Symbolism In Piano And Drums By Gabriel Okara

Discuss the use of symbolism in Okara's Piano and Drum WAEC MAY/JUNE 2017.

Based on Oxford dictionary, symbolism is to represent a concept through symbols or underlying meanings of objects or qualities

The cultural dilemma poem "Piano and Drums" by Gabriel Okara is a whole load of symbols; from the title to down the context.
As said in one of the posts in naijapoets about "Piano and Drums", the idea of cultural clash is the motivating or central message the poem passes to the readers.

The rural African background of the poem speaker was juxtaposed with the present western lifestyle in form of symbol; by placing the "Piano" and the "Drums" side-by-side. The poem speaker saw the drums simple but the piano very complex in his comparisons which brought about his cultural clash (since culture is defined as the lifestyle of a group of people or just even a person).

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

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Analysis Of Ozymandias By Percy Bysshe Shelley

The image was a shattered statue remaining only the face of the Greek king. Where beneath the stone image was written:
'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'

The poem titled "Ozymandias" is a sonnet, written in loose iambic pentameter, where the first stanza has eight lines and six lines for the second stanza. Most sonnets end in a rhyming couplet but this is an exception. Both stanzas are dedicated to the description of the stone image. In stanza one, readers are given a clear picture of how the statue was found, the damage that had befallen the statue, the pride and arrogance portrayed by the statue, etc.

The following are the themes of the poem:-
(1) Futility of wealth and status: With the little that is left to remind the
readers about a kingdom and its  once upon a time powerful king; human wealth and status is truly a futile acquisition.

(2) Leadership and its inevitable trait of pride: The facial description of Ozymandias' stone image in lines 4-5 proves that pride is an inevitable trait of all rulers:
"Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command" (lines 4-5)

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(3) The immortal quality of things surpass the mortality in human: This theme reminds me of "Ode to a Grecian Urn" by John Keats where the beauty of the lady drawn on the Grecian urn lasted very longer than the beauty of any living lady. In this poem titled "Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshe Shelley, it is shown that immortality is better that mortality because after the king in question has long lived the earth and vanished, his sculpted image still survived damage and wreck and unspeakable circumstances of life.

The mood is mild and the tone revealing. The voice of the poem is in first person singular point of view, according to the opening line of the poem:
"I met a traveller from an antique land"
The setting is an undisclosed place which might on the road or anywhere. Another setting of note, is the desert which the poet referred to as "antique land" in line 1; the antique land is described to be a
"...colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away." (According to lines 13-14)

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Assonance in line 1 "an antique" Alliteration in line 2 "two vast and trunkless" Imagery in line 4 "Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown"
Irony between lines 10-11 'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'

"The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed" in line 8 of the poem refers to the attitude of Ozymandias towards those he ruled. Figuratively, with the way the words in line 8 is arranged, it can be considered a synecdoche where "the hand" and "the heart" are used to represent the king. There is also an inversion in the line_ in terms of word order. The normal arrangement is supposed to be "The hand that fed them and the heart that mocked".

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

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Analysis Of O Captain My Captain By Walt Whitman

Structurally, this twenty four line poem is divided into three equal stanza of eight lines per stanza. For the record, Walt Whitman is known for his unpredictable rhythm and rhyme scheme. 

Though the poem has some evidence of end rhyme scheme,  word arrangement looks wobbling and irregular like the current of the ocean. It is no surprise that the poem took such arrangement since the poem has a sea setting with the use of words such as "shore" "ship" "Captain" "vessel" "voyage" "deck".

This poem falls under the category of war poem but the fact that it is an elegy cannot be denied. The poem speakers indirectly mourns the death of his captain who has fallen in battle. 

Speaking with ignorance, the poet calls on his dead captain as he was sleeping, asking him to rise up; after which he tells the readers through his contrasting refrain that "...my Captain lies/ Fallen cold and dead".

In stanza 1, the speaker notifies his captain that the battle is over and won. Stanza 2 tells the captain of the crowd at shore happily ready to celebrate with him. Stanza 3 is where the speaker of the poem hit the nail in the head by coming into reality:
"My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchor'd safe and sound, its voyage closed and done,
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with
object won;
Exult, O shores! and ring, O bells!
But I, with silent tread,
Walk the spot my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead."

The refrain in the poem makes the poem lyrical even though the message is mournful with exclamatory phrases. Imageries are "fearful trip" "the people all exulting" "For you bouquets and ribbon'd wreaths" "his lips are pale and still". 

 

alliterations are "weathered every wrack" "flag is flung" "dream that on the deck". Assonance in line 3 "near the bells I hear" "fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won". Anaphora in stanza one with the use of "The ship" "the prize" "The port" "the people" then in stanza two with the use of "for you the flag" "for you the bugle" "For you bouquet" "for you the shore" "For you they call".

O Captain! My Captain! by Walt Whitman is a poem about a captain who lost his life as a result of a war. The poem shows that there are two sides to the outcome of battle; where some people soberly mourn and cry, others gladly sing and celebrate victory. Even amidst the winners of a certain battle, those alive rejoice with their loved ones while family of those dead mourn.

In searching for the motive of the poem, Wikipedia reveals that Whitman composed the poem after the death of Abraham Lincoln. It became one of the most recognized elegy among American and poetry lovers in general.

Who is Walt Whitman? Walter "Walt" Whitman was an American poet, essayist, and journalist born on May 31, 1819 in West Hills, United States of America but died on March 26, 1892, in Camden, USA.

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

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The Panic Of Growing Older By Lenrie Peters

The Panic of Growing Older is a poem that can be categorized under growth and living. Its context is partly scientific and mainly biological since biology is the study of all life or living matters.

This poem is a creative effort of Lenrie Peters (1932 - 2009), a multi talented Gambian citizen who was widely known to be an author, a singer, a broadcaster, and to crown it all; a medical doctor.

The poem tabled the human sequences of aging and its accompanied fear. An adult in his twenties_ uses his one sided view of life, to occupy himself with sweet simple fantasized gigantic expectations until he clocks thirty and then reality begins to set in. All the simple expectations and hopes seem hard to attain while aging approach quicker than blinks.

With the sincere tone of the poem, a sober mood of realization is created through the 32 lines of the poem; in which the 8 stanzas are quatrains mostly linked by enjambments.

Stanzaic summary:-
Stanza 1 means that the fear of aging increases by year. Stanza 2 implies that one will be filled with sweet hope at twenty. Stanza 3 says the expectations began to wane. Stanza 4 adds more implication of growing older where one has long hours

of working. Stanza 5, little or no result for those hard works. Stanza 6; except have children which is not even a big deal at all. Stanza 7 speaks of the uncertainty of having a long life. Stanza 8 says that the uncertainty further makes humans highly unsatisfied in comparison between all that has been achieved and those yet to be achieved.

• Preoccupation Of Lenrie Peters In The Panic Of Growing Older

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The Panic of Growing Older in Relationship to Religion:-
If we allude to the bible, procreation according to Genesis 1:28 which says "be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it" can be seen from line 21-23 "Three children perhaps/ the world expects/ it of you". Hard labour and life struggles according to Genesis 3:19 which says "in the sweat of thy face shall thou eat bread till thou return into the ground" instance of such can be seen in lines 13-16 "Legs cribbed/ in domesticity allow/ no sudden leaps/ at the moon". Mortality and death according to Ecclesiastes 9:5 which says "for the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten" such Bible verse can also be related to lines 25-28 in the poem "But science gives hope/ of twice three score/ and ten. Hope/ is not a grain of sand", etc.

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

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