Analysis of Lord Of My Life by Rabindrabath Tagore

The Poet

Rabindrabath Tagore was an Indian poet who lived between May 7, 1861 and August 7, 1941. According to nobelprize.org website, e was educated at home; and although at seventeen he was sent to England for formal schooling, he did not finish his studies there. 

In his mature years, in addition to his many-sided literary activities, he managed the family estates, a project which brought him into close touch with common humanity and increased his interest in social reforms."

The Poem

[You Might Want To Click And Listen To The Poem  ]

The Poem In Prose Form

My God! I have surrendered all my pain and pleasure to you. Even though I cherished earthly things more yet you chose. Didn't you make miraculous acts off my living, actions and hopes? Didn't you make music off my autumn and spring, "and gather the flowers from my mature moments for thy crown?"

God! Many numbers of time, I neglected services to you; hope you have forgiven my sins because you keep staring "at the dark of my heart". Often your voice slackens my instrument of play only to fill my evening with weeping after what seems like wasted day.

God! Is my life meeting closure? Because the arms I wrap around you keeps growing limp or weak and the kisses I bestow you are now without teeth. If so, end this old age meeting with you and renew my old age with new life_ for our union to begin again in a new ceremony of life.

The Connotation

Lord of My Life by Rabindrabath Tagore is a five stanza free verse with the theme of God's supremacy, aging, early living, nature's beauty, death as a human closure, and the renewal of life through resurrection; simply put, the poem is about the poet's old age and devotion to God.

The poem employed the images of music to expressed how his life events has flowed in the hand of his creator. As earlier explained in the prose form of the poem, the poet's submission to God is seen in stanza one. 

Stanza two tells of the magic God made off his earth existence while sin and forgiveness were subjects of stanza three. Stanza four revealed the poet's emptiness when far away from his creator. The final stanza embodied old age, fidgeting, death and resurrection.

Samuel C. Enunwa aka samueldpoetry
(the Leo with wings flying)

Read More

Q and A: Give Me The Minstrel's Seat

Question

Give Me The Minstrel's Seat ends on a clarion call for ______

Answer

Rectitude (Option C)

Explanation

The final line of the poem "Give Me The Minstrel's Seat" goes thus:
"Better a loin-cloth without disgrace than d fine-flowered shawl of shame".

Above line referred to moral choice of judgement or action in any arising situation. 

On the other hand, rectitude can be defined as the righteousness of principle or practice; exact conformity to truth or to the rules prescribed for moral conduct either by divine or human laws. 

Therefore the word "Rectitude" best represented the line.

Give Me The Minstrel's Seat is not associated to any particular poet because it is a traditional poem. 

Traditional poems are oral form of poetry passed from generations to generations. Give Me The Minstrel's Seat addressed the subjects of companionship, unity, friendship, morality; are parts of elements that enhances peaceful coexistence within any given society.

Enunwa Chukwudinma S.
aka samueldpoetry
(the Leo with wings flying)

Read More

4 Analyzed Poems Of Pablo Neruda

The Poet

Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto (12 July 1904 - 23 September 1973) better known by his pen name and, later, legal name Pablo Neruda, was a Chilean poet-diplomat and politician

Analysis Of Absence By Pablo Neruda

Absence by Pablo Neruda has the theme of love and optimism. Neruda composed the poem on the ground of love; ... [View Detail]

Analysis of Tonight I Can Write by Pablo Neruda

Tonight I Can Write is a poem that portrayed how writing can empower the emotion of love as seen in the poem where the speaker... [View Detail]

A Song of Despair Analysis

A Song of Despair. by Pablo Neruda. In the poem, he recollected the sweet company of his ex by comparing a life without her to the sea in which everything sinks... [View Detail]

Analysis of Ode To The Onion by Pablo Neruda

It is a poem of 41 lines free verse of 3 unequal stanzas. The message of the poem is simply a praise to one of the most universally valuable vegetables; the onion... [View Detail]
Continue Reading >>>

Samuel C. Enunwa aka samueldpoetry
(the Leo with wings flying)

Read More

Overview Of We Shall Not Sleep By Chirikure Chirikure

The Poet

Chirikure Chirikure is a Zimbabwean poet, songwriter, and writer born in the year 1962. The poet's name is relevant in African poetry circle and in 1990, Chirikure's book "Rukuvhute" received Honorable Mention in the Noma Award for Publishing in Africa.

The Style and Structure

The style adopted in crafting the poem is similar to that of Birago Diop's fondly used of refrain. The thematic message in the poem is based on oppression and opposition.

The voice in the poem sounds protesting the evil deeds of unnamed oppressor. It is shown that the victims have been pushed to the wall.

And the stanza 1 goes thus:
" No-one is going to sleep a wink this year
                till we fix this whole mess
No-one is going to close an eyelid
                till we get to the bottom of this"

In stanza 2, the speaker in the poem believes enough is enough from the oppressor's destructive actions

"That day you assaulted granny, we said nothing
The other day you sold the family milk cow, we said nothing
Only yesterday you set fire to the family granary, again we said nothing"

All the mentioned above had been condoned by the victims but they won't tolerate their water-well been defiled.

Samuel C. Enunwa aka samueldpoetry
(the Leo with wings flying)

Read More

Reasons Why Poetry Gives You Headache

Symptoms of Headache

If poetry is giving you headaches then you're not alone; multitudes are facing the same poetry headache as yours.

Have you ever seen a person having headache and smiling? One glaring symptom of headache is disgusting frown.

Headache patient don't just frown, they maintained a still position with obvious seriousness as if to memorize a rhythm of poetry resounding in their heads.

Headache and Poetry

When most people encounter poetry, they treat it like headache. 

I will also like to add that the headache-like reaction is from those who only recognise poetry as a genre but those who can be considered as poetry lovers.

This has got me seek reasons why poetry give most people headache.

My search led me to quora.com (you probably must have seen or heard of the website before now). The good news, some counter reasons were seen on the question-and-answer website called quora.

Reasons Poetry Cause Headache

• Most people develop headache when they come across poetry with strict end rhyme pattern; they feel such art make them feel they're still living in the era of Beowulf.

• Most people develop headache with poetry full of clichés; they are too stressed by the affairs of daily life than to be distressed by chunk of words.

• Most people develop headache when they see poem with typographical and syntactic errors some poets would rather claim to be poetic license.

• Most people develop headache with poetry prioritized by perfection_ such poem aims to immortalize every veteran (Shakespeare in style, Edgar Poe in rhythm, Walt Whitman in structure, Sylvia Plath in diction).

• Most people develop headache if a poem is intentionally short with stylistic excuse "this is a haiku". They feel such poet loves to boycott the intensity poetry as an art possesses.

• Most people develop headache once a poem is way too long like a journey of thousand miles.

• Most people develop headache when poetry is direct not two edged.

• Most people develop headache if a poem fails to follow their own course; the poem they expected to be climactic turns not to be.

The Conclusion

From my personal point of view, all the above are what makes poetry to poetry. Therefore I have come to conclude that the problem is not poetry but people.

Human sees what they want to see, they feel what they want to feel. 

The same poetry that make some certain number of people frown, will still make plenty of other people smile and can also make them smile and frown at the same time.

According to Napoleon Hill, "Thoughts are things". Therefore, my advice will always be to appreciate poetry wherever and whenever we see it; irrespective of the people who wrote it.

Enunwa Chukwudinma S.
aka samueldpoetry
(the Leo with wings flying)

Read More

The New Clue To Poetry Audiobook

Poetry Audio Blogging

The question of whether a poetry blogger can move from printed book to poetry audiobook is about to nailed firm.

Creativity has expanded the scope of virtually every thing to a level beyond childish mesmerism; solid now becomes liquid and liquids can now be seen in gaseous states.

It is no doubt that a poetry blog can become an anthology or a book the same way many anthologies have now turned to blogs_ if you are yet to be convinced, check allpoetry.com, poemhunter.com or check my favorite poetry-archive.com.

Naijapoets Audio Blog Motive

Audio-blogging helps the life of a blog nowadays.
After all, not everyone prefers to read and read and read. In the case of poetry related audio-blogging, naijapoets.com.ng has tried mix audio blogging with the orthodox form of blogging and the outcome is very encouraging both for naijapoets.com.ng readers and the blogger.

To be candid, the motive is even beyond mere audio-blogging. In couple weeks, naijapoets audio-book will be released; hope readers embrace it. If the naijapoets audio-book trial version plays out well, then more encouraging stuffs will still roll in.

You Too Can Audio-Book

Anyone can create his or her own audio-book. Therefore, you do not need to own or manage a blog before such can be possible.

Those who already understand my story will sure agree with me that the act of creating a poetry audio-book is as easy as hell. There are so many audio-book services available; the likes of audible by Amazon, YouTube by Google, chirbit, kobo, draft2digital, etc.

The necessary things are your contents, your choice of audio-book platform, your budget, and few other things.
Draft2Digital Audio-Book Guide
Assuming you need a reasonably free or low-budget service, then draft2digital might soothe such aim.

The simple steps are:

• Register or Log in to Draft2Digital.com
• Click on My Books 
• Choose the book you want
• Click the little orange microphone
• Click on the Create An Audiobook button

And the rest is congratulations. If you are a believer, then you agree that creating audio-book is quite simple and like said earlier, naijapoets.com.ng has already embraced this trending audio affair and you will be chanced to see for yourself.

Samuel C. Enunwa aka samueldpoetry
(the Leo with wings flying)

Read More

Ozone Layer

What kind of car is this? 
I do no know. 

Except the locomotive ability of this rickety thing

Hardly moving when moved

Driving the driver driving it, 
I can see the driver sweating within it

Our nares and heads are filled with carbon monoxide 
this rickety thing is emitting from its nostrils

And like smoke from the swinging thurible used in a catholic cathedral

The emission is spreading everywhere

And melting the ozone layer like fire melting a sheabutter

Ah! Every rich and poor African wants to ride a car; maybe rickety or rickety not they do not care

I blame you not my Africans. 

Why didnt GOD build the ozone layer with iron rock and crystal 
than making it fragile like a silky material?

Samuel C. Enunwa aka samueldpoetry 
(the Leo with wings flying)

Read More

Analysis of Ode To The Onion by Pablo Neruda

The Form And Structure

Ode to the Onion by Pablo Neruda is a praise poem that pronounced the qualities and power of onion over human and nature.

It is a poem of 41 lines free verse of 3 unequal stanzas. The stanza 1 tells of the formation, features and availability of onion to all and sundry while in the second stanza, the effect or power of onion over humans was exposed when the poet not only believed it's the most beautiful of things but said in line 32 that the onion "make us cry without hurting us."

The third stanza which happened to be just two lines portrayed the unique quality that differentiated onion from other plants. The poem speaker claimed that onion absorbed all the beautiful fragrances that belonged to the soil.

The Prose Form

In a prose form, "Ode To The Onion" goes thus:

You onion, in form of luminous flask, you were crystal formed layers over layers like petals of a flower in the loamy soil. Even though the miracle happened in the soil, the heap you gave to the soil surface when your stems and sword-like leaves had grown eventually prompted farmers to uproot you for the world to see your "naked transparency". 

Just like an Aphrodite you were double in one. "You, onion clear as a planet and destined to shine," you are regularly found on every poor man's table.

Onion, you are so hypnotizing, you effortlessly make us shed tears; therefore I must confess, you are the most beautiful thing ever seen. You are beautiful than the fluffy beautiful birds, the universe, "platinum goblet, unmoving dance of the snowy anemone', etc. "and the fragrance of the earth lives in your crystalline nature."

[You Might Want To Listen To The Poem: Ode To The Onion By Pablo Neruda]

The Themes

The message of the poem is simple. Uniqueness Beautifies Things; the same way fragrance and composition beauty onion among vegetables. The poet noted it in the last two lines of the poem: "and the fragrance of the earth lives/ in your crystalline nature." Availability and Accessibility are among the messages passed across in the poem "Ode to the Onion" by Pablo Neruda. 

Despite the difference in class and status between the rich and poor, onion is accessible to them all. Other themes in the poem are cultivation, germination, harvest,pain, emotion, etc.

Enunwa Chukwudinma S.

aka samueldpoetry

(the Leo with wings flying)

Read More

4 Qualifies of A Sapiopoem

What Is Sapiopoem

If anybody ask me, is there anything like sapio-poem? I will look such person in the eyes and say YES.

This is how I intend to support my agreement to the fact that some poems can be called a sapio-poem.

A sapio-poem is a poem that is absolutely driven by intelligence; notvthe motive of entertainment. I arrived at the word sapio-poem from the knowledge of the word sapiophism.

What Is Sapiophism

Sapiophism can be defined as the practice of promoting inner beauty than the physically possessed beauty. Anyone that practices sapiophilism is called a sapiophite.

Observation has shown that any poet might come up with a sapio-poem inadvertently; therefore, such poem is not necessarily for sapiophites.

Determining Factors

Below are the factors that determine a sapio-poem:

1. Context versus Content:

In poetry, context and content of a poem matter. The context determines the embodiment of the poem while the content goes in support of volume; yet, a poem can be called a sapio-poem if the poet rely on the beauty of the context but pay little attention to the volume of the poem.

2. Theme versus Rhyme:

Before a poem can be named sapio, theme must defeat rhyme. A sapio-poem is 90% likely to lack rhyming and any other sound effects as far as the message exults the poem

3. Diction versus Structure: 

Another notable thing is that the poet places emphasis on his choice of words which must prove the poet's level of wisdom but worries less about the structure of the poem. Therefore, sapio-poems are void of poetic license which might dilute the intellectuality of the poem. Modern haiku poems are mostly sapio in nature.

4  Other Factors:

Other tools professional poets employed might not be prioritized by the poet_ such as attractive title, rhythmic flow, prosody, etc.

Samuel C. Enunwa aka samueldpoetry

(the Leo with wings flying)

Read More

Publish Anthology Faster With Autorshift Attitude

The Authors' Dream

I strongly believe that every author and writer need the author to bring their authorship dreams to desired fruition.

Getting an anthology to its final shelves and readers is pretty easy now with the advanced technology and the efficiency of computer. With the help of Createspace and Kindle, Amazon has proven to be Messiah for this generation poets and writers.

Not only that, with Createspace and battalion of other self-publishing platforms such as lulu, smashwords, draft2digital, etc; authors have the freedom to publish and readers have the freedom to decide what's worth reading.

Indie authors now enjoy global distribution to major ebook retailers and library platforms. Thanks to the rise of the indie author movement, readers can now enjoy a greater diversity than ever of high-quality, low-cost ebooks!


Authors have proven that indie ebook authors can out-publish and out-sell traditional publishers, and they pioneered new best practices that traditional publishers are now scrambling to emulate.

You might want to read "Why You Have Not Published Your Anthology"

Author-shift Significance

Author-shifts are the essential actions for growth, progress, and significance. They’re the invaluable adjustments every success driven author or writer must make on their journey towards greatness. And they tell, not just when authors make them, but when authors miss them.

In a nutshell, the author-shifts are synonymous to publishing opportunities (whether obvious or hidden). It determines whether an author is on an upward shift or a downward shift.

So missing out on any publishing opportunity might not seem like much, but it reveals something about your attitude towards—and willingness to make—the necessary upward shifts that unlock your potential as a writer and as an author.

Read More

Analysis of I Love You Except Because I Love You by Pablo Neruda

The Poet

Another love poem by Pablo Neruda. The poem title "I do not love you except because I love you" is a poem that portrayed the unhappy condition of someone (male or female) missing dearly the presence of his or her lover.

The Overview

The poem showed that a lover will go from loving someone to hating such a person for maintaining absence.

The verse 2 of the poem put it this way:
"I love you only because it's you the one I love;
I hate you deeply, and hating you
Bend to you, and the measure of my changing love for you
Is that I do not see you but love you blindly."

The theme of the poem is crystal clear with the repeated use of "love" within the 3 stanza free verse.

The fervent followers of this blog will recollect Analysis of Absence by Pablo Neruda , where I wrote "Absence by Pablo Neruda has the theme of love and optimism. Neruda composed the poem on the ground of love; based on the context of the poem, we see two lovers without close contact. While the female feels hurt, the poem speaker composed this reassuring poem to prove that his love for her remains intact."

The Poem

According to poemhunter poetry archive, the goes thus:

I do not love you except because I love you;
I go from loving to not loving you,
From waiting to not waiting for you
My heart moves from cold to fire.

I love you only because it's you the one I love;
I hate you deeply, and hating you
Bend to you, and the measure of my changing love for you
Is that I do not see you but love you blindly.

Maybe January light will consume
My heart with its cruel
Ray, stealing my key to true calm.

In this part of the story I am the one who
Dies, the only one, and I will die of love because I love you,
Because I love you, Love, in fire and blood.

Enunwa Chukwudinma S.
aka samueldpoetry
(the Leo with wings flying)

Read More

Q and A: The Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta

Question:

As a symbol marital success and fulfillment, Ibuza community places a lot of importance on ______

(Option A) Childbirth

Explanation:

As a novel that typifies the Igbo African tradition, infertility and harshness is a huge subject that mostly develops stigmatization and segregation; therefore, a woman is incomplete without child.

In The Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta, the women of Ibuza community were seen shouldering the heavy necessity of motherhood at all cost.

[ALSO READ:- My Mother In Her 90s by Ama Ata Aidoo]

The Joys of Motherhood is a feminist novel written by Buchi Emecheta, a Nigerian author born 21st of July, 1944. Before her death in the year 2017, she has had many novels to her name; such as The Bride Price.

Samuel C. Enunwa aka samueldpoetry
(the Leo with wings flying)

Read More

Analysis of The Vagabond by Robert Louis Stevenson

The Poet

In the month of November 1850, Robert Louis Stevenson was one of the recorded birth in Edinburgh, Scotland. He grew up to become a very notable poet and essayist with loads of literary contributions.

Stevenson is the poet that crafted this life and nature related poem titled "The Vagabond".

The Review

It is classed under nature because its events are nature oriented. In terms of the lonely living in the bush, by the river, constant singing birds, frosty fields, etc.

The poem narrates the life of someone in hopelessness; such person is called vagabond. The reward is none than heaven and death.

The Themes

The poem is themed with (1) suffering; the vagabond suffered the burn of the sun and the chill of frosty field coupled with lack of healthy living by depending on forest rivers to digest his bread (2) nature; the poem exposed the beauty and companionship of nature even to a castaway or a soul left in the lurch. The rivers quenched the vagabond's thirst while the birds delighted his solitude. (3) fortune; the poet or rather voice of the poem indirectly listed the things that worth fortune to humans which are wealth, health, love, friendship, etc. (4) heaven; it held ambiguity between actual eternal dwellings and the blue sky above the vagabond. (5) death; in the poem, it is the only reward for being a vagabond_ nothing more.

The poem "The Vagabond" by Robert Louis Stevenson is a rhyme verse of 4 stanzas with 8 lines each. In the poem "life I love" seen in line 1 is an alliteration while "Bed in the bush with stars to see" as found in line 5 is an imagery portraying homelessness. There is an oxymoron in line 9 "soon or later" and a hyperbole in line 6 "Bread I dip in the river".

The poem opened with "Give to me the life I love/ Let the lave go by me". There is an element of irony in such opening which contrary to universally known great expectations every living being aim at. "...the life I love" in the poem implied the life of a vagabond (homelessness) which is a very horrible life.

Stanzaic Summary

In stanza 2, the vagabond seemed to delight himself in the darkness of the night synonymous to the darkness he will encounter in death. Wealth, hope, love, friendship; were never part of his wishes or crazes.

In stanza 3, he accepted the inevitable torture of the autumn which denied him songs from birds by keeping them silent on trees. Neither the autumn nor the winter could force him to change his personality. The stanza 4 is a refrain of stanza 2.

Enunwa Chukwudinma S.
aka samueldpoetry
(the

Read More

Poetry Quote of Aqua Laluah

This is one among the evergreen odes crafted by an African poet. The poem exposed the gifted city of Freetown with fair imageries.

"This is my gem!’ God whispered, ‘this shall be
To me a jewel in blue turquoise set.’"

According to the quote above, God called you his gem and pronounced that you live undisturbed till eternity. He then surrounded you with the couching lion-like hills that silently watch over you.

The poem Freetown by Acquah Laluah is a 16-line rhyming poem beautified with repetition of words such as "God", "Freetown", "jet", "Small", "Silent", "He", etc.

The poem, in a prose form, goes thus: Freetown, God gave you a mere soil yet a very rich sea full of small bays with blues that sleep amidst the jet black stones, those "jet rocks, filled from the Atlantic deep". Then God gave you we messengers of songs. Afterwards, in your soil, He made palm trees and tall grasses.

Read More

Q and A: Houseboy by Ferdinand L. Oyono

The Question
"The eyes of the house dog sprawled between my legs followed, full of envy, piece after piece of fish down the throat of his master, my host."
The dog in the excerpt ______

The Answer
(Option D.) Watched as his master ate the fish.

The Explanation
Whether the novel can be classed a sentimental one or not, the excerpt from the novel employed the too...

Read More

Analysis of The School Of Night By Alec Derwent Hope

The Glance

Title: The School of Night
Genre: Poetry
Poet: Alec Derwent Hope
Gender: Masculine
Category: Life and Living
Style: Free Verse
Theme: Night
Stanza: Three
Dominant Device: Metaphor
Diction: Simple
Tone: Revealing
Alternative: The Schoolboy
More Poems From Poet: Death of the Bird

Poet and Summary

Regarded as one of the best Australian poet and essayist, Alec Derwent Hope was born in New South Wales in the year 1907 into a family of a Presbyterian minister but departed earth in the year 2000.

In his 3 stanza poem title "The School of Night", nighttime became a learning classroom where the voice of the poem was given tough lessons. Looking at the structural arrangement, each stanza consists of 6 lines.

The same manner a teacher or an instructor will open a book in front of a pupil to start reading; someone who was later regarded as a scholar open his body to the poet with either an overture or a kiss (as seen in lines 2-4):

"When your mouth's first unfathomable yes
Opened your body to be my book, I read
My answers there and learned the spell aright,"

The poet learnt through "The School of Night" the true lesson of love, affection, companionship and more. During her learning session, she acquired "answers there and learned spell aright" as expected yet the education was far too complex for her total understanding.

In the same "School of Night" the voice of the poem expressed her awareness via the tool of symbolism that she learned the ways of the mosquitoes (a vampire baby), the ways of a sleeping little girl, the ways of the nostrils (the whispers), the arms (the grave somnambulists), the penis (the giant who broods above the nightmare steep), etc.

The final stanza of the poem described ejaculation with a metaphorical analogy. Where the male was compared to a scholar, his penis was compared to a pen and his seminal fluid was compared to blood, the poet's body was compared to book page where text were written.

"They taught me most. The scholar held his pen
And watched his blood drip thickly on the page
To form a text in unknown characters
Which, as I scanned them, changed and changed again:
The lines grew bars, the bars a Delphic cage
And I the captive of his magic verse."

The context of the poem reveals a sexual experience described through literary genius.

Devices and Messages

This a poem of metaphor. The poem commenced by comparing the nighttime to a school where teaching and learning is done. "the bars a Delphic cage" is another instance of metaphor in the poem, "his blood drip thickly on the page" is an instance of imagery while the use of "Delphic" in line 17 is a classical allusion.

There are repetitions such as "searched and searched" in line 5 and "changed and changed" in line 16, rhetorical question such as "What did I study in your School of Night?" in line 1,

And in line 4 "spell" is a word that seems to have more than one meaning in the poem.

"When your mouth's first unfathomable yes/
Opened your body to be my book"
Both lines, not only form tautology, they also reside in ambiguity. Tautology in the sense that "unfathomable yes" seems unnecessary phrase while "your mouth's first unfathomable yes opened your body" could either be referring to a kiss or an overture.

The messages of the poem are channeled towards the possible happening during the nighttime, the effect of lovemaking, the natural tendency of human to acquire teaching or learning at any given time.

The poem employed the following words to emphasize the timing of events "night" in line 1, "sleep" in line 7, "nightmare" in line 10. "My book" in line 3, "his pen" in line 13, "form a text" in line 15, "magic verse" in line 18; all provided a schooling atmosphere

Enunwa Chukwudinma S. aka samueldpoetry
(the Leo with wings flying)

Read More

Analysis Of Olokun By John Pepper Clark

Olokun is a poem by John Pepper Clark_ one of the best poets in Africa till date.

The voice of the poem profess his love for a mermaid or preferably a sea goddess.

In the poem context, the voice of the poem loved to scroll the dark hairs of the sea goddess and claimed the love he had for her did surpass the one he had ever bestowed any other woman.
Though the mermaid's eyes were like "touch of sleep" yet no man will ever wish to fall asleep in her presence because of her loving kindness.

The voice of the poem also stated that men that are so drunk of her love crumbled like ancient walls at her feet "And so the good maid of the sea/ Full of rich bounties for men/ You lift us all beggars to your breast".

The poem does fit under the category of nature and love.

The poem commenced with a first person singular view until the 17th line with "We crumbled in heaps at your feet" to further prove his jealousy for sharing the sea goddess with other men.

The poem is a free verse of twenty lines with a tone of affection. The diction is simple with many use of simile. The themes exposed in the poem are the comfort that nature and natural things bestow humanity, the beautiful and kind personality of sea goddess, the strong bond that love builds between male and female, the degree of men's hunger for riches, etc.

Similes are "As tide thro weeds of the sea" in line 2 and "like ancient walls" in line 16, Allusion to the Bible are "I am jealous and passionate/ Like Jehovah, God of the Jews" in line 6-7 and "But what wakeful eyes of man/ Made of the mud of this earth" in line 11-12, Personification is "the touch of sleep" in line 13, Metaphor is "The sable vehicle of dream" in line 14, Symbolism is "beggars" in line 20, Synecdoche is "breast" in line 20, Alliteration is "all beggars to your breast" in line 20.

Samuel C. Enunwa aka samueldpoetry
(the Leo With Wings Flying)

Read More

Analysis Of Half Past Two By U A Fanthorpe

This 11 stanza poem is woven with 3 lines per stanza to a total of 33 lines. The diction is very simple except for some intentional disarranged words for the purpose of clarifying the setting of the poem. Rich in repetition with a third person point of view, it is void of rhythm, end-rhyme, simile, run-on-line, etc. 

“Half Pass Two” by began thus:

 “Once upon a schooltime

He did Something Very Wrong

(I forget what it was)

And she said he’d done

Something Very Wrong, and must

Stay in the school-room till half-past two…”

In summary, the voice of the poem told of a little schoolboy who was asked by the teacher to remain alone in the classroom till half-past two as a form of punishment to an unknown misconduct. The naïve little boy never understood the term “half-past two” and wasn’t brave enough to inquire the meaning from the teacher. The boy remained in the school till dark before taken home.

And the truth is that when I was in class 3, I was a victim of such. I did offend my class teacher and she asked me to be walking up and down the long class pavement with my knees. I knelt to and fro the pavement from around 12pm till 5pm before the school security saw me while inspecting the school classrooms and asked me to stand and be going home. I refused with the fear that my teacher would be very angry when she realized I left the punishment without her permission but in class the next day she didn’t even asked me about it_ meaning she didn’t remember that she left me kneeling and when home.

I have analyzed a poem whose main theme relates to formal education_ The Schoolboy by William Blake, this poem slightly shares such theme.

Few among the themes in this poem “Half Past Two” by U A Fanthorpe are Imperfection, inferiority, naivety, teaching and learning, timing, etc. The teacher’s inability to track the schoolboy’s level of knowledge plus her wrong judgmental action proves that formal education remains imperfect atmosphere for learning. “he was too scared at being wicked to remind her” which in line 9 points at pupils’ level of inferiority to their teachers. Another theme in the poem is naivety. Not only did the poem speaker’s diction portrayed the little schoolboy naivety with the use of “gettinguptime” in line 11, “timetogohomenowtime” and “Tvtime” in line 12, “timeformykisstime” in line 13; he also didn’t possess the mature mindset that questions authority.

It is no denying that teaching and learning is a vital part of human development but it sometimes falls in the trap of ambiguity which in turn results to misinterpretation. Though, as simple as it seems, the phrase “half-past two” became too huge for the little schoolboy to understand. Another theme in the poem is the theme of timing which governs every human existence not excluding the little schoolboy.

From the words of the poem speaker, time and the knowledge of time seemed a burden to the boy. The only time he could acquire freedom from the bondage of timing was by lacking the skill to read the clock and having no one around to disturb him with timing.

The little schoolboy enjoyed such freedom until the teacher came back in lines 28-29 and “So she slotted him back into schooltime/ And he got home in time for teatime”

Few other things to note are:

• In line 19 “He waited beyond onceupona” referred to the boy’s stay beyond the stipulated time.
• In line 20 “Out of reach of all the timefors” referred to the boy’s lonely state where no one disturbed him with “it’s time for this or it’s time for that”. 

Enunwa Chukwudinma S. 

aka samueldpoetry

(the Leo with wings flying) 

Read More

Kindo As A Warlord In The Blood Of A Stranger

Question;- Examine the role of Kindo as a warlord in The Blood of a Stranger by Dele Charley [WAEC MAY JUNE 2016] 

Answer;- One of the dramas that attempted to point the past events of colonial exploitation in Africa is the Blood of a Stranger written by Dele Charley, a Sierra Leonean author and playwright. Before his death in the year 1993, he had contributed largely to literature in Africa and beyond. 

One of such contribution is the Blood of a Stranger which has remained widely accepted. 


In the characterization of the play, one of the prominent characters is Kindo, the prince of Mando. There are so many roles performed by Kindo in assistance to the plot. 

There was a Kindo as a prince, there was a Kindo as a lover, there was a Kindo as a warlord, there was a Kindo as a patriot, etc. The main concern at this juncture is how Kindo is portrayed as a warlord. He was confident and brave which gave him the effusive effrontery to challenge the likes of Maligu, Parker, Whitehead, etc. 

He took it upon himself to protect Mando; not because he was heir to the throne but because he possessed a defensive trait of a warrior. When he was to take to exile, he didn’t just vanish like a comer; he left with convoy of Mando warriors as a symbol of a warlord.

Enunwa S. Chukwudinma 
aka samueldpoetry
[the Leo with wings flying]

Read More

Aloho as a Victim of Circumstance in Harvest of Corruption

The term 'pen-robber' is one of the words used in the drama 'Harvest of Corruption' to symbolize embezzlers of public funds. The drama has it that some unscrupulous civil servants [Chief Ade Amaka] take advantage of their bestowed offices as a means of stealing from the government.

Among many of the characters in the drama is Aloho. She can be considered the protagonist of the drama. Aloho is a young graduate who found it hard to secure a job for a very long period after graduating from university with a second class upper in Mass Communication.


Though she was regarded as a born-again Christian, yet her impatience and desperate heart pushed her into accepting a job offer from a wayward Ochuole despite repetitive scriptural warning from a fellow friend who also happens to be a born-again Christian [Ogeyi].

The job Ochuole dropped on Aloho's lap was not without price; she became Chief Ade Amaka's pawn. Aloho was arrested for drug trafficking, she also got impregnated by her boss [Chief Ade Amaka] such unwanted pregnancy led to her death in the course of childbirth.

Samuel Chukwudinma Enunwa
aka samueldpoetry
[the Leo with wings flying]

Read More