August 22, 2025
Introduction
This post aims at revealing some of the similes in the poem titled "Night" by Wole Soyinka. The similes pointed out will be explained for ease of understanding by readers of this post.
About the Poet
Wole Soyinka is a Nobel Laureate for literature. A Nigerian activists, scholar, poet, novelist, playwright, actor, musician, etc.
Akinwade Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka, popularly known as Wole Soyinka was born 13th July of the year 1934. He was born in Aké, Abẹ́òkúta, Ogun State, Nigeria.
About the Poem
As a poet, one of the poem crafted by him is "Night". A poem that could be considered an ode, based on the fact that he revealed the strengths of night time and its effects on both humans and nature in general.
Similes in the Poem
"I bear no heart mercuric like the clouds" (line 2). This use of simile was chosen by the poet to create a direct comparison between the poem-speaker and the clouds, most especially when it comes to radiation ability.
By employing the phrase "heart mercuric", Soyinka revealed that human hearts wasn't luminous while the heart of the clouds possessed such ability. A mercuric heart would have given the poem-speaker the ability to contend the oppressive darkness nighttime placed upon him.
In line 4, with the expression that went thus "Woman as a clam, on the sea's cresent." The poem-speaker compared his vulnerability to that of a woman while creating a direct comparison woman and a clam.
Clams are bivalve molusc, known to be willingly sitting at the shores or beds of rivers or seas. Similarly, women are also known to be willingly sitting with chores in the house. In a nutshell, women and clams are both submissive beings.
"Submitting like the sand, blood and brine" can be found in line 8 of the poem titled Night by Wole Soyinka to express the poet's helplessness and unquestionable inferiority towards nighttime.
Soyinka directly compared his state of submissiveness to those of sand, blood, and brine. They are substances that can acquired by anyone and made use of.
"Sensations pained me, faceless, silent as night thieves" [line 12]. The line striked comparison between the effects of nighttime on the poem-speaker and night thieves.
Thieves at night wore masks and moved in silence. So also so the nighttime hid the face of the poem-speaker and also kept him in a state of sad silence.
Conclusion
Anyone who has read this post keenly, from beginning to end, would have acquired some orientation regarding the poet, the poem and the similes embedded in the poem.
Over to you the reader of this post. The comment box is yours to drop your thoughts regarding this post. Share to all social media platforms as well.
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