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The Call Of The River Nun! Poem Analysis

The Call Of The River Nun is a poem by Gabriel Okara, a Nigerian poet, and novelist. The poem is
about the river Nun, situated in Rivers State, Nigeria. The river was formed when the Nigerian river
split into two, forming Nun and Forcados rivers. Let us look into the poem below:
The Call of the River Nun

I hear your call!

I hear it far away;

I hear it break the circle of these crouching hills.

I want to view your face again and feel your cold embrace;

or at your brim to set myself and inhale your breath;

or like the trees, to watch my mirrored self unfold and span my days with song from the lips of dawn.

I hear your lapping call!

I hear it coming through; invoking the ghost of a child listening, where river birds hail your silver-
surfaced flow.

My river’s calling too!

Its ceaseless flow impels my found’ring canoe down its inevitable course.

And each dying year brings near the sea-bird call, the final call that stills the crested waves and
breaks in two the curtain of silence of my upturned canoe.

O incomprehensible God!

Shall my pilot be my inborn stars to that final call to Thee.

O my river’s complex course?

The poem is an Ode written by Okara as a memory and remembrance of river Nun. It was written in
the year 1950 and has bagged many awards. In 1953, the poem won Festival of Arts award and many
of his poems were published in Nigerian literary Journal, Black Orpheus. Okara, in one of his
interview stated that,

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“I began to think about my experiences in the environment in which I grew up. I grew up in the village
of Bomoundi on the riverbanks where water was everything for us. We used it for cooking, washing,
transportation; travelling from place to place.”

These words of Okara informs us that, he showed great importance to the nature, especially rivers.
The poem is a monologue presented by a speaker (mostly the poet) who addresses the river Nun.

Line Interpretation

I hear your call!

I hear it far away;

I hear it break the circle of these crouching hills.

The opening lines of the poem are the inner feelings that the speaker expresses to the river Nun.
Here, you is addressed to the river. The speaker says he hears the voice of the river calling him
towards it, far away from the crouching hills. The word crouching hills is used to signify that the voice
is approaching from a distant place, though meek it hears yet it is a very strong emotion. We can also
consider it as the inner voice from the self that is alarming the poet about the river and his childhood
memories.

I want to view your face again and feel your cold embrace;

or at your brim to set myself and inhale your breath;

or like the trees, to watch my mirrored self unfold and span my days with song from the lips of
dawn.

He wants to go to the edge of the river and feel it’s waves again. The ambiance that the river holds,
makes the speaker feel pleasant. Just like those fortunate trees who are always beside the river,
watch their mirrored self in the water. Speaker wants to be like them as he can stay there for long
days with songs from the lips of dawn. Lips of dawn here, it might be the sounds made by the birds at
sunrise.

I hear your lapping call!

I hear it coming through; invoking the ghost of a child listening, where river birds hail your silver-
surfaced flow.

Speaker hears the recurrent voice of the river. The voice invokes the child within the speaker. The
word Ghost is used to refer to the dead child or the lost childhood of the speaker. He hears the voice
where the birds greet the wave’s surface that shines due to sun rays (silver-surfaced) of the river.

My river’s calling too!

Its ceaseless flow impels my found’ring canoe down its inevitable course.

And each dying year brings near the sea-bird call, the final call that stills the crested waves and
breaks in two the curtain of silence of my upturned canoe.

Now, the speaker realizes that it is time to go! The ceaseless flow of the river is tempting the speaker
to be one with nature. In other words, the speaker’s life (canoe) will flow with the river’s course. It
might also be the truth of death. Each advancing year that slowly perishes the mortality brings near
the death (sea- bird, eagle) the final call or motherly call to end the human life and leads to the
stagnation. The upturned canoe can be the drowning life or the declining life of the speaker which
will witness the curtain of silence to death. We need to observe here that the speaker expresses My
river’s calling too! where he uses the river as my river. The river is now seen as a personal or internal
aspect.

O incomprehensible God!

Shall my pilot be my inborn stars to that final call to Thee.

O my river’s complex course?

This conclusive part of the poem is similar to Alfred Lord Tennyson’s Crossing The Bar where god is
referred to as Pilot. The speaker wants his almighty to be his charioteer and part him from this world.
Speaker says Thee to the personal self or his river. Here, the phrase incomprehensible God might also
be addressed to nature for its divinity.

Though the poem seems to be a symbol of childhood, it continues the symbol of the progress of life.
The uniqueness of the poem is, the speaker can hear but can’t see! If we connect this poem to reality,
we will realize that Gabriel Okara speaks about a civilization that develops on the bank of the river.
We can notice that he projects the versatility of river, calm, and rigourocity which can nurture or kill a
civilization! An attempt is also made to show how the Nigerian culture has changed as time passed.
With the new developments of the Oil trade, pollution has been poisoning the purity of the river.

Thus, the poet wants to reconnect with the past which has been cut off! The moral urgency he
presents, for gaining back the same old river with purity and his childhood which had rooted in
Nigerian culture.

Themes

The reader can observe themes in the poem like the changing time and culture, desire to live free,
divinity of nature, and isolation.

Tone

The tone employed in the poem is nostalgic and isolation.

Structure
The poem has three stanzas with irregular rhyme scheme.

Imagery

In the poem, we observe the use of metaphors like silver surfaced flow, canoe, sea-bird call, the
curtain of silence, pilot, inborn stars, etc.

References

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Okara

* No Condition is Permanent: Nigerian Writing and the

Struggle for Democracy
By Holger G. Ehling
* You can read more about Gabriel Okara here

crazzybharath3696 May 4, 2020 literature

Gabriel Okara, River Nun, The Call Of The River Nun poem analysis

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3 Comments
Chethan
May 5, 2020 at 2:57 pm

Gauthami Kakathkar
September 13, 2020 at 7:39 pm
Pingback: Gabriel Okara : An insight to his Life and Works | Manasvini

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