Poetic devices in A Government Driver on his Retirement by Onu kingsley Chibuike.

By Echezona Enemuo / Literary Analysis

Poetic devices in A Government Driver on his Retirement by Onu kingsley Chibuike.

The poetic devices in the poem A Government Driver on his Retirement are synecdoche, alliteration,
inversion, pun and onomatopoeia.

Poetry uses figures of speech to express deep thoughts, evoke imagination, bring beauty, paint picture
and give shades of meaning to literary work.

The five dominant poetic devices in A Government Driver on his Retirement by Onu kingsley Chibuike.

1. Synecdoche:
Synecdoche is a figure of speech in which a part of something represents the whole, or it may
use a whole to represent a part. This can be found in this poem in lines:
Line 1 – Many years on wheels
Line 29 – On his way home on wheels
‘Wheels’ is used to refer to car(s) used by the persona for years to serve his fatherland.

2. Alliteration

Alliteration is a literary device in which words having the same first consonant appear together
in a line of poetry. This appears in lines:
Line 2 – In faithful service to his fatherland
Line 22 – Joy till no more joy to joy
Line 25 – And so, he boozed and boozed
Line 27 – From faithful service to fatherland
Line 28 – He battled with his bottle booze
Line 31 – He boomed his brand new car
Alliteration in the poem is used to create rhythmic effects and to create mental pictures in the
mind of the readers.
3. Inversion (Anastrophe)

One of the poetic devices in the poem A Government Driver on his Retirement is inversion.
Inversion is a poetic device in which there is a syntactic reversal of the normal word order or
sentence structure. It can be in the form of placing verb before its subject or placing an adjective
after the noun it modifies. Poets use inversion to achieve rhyme, maintain rhyme scheme or
achieve emphasis. Examples in this poem:
 Line 3 – Today retires he home
Line 4 – And a celebration he holds
Line 5 – Many years has he pummeled his boozy throat.

4. Pun

Pun is a play on words to produce humorous effect. It is usually common with homonyms. In
this poem, the poet played on the words ‘home’ and ‘booze’.
‘Home’ in this poem has different shades of meaning. It was used in lines 2, 10, 17, 29 and 32. At
the beginning of the poem, home refers to the physical home of the persona. Although we can
say, it was the real home in the mind of the persona but the poet meant more than that
considering retirement could also mean death in the real sense of life.
In line 33, home refers to grave or heaven. This is where absolute rest resides. The freedom the
persona desires from call to duty rests in the grave. People are solely at peace when then are
laid to rest. Hence the line Home to rest in peace.
In line 30, Booze is used as noun to mean an intoxicating drink taken by the persona whereas
the meaning of the verb ‘boozed’ is altered to mean that the persona’s vision was blurred and
he made a wrong decision.
5. Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoeia is a poetic device which a word imitates the natural sounds of a thing. It usually
used to create sound effects in poetry. This is another poetic device in the poem A Government
Driver on his Retirement. The following examples are used in this poem:
The use of the words ‘zoom’ and ‘boom’ in lines 10 and 31 respectively depict the speed and
state with which the persona used to send himself home. In line 10 ‘I shall booze and zoom
myself home.’ Here, the poet describes the persona’s impatience to enjoy his life and taste what
it feels like to speed in car in contrast to his conservative manner of driving his bosses under
strict rules and regulation for thirty-five years.
In line 31, ‘He boomed his brand new car.’ Here the poet depicts the sound made by the car
crash when the persona got involved in the accident. His ‘zooming off’ in the brand new car
leads him to the long awaited homecoming filtered the air.
THEMES
A prominent theme in Chibuike Onu’s A Government Driver on His Retirement is the destructive
nature of uncontrolled joy and freedom.

Other themes in the poem include the joy of retirement, the reward for commitment to duties,
the danger of drunk driving, and death.

The poem expresses each of these in varying degrees, in clear, prosaic and understandable
diction. Now, let’s take a peek into the highlighted themes.
THE JOY OF RETIREMENT
It’s every civil servant dream to retire from government’s service someday with full benefits of
retirement. But, not every one of them gets this privilege. Some die while in active service. Our
poet persona is however lucky. He retires compulsorily after more than three decades in
government’s service. This prompts him to call his friends to rejoice with him and makes him to
“booze and zoom himself home”.
THE DESTRUCTIVE NATURE OF UNCONTROLLED JOY
The poet persona is obviously happy and joyous about his retirement from service after thirty
five years in service. This explains why he organises a party to mark his retirement. However, his
joy gets the better of him and he drinks to stupor, something he has been able to control for
over thirty-five years in government employment. His over-joyousness lands him in his grave.
Thus, in everything we do, there is need for moderation. Had the retiree been moderate while
rejoicing and compliant to his erstwhile driving code, he would have enjoyed his retirement in
peace. All his years he “pummeled his boozy throat” in compliance with his duty rules just went
to waste.

THE REWARD FOR COMMITMENT TO DUTIES

The poem is a pointer to the fact that diligence, commitment and loyalty to one’s work can be
rewarded. The government driver is rewarded for his commitment to work and those donkey
years of meritorious service with a brand new car. It doesn’t get any better than this.
DEATH
Towards the tail end of the poem, the theme of death manifests. Death is an inevitable
phenomenon every human being must undergo. Every one of us will die someday. However, the
poet persona hurries his death time as a result of his carelessness and unrestrained joy.
Conclusion
It is apparent that the poem expresses a load of messages. It begins with the celebration of
freedom; transits to unrestrained joy and reward for meritorious three decade long service, and
festivities. At the very first attempt to exercise his freedom (with the accompaniment of
drunkenness and careless driving), the persona loses his life prematurely.

A GOVERNMENT DRIVER ON HIS RETIREMENT By Chibuike Onu

Many years on wheels

In faithful service to his fatherland

Today retires he home

And a celebration he holds

Many years has he pummeled his boozy throat

In obedience to duty rules and regulations

Today, he’ll go home a freeman

Eligible for his country’s services

“Come, friends, rejoice with me

I shall booze and zoom myself home

Away from duty rules Come celebrate my freedom”

“Early to duty tomorrow holds not,

Thirty-five years of faithful services

I’ll’ booze to sleep away my sufferings

Today I’ve long waited for”

More joy to send him home

A brand new car in his name

An appreciative symbol
For undented thirty years of service to

Fatherland

“Come, friends and rejoice more,

Joy till no more joy to joy

Today frees and makes me a king

My patience rewarded.”

And so, he boozed and boozed

Celebrating the celebration of his retirement

From faithful service to fatherland He battled with his bottle booze

On his way home on wheels,

Booze boozed his vision and clear judgment

He boomed his brand new car

And it sent him home

Home to rest in peace.

ABOUT THE POET

Born into the family of Mr and Mrs Albert Rosh Nduanusi Onu, Onu Chibuike Egwuatu Kingsley
hails from Umuomi-Uzoagba ( now Ezenomi ), in Ikeduru Local Government Area of Imo State.
He schooled at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka where he obtained his degree in Bachelors of
Arts Education English. He is a rising Nigerian writer and a teacher. He teaches English Language
and Literature in one of the secondary schools in Anambra State, Nigeria. Goodnight Africa is his
first celebrated anthology.

BACKGROUND TO THE POEM

Onu Kingsley Chibuike’s poem is a commentary on the drudgery of the everyday life of the
average Nigerian civil servant. The poetic persona in this particular poem welcomes his
retirement from the civil service with celebrations, a mark of freedom from the daily toil of duty.
The poet appears to take a different perception of the civil service from an organization that is
filled with many redundant staff members to a place of true service and faithfulness to the
nation, The poetic persona is said to have rendered many years of meritorious services to his
fatherland.

The other important aspect that forms the background to this poem is the drink-and-drive
attitude of many Nigerian road users. While one can easily identify with this celebration, the
disastrous end of the poetic persona highlights a major cause of road crashes, not only in Nigeria
where the writer is from but, also, in many parts of the world. Onu, therefore, gives this poem a
universal appeal by using these seemingly unrelated circumstances to beam a light on the
narrow gap between celebration and calamity

SETTING OF THE POEM

The setting of the poem is the post-colonial African country, most likely Nigeria, where the
government is one of the major employers of labour. Due to poor capacity to monitor drunk
drivers, there are cases of road accidents. In this poem, the poet persona retires from public
service, and he is high spirit. Government/ public service is ubiquitous (found everywhere); so,
the setting could also be global (universal).

The poor or non-existent facilities to check drunk drivers in Nigeria and many African countries
also accounts for the frequent car crashes on the roads. However, with the universal appeal of
this poem, this poem can really be located anywhere. This is because in many parts of the world,
retirement from public service is usually a thing of joy, especially when such service ends
meritoriously.

SUMMARY OF THE POEM

The poem reflects on the totality of the life of a government driver who has put in many years of
service to his country and retires without a blemish. The other part of the poem is linked to the
disastrous end of the government driver who dies driving as a result of high consumption of
alcohol. The poet weaves the incident of celebration into this unfortunate disaster to emphasize
the danger of drink-and-drive culture.

The poem talks about a typical government worker, in this case, a driver. In a quest to eke a
living, people are engaged either in the private or public sector. The invasion of colonialism also
brings along with it, a major paradigm shift In the means of livelihood of many Africans. There Is
a general shift from peasant farming and other agricultural activities to paid employment (white
collar jobs), especially in the civil service. Many Africans were employed as drivers and clerks for
the white Man, the situation which continued, even after independence.

One of the disappointments associated with civil service Is the meagre salaries. The general
servitude usually associated with the life of civil service, especially as it concerns the low-ranking
officers like drivers and cooks account for a different perception some hold about such jobs. The
highly regulated life (boring bureaucracy) in the civil service is one of the major reasons many
employees look forward to their retirement with some sense of excitement.

Stanzas 1 and 2 – The poem opens with “Many years on wheels”, where the word ‘wheels’ is
used as a synecdoche for a car, to show heis a driver. Also, the repetition of “many years” in the
first and second stanzas suggests that the poetic persona, likely spends all his entire working life
on this driving job. The poet persona welcomes his retirement from the civil service with
celebrations, a mark of freedom from the (drudgery) daily toil of duty. He has worked in
obedience to the strict “duty rules and regulations” (bureaucracy) associated with government
establishments. His freedom from this monotonous work calls for celebration.

The poem starts with the description of the persona’s current state. He has served in his
country’s civil service as a driver faithfully. It is his last day on the job before he retires. He holds
a party to mark the end. This is common among many civil service employees. On their last day,
friends, colleagues and family members come around to celebrate with them.

The second stanza, the poet gives to a different perspective to the life of the persona. Here, the
persona sees the years of service as imprisonment. You know civil service can be boring. Imagine
repeating the same routine or duty every day for many years. It becomes tiring and partly looks
like slavery. Within these years, you are bound by some rules and regulations in your office. In
the case of the poet’s persona, it is the restriction on the quantity of alcohol he takes that was
his problem. Lines 5 & 6, ‘Many years has he pummeled his boozy throat/ In obedience to duty
rules and regulations.’
Through his thoughts we are able to see that some people in the civil service are doing
something because of the rules and regulations. But these civil servants fail to realize that these
rules and regulations are to safe guard their lives and that of others. Civil servants with the
mentality of the poet’s persona see laws as imprisonment or slavery. Our persona in this poem
declares himself a Freeman on his retirement. ‘Today, he’ll go home a Freeman’ Line 7.

Stanza 3—5 – In these stanzas, he calls his friends and well-wishers to come and celebrate with
him. “Come friends, rejoice with me/ Come friends, rejoice more. “Due to his meritorious
service, by driving carefully without accidents –“For undented thirty years of service…” he is
being given a brand-new car, as a reward. He talks about alcoholic drinks as the major
entertaining edible. “I shall booze…”/”I’ll booze to sleep away my sufferings.”

In stanza three, we hear directly from the celebrant. His excitement cannot be measured. The
poet’s persona invites friends to come and celebrate his freedom. He is really excited not just of
being relieved of early morning duty of driving cars around cities but his freedom to drink
alcohol and get drunk.

Indirectly, we infer he has not been happy and satisfied with his job. He has been waiting
patiently to retire, and he doesn’t seem to love the job at all.

His words reveal his frustration on the job not being able to cater for all his needs. Can you
imagine how much a driver is paid in Civil service? Can it truly solve all his problems? Lines 15 &
16 depict this; ‘I’ll booze to sleep away my suffering/ Today, I’ve long waited for…’ This is a
perfect depiction of the persona’s mind. Though he does not like the job, he has to put with it,
adhering to those rules and regulations for thirty-five years because he has no option to opt out.

The poem takes a new turn in stanza four. The persona’s joy multiples as he receives a brand
new car for his meritorious service. We realize that even with the dissatisfaction with his job, he
is a faithful and trustworthy servant judging by the gift given to him. See Line 20 For undented
thirty-five years of service to fatherland.

In the next stanza, the persona calls on friends to join his party, to celebrate his long awaited
reward. This time, his joy doubles with the gift presented to him.
Stanza 6 – Here in this last stanza, the poetic persona drinks to stupor In the euphoria of his
celebration. He risks his life as he engages In drink-and-drive attitude. What follows is calamity
(death!)!“He boomed his brand new car/ And it sent him home/ Home to rest in peace.”

Finally, the last stanza reveals how the persona lost his cool. They say excess of everything is
dangerous. Hence, rules and regulations checkmates our excesses. The persona takes his
celebration to the extreme. He becomes drunk because he feels the rules and regulations are no
longer binding on him. What was the result? The irony of life!

A brand new car which will have been his source of happiness becomes his doom. Drunk, he lost
control of his senses, his vision and finally his new wheels. He has been on different wheels for
good thirty-five years driving others safely observing road safety measures but just few hours
out of the job; few hours of his freedom, to drive himself home, and complete his celebration,
he renegades on the principles that have guided him. Then he lost his life.

This depicts that laws are meant to protect us and lives of other citizens. Laws shouldn’t be seen
as a limiter or a trap.

THEMES

The reward for meritorious service – In spite of the persona’s employment in a government
establishment or the civil service that is filled with many redundant staff members, he is of true
service and faithfulness to the nation. The poetic persona is said to have rendered many years of
meritorious services to his fatherland. He works in patience; abides by the rules and regulations
until he retires. In his diligence and dedication to duty, he has no record of accidents (the car is
“undented”). There is no surprise that he is rewarded with a brand new car at the end.

Despite the persona’s grudges about the drudgery of civil service, he remains disciplined till the
day of his retirement, as the persona notes in the second stanza that many years has he
pummeled his boozy throat/In obedience to duty rules and regulations. The poetic persona
restricts himself to the demands of his job. He shuns the temptations of personal pleasure,
subjects himself to a thorough self-discipline, thereby focusing strictly on his official duties and
working faithfully in service to his fatherland for thirty-five years. As a result of his outstanding
performance in his place of work, he is rewarded with a brand new car as ‘an appreciative
symbol’ (line 19). The poet, therefore, brings to the fore the need
For diligence in service, with eloquent evidence that such hard work hardly goes unnoticed, not
even if one is a driver.

The danger of drink-and-drive attitude -This theme is clear from the poem. The driver, in his
celebration gives himself to alcohol. He is tired and emotional (meaning he is drunk), yet he
drives himself. The result is death, as he goes to meet his forbears (ancestors). He kicks the
bucket. The situational irony here is that, in his over thirty years of service, he never engages in
such recklessness; it only happens the day he drives the car he is given at retirement. While
many cultures and societies use alcoholic drinks to celebrate periods of achievement,
bereavement and festivities, alcohol consumption is also a very dangerous thing that sends
people to their early graves, especially when behind wheels. The poet uses the story of the
government driver to make the point very clearly. The day the government driver is retiring
appears to be one of the happiest moments of his life. In stanza three, for instance he beckons
on his friends and well-wishers, ‘come friends, rejoice with me?. This open invitation suggests an
unmitigated show of joy and happiness that his day of freedom has come. He thinks that the
only way of celebrating his freedom, or any

Event for that matter, is through excessive consumption of alcohol. In his unrestrained
excitement, he jumps into his new car to drive home after being thoroughly drunk.
Unfortunately, this brings about his untimely end. Through this poetic reflection, it is obvious
that alcohol makes people have poor vision while driving, thus making them have wrong
judgment, as the poem states in lines 29-30, On his way on wheels,/Booze boozed his vision and
clear judgment.’ It is obvious that driving requires high concentration, while a wrong sense of
judgment while driving can lead to a calamitous end. Therefore, alcohol consumption when
driving is very dangerous

Also, the work of driving seems monotonous (doing the same thing every day), and also involves
high risk of accidents. Leaving all these behind calls for celebration.

The need for moderation – It is obvious from the poem that the persona does not exercise
restraints as he jubilates for his retirement. He calls his friends to come and drink and rejoice
with him, not knowing that some people he calls friends might not be happy with his success. He
talks about “Joy till no more joy to joy/ Today frees and makes me a king”. All this euphoria
blinds his eyes to any available danger. He loses his guard. The disastrous end of the poetic
persona clearly shows that there is just a narrow gap between celebration and calamity
(destruction).

The poem also underscores the joy and sense of fulfilment that comes with one’s retirement
from active service. The civil service structure gives the poetic persona a feeling of servitude,
hence he sees the day of his retirement as a day of liberation. According the poem, ‘Today, he’ll
go home a freeman’ (L. 7). He has endured the highly regulated life in the civil service for a long
time and is now ready to celebrate his freedom. He will no longer be subjected to very strict
rules and regulations once he retires. He would not need to wake up very early to work, he will
have his own time to himself and will manage his time as it suits his convenience. It is as a result
of this excitement to celebrate his liberation from the drudgery of civil service that the persona
invites friends and well-wishers to come and celebrate

With him.

FIGURES OF SPEECH AND POETIC DEVICES

Language – The diction used by the poet is not too difficult for an average reader to decipher.

Mood/Tone – The mood of the poet is a mixture of joy (celebration for retirement and brand-
new car) and gloom (accident). The tone is largely that of sarcasm.

Irony – There are cases of irony in the entire poem: (i) He e drives all through his service without
accidents, only to be involved in a fatal accident on his day of retirement. (ii) He dies in his own
car in just one day of being given the car, and not inside the government vehicle he drives for
over thirty years. (iii) He dies on the very day he celebrates his retirement.

Imagery - The imagery in this poem is simple and vivid. It makes the thematic preoccupation
very direct and understandable. The very first line, for instance, gives the picture of the
persona’s profession with “many years on wheel’. ‘Boozy throat’ in line five gives an image of
taste or what is often referred to as gustatory image, which gives us the picture of the persona’s
strong appetite for alcohol. In line thirty- one, we see another image, ‘he boomed his brand new
car’. This image is used to vividly describe the disastrous end of the persona and his new car.

Anadiplosis – This is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase used at the end of an
expression is repeated as the first word or phrase of the following sentence or expression –
“And it sent him home Home to rest in peace.”

Personification – More joy to send him home/ Today frees and makes me a king/ And it (car)
sent him home. All these give human qualities to inanimate objects.

Apostrophe – The poet persona addresses people as if they were present to listen. “Come
friends, rejoice with me/ Come friends, rejoice more.” Hyperbaton/ Inversion = This occurs
when the normal order of words or expressions is changed. A poet can do so, when he relies on
his poetic licence. Examples — Today retires he home — instead of “He retires home today”.
And a celebration he holds — instead of “And he holds a celebration”.

Hyperbole – Joy till no More joy to joy/ Today frees and makes me a king/ Today, he’ll go home
a freeman (as if he left prison). The above expressions are overstatements, for the purpose of
emphasis.
Euphemism – I’ll booze to sleep away my sufferings/ And it sent him home/ Home to rest in
peace. All these expressions present ‘death’ in a pleasant way, instead of in an unpleasant way.
Repetition – Words like “booze”, “service to fatherland”, “duty rules”, “Joy till no more joy to
joy”all being repeated for the purpose of emphasis.

Alliteration – This is a poetic device that involves the repetition of an

Initial consonant sound —

From faithful service to fatherland (“f” alliterates)

He battled with his bottle booze” (“b’” alliterates)

Today retires he home (“h’ alliterates)

And a celebration he holds (“h’ alliterates).

Assonance – This is a poetic device that involves the repetition of vowel sounds to create
internal rhyming within phrases and sentences —“…duty rules”, “booze and zoom”

Synecdoche – This uses a part to represent a whole. Examples –

The poet uses “wheels” to represent motor vehicles, while “boozy throat” is used to represent
the driver.

Onomatopoeia – This is the use of words that suggest their meanings through sounds – “zoom”
— the sound associated with movement and take-off of a car; “boom” — the sound associated
with an auto crash.

Pun – This is a poetic device that involves play on words, sometimes on different senses of the
same word or similar sense or sound of different words. For examples: “Joy till no more joy to
joy” (the poet plays with the word ‘joy’) Also, in stanza 1, the poet talks about “home” as a
dwelling place (Today retires he home), whereas, in the last stanza, “home” is used to represent
death (And it sent him home/ Home to rest in peace.)

Foreshadowing – This is when a writer gives an advance hint on what lies ahead, in a literary
work. Although the death of the driver happens in the last stanza, he talks about it earlier (I’ll
booze to sleep away my sufferings).

Enjambment – It is when an idea in a line of poetry flows into the next line or lines before a
complete thought is achieved. This also known as run-on-line:

Many years on wheels

In faithful service to his fatherland

Today retires he home

And a celebration he holds

In the stanza above, line 3 flows into 4.

Blank Verse/ Free Verse – The poem is written without any regular patterns, rhymes or meters.

Structure – The poem is written in seven stanzas of unequal lines. Satire – The poem ridicules
the act of dipsomania (excessive craving for alcohol), which is one of the human vices, in order
to make amends.

The poem has thirty-three lines, divided into seven stanzas of irregular lengths. The poem is
narrative in nature and can be broken down into three major parts. The first stanza introduces
the poetic persona as a government driver of so many years who is set to celebrate his
retirement. The second stanza gives the background of the persona as someone who keeps the
rules and regulations of the establishment where he works. The third stanza gradually
introduces us to the significance of and the high expectations for the celebration of his
retirement. This is sustained in stanzas four and five. The last two stanzas give account of the
catastrophic turn of events as the persona dies in a fatal automobile accident due to his
drunkenness.