Rice by Yuan Qiongqiong

"Rice" by Yuan Qiongqiong is a surreal and evocative narrative that explores themes of
insomnia, existentialism, and the eerie nature of the night. Divided into two parts, the story
follows a woman who wakes up in the middle of the night with an intense desire to cook rice,
and her husband who sets out to find her.

In the first part, the woman experiences insomnia and an inexplicable urge to cook rice. Despite
her husband sleeping peacefully beside her, she feels compelled to fulfill this desire. She
ventures out into the empty streets, encountering surreal imagery and ultimately discovering a
putrefied corpse from which rice is emerging. This surreal encounter serves as a metaphor for
the woman's internal turmoil and existential journey.

In the second part, the husband realizes his wife is missing and sets out to find her. He too
encounters the strange atmosphere of the night, characterized by darkness and emptiness. Upon
reaching the convenience store, he learns that his wife has already returned home. He finds her
in the kitchen, surrounded by pots of cooked rice, symbolizing her ongoing struggle with
insomnia and existential angst.

The narrative employs surreal elements such as the emergence of rice from the corpse, which
symbolizes the woman's internal conflict and the cyclical nature of existence. The story's free
verse-like structure adds to its dreamlike quality, allowing the reader to interpret its symbolism
and themes in a subjective manner.

Overall, "Rice" is a thought-provoking exploration of human consciousness, existential dread,

and the surreal mysteries of the night. Through its vivid imagery and unconventional narrative
style, the story invites readers to contemplate the complexities of life and the enigmatic nature
of existence.

Bermudas by Braithwaite
The poem "Bermudas" by Kamau Brathwaite is a vivid and evocative exploration of the history
and culture of the Caribbean island of Bermuda. It delves into the complex themes of
colonization, identity, and the impact of European influence on the indigenous people.

The poem begins with a description of the island's natural beauty, highlighting its lush
vegetation, crystal-clear waters, and vibrant wildlife. Brathwaite uses rich imagery and sensory
language to transport the reader to Bermuda, creating a sense of enchantment and allure.

However, beneath the surface beauty lies a darker history. The poem alludes to the colonization
of Bermuda by European powers, particularly the British. Brathwaite explores the tension
between the indigenous people and the colonizers, highlighting the loss of cultural identity and
the erasure of native traditions.

The poem also touches on the theme of displacement and the longing for a lost homeland.
Brathwaite portrays the island as a place of exile, where the indigenous people are disconnected
from their roots and forced to adapt to a foreign culture. This sense of displacement is further
emphasized through the use of fragmented and disjointed language, reflecting the fractured
nature of the island's history.

In terms of structure, "Bermudas" is written in free verse, with irregular line lengths and a lack
of traditional rhyme scheme. This reflects the poet's attempt to break free from conventional
poetic forms and capture the essence of the island's complex history.

Overall, "Bermudas" is a powerful and thought-provoking poem that explores themes of

colonization, identity, and displacement. Through vivid imagery and evocative language,
Kamau Brathwaite invites readers to reflect on the impact of European influence on indigenous
cultures and the struggle to preserve one's identity in the face of colonization.

Once Upon A Time by Gabriel Okara

Gabriel Okara’s ‘Once Upon a Time’ has a fairy-tale-like beginning. In the guise of such a title,
Okara reveals a harsh fact about modern times. Nowadays, people greet others only with their
expressions, not with all their hearts. Besides, this poem also features the clash of cultures,
African culture, and modern Western culture. The poet depicts how modernity has changed
their culture as well as the mindset of people. It is told from the perspective of a father who is
telling this story to his son.
‘Once Upon a Time’ by Gabriel Okara presents a conversation between a father and son. The
father describes how the art of greeting one another has transformed into a mere give-and-take
of fake smiles.

This poem begins with a series of three images: greeting someone, welcoming them to their
house, and saying goodbye. The speaker of this poem tells his son how people react in those
given situations. Firstly, they greet their relatives or known ones with fake smiles. Verbally
they welcome their close ones, but mentally they keep their doors closed on them. Lastly, at
the time of parting, they wear a fake smile again and bid each other hiding their selfish
emotions. Thinking about such things, the speaker becomes so sad that he somehow wants to
unlearn such void customs. He wants to be a child again like his son and relearn the art of
innocence and pure happiness.

In the first two stanzas, the poet says to his son how they i.e. himself and people, used to be.
They used to laugh out loud through their hearts and eyes with joyful tears but nowadays they
use their teeth to laugh along with their tears-less cold eyes searching all through his shadow
to violate his privacy. People used to shake hands with love and nowadays they shake to
investigate his pockets. ‘Feel at home!’ ‘Come again’ were once the welcoming and bye-biding
phrases, but nowadays there is only a twice and no thrice. People shut doors at him if he tries
to feel at home more than twice.

In the third and fourth stanzas, he tells his son about the lessons he learned from modern
society. He says he learned to wear a variety of masks in public according to the occasion like
home-face, office-face, host-face, cocktail-face, etc. all with a portrait-perfect smile. He says
he has also learned to laugh like them through his teeth. He learned to say goodbye even if it
is a good riddance in the heart. He learned to shake hands without love and to say glad-to-meet-
you even if he did not feel glad. Also, he learned to say it’s-nice-talking-to-you though it is
boring.
In the last two stanzas, the poet records his regret and wishes for his son. He asks his son to
believe that he wishes to get back to what he was once. He wishes to unlearn everything that
he has grown to be because he regrets being this, ‘a fake person’. He also wishes to laugh out
loud as if his teeth appear like snake fangs and smile through his heart to enjoy with pleasure
like he used to do once upon a time. Finally, he begs his son to teach him to be innocent like
was back then as a child.
Okara incorporates the themes of cultural crisis, selfishness, loss of innocence, and real
emotion vs fake expression in his poem ‘Once Upon a Time’. The main theme of this poem is
the cultural crisis. Though readers cannot find this theme directly in the text, it is an integral
part of the poem. For example, when the poetic persona speaks of the contemporary fashion of
greetings, he actually speaks about the crisis in his indigenous culture. The sense of loss is
reflected in his tone. Besides, the loss of innocence is another theme of this poem. This theme
is integrated into the lines “I want/ to unlearn all these muting things…” How people express
their fakeness by hiding their real emotions also gets portrayed throughout the text.

“The Canadian Authors” Meet by F.R.Scott

Prepared by Dr.Suresh Frederick

“The Canadian Authors Meet” is a satirical poem by F.R.Scott. Francis Reginald Scott (1899-
1985), commonly known as Frank Scott or F. R. Scott, was a Canadian poet, intellectual and
constitutional expert. He was the son of Frederick George Scott, a well-known Canadian poet
and author, known as the Poet of the Laurentians. Here in this poem, the poet makes fun of
pseudo-Canadian poets.

A group of Canadian authors meet in a large and comfortable hall. These writers are bloated
with pride. They have gathered under “a portrait of the Prince of Wales”. This shows how
these so-called writers are still parasites and are in need of patronage from Britain. In the
gathering, there is one Miss.Crotchet. Crotchet in music is a note having one-fourth the time
value of a whole note. This may mean that Miss.Crotchet is a minor poet, negligible writer
and a literary non-entity. Her “muse has somehow failed to function”. The Muse in Greek
mythology is the goddess of music, song and dance, and the source of inspiration to poets.
Thus Miss.Crotchet never had the inspiration to write poetry, “Yet she’s a poetess”. The
underlying irony is evident in this observation of the poet.

Smiling expansively, Miss.Crotchet moves “From group to chattering group”. To cover her
incompetence, she smiles in an affected way. “Victorian saintliness” “is her fashion” as she
is a snob. The meeting hall is filled with many more insignificant writers. Miss.Crotchet
greets these “unknowns with a cheer” – unknown to her as well as unknown to the world.
Like virgins, these authors lack in exposure and experience. It is ironic that they should speak
of love and passion, especially when they are all above sixty.

These writers talk on “Canadian topics” which are boring and uninteresting. They also
discuss great poets like Bliss Carman, Archibald Lampman, Charles G.D. Roberts, William
Wilfred Campbell and Frederick George Scott / Duncan Campbell Scott. These men are all
very influential Canadian poets, who wrote Victorian and Romantic poetry, something to
which Scott was opposed. But they are not measured for their literary merits but for their
religious faith and charity. “Their zeal for God and King” and “their earnest thought” alone
are discussed. These are peripheral issues which are non-literary attainments. Scott
emphatically criticizes the paraliterary considerations used by these half-baked authors in
judging poets and their works.

Scott describes the party which is overflowing with cakes. The cakes are sweet but for them,
sweeter is the feeling of mixing with the literary men. It “warms” these old writers. The
sentimental ones melted most early. Literary flavour is lacking in this “most delightful party”.

For these self-styled writes, there is no difference between a simple Nursery school rhyme
like “Shall we go round the mulberry bush” or the Christian hymn “Shall we gather at the
river”. Their motive is to find a private place for their private affairs, that can be behind a
“mulberry bush” or on the banks of a “river” The appointment of a Poet Laureate is spoken
in the same breath as having another cup of tea. It is ironic that these poets should feel
competent enough to select the Poet Laureate. Everything non-literary happens here.

After lampooning these fake writers, Scott moves on to criticize the plethora of mediocre
new writers who emerge on the Canadian literary scene. In anguish, he cries out “O Canada,
O Canada”. Scott in clear hues presents how these ordinary writers “paint the native maple”
(Country – Canada) with substandard writing. (The maple leaf is the most widely recognized
national symbol of Canada). These writers repeat the ideas of their predecessors. Nothing is
new in their writing as same things are duplicated.