A Poem About Victory

 

There're two types of victory:

The catapult victory

And the rock victory

So do allow me simplify

The catapult victory is swift

So swift as the speed of light

While the rock victory is slow

So slow as the flowing grease

The Bible David is my case study

David won Goliath with catapult

Not even with shield for combat

It's easy, simple and swift

Same David hid behind rock

For a very long time to win Saul

With harmless word of peace

Therefore, whatever the case may be

You can either achieve victory fighting

Or achieve victory with words of peace;

It's left for you to meditate on these

And choose fighting or words of peace.

I welcome you to the year 2022

And my name is Samueldpoetry

The Leo ♌ with wings flying.

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Comrade (by Kole Ade-Odutola)

The Poem

Thanks comrade, the chain is getting stronger as our
fate towards the
river bed of hope draws closer as our chain of the
past calls the river
bird by name not by the color of its plume, not by
what it lacks or the
sack that the hunter will weave
We are bound to fate
by the blood of our faith
that tomorrow CAN be better

I must go now, my thoughts are setting a path for me
let me go before the moon divorces the sky
and birds begin to beckon to one another
and fishes become the prey of hooks
and soon children will clutch their books
but I, the writer of these words will find
solace by the brook of dreams
and dreams that eat dreams
will find a home on the lips
storytellers parade
I'm the eyes of my world
the womb of my story
I must weave you a yarn
someday, I say some other day
when the moon promises a longer
marriage...

The Poet

Kole Ade-Odutola wrote the poem, it was extracted from one of the University of Ibadan's magazine. Kole Ade-Odutola is a Nigerian writer. He authored "The Poet Bled". He's a lecturer and a teacher.

According to ufl.edu website, "Kole has presented conference papers in different parts of the world. His Masters degree thesis on the participatory use of video is wildly circulated on development oriented websites. 

He presented a paper; Understanding the Media in Nigeria at The British Council Training Workshop on Development Information Management; September 9 to 13, 1996 at the Conference Centre University of Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria."

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Analysis Of Love III by George Herbert

Love III by George Herbert is an eighteen line love poem with a static rhythm plus end rhyme pattern of ABABCCDEDEFFGHGHII. The message of the poem is about the unconditional love of Christ and the unrighteous nature of human.

Christ who was symbolized as love in the poem was seen assuring sinners of his love for them by inviting the remorse sinners into his abode to dine with him "Love bade me welcome, yet my soul drew back" according to line 1. The invited human at first, resented his invite on the ground of imperfection and sinfulness "Guilty of dust and sin" as seen in line 2 and "I, the unkind, the ungrateful? ah my dear" seen in line 9 of the poem. At the completion of the poem, the invited sinner testified to the love and benevolence of Jesus Christ:
'“You must sit down,” says Love, “and taste my meat.”
So I did sit and eat."

George Herbert's poems are in form of dramatic monologues. This poem and his poem titled "The Pulley" both possess monologue revealing the conversation that transpired between two characters. "The Pulley" showed conversation between God and the poem speaker who witnessed the creation but "Love III" is a conversation between Christ and sinner. When the sinner claimed he wasn't worthy of standing before Christ "I cannot look at thee" but Christ replied in line 12 saying "Who made the eyes but I?" and such line is an instance of assonance.

Line 13-14 says "Truth, Lord, but I have marr’d them; let my shame/ Go where it doth deserve.” which means "Lord, the truth is that I have wrongly used the eye given so let me shamefully go to where I sinfully belong" both lines have an enjambment and a personification of "my shame". The line 16 which says "My dear, then I will serve" can be interpreted as "OK. Christ, I promise to worship you." The phrase "My dear" refers to Christ.

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

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Analysis Of Living Is A Fire By Ben Okri

Naijapoets.com loves to commence this analysis with the view of the poem's structure. A free verse in the sense that, the five stanzas don't rhyme nor maintain a similarity in line count per stanza. Note as well is that Ben Okri positioned each of his points of discuss in line with stanza break. The first and the last stanza are refrains of the same idea (life is simple but humans made life a difficult place for themselves). The stanza two which he chopped into thirteen lines discussed human inability to admit the pains they live through are self-made. The third verse of the poem pointed that love doesn't thrive where there is starvation and hopeless suffering, he portrayed such ideas through the child-parent bond. 

Humans' insatiable desire to acquire definitely lead to destruction, chaos and unrest; as said by the poet in stanza four below:
"Minor devastations preceding
Horror
Resonate the ineffable.
The mothers that wake
At the slightest sound
And the fathers that
Smoke all night
And the rest of us who are
Vigilantes from the demons
Of oppressed sleep
Find at dawn the clearest
Images of bewilderment.
Even the best things
Collapse beneath the weight
Of ignorance."



There are many imageries and metaphors embellished in the poem "Living is a Fire" by Ben Okri and few will be revealed in this article. Starting with the title of the poem which is a metaphor by placing "living" and "fire" side-by-side in an attempt to show that living on earth has been made fearful, dangerous, painful, et cetera. The way the following phrases were presented in the poem also depicted metaphor "the weight of ignorance" "images of bewilderment". Most of the images are of sight "wave-lashes" which refers to the longhaired people, "the broken catwalk", "rock-faces" which refers to adults irrespective of the gender or race. "Living is a fire" and "Comprehends" among others are repeated in the poem while alliteration found in the poem is in line eleven "At the slightest sound".

As slightly mentioned earlier, the poem revealed the extra miles and the straining task people pass through in order to fulfill their unending desires for materialities but ceased to value nature's gifts such as free given rain "Drenching Our doorsteps". The poet addressed the issue from a first person point of view with the repeated use of "We" and "Us" to show himself included.

Important to note:-
"We are drawn/ To many seas" this lines could mean coercion or many economic and social responsibilities human force themselves into in order to measure up in life.

"Simplest act of living" meaning the daily endeavors.

"failure of confrontation" means the way people shy away from the fact of their actions.

"The demons of oppressed sleep" is a personification indicating the people's inability to go sleep.

"Catwalk" in the poem is an elevated enclosed passage providing access fore and aft from the bridge of a merchant vessel.

"Lacerations" in the poem point to the people's struggle with life.

Ben Okri is a Nigerian poet and novelist. He lived his youth between Nigeria and London. One among his well recognized book is The Famished Road.

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

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Poetic Devices In Snake By D. H. Lawrence

POETIC DEVICES IN SNAKE BY D.H. LAWRENCE

the poet made use of carefully selected words in describing the actions of the snake: "He lifted his head from his drinking as cattle do and looked vaguely as drinking cattle do. And flickered his two forked tongue from his lips and mused a moment..."


The poet made use of images such as "Sicilian July" "Accursed human education"


He personified the snake with the use of the third person pronoun "a king in exile"


"and l like a second comer, waiting" "his head as cattle do" "like a king" are few examples of similes in the poem.


In line 2 "on a hot, hot day" carries a repetition. "Must wait, must stand and wait" in line 6 as well has repetition

Alliteration also existed in the poem "brown slackness soft" "softly drank through his straight gums" and rhetorical question in the poem are:

"Into the burning bowels of t
his earth?

Was it cowardice, that I dare not kill him?

Was it perversity, that I longed to talk to him?

Was it humility, to feel so honoured?"


D.H. Lawrence wrote about his encounter with a snake he found drinking from a water pot. He explained his own reaction and also explained the reaction of the snake he then wondered what made him to allow the snake walk away safe without trying to kill it.

MORE POETIC ANALYSIS>>>

Samuel C. Enunwa aka samueldpoetry
(the Leo with wings swinging in the sky)

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Kwame Ataapim

Kwame Ataapim was born in famine:
He lost his parents before his birth;
He lost his sight before he could see;
He lost his teeth before he could bite;
He lost his feet before he could walk.

Kwame Ataapim was born in war:
He stood on the rock and split it apart;
He tugged at the rope and tore it in two;
He breathed on the sea and burnt it up;
He gazed at the fire and froze it up.

Kwame Ataapim was born in need:
When they were eating they never called him;
When they were planning he wasn't around;
When they were leaving they didn't see him;
When they were killing they didn't spare him.

Written by D. E. K. Krampah (all right reserved)

The poem was post because of few lessons to be learnt from it.
The poem is a tragic one, it reveals how less concerned African countries are with their masses and the poem didn't fail to reveal the negative effects of war and elements of war. When there is war, there will be needs. When there is war, there will be famine. When there is war, there will be lost of lives, confusion, diseases, etc.

The poem makes us to know how war affected the life of the character (Kwame Ataapim). He suffered multiple disabilities, yet, we could see elements of ability in his disability (stanza 2 of the poem from line 7-10: he stood on the rock and split it apart; he tugged at the rope and tore it in two; he gazed at the fire and froze it up.)

Part of the flavor of the poem is that it will make the reader wonder: how could Kwame Ataapim stand on the rock, when he had "lost his feet before he could walk"? How did he see the fire, when he had "lost his sight before he could see"?

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They Walked And Talked (composed by Prof. Uche Okeke)

They talked and walked,
walked and talked and talked_
talkative homing dames;
mothers, grandmothers, all homing,
returning from a distant mart
baskets on heads, words on lips_
gossip or talk tales of folks at home.

They clapped their hands;
they screamed from time to time;
they moved their heads in most expressive ways_
their hands spoke even louder than their tongues_
as they swept like a great Saharan wind
along the winding beaten tracks
before them, silent, deserted.

Not even the discordant creaking of the toad;
not even the noise of insects here and there,
not even the songs of birds everywhere,
were heard above the noise of these homing folks
who (forgetful of the ancient saying
that even blades of grasses are living ears)
could not restrain their long and wagging tongues.

This poem was written by Prof. Uche Okeke. He was born April 30, 1933. In 1960, he got the Poetry prize in the national literary competition organized by the National Arts Council.He authored Tales Of Land Of Death in the year 1933.

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