

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 [YB1] [YB1]Piano represents Western culture and Drums represents African culture

Expresses his feelings through music

 [YB2]The word is different than the other words – drums do not beat or create sounds but Okara says that they are giving a message to the nature and humankind

 [YB3]Effects of drum to the poet and other natural elements – he imagines and remembers – how this sound is effecting jungle residents.

 [YB4]In the core of African culture nature beats – there are heart beats of nature in Africa – description of African land

 [YB5]A concerto is a classical music composition that highlights a solo instrument against the background of a full orchestra. Bach is one composer known for writing concertos. In a concerto, a piano, violin, flute, or other instrument plays solo parts that are backed up or highlighted by an orchestra.

 [YB6]Words like Coaxing diminuendo – crescendo here represents the complexity of music (culture) and the difficulty they face to understand it.

 [YB7]When the sound of drum is mixed with piano – poet lost himself – which represents loss of identity – culture because of mixing it with the other

 [YB8]Poet warns those who choose white culture over their own culture and advises to choose and follow any one culture than taking both together and creating a kind of chaos.

You Laughed and Laughed and Laughed - Gabriel Okara - Explanation of poem

 

 

You (White people) Laughed and Laughed and Laughed (White people are making fun of dance, color, culture, sounds and actions of Black people)

Gabriel Okara

 

In your (White) ears my (Black people) song
is motor car misfiring (car fails to start)[YB1] 
stopping with a choking cough; (harsh voice of engine or break)
and you laughed and laughed and laughed.

In your eyes my ante-
natal walk (Clumsy) was inhuman, passing
[YB2] your ‘omnivorous (undiscriminating) understanding’
and you laughed and laughed and laughed[YB3] 

You laughed at my song, (Emotions – pains)
you laughed at my walk. (Way of walking and physical structure)

Then I danced my magic dance (Cultural dance - magical)
to the rhythm of talking drums pleading[YB4] , but you shut your eyes
and laughed and laughed and laughed

And then I opened my mystic
inside wide like the sky,[YB5]  (heart of the land – African land evoked wonder)
instead you entered your
car and laughed [YB6] and laughed and laughed

You laughed at my dance,
you laughed at my inside. (Culture that made black people)
You laughed and laughed and laughed.

But your laughter was ice-block
laughter (emotionless) and it froze your inside froze (lost warmth)
your voice froze your ears (sense of understanding)
froze your eyes and froze your tongue. (Sense of expression/expressing)

And now it’s my turn to laugh;
but my laughter is not
ice-block laughter. [YB7] For I
know not cars, know not ice-blocks.[YB8] 

My laughter is the fire
of the eye of the sky,(sun) the fire
of the earth, the fire of the air,(lightening)
the fire of the seas and the
rivers fishes animals trees
[YB9] and it thawed (softened/melted) your inside,
thawed your voice, thawed your
ears, thawed your eyes and
thawed your tongue. (Attitude of white is melted)

So a meek (gentle) wonder held
your shadow and you whispered; (White realized the wonder)
‘Why so?’
And I answered:
‘Because my fathers and I
are owned by the living
warmth of the earth (mother earth)
through our naked feet.’[YB10]  (Close communication with nature – absorbs the values of nature)

---

 [YB1]White people are comparing the sound of Black people’s songs of emotions or pains with misfiring of car, because they used to criticize the voice of black people as harsh and annoying.

 [YB2]Black people have more powerful body than Whites, and that’s why they have different style of walking – White people make fun of that style of walking

Ante-natal walk – walk of a pregnant woman

 [YB3]Here poet satirizes white people because they reflect their point of views as they are having every kind of understanding – universal understanding towards everything.

Omnivorous is also an animal that eats plants and animals both.

 [YB4]Culture – Drum sounds can make Black people dance and they used to dance freely – White people used to call them barbarians because of their traditional dance

 Shutting of eyes and ears can consider here as insult

 [YB5]Black people opened the land of Africa which is full of wonders – Beauty of Nature – to make White aware about Black people’s connection with nature

 [YB6]White people ignored the beauty of land and entered in their car and again started laughing

 [YB7]White’s attitude towards Black versus Black’s attitude towards white

 [YB8]Blacks are not materialistic or living luxurious life- They still have warmth in their heart – they are not like white - Cold

 [YB9]Connection with nature – That created a fire by which they can melt the ice-block laughter of whites – Black people are deeply connected with natural elements

 [YB10]Organic life – Nature as father – rawness – organic life

Vultures - Critical Analysis - Overview

 

 

To read the poem - Click here

To read the poem with explanation - Click here

Chinua Achebe:

Chinua Achebe (1930-2013) was a Nigerian novelist, poet and critic who represented his culture and became a dominant figure of modern African literature. Chinua Achebe’s poem largely deals with his own culture. He was a highly educated man who expressed his people’s life. Among the many themes his works cover are culture and colonialism, masculinity and femininity, politics, and history. His legacy is celebrated annually at the Chinua Achebe Literary Festival.

Critical analysis of Vultures:

Ø Background of the poem:

The title “Vultures” suggests that the poem is about a bird vulture, the first section of the poem contains the description of vultures with their characteristics and living habits, but when it comes to the second and third sections we come to know that the poem is not only about a bird but the bird is just a metaphor here. There is an underline satire on the commandant of Belsen camp, which was a Nazi concentration camp and how that commandant has supervised the killing of thousands of Jews.

With the reference of a scavenger bird that feed on dead flesh, the poet has pointed out the cruelty of mankind.

Ø Inspiration of the poem:

The poet has witnessed the cruelty of Nigerian civil war (the war was fought between the government of Nigeria and the republic of Biafra, a state which declared its independence from Nigeria in 1967). In the Nazi concentration camp of Belsen, a commandant was given a duty to observe the deaths of thousands of Jews. This cruelty is explained by the poet with the metaphor of vultures.

Ø Brief overview of the poem

The poem is divided into four sections. The first section is about vultures, the second is about the nature of love, the third section is about commandant and his life and the last section is about the conclusion of the poem.

Stanza 1:

The poem opens with a gloomy environment in which poet is describing how the dawn is. With the word ‘harbingers’ poet referring to two things birds, as birds are the harbingers of morning and death and dooms, which refers to the news of death. The setting is ‘grey’, ‘colourless’ and ‘despondent’ and poet is not talking about a beautiful morning which birds usually can bring. The sun seems feeble and shine less as it is unable to brighten up the day.

In next lines, there is an imagery that a vulture is settling high on the ‘bones of a dead tree’. The literal meaning of this personification can be a branch without leafs but the hidden meaning suggests that a vulture is sitting on the heap of bones. The image here is associated with death. A vulture is settling itself too close to its mate and both are sitting there as if they are in deep love. The word ‘nestled’ here suggests the comfort and intimacy level of vultures with each other. This is something hard to imagine as the bird like vulture, which is a scavenger, can also make love and feel affection. This seems unsuitable.

In next lines a poet has given description of a vulture’s bashed-in head which is compared to a pebble set on a thin neck and surrounded by ‘gross’ feathers. His ugly head is nestling with the head of his mate. The word ‘affectionately’ seems unfit to here. The description of a bird and its characteristics are creating unfit combination in the mind of readers. Poet here refers to the concept of love in every creature.

Further poet describes the eating habits of vultures. There is a disturbing image of vultures eating a corpse is presented here. This image is immediately after the image of affection between vulture and his mate which reminds the cruel nature of vultures as scavengers. Vultures are eating a wet corpse lying in a ditch and eating the things from its intestine. They overeat, rather than just eating to satisfy their hunger or appetite. This is an unlikely description. Then they choose their branch and sit there, even after sitting there with overeating, they keep their ‘telescopic eyes’ on the corpse which has not much flesh left, but still they keep observing on the remaining parts. The word telescoping here refers to mechanical word, eyes of vulture is like a telescope which is fitted on the gun so it can make it ready to shoot. The word ‘cold’ here refers to actions which are done cold blooded and heartless.

Stanza 2:

 The second stanza starts with the word ‘strange’ which refers to the nature of love. Love is here personified as woman. Poet describes that the one which is very particular and hard to please has found a corner in the charnel house. The image of presence of love in charnel house is again weird and disturbing. The woman (love) who is very hard to please has found a way of existing in such unpleasant environment (charnel house). She has cleared or cleaned a corner in the charnel house and she (love) is laying there by turning her face to the wall, as if she is not ready to see the nasty things around her or ignores the existence of evil around her.

Stanza 3:

Third stanza here describes the life of commandant who is on duty at Nazi concentration camp in Belsen. The commandant is going home with the burning smell of human dead bodies to his nostrils. The commandant was given a duty to supervise the deaths of Jews and he has done his duty well. That represents his cruelness. The line ‘fumes of human roast clinging rebelliously to his hairy nostrils’ is quite significant and disturbing. ‘Fumes of human roast’ represents his heartless behaviour and deaths of people around him. It suggests that he is surrounded by lots of dead bodies. ‘clinging rebelliously’ refers to the people who were rebelling and got killed, on the other way one can argue that the deeds of commandant is accompanying him in form of ‘fume’, which he is unable to ignore. ‘In his hairy nostrils’ refers to the ugliness of him. This line reminds the description of vultures with their ‘gross feathers’. Poet has here given a slight hint to the connection of vulture with commandant.

On his way to home he stopped at the shop which was at the edge of the road. He was there to buy chocolate or his ‘tender offspring’ which refers to ‘loving child’ who was waiting at home for his ‘daddy’ to return. Here poet has presented contrast which can make readers uncomfortable. Commandant’s duty is totally opposite to his behaviour with his family. On one side he is killing thousands of families and sons of those families and on the other side he is proving himself as the loving father. Again poet has given a slight hint to the readers that there is some connection between vultures and commandant. There is a contrasting image of affection and Evilness.

Stanza 4:

This stanza provides the conclusion to the ideas of poem. it opens with the statement that we should praise God as he has granted a little love (glow-worm) in the most cruel person (ogre). We should be happy that God has put some tenderness in the small cold part (icy caverns) of the cruel heart. Further poet describes the loss of hope with the word ‘despair’. For commandant, his softer side is as ‘germ’ for him. Poet says that even the familiar love and affection can be felt by the cruel heart but though there would always be an eternal evilness in it.

Here we are offered two options first one is to thank God that love can even exist in the tiny part of the cruelest heart. This represents hope. (Commandant and vultures). The second option is instead of having a gratitude towards God, we could have a sense of hopelessness because with the capacity to love with goodness, there will always be a rooted existence of evil in it.

Ø Forms and technicalities:

The poem is in free verse.

There is no particular rhythm and rhyme scheme in the poem.

There is a use of punctuation (ellipsis and enjambment).

The poem contains disturbing imagery with impactful diction and contrast.

Alliteration - drizzle of one despondent dawn 

Personification - broken bones of a dead tree