Analysis Of Alone By Maya Angelou

Friendship, love, unity, health, wealth, etc are the elements that drove Maya Angelou's heart into this creative piece. She couldn't deny the strength in wealth but she acknowledged that wealth and riches were not fulfillment.

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Okay, lets look at the first stanza of the poem where the poem speaker opened with "Last night" and such phrase weigh very deeply big for anyone who's willing to agree to my tiny thought. No matter busy someone is, no matter how conserved and reserved and deeply self a person can be, nighttimes are times when companionship matters a lot ( even the sadists and the extremists sometimes don't

like to lonely at some certain night):
"Last night
How to find my soul a home
Where water is not thirsty
And bread loaf is not stone
I came up with one thing
And I don't believe I'm wrong
That nobody,
But nobody
Can make it out here alone."

In another stanza, riches didn't suffice. "There are some millionaires/ With money they can't use/ Their wives run round like banshees/ Their children sing the blues/ They've got expensive doctors/ To cure their hearts of stone." The rich we thought be made happy and fulfilled because of their money are shown by the poem speaker to be in a very huge predicament with little or no help nor way out.

Maya tried to alert everyone that all the inadequacies of the world is as a result of human selfishness_ neighbors hardly caring for their neighbors, oppressors here and there. The only solution is unity else human race vanishes as smoke:
"Now if you listen closely
I'll tell you what I know
Storm clouds are gathering
The wind is gonna blow
The race of man is suffering
And I can hear the moan,
'Cause nobody,
But nobody
Can make it out here alone."

Based on the structure, the poem seems lyrical. Most especially the refrain:
"Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone."

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

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What Are The Theme In The Anvil And The Hammer By Kofi Awoonor

This post tends to point at few themes in the Kofi Awoonor's "The Anvil And The Hammer"; in order to get larger discussion about the poem [check complete analysis of the anvil and the hammer by kofi awoonor]

"Caught between the anvil and the hammer
In the forging house of a new life,
Transforming the pangs that delivered me
Into the joy of new songs
The trapping of the past, tender and tenuous
Woven with fibre of sisal and
Washed in the blood of the goat in the fetish hut
Are laced with the flimsy glories of paved streets
The jargon of a new dialectic comes with the
Charisma of the perpetual search on the outlaw’s ..." is a two stanza poem with a political setting.

Simple languages and imageries of the poem help the symbolisms embedded within. The candid tone of the poem speaker proved a feeling of triumph.

Let's take this moment to enjoy the Theme of Cultural Contrast (which can also be called Clash of
Culture or Cultural Disparity or Conflict of Culture or any other name used to refer to the mixture of two different lifestyles). Like the poem "Piano And Drums" by Gabriel Okara, the persona in the poem "The Anvil and The Hammer" by Kofi Awoonor experienced two different ways of life (the African and the Western) which he puts thus in line 1-2:
"Caught between the anvil and the hammer
In the forging house of a new life"

The impact or implication of the contrast led to the poem's title "The Anvil And The Hammer" because they are instrument for creation. With the use of symbolism, where the words "anvil" and "hammer" are made to symbolize both African believe system and Non-African believe system, the voice in the poem shows that the contrasting cultures have reshaped or remolded him; it is not a surprise that the line 3 begins with the word "transforming".

The poem also has the Theme of Cultural Colonization. The act of colonization in Africa went beyond commercial exploitation; if silently examined, such act has an everlasting effect on Africa and Africans in general. Even long after colonization the culture of the colonial masters remains indelible in Africa and can never be wiped since it has been sown a "new garment" called civilization. The poem speaker referred metaphorically to the embraced new culture in line 2 as "a new life" and in line 9 "The jargon of a new dialectic". Because the poem speaker could not find a wayout of his cultural colonization, he resigned to the adoption of the past in present.

The theme of Adoption of Past In Present (rediscovery). In the poem "The Anvil And The Hammer" by Kofi Awoonor who died in the year 2013 at the age seventy eight, one can clearly see that the theme of the adoption of past in present revealed how undeniable the past was in the new life of the poem speaker to the extent he urged his ancestors in the opening line of stanza 2: "Sew the old days for us, our fathers/ That we can wear them under our new garment/ After we have washed ourselves in/ The whirlpools of many rivers' estuary".
The theme of Past in Present shows that Kofi Awoonor in this poem followed the opinion of Dennis Osadebay who in his poem titled "Young Africa's Plea" believed the merger of both cultures would make him a better man:
"Let me play with the white man's ways
Let me work with the black man's brains
Let my affairs themselves sort out
Then in sweet rebirth
I'll rise a better man"
(extracted from the poem "Young Africa's Plea" by Dennis Osadebay)

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Samuel C. Enunwa aka samueldpoetry
(the Leo in the sky high)

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Analysis Of Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer's Day

As we cherish and praise William Shakespeare for his sonnet 18, let's not forget Giacomo da Lentini, also known as Jacopo (il) Notaro, an Italian poet of the 13th century, who invented sonnet.

Like most of the 154 Shakespearian sonnets, sonnet 18 was also speaking of love. That is why the theme of love, the theme of immunity and the theme of immortality can be found in the poem.

Some new generation pupils might find it hard to understand the language of the poem because it's archaic. We refer to it as the Elizabethan English; except for those familiar with the old king James Version of the Holy Bible.

The language of this sonnet is said to be the simplest in comparison with other Shakespearean sonnets. The tone is calm with an optimistic mood of assurance.

Let's look at the themes:
The Theme Of Love:
Shakespeare revealed his love through the image of beauty, simplicity and certainty. He compared his lover to "...a summer's day?/ thou art more lovely and more
temperate" (line 1 and 2) because those qualities of hers, he cherished.

The Theme Of Immunity:
What is Immunity? The state of being insusceptible to something of having strong resistance. Few of the things human being cannot resist are death, aging, etc. Shakespeare made readers to realise in Sonnet 18 that his lover was immune to aging and death. From line 3-8, he wrote how summer, sun, flower, etc. come and later die or disappear; starting from line 9, he told the readers that his own lover will neither grow old, lose beauty nor die.
"But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade,"(line 9-11)

The Theme Of Immortality:
"When in eternal lines of time thou grow'st.
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee."(line 12-14)
The poet made us to know that his lover will live forever as far as men live and eyes continue to see things written because he has immortalized her with this Sonnet 18; that's the power of poetry.

William Shakespeare (April 26, 1564-April 23, 1616) was 52 years old before death. An English poet and writer, he married Anne Hathaway with three children.

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Analysis Of The Poem Passion Flower By Christopher Okigbo

According the article of St. John D. Parsons, "Christopher Okigbo originally wrote Passion Flower as a continuation of his poem "Sacrifice" in the series called Heavengate.

[View The Poem Passion Flower by Christopher Okigbo]

The passion flower is so named because its parts are said to resemble ceetain aspect of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, e.g. the corona represents the crown of thorns, the pistil and stamens the nails of the cross, and the sepals and petals the apostles. The passion refers to the sufferings of Christ between the night of the Last Supper and his death.

In line 3, Lacrimae Christi is a Latin meaning "the tears of Christ". "dumb bell" in line 6 referred to the practice in the Roman Catholic Church where bell are not rung between Maundy Thursday and the first Mass on Easter Sunday. Messiah in line 8 pointed at the expected King and Savior (Jesus Christ). "after the argument in heaven" which appeared in line 9 of the poem was looking at the shaking of the powers of heaven referred to in The Gospel According to St. Luke, Chapter 21, verse 26, prior to the coming of the Son of Man, described in verse 27.

Lumen mundi is also a latin, meaning the Light of the World ( Jesus Christ). "Penitence"(line 11) meant sorrow for faults or sins. "palm grove"(line 14) meant the place of sacrifice. In line 15, "vegetable offering" the fruits of the earth that are being sacrificed, that is, palm oil, kola nuts, alligator pepper and eggs of white hens. "five fingers of chalk" in line 16-17 referred to the sacrificial chalk which is sold in "fingers". The prodigal uses five of these for his sacrifice because his own personal symbol is the pentagon (see the poem Sacrifice):

'on palm beam imprinted
my pentagon_'"

Christopher Okigbo before killed in 1967 in Biafra war, was a Secretary, a Latin teacher, a librarian, a West African representative of Cambridge University Press. He was a graduate of University of Ibadan and was born in 1932 in Anambra state.

READ MORE CLASSIC POEM [Post Mortem by Wole Soyinka]

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

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The Tether Will Suffer The Wear And The Tear

NOTE: "The tether will suffer the wear and the tear" is a handsome funny poem written by Akoli Penoukou; a Togolese teacher, poet and businessman born 1953. Akoli has been a motivator and mentor to many adults and youths (both home and abroad) with writings and way of life_ not excluding his alluring smile. It wouldn't be a hyperbole to say Akoli Penoukou is currently the Wole Soyinka of Togo because he's an icon.

POEM:
Tether which inhibited us in barter
Tether which revoked our God-image
Tether which banished our patriotic rights
Tether which hindered our exodus
Tether of delusion

 
Tether of genocide
tightening noose of a tether
suffocating noose of a tether
neck-breaking noose of a tether
life-quenching noose of a tether
like a hangman’s
tether-noose which took away our voice
tether tightened by mammoth hands
mammoth hands powered by hearts of stone
hearts of stone activated by robot minds
but each time comes the wear and the tear
the wear
and
the tear

 
the tether-noose which limits and suffocates us
will again suffer the wear and the tear
the knots will slacken like a landslide
the noose will become a toothless tiger
the noose of the enemy will inevitably wear out
and we can continue our march towards light.

Rewritten March 10, 2001

The poem is from poetropical poetry website

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What Makes A Good Poet?

My interest is really in this
could it be a hairy person
or master of Shakespearean words?

Must he know the life in prison
like Chris Abani for instance
or the famous white bearded man?

Maybe complexity makes a good poet
or maybe the master of imagery?

My interest is in what makes a good poet,
a good bard, a good muse, a good poetess
I know the renaissance will credit themselves
I'm sure the free verses will raise their hands
the traditionalist sijo, tanka
and haiku moguls will raise hands
claiming a good poet
be candid
to possess an editor
does it make a good poet?

To share poems with friends
does it make a good poet?

To have a published anthology with catchy title
does it make a good poet?

What makes a good poet?

Samuel C. Enunwa aka samueldpoetry

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