Analysis of to a Bedbug by Sam Mbure

Two important messages surfaced from the complaining voice of the poem speaker are; the victim's constant nuptial lost of blood and the victim's poverty condition. It can be said that one problem led to another in the sense that it might be the poem speaker's poverty that caused his "little bed" infested.

Sam Mbure, in this poem title "To A Bedbug" wrote about the negative effect and the inconvenience caused by bedbug; not only that, the chosen words of the poem marveled at the wisdom of the bedbug. Saying that the "tiny creature" only takes advantage of his unconscious sleeping state to feed and breed in his bed.


Clever thou art, tiny creature;
You attend me when I am deep asleep;
When thou art sure, I can’t you capture,
Just at the time I snore deep.

‘Tis so strange that before twilight,
The bed clear of you would seem;
For not one of you is in my sight;
As if your presence was in a dream

Mbure adopted the use of Elizabethan English to communicate his poem to the readers, such found in line 9 and 11 "thou art". Imagery is also evident; image of manner and of sight "you awful parasite", "By sucking blood from my poor head", "Just at the time I snore deep."

Sam Mbure is a Kenyan poet and author who is fond of writing and publishing collections of children's stories. Sam Mbure is an African and it widely known till this day that poverty and suffering are ravaging the continent beyond present attempted repairs. The suffering and poverty in Africa are linked to many factors such as cultural dogma, bad maintenance, greed bred oppression, and many more. Sam Mbure employed a very funny angle of human living to express the human problem of Africans.

It is very reasonable for the reader of the poem to relate with the setting, which has to do with the night and the tiny bed. The speaker of the poem supported his setting with words like "snore deep" "deep asleep" "tiny creature" "twilight" "For supper, diner and lunch".

How did Mbure managed to develop his themes? A very good question to consider. Few of the themes in the poem are (i) the effect of poverty (ii) the intelligence and nature of bedbugs. Though the poem didn't obviously broaden the message of poverty but the complaining voice of the speaker depicted a suffering person sleeping a "tiny bed" without escape from bedbugs sucking his "poor head". When the commenced, the voice of the poem, in his bewilderment, referred to the bedbugs as parasite sharing his bed uninvited. To feed and breed, the bugs depended solely on him which made him to ponder how plenty human blood can be.

The poem carried so much absolutely the image of sight and emotion; "awful parasite" "from my sweet dreams be lost" "is so strange that before twilight/ The bed clear of you would seem". There is synecdoche in line 5 "head" and metonym in line 1 "parasite". Alliteration in line 9 "my bed breed".

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

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Review Of Diviner's Hand By Lola Shoneyin

This is maternal and more like a soliloquy. A mother speaking to her baby while combing her hairs. She had the worries of whether she would live old to tell the baby all the most needed experiences of life.

In the first stanza, she had the worry about how long she would live on earth to take care of the baby and comb the baby's hairs:
"Sometimes I wonder
how much longer I shall be here
to bite your hair
with my wooden toothcomb."

She saw death as something romantic which made her claim that she wasn't afraid of death:
"I am not afraid
of the freeze of frail fingers;
there is something
romantic about loss."

In the third and fourth stanzas, Lola Shoneyin revealed that she only worried about uncertainty of human lives and the unpredictability

in death:
"But I worry about the uneven rhythm
of the diviner’s hand,
the widening waist
that filters sand.

I worry that time
rests its hand on doorknob
and taps the floor
with its iron toe tip."

According to stanza five to seven, Shoneyin told the baby listening that she had a lot of life's secrets, tricks, and lessons to teach the baby as she grew but if time (death) betrayed her trust and turned to an entity that didn't care about the coexistence of a lovely mother and daughter, then the baby should read the poem and learn two vital lessons (the first being that a life lived well is a wave in flight and the second lesson being that discarded dreams draw out painful night):
"Somehow,
I must show you
the tricks my mother didn’t teach me;
tell you the tales that never reached me.

But if time will spurn
a mother’s wish
or turn its face away
from a daughter’s need,

remember this, little one:
a life lived well is a wave in flight;
discarded dreams
draw out painful night."

There are ambiguities in the last three lines. "a life lived well is a wave in flight" could mean that perfection in life is different, it could mean that a life lived well will not be noticed, it could mean that human behavior is unstable. "discarded dreams draw out painful night" could mean that intuition should not be made flimsy, it could mean that any reasonable ambition that is ignored at youth will bring regret when someone gets old.
"to bite your hair with my wooden toothcomb" has a personification, "discarded dreams draw" "life lived" are few among the alliterations, etc.

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

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Fascination In The Poem Stanley Meets Mutesa

The Fascination:

Fascination In The Poem Stanley Meet Mutesa by David Rubadiri

The Poem:

Such a time of it they had;
The heat of the day
The chill of the night
And the mosquitoes that followed.
Such was the time and
They bound for a kingdom.

The thin weary line of carries
With tattered dirty rags to cover their backs;
The battered bulky chests
That kept on falling off their shaven heads.
Their tempers high and hot
The sun fierce and scorching
With it rose their spirits
With its fall their hopes...[Details from the Source]

The Overview:

The poem talked about a group of explorers like in the case of Mungo Park. It reproduced what came before the attainment of colonialism. The readers were shown how explorers suffered on their journey, at the end of the poem mere visit turned into colonization ("The gate of polished reed closes behind them/And the west is let in") due to the lax of the owners( Mutesa) who joyfully welcome the visitor(Stanley).

[NOTE: Have you read Jack Mapanje's When This Carnival Finally Closes]

Most readers are bound to be fascinated by the proper use of symbolism:
1 they bound for a kingdom (referring to Africa)
2 the village looked on ( village was used to show the level of African civilization)
3 the gate of polished reeds closes behind them ( referring to African architecture in the colonial era)
4 Stanley (symbolizes European) while Mutesa (symbolizes African)

[Recommended: David Rubadiri: Growing Up With Poetry Anthology]

The unequal stanzas of the poem also added a funny look to the poem which made it so fascinating not to mention the indirect reminder of historical event which the poem brought to the readers memory

There is personification in line 15 and 32
Alliteration can be found in line 9
The use of simile was present as well
The poet made use of strange language in the poem:"mtu mweupe karibu" in line 59 maybe the statement means "whiteman you are welcome" in line 60 such usage can be called vulgarism.

The Poet:

Stanley Meets Mutesa was written by David Rubadiri, a Malawian born in 1930. David Rubadiri was also the Malawi's Ambassador to the United States in the year 1964 and later year in 1967, his novel No Bride Price was published.

Other Interesting Articles:

(1) How To Understand The Anvil And The Hammer By Kofi Awoonor

(2) Analysis Of Freetown By Sly Cheney Coker

(3) Poet, Author, Critic

(4) Analysis Of Hide And Seek By Vernon Scannell

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

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