Analysis Of Expelled by Jared Angira

Expelled by Jared Angira is the matter at hand in naijapoets.com

All the way to Kenya, Jared Angira was born 21st November, 1947. is
a Kenyan poet. Studied commerce at the University of Nairobi from 1968 until 1971. He also founded the Kenya Writers' Association.

I took a very close look at the poem "Expelled" and I saw the following themes: Encroachment, Exploitation,Hopelessness and Colonialism.

"We had traded in this market competively perfect
till you come in the boat, and polished goodwill
approval from higher order
all pepper differentials, denied flag-bearers"

The quoted expressions above, is the first stanza of the poem. It revealed the degree of encroachment the poet felt when powerful foreigners withheld freedo
m where freedom once existed. Judging from the totality of the poem it shows that such encroachment was the cause of the poet's lost.

As one theme leads to another, Exploitation led to Hopelessness the poet resigned himself to. The second stanza of the poem expressed how the poet and his people were exploited by the strange marauding beasts who came to their marketplace by boat; even all the goodwills they pretended to bring were bad omen.

"Plants reject the sea water, the sea water rejects me/ I have nothing to reject" in line 21 and 22, gave us an insight into the theme of Hopelessness. Imagine someone watching his hope given to another hand "The auctioneer will gong his hammer/For the goods left behind"
Colonialism according to frequent lamentations of poets, is a very horrible experience which lingers longer than expected and this poem is no exception to such notion.

POETIC DEVICES:
(1) Personification: "he drought you brought/ planted on the market place, the tree of memory" line 7 and 8; the drought was personified a human planting tree.
(2) Imageries: "The broken line runs across my face" line 23, "deposition of my last penny/ the last sight of my fishing-net" line 16 and 17, "this market competitively perfect" line 1, "creditors tapped my rusty door" line 12.
(3) Repetition: there are repetition of words (our= "our ribs, our cows" in line 5) (avoid="avoids my path; I avoid death's too" in line 18) (reject="reject sea water, the sea water rejects me/ I have nothing to reject" in line 21 and 22)
(4) Chain line: "the rivulets from my human lake/ from my viens, my heart, my whole" in line 14 and 15 of stanza 3, "plants reject sea water, the sea water rejects me/ I have nothing to reject" in line 21 and 22 of stanza 4; were instances of chain lines that occurred in the poem
(5) Allusion: the was a Biblical allusion which reminds the readers of the story of how they said Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed in the Bible
(6) Alliteration: in line 8 "planted on the market place" in line 11 "flowed to flooded stream" in line 20 "floated garden in a gale"

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