ANG 115: INTRODUCTION TO AFRICAN POETRY

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 WEEK 2
1- INTRODUCTION

Among all the literary genres, poetry seems to be the most difficult to many people. However, the
difficulty is conferred on poetry by the density of language and the lack of details in the poetic
handling of the text. However, whether it is poetry or any literary genre, readers have to concentrate
on form, action as well as the emotion dispositions that result. The common basis for all literary
genres is life; the difference is how it appears to individual writers and how best it can be changed
through words

Terms associated with poetry are rhyme, rhythm, stanza … Increased attention to linguistic detail is
necessary because of the density and compression characteristic of poetry. More than fiction, poetry
is an art of condensation and implication; poems concentrate meaning and distil feeling.

1-1 - A poet?
A poet is someone who writes poem.

1-2 - What is poetry?

Poetry can be defined as an attempt by a poet to express an imaginative, intellectual or emotional
experience relying on deliberate rhythmic flow of words. It is also a creative writing in an elevated
style to express noble and beautiful thoughts.

1-3 - A poem?
A poem is a piece of writing arranged in patterns of lines and of sounds which often rhyme,
expressing thoughts, emotions and experiences in words that excite imagination.

2-Oral poetry

Oral poetry is the bulk, the whole lot of poetry which has not been recorded but has been handed
down orally from generation to generation.

2.1- African oral poetry

It is part of the oral art –African oral literature– that expresses the culture of the African people.

2.2- Origin of oral poetry in Africa

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In Africa, the oral poetry originates from songs, ritual incantations, prayers to gods, praise (and
blame an example of which is Halo in Ewe community), or salutation to gods and men. Working on
African cultural development, especially its literature, Ogbu U. Kalu makes the following
classification.

SPOKEN COMMUNICATION

Simple statements proverb riddle narratives

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Mythology folktale legend

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Animal mixed Tales with human and
Supernatural characters

SUNG COMMUNICATION

work war birth palace (title) tale praise funeral

songs songs songs songs songs songs songs

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 WEEK 3
3- Types of oral poetry

There are three types of oral poetry: occupational, cult, and social poetry which are summarized in
the chart below provided by the Ghanaian writer Kofi Awoonor.

Poetry

Occupational Cult

1 2 3 1 2 3

Hunters Fishermen Farmers Religious Medicinal Oracular

(e.g: Ijala, (Spell, incantation)
Yoruba) (e.g., Ifa, Yoruba)

Poetry

Social Drum
1 2 3 4 5 6

Dirge Work Children Praise Love War

(e.g, oriki, Yoruba and
blame) (e.g, Halo;Ewe)
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2-3-1- Occupational poetry

It is the type of poetry that is peculiar and specific to certain trades such as fishing, hunting, gold
smithy and black smithy. The belief in the African traditional context is so strong and stresses the
idea that for a worker to succeed in his/ her task, he/ she needs the help of a god. Thus, the song
addressed to the god for assistance is called occupational poetry. These poems go beyond being just
mere work songs since they are part of a reportorial accumulation used in specific religious functions
pertaining to the group’s calling.

2-3-2- Cult poetry

It can be divided into three sub-branches namely

2-3-1- Religious poetry: it includes praise poems addressed to gods and ancestors, what may be
called hymns.

Example 1
Ogun kills on the right and destroys on the right
Ogun kills on the left and destroys on the left
Ogun kills suddenly in the house and suddenly in the field.
Ogun kills the child with the iron with which it plays
Ogun kills in silence
Ogun kills the thief and the owner of stolen goods.
Ogun kills the owner of the house
And paints the hearth with his blood
Ogun is the forest god
He gives all his clothes to beggars:
He gives one to the woodcock –who dyes it in indigo
He gives one to the coucal –who dyes it in camwood,
He gives one to the cattle egret –who leaves it white

Ogun’s laughter is no joke

His enemies scatter in all directions
The butterflies do not have to see the leopard;
As soon as they smell his shit
They scatter in all directions
Master of iron
You have water, but you bathe in blood
The light shining in your face
Is not easy to behold
Ogun with the bloody cap
Let me see the red of your eye
Ogun is not like pounded yam
Do you think you can knead him in your hand
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And eat of him until you are satisfied?

Example 2 An extract of the Dinka people of the Sudan

Do you not hear, O Divinity?
The black bull of the rain has been released from the moon’s byre.
Do you not hear, O Divinity? I have been left in misery indeed
Divinity, help me!
Will you refuse the ants of this country?

2-3-2-2- Medicinal poetry: it is used to cure some diseases. Our forefathers had to use certain
words to induce the power of healing in the herbs/ leaves gathered for the treatment of the
sick person. J. P. Clark

For every ailment in man,

There is a leaf in the forest (J. P. Clark)

2-3-2-3- Oracular poetry: it includes spell and incantation. We have for example the Ifa (Yoruba)
or the Afa (Ewe) tradition.

Example From the Ifa divination

The hot birds flew into the palm groves

The female crocodiles went into the bird forest
The anago priests are searching for a home
Away from storm, and rain and wind.

WEEK 4
2-3-3- Social poetry
It is the most popular type. It embodies

2-3-3-1- The dirge: it is the lament for the dead at funeral, moaning and burials. It
seeks the meaning and purpose of life. The dead is considered as a traveller from the living world to
the ancestors and as such, is given intimate messages to deliver to those who have gone ahead
Example 1
Slowly the muddy pool
Slowly the muddy pool becomes a river
Slowly my mother’s illness becomes her death
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When wood breaks, it can be mended
But ivory breaks for ever
An egg fall to reveal a messy secret
My mother went and carried her secret along
She has gone far
We look for her in vain
But when you see the kop antelope on the way to the farm
When you see the kop antelope on the way to the river,
Leave your arrows in the quiver,
And let the dead depart in peace

Example 2
Mother who freely gives of what she has,
Fresh food and cooked meals
Mother, who never deserts the hearth
Mother, hearken to me
The crying child will come after its mother
How is it that mother does not answer when I call?
Are we quarrelling?

2-3-3-2- The praise poetry: it is normally derived from legends, history and mythology. It is
sung by professional praise singers found at the courts of kings, chiefs …

Example of a typical Shakan poem

Dlungwana son of Ndaba,
Ferocious one of the Mbelebele brigade,
Who raged among the large kraals
So that until down the huts were turned outside down
He who is famous as he sits, son of Menzi
He who beats but is not beaten, unlike water
Axe that surpasses other axes in sharpness
Shaka, I fear to ay he is Shaka
Shaka, he is the chief of the Mashobas
He one of the shrill whistle, the lion
He who armed in the forest, who is like a madman
The madman who is in full view of men
He who trudged wearily the plain going of the Mfene
The voracious one of Senzangakhona
Spear that is red even on the handle
The open-handed one, they have matched the regiments
They were matched by Moju, and Nggengenye
The one belonging to Ntombazi and the other Nandi
He brought out the one with the red brush
Brought out by the white one of Nandi
They called him to Mthandeni, despising him
They said! We cannot compete in dancing with this
Xtungwa from up country

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Whereas he was going to annihilate Phakathwajo in the
Return competition

2-3-3-3- Abuse poetry: it is the instrument by which rival groups generally in villages settle
important/ outstanding quarrels or differences. Each side commissioned its poet who digs into the
history of the other group for all nasty/ unpleasant details that can be true or false. It tends to
dramatize intragroup conflicts and dissipates these in words.

Example
The whore was forgetful, she walked
Like the wandering duck into my song
You clutch the earth like a bag
On your stem you stand like the porcupine in clothes,
Beneath your back is the hyaena’s ravine,
Your chest as short as the red monkey
On the corn barn
Alas, my song shall speak the words of song

[This is the other poet responds]

He is winding in the air, his anus agape,
His face like the egret’s beak,
He who eats off the farm he hasn’t planted,
His face the bent evil hoe on its handle

2-3-3-4- Lullaby: it is a slow, quiet song sung to children to lull them to sleep.

Example
Don’t cry, baby,
Sleep, little baby;
Father will nurse you,
Sleep, baby, sleep.

Lonely bird flitting away to the forest so fast,

Gold-speckled finch, your fathers wet all fading,
Tell me, shivering bird, have you seen her –
Have you seen my crying baby’s mother?

She went to the river at early dew,

A pot upon her head;
But down the water floats her pot,
And the path from the river is empty.

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Shall I take him under the palm
Where the green shade rests at noon?
Oh no, no, no,
For the thorns will prick my baby.

Shall I take him under the giant bombax

Where the silk-cotton plays with the wind?
Oh no, no, no,
For the termite-eaten bough will break
And crush my little baby,
My little sleeping baby.
The day is long and the sun grows hot,
So sleep, my little baby, sleep;
For mother is gone to a far, and far land –alas!
She is gone beyond the river!

2-3-3-5- Love or erotic poetry: it exists within the specific framework of the lovers’
performances.

Example
Call her for me that girl,
That girl with the neck like a desert tree,
Call her that she and I will lie in one bed 1

2-3-3-6- The war poetry: it rests within the war drumming performances (such as atrikpui).
The war drums galvanise and accompany the warriors to the front. It is calculated to frighten
the enemy, to instil the spirit of bravery into the hearts of the warriors, and to recall the heroic
deeds of the past.

Example
Hirelings adamant to rain and scorching sun,
Members of the Apagya company;
There was a cannon mounted vainly on top of the fort,
The cannon mounted vainly on top of the fort,
The cannon could not break us.
The trusted company that engages in battle
Hail the helper. 2

1
This is an extract from an Ewe love poem
2
This is an extract of a corpus of war poetry among the Asafo organisation among the Ashanti
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 WEEK 5

3.8 Epic

Epics are long narrative poems that deal with the exploits of heroes.

In a more elaborated way, an epic is a poem that is (a) a long narrative about a serious subject, (b)
told in an elevated style of language, (c) focused on the exploits of a hero or demi-god who
represents the cultural values of a race, nation, or religious group (d) in which the hero's success or
failure will determine the fate of that people or nation. Usually, the epic has (e) a vast setting, and
covers a wide geographic area, (f) it contains superhuman feats of strength or military prowess, and
gods or supernatural beings frequently take part in the action. The poem begins with (g) the
invocation of a muse to inspire the poet and, (h) the narrative starts in medias res (The classical
tradition of opening an epic not in the chronological point at which the sequence of events would
start, but rather at the midway point of the story. Later on in the narrative, the hero will recount
verbally to others what events took place earlier). (i) The epic contains long catalogs of heroes or
important characters, focusing on highborn kings and great warriors rather than peasants and
commoners.

Among the most famous epics in Western literature are Homer’s Odyssey and Iliad (about the Greek
and Trojan war), Dante’s Divine Comedy (a journey through hell, purgatory, and heaven) and John
Milton’s Paradise Lost (about the revolts of the angel’s and man’s creation and fall).

In nutshell, epics are characterised by heroic deeds (the case of Sundiata, an Epic of the Old Mali),
celebration of morality, good versus bad, and historical traits (Gassire’s Lute and Homer’s Odyssey),

NB: it is worth mentioning that there is one non-oral type of poetry which should be classified as
unique. This is the poetry of drums and horns. Drum language plays a very important part in
traditional life. In the first place, drums serve as signalling instruments, sending out agreed codes.
This function is non-literary. Secondly, drums communicate the tonal system of language and are
therefore used as a literary medium. The drum can play refined stereotyped phrases but the
delineation of this art belongs primarily to musicology. The material produced is only important
when transliterated and its verbal equivalent rendered. This presumes a close knowledge of the
language and a keen awareness of tonal variations on individual words.

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3- DRAMATIC PERFORMANCE OF ORAL POETRY

Performance constitutes another reality of African oral tradition that plays the role of accompaniment
and makes this tradition of poetry a whole and fully independent literary genre. That is, the aesthetic
techniques of oral poetry reveal and display better their full meaning within dramatic performance
contexts. Dramatic performance is an art form in which music, dance, hands clapping, rattles, body
gestures, etc… are totally integrated to constitute one indivisible aesthetic technique in the oral
literary tradition.

3.1- ELEMENTS OF PERFORMANCE

It involves some elements such as drums, rattles, gongs, fly-whisk, whistle, costumes; we have also
some people who play special roles that stand as elements of performance. They are: those who beat
their chests, stamp their feet, clap their hands, and dance. All these people are used to corroborate
aesthetically the whole performance.

3.2- FUNCTION OF THE ELEMENTS OF PERFORMANCE

The first and foremost function of these elements is communication which is “the art of transmitting
information, ideas and attitudes from one person to another.” At this level of functionality in
performance it is difficult and compromising to separate these elements and elaborate on each
and its role singly, because as far as performances are concerned in traditional Africa, the aesthetics
is always the fruit of a harmonious usage of these elements. However, in some rare cases these
elements are not all used at the same time. Depending on the circumstance of the performance this or
that element is used. For instance, dirge is always accompanied with gong and hand clapping whereas
Agbadza performance needs drums, gongs, rattles, hand clapping, chest beating and feet stamping. In
other cases like the celebration of marriage, one needs only hands clapping, feet stamping and chest
beating. But in case whereby all these elements must be used, an order is followed to avoid
randomness and confusion. That is, these elements come in during performances chronologically.
For instance, the song starts first and is followed with the gong, after the rattles, then the hands
clapping and finally come in the drums. Another important point about these elements is the non-
functionality of some of elements when taken in isolation. For instance, rattles, fly-whisk are rarely
used singly to communicate any message or to play any aesthetic role. On the contrary, gongs and
drums can be used in isolation to convey message. The gong, for example, is used by the town crier
to deliver messages from the village chief. So, these elements in dramatic performances of poetry

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play rhythmic and complementary role. Put differently, the elements of performance function as
rhythm regulators, intensifiers of meaning and a flavour of aesthetics.

WEEK 6

3.3- PROLOGUE AND EPILOGUE

African traditional poets always believe and maintain that it is an aesthetic technique to set and
conclude the performance in a particular framework or context through introductory and conclusive
declarations. These brief statements at the beginning and the end of performance are what are
referred to as prologue and epilogue. The prologue is known as “pledge” and “salute”. It is also
referred to as “anticipatory verses.” Prologue plays specific roles in relation to the semantic and
aesthetic objective of the poem or song being performed. However, the functions are not the same
because of the context of the performance.

3.3.1- DEFINITION AND FUNCTION OF PROLOGUE

As a performance technique in African oral tradition, prologue is always the first sentences or
paragraph with which the poet-cantors begin their performances. As an introductory statement,
it is often short and takes a recitative form. It is a multi-functional technique. It can be used to
draw the audience’s attention to the seriousness of the narrative and prepare them to welcome the
message. It “opens” and “oils” the ears of the people preparing them to be ready for the message.

One thing to stress here is the fact that the shortness of prologues depends on the length of the
song and the objective the poet wants to achieve. A prologue can play also a didactic role to
prepare the audience to see the importance the poet gives to his song.

In other cases, the prologue influences the psychology of the audience so as to convince them to
agree with the poet. This happens in Halo where the offended person, the guiltless or persona needs
to convince the audience that he is right to insult the addressee.

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A prologue plays as well the role of establishing a kind of confidence between the audience and the
poets. Other poets greet the audience through them. That is, to provide a transition from the
everyday world in which the listeners are situated to the heroic world into which they are to be
transported by the bard (in case of heroic poems). The prelude creates the appropriate
atmosphere for the forthcoming narrative; it arouses in the audience the appropriate emotional
set toward the song. Other poets use this technique to implore, to defy, and to ask for forgiveness
either from the audience or the Almighty:

3.3.2-DEFINITION AND FUNCTION OF EPILOGUE

As an oral technique of performance, epilogue also plays some functions according to the thematic
concern of the poem. First and foremost, epilogues always take the form of conclusion in
performances. As such, they are used sometimes to thank, to rebuke, to advice, to direct and to
answer the thematic preoccupation in the song. In some cases, epilogues and prologue play the
same role and can be structurally and formally alike. That is, the poet can use the same sentences or
stanza as a prologue and repeat them as epilogue playing either the same or different role.

Epilogues are used by the bard to caution and to advice, to encourage and defy, to beg for pardon
or a submission.

On the whole, prologue and epilogue as aesthetics of performance and oral technique constitute the
focal point of any dramatic performance, for their success conditions the rest of the poem or song and
the audience’s final impression before leaving the arena and the area. This means that the satisfaction
of the audience determines the bard’s effort. In other words, the audience is not passive and neutral:
they play a capital role in a performance.

3.3.3- DEFINITION OF AUDIENCE

The common understanding of audience is questioned and rejected here. That is, the audience is not
just a group of people watching a performance in comfortable arm-chairs legs and arms crossed from
the beginning till the end. It is neither a group of alien and passive people who do nothing but just
observe throughout the whole event. In the frame work of oral performance, audience is not just
spectators who watch something. Audience or spectators in African context are audience-
participants or active spectators. The audience has two roles: receiver and co-author. This means
that we have initiated audience and uninitiated one. The former (initiated audience) is more
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involved in the performance –play particular roles (gongs beating, rattles beating etc.) while the
latter spontaneously engage himself in hand clapping, chorus taking, and other functions. This
means that ‘the spectators’ presence, interjections, shouts, choruses and mood heighten the
importance of the performer and influence him in a way that is alien to the western stage. In
other words, traditional performer and his spectators intermingle and co-operate.

3.3.4- FUNCTIONS OF AUDIENCE

The function of audience as intensifier of meaning is a common event in African performance of

poetry. By intensifier, is meant a process of giving effect and exemplifying the bard’s implied
actions. During a performance many linguistic, rhythmic and gestural signs indicate the interactions
between the poet and the audience.

The audience plays a responsible role, controls the singer, calls him to order if he goes astray or
beats about the bush. The audience is then all the people who help together the performance to
reach its climax, the audience cannot be neglected and held in passive position. The audience is
a force to be reckoned with, and to a large extent he is a lucky performer who can count on the
empathy and co-operation of an audience of fellow citizens to execute a challenging task of
performance.

Conclusion

Everything considered, the notion of audience in the African context goes beyond a group of people
watching a performance in a passive manner. The audience in African oral performance is a
group of active people who determine the rhythm of dramatic performance of oral poetry
through their participatory involvement. These people intensify the meaning of the performed
poetry. That is, the thematic progression of the poem can be modified and the form altered. The
poet or the bard is conditioned to respond to the rhythm of the song, the language of the drums
and the clapping of the hands. Here, the definition of the audience is all the people, except the
poet-cantor, who participate in the performance: the initiated audience –drummers, hand clappers,
rattles beaters, gong beaters, chorus takers –and the uninitiated audience –the outer ring, the
singers, dancers, praise givers, money givers –.

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 WEEK 7
WRITTEN POETRY

2 Written poetry
Unlike oral poetry, written poetry refers to the whole lot of this literary genre (poetry) which has
been written down.

2.1 Functions of poetry

Poetry occupying a unique position in the world of literature serves three main purposes. It is
appreciated for its beauty, for pleasure and it is the expression of personal feeling or collective
experience.

2.1.1 Poetry and beauty

Literature as an art form places great emphasis on beauty (aesthetics) and as such, poetry brings
about beauty in the use of language. The beautiful musicality in the rhythmic rendition through sound
and imagery cannot be over looked

2.1.2. Poetry and pleasure

Sensitive reading and understanding of a poem results in a pleasurable ecstasy which envelops one
when appreciating works of art such as photographs, wall murals, portraits for decoration or
productions from the other literary genres.

2.1.3. Poetry and feeling

Poetry also performs communicative functions of deep thoughts, personal or corporate experience,
joyful, sorrowful, anxious, passionate, angry emotions are suggested in ways that are special and
unique.

3 Types of poetry
Poetry can be classified as narrative or lyric. Narrative poems stress story and action and lyric
poems stress emotion and song. Each of these types has numerous sub-divisions: narrative poetry
includes the epic, romance, idyll, and ballad; lyric poetry includes elegy, epigraph, sestina, ode,
aubade, sonnet and villanelle.

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 3.1 Lyric

A short poem written in a repeating stanzaic form, often designed to be set to music. The lyric
usually does not have a plot (i.e., it might not tell a complete story), but it rather expresses the
feelings, perceptions, and thoughts of a single poetic speaker (not necessarily the poet) in an intensely
personal, emotional, or subjective manner.

In other words, the lyric is a type of poetry used by a poet to express intense personal emotions (the
emotions and thoughts may or may not be those of the poet). It is typically characterized by brevity,
melody and emotional intensity.

Forms of lyric poetry range from the epigram, a brief witty poem that is often satirical to the elegy. It
also includes the ode, the sonnet, and the aubade.

3.2 Ode

It involves the personal emotions of the poet, however, the poet presents passionate admiration of a
person but usually an object.

As example we have “Ode to a Nightingale” written by in 1819, 1820 by John Keat. It is a long poem
of eight stanzas which consist of ten lines each.

3.3 Sonnet

A sonnet is a poem of fourteen lines, usually in iambic pentameter, with rhymes arranged according
to a fixed scheme.

There are three kinds of sonnet:

- The Italian or the Petrarchan sonnet is named after the fourteenth-century Italian poet, Petrarch)
consists of two parts. It has an eight line stanza (called an octave) followed by a six line stanza
(called a sestet). The octave has two quatrains rhyming abba, abba, the first of which presents the
theme, the second further develops it. In the sestet, the first three lines reflect on or exemplify the
theme, while the last three bring the poem to a unified end. The sestet may be arranged cdecde,
cdcdcd, or cdedce.

- The English or the Shakespearean sonnet (named after William Shakespeare, its greatest practitioner)
consists of a three quatrains and a concluding couplet. The rhyming scheme for the three quatrains is
as follow: abab cdcd efef. Then we have the concluding couplet as gg.

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- The Miltonic sonnet is similar to the Petrarchan sonnet, but it does not divide its thought between
the octave and the sestet. The sense or line of thinking runs straight from the eighth to ninth line.
Also, Milton expands the sonnet's repertoire to deal not only with love as the earlier sonnets did, but
also to include politics, religion, and personal matters.

Example: Read carefully the following sonnet by John Milton and answer the questions that follow:

On His Blindness
When I consider how my light is spent,
Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide,
And that one Talent which is death to hide,
Lodg’d with the useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, least he returning chide,
Doth God exact day-labour, light deny’d,
I fondly asked; But patience to prevent
That murmur, soon replies, God doth not need
Either man’s work or his own gifts, who best
Bear his milde yoak, they serve him best, his State
Is kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed
And post o’re Land and Ocean without rest;
They also serve who only stand and waite.

a. Can you identify the rhyme scheme?

b. Can you identify the octave and the sestet?
c. What is the message of the octave
d. What is the message of the sestet?
e. How does the message of the sestet complement the message of the octave?

3.4 Ballad

This is the type of poem which tells a story through the medium of a song, for ballads were originally
meant to be sung or recited. The language is usually simple to understand and it ends with a refrain.
We distinguish two types of ballads. Folk ballads (or popular ballads, as they are sometimes called)
belong to unknown authors and were passed orally, only to be written down much later. This
accounts for the different versions of many ballads such as “Barbara Allan” and “Edward, Edward.

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On the other hand, we have literary ballads (of known authorship). One example is John Keat’s “La
Belle Dame sans Merci”

3.5 Elegy

This is generally regarded as a poetic composition meant to lament the death of someone.

Example

Mid-Term Break
I sat all morning in the college sick bay
Counting bells knelling classes to a close
At two o’clock our neighbors drove me home

In the porch I met my father crying

He had always taken funerals in his stride
And Big Jim Evans saying it was a hard blow

The baby cooed and laughed and rocked the pram

When I came in, and I was embarrassed
By old men standing up to shake my hand

And tell me they were “sorry for my trouble,”

Whispers informed strangers I was the oldest,
Away at school, as my mother held my hand
In hers and coughed out angry tearless sighs
At ten o’clock the ambulance arrived
With the corpse, stanched and bandaged by the nurses

Next morning I went up into the room. Snowdrops

And candles soothed the bedside; I saw him
For the first time in six weeks. Paler now,

Wearing a poppy bruise on his left temple,

He lay in the four foot box as in his cot
No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear.
A four foot box, a foot for every year.

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3.6 Aubade

A genre of poetry in which a short poem's subject is about the dawn or the coming of the dawn, a
morning love song; or a poem about the parting of lovers at dawn. It can also be a piece of music
meant to be sung or played outdoors at dawn.

WEEK 8

3.7 Narrative poetry

This type of poem involves has a lot to share with the novel. It tells a story, using the episodic style
of narration.

4 Features of poetry/ Elements of poetry/ Poetic devices

We can learn to interpret and appreciate poems by understanding their basic elements. The elements
of a poem include a speaker whose voice we hear in it, the theme, its diction or selection of words,
its syntax or the order of those words; its imagery or details of sight, sound, taste, smell and touch;
its figurative language or non literal ways of expressing one thing in terms of another, such as
symbol and metaphor; its sound effects, especially rhyme, assonance and alliteration; its rhythm
and meter or the pattern of accents we hear in the poem’s words, phrases, lines, and sentences and its
structure or formal pattern of organisation.

4.1 Theme

It is important to consider the thematic preoccupation of a poet. This is the major idea in the literary
work. It exposes the exact thought of the poet.

In determining a poem’s theme, we should be careful neither to oversimplify the poem nor to distort
its meaning. We should also recognise that poems can have multiple themes, poems can be
interpreted from more than one perspective and there is more than one way to state or explain a
poem’s meaning.

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4.2 Diction

Diction refers to the language used particularly in any piece of poetry and in literary works in
general. In the words of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, at their most successful, poems include “the best
words in the best order”. In reading any piece of poem, it is necessary to know what the words mean,
but it is equally important to understand what the words imply or suggest. Basically, we identify
denotation or dictionary meaning and connotations in the use of words.

Because poets often hint indirectly at more than their words directly state, it is necessary to develop
the habit of considering the connotations of words as well as their denotations.

Cross

My old man’s a white old man

And my old mother’s black.
If ever I cursed my white old man
I take my curses back.

If ever I cursed my black old mother

And wished she were in hell,
I’m sorry for that evil wish
And now I wish her well.

My old man died in a fine big house.

My ma died in a shack.
I wonder where I’m gonna die,
Being neither white nor black?
Langston Hughes (1902-1967)

What different denotations does the title have? What connotation can you associate with each of
them?

4.3 Imagery

The poetic element known as imagery can be said to be a derivative of a skilful use of words by a
poet. In other words, poetry describes specific things –daffodils, fires, and finches’ wings, for
example. And it describes such things in specific terms: the colour of the daffodils, the glare of the
fire, the beating of the finches’ wings. From these and other specific details we derive both meaning
and feeling.

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An image is a concrete representation of a sense impression, feeling or idea. Images appeal to one or
more of our senses. Images may be visual (something seen), aural (something heard), tactile
(something felt), olfactory (something smelled), or gustatory (something tasted)

We sometimes use the word imagery to refer to a pattern of related details in a poem.

4.4 Tone

When we read or hear a poem, we hear a speaker’s voice. It is this voice that conveys the poem’s
tone, its implied attitude towards its subject

The range of tones we find in poems is as various and complex as the range of voices and attitudes
we discern in everyday experience. One of the more important and persistent is the ironic tone of
voice as illustrated in this extract of Stephen Crane’s War is Kind

War is kind
Do not weep, maiden, for war is kind
Because your lover threw wild hands toward the sky
And the affrighted steed ran on alone,
Do not weep,
War is kind.

Hoarse, booming drums of the regiment,

Little souls who thirst for fight
These men were born to drill and die
The unexplained glory flies above them
Great is the battle god, great, and his kingdom
A field where a thousand corpses lie …

4.5 Artistic license

The freedom of a poet or other literary writer to depart from the norms of common discourse, literal
reality, or historical truth in order to create a special effect in or for the reader.

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 WEEK 9

5. Rhythm, Meter and Scansion

5.1 Rhythm

It refers to the regular recurrence of the accent or stress in poem or song. It is the pulse or the beat we
feel in a phrase of music or in a line of poetry. The varying speed, loudness, pitch, elevation,
intensity, and expressiveness of speech, especially poetry. In other words, rhythm is the pulse or beat
we hear in the line. We derive our sense of rhythm from everyday life and from our experience with
language and music. We experience the rhythm of day and night, the seasonal rhythms of the year,
the beat of our hearts, and the rise and fall of our chests as we breathe in and out.

Poets rely heavily on rhythm to express meaning and convey feeling

5.2 Meter

Meter can be defined as the measure or patterned count of a poetic line. It is the count of the stresses
we feel in the poem’s rhythms. We can determine the meter of a line by the relationship between
strong and weak stresses in the syllables.

5.3 Foot

It refers to the unit of rhythm within the line of a poem.

5.4 Scansion

Scansion involves the examination of the mechanical elements used by a poet to bring out his
rhythmic effects. Scansion in poetry involves dividing the number of syllables to establish the meter.

6. Divisions of metric feet

A poetic foot may be either iambic or trochaic, anapestic or dactylic, spondaic or pyrrhic.

6.1 Iambic foot

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An iambic foot is defined as an unaccented syllable followed by an accented one as in the words
preVENT 3, aPPLY, diVINE …

Example: "The cúrfew tólls the knéll of párting dáy." (Thomas Gray, "Elegy Written in a Country
Churchyard.")

6.2. Trochaic foot

This is the reverse order of the iambic foot. It is a metric foot containing a stressed syllable followed
by an unstressed syllable as in the words FOOTball, FAther, FINger …

Examples: Thére they áre, my fífty mén and wómen.

6.3 Anapestic foot

It consists of two unaccented syllables followed by an accented one as in com/preHEND,

in/ter/VENE.

Example: The Assyrian came dówn like a wólf on the fóld. (Lord Byron, "The Destruction of
Sennacherib.")

6.4 Dactylic foot

It is the reverse of the anapset, beginning with an accented syllable followed by two unaccented ones.
Examples include DAN/ge/rous, CHEER/ful/ly.

"Éve, with her básket, was / Déep in the bélls and grass."

6.5 Spondaic foot

Two accented syllables together is called a spondee. Most compound words in English phonetics are
in this category.

Examples: Heart/Beat, Heart/Break, Child/Hood, Foot/Ball, Earth/Quake

6.6 Pyrrhic foot

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Capitalisation indicates stressed syllables, lowcase letters unstressed ones.
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This foot is characterised by two unaccented syllables. It is not as common as the other feet. Both
spondaic and pyrrhic feet serve as substitute feet for iambic and trochaic feet. Neither can serve as
the metrical norm of an English poem.

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7. Versification

Literally, the making of verse, the term is often used as another name for prosody. A major feature of
poetry is its style of versification. Some poems are written in verse or stanza. The stanza is a unit of
in a poem that is usually separated by space in the printed text. However, it is worth mentioning that
not all poems are written in verse or stanza form. Some stanza forms have specific names. Here are
the common ones

7.1 Tercet or Triplet: it is a stanza consisting of three lines usually with a single rhyme.

Example

And here the precious dust is layd

Whose purely-tempered Clay was made
So fine, that it the guest betray’d
Thomas Care: Maria Wentworth

7.2 Quatrain: it is a stanza consisting of four lines. The quatrain is one of the most common stanza
forms. The quatrain is one of the most common stanza forms. The rhyme scheme can be a set of
rhyming couplets or the alternate rhyme scheme.

Example

The time you won your town the race

We chaired you through the market-place;
Man and boy stood cheering by
And home we brought you shoulder-high.
A. E. Housman: To an Athlete Dying Young.

7.3End or stop lines

The end or stop lines occur when the meaning of the sentence is complete at the end of the line.

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7.4 Run-on Lines.

When the meaning of the sentence is not complete at the end of the line and one has to go on to the
next line to complete the meaning of the sentence. Run-on lines do not have a punctuation mark at
the end.

Example: Look at the following extract. Can you identify which lines are end lines and which lines
are run-on lines?

In the village
Screams of delighted children
Toss and turn
In the din of whirling wind
Women –Babies clinging on their backs-
Dart about
In and out
Madly
The wind whistles by
Whilst trees bend to let it pass.
David Rubadiri: An African Thunderstorm.

7.5 Rhymed verse

This type of verse form consists of verse with end rhyme and often characterised by a regular meter.

Example

Not marble nor the gifted monuments a

Of princes shall outline this pow’rful rime b
Bur you shall shine more bright in these contents a
Than unswept stone, besmeared with sluttish time b

7.6 Blank verse

A blank verse consists of lines of iambic pentameter without end rhyme.

Example (from William Shakespeare’s Julius Ceasar)

Cowards die many times before their deaths;

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The valiant never taste of death but one of
all the wonders that I have yet heard, it
seems to me most strange that men should
fear; Seeing that death a necessary end, will
come when it will come

7.7 Free verse

A free verse occurs when the lines do not have a regular meter and do not count in rhyme. It is a
poetry based on the natural rhythms of phrases and normal pauses rather than the artificial constraints
of metrical feet. Commonly called vers libre in French (the English term first appears in print in
1908), this poetry often involves the counterpoint of stressed and unstressed syllables in
unpredictable but clever ways.

Example (from Carl Sandburg’s Splinter)

The voice of the last cricket
Across the first frost
Is one kind of good –by
It is so thin a splinter of singing

8. Sound devices in poetry

8.1 Rhyme

It is the similarity or sameness of sound occurring between two words. In other words, it is the
matching of final vowel or consonant sounds in two or more words. Normally, words that rhyme
must have identical stressed syllables and the preceding consonant sounds are bound to be different.

The knowledge of rhyme helps to properly analyse a work of poetry from the view point of sound.

Rhyme is usually classified based on the position of occurrence. Hence, we can identify: masculine
rhyme, feminine rhyme, end rhyme (that can either be a rhyming or couplet, alternate rhyme, internal
or mid rhyme, opening rhyme.

8.1.1 Masculine or single rhyme

When the rhyme consists of a single stressed syllable at the end of the line, we refer to it as a
masculine rhyme.

Example 1

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Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth
Robert Frost: The Road Not Taken

Example 2

'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house,

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

8.1.2 Feminine rhyme

When the rhyme scheme consists of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one, we refer to it
as feminine rhyme. Here is an example of a feminine rhyme.

Example 1

Three years she grew in sun and shower

Then Nature said, ‘A lovelier flower’

William Wordsworth: Three Years She Grew.

Example 2

'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the housing,

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mousing.

8.1.3 End rhyme

It occurs when the rhymes occur at the end of the verses. It can be either a couplet or alternate rhyme.

In the couplet (rhyming couplet), the rhyme occurs in pairs of lines. On the other hand, we talk of
alternate rhyme in the case where the rhyme occurs in the alternate line.

Example of couplet

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star a

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How I wonder what you are a
Up above the wall so high b
Like a diamond in the sky b

Example of alternate rhyme

Bird
You cannot know
And should not bother;
Tide and market come and go
And so shall your mother.
John Pepper Clark: Streamside Exchange.

8.1.4 Internal / alternate rhyme

It is the situation whereby the rhyme occurs in the middle of the verses.

Example of the opening stanza of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” which illustrates both the end and
the internal rhyme

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,

Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore
While I nodded nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door
“’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door.
Only this and nothing more.”

8.1.5 Opening rhyme

We talk of opening rhyme when the rhymes occur in the first syllables of the poem

WEEK 11

8.2 Onomatopoeia

It is a device whereby words used mimic or imitate their natural sounds: (boom, click, plop)
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* The woman roars at everyone

** He zoomed off soon after the meeting.

8.3 Assonance

It is the repetition at close intervals of the vowel sounds of accented syllables or important words.

For instance in hat – ran – amber we have assonance.

8.4 Alliteration

It is the repetition at close intervals of the initial consonant sounds of accented syllabus or important
words (for example map – moon, kill – code)

For instance, the phrase "buckets of big blue berries" alliterates with the consonant b. Coleridge
describes the sacred river Alph in Kubla Khan as "Five miles meandering with a mazy motion,"
which alliterates with the consonant m. The line "Where were you when we were walking?"
alliterates with the consonant w. One of Dryden's couplets in Absalom and Achitophel reads, "In
pious times, ere priestcraft did begin, / Before polygamy was made a sin." It alliterates with the letter
p. Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" employs the technique: "I lean and loaf at my ease observing a
spear of summer grass."

8.5 Repetition

This is the deliberate retake of some words or phrases within a poem. It is usually done either for the
purpose of aesthetics or emphasis.

8.6 Refrain

This involves the recurrence or repetition of one or more phrases or lines at intervals in a poem. It
often comes at the end of a stanza

Example from This Smoking World by G. L. Henninger

This smoking world

Tobacco is a dirty wee
But I like it
It satisfies no normal need
I like it

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It makes you thin, it makes you lean
It takes the hair off your beam
It’s the worst darn stuff I’ve ever seen
I like it

9. Figures of speech

 Simile
This is the figure of speech which is used to show comparison between two apparently different
things. It requires the reader to see the explicit similarity found in the two things being compared.
The use of ‘like’ or ‘as’ is often the case in simile.

Example * His teeth are as white as snow

** She looks like an angel
*** He walks like a soldier

**** O, my love is like a red, red rose

That's newly sprung in June:
O, my love is like the melody
That's sweetly played in tune (Robert Burns)

 Metaphor
In this figure of speech, the reader is required to establish an implied comparison between two
different things. In other words, it is an intuitive perception of the similarity in dissimilars. This is
done by deliberately omitting ‘like’ or ‘as’ in the statement

When we speak of "the ladder of success," we imply that being successful is much like climbing a
ladder to a higher and better position. Another example comes from an old television add from the
1980s urging teenagers not to try drugs. The camera would focus on a close-up of a pair of eggs and a
voice would state "This is your brain." In the next sequence, the eggs would be cracked and thrown
onto a hot skillet, where the eggs would bubble, burn, and seeth. The voice would state, "This is your
brain on drugs." The point of the comparison is fairly clear. Another example is how Martin Luther
wrote, "A mighty fortress is our God, / A bulwark never failing." (Mighty fortress and bulwark are
the two metaphors for God in these lines.) Other examples include

* The classroom is a market

** Nigeria was hell shortly after June 1967
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 ***all the world’s a stage
And all the men and women merely players

 Personification

It is a figure of speech in which human attributes are given to an animal, object or concept.

Example * The tree dances caressingly

** The breeze swept off the dirt
*** His heart cries out

 Hyperbole or Overstatement

It is a figure of speech in which exaggeration is used in the service of truth.

Examples * I thank you a million times

** He has the problem of the whole world on his head
*** I’m so famished, I could finish a bag of rice

 Symbol
It refers to an image that implies something apart from what is ordinarily represented.

For instance colour green may be used to symbolise agriculture and the cross , a quickly
reminiscence of Christianity.

 Oxymoron
It is a compact paradox, one in which two successive words apparently contradict each other

Example * Mary’s pregnancy is now an open secret

** We had a bitter sweet experience at the get together

 Apostrophe
it is a figure of speech in which someone absent or dead or something nonhuman is addressed as if it
were alive and present and could reply.

Example

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* Nightfall! Nightfall!
You are my mortal enemy (Oswald Mtshali)

** Death, be not proud though some have called thee mighty and dreadful … (John Donne)
*** Africa, I have long been away from you (Sly Cheney Coker)

 Synecdoche

This is a figure of speech where part of an object or idea is mentioned to represent the whole. In other
words, it is using the part to signify the whole. For example, when a captain calls out, "All hands on
deck," he wants the whole sailors, not just their hands. When La Fontaine states, "A hungry stomach
has no ears," he uses synecdoche and metonymy simultaneously to refer to the way that starving
people do not want to listen to arguments. In the New Testament, a similar synecdoche about the
stomach appears. Here, the stomach represents all the physical appetites, and the heart represents the
entire set of personal beliefs. Paul writes:

Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine
which ye have learned; and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but
their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple. (Romans
16:17)

Likewise, when Christians pray, "Give us this day our daily bread," they aren't asking God for bread
alone, but rather they use the word as a synecdoche for all the mundane necessities of food and
shelter.

Examples

* All eyes on me
** Many mouths feed from him daily

Bibliographie

- The handout, the collections and other poems

- Autres documents

Senanu, K. E. and T. Vincent, (1995). A Selection of African Poetry, England: Longman House.

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Egudu, R. N. (1978.) Modern African Poetry and the African Predicament, London: The Macmillan
Press LTD.

Egudu, R. (1977). Four Modern West African Poets, New York: NOK.

Saad EL-Din, M. (1983). "La Tradition orale africaine face au défi de l’écriture : Fossilisation forcée
ou Mutation nécessaire" in ICA (collectif) ed. LA Tradition Orale Source de la littérature
Contemporaine en Afrique, Dakar : Les Nouvelles Editions Africaines. Pp. 69-75.

Nkem, O. (2006). “A marriage of Modes: Writing African Oral Literature. A Reading of Okot
p’Biteck’s Song of Lawino” in Mamadou Kandi ed. Tradition and the Dynamics of Woman’s
Empowerment, Dakar, Senegal: Dakar University Press. Pp. 239-256.

Anyidoho, K. (1989). “Kofi Awoonor and the Ewe Tradition of Songs of Abuse (Halo)” in Lemuel
A. J. Bernadette C., and Rusell H., and Mildred H. eds. Towards Defining the African Aesthetic,
Washington: Three Continents Press. Pp. 17-29.

4. ACTIVITES COMPLEMENTAIRES (éventuellement) : Autres activités d’apprentissage

(éventuellement)
- Reading of some poems from: Kofi Awwonr, Kofi Anyidoho, Okot P’Bitek

5. DOCUMENTS COMPLEMENTAIRES
Documentation complémentaire d’approfondissement (éventuellement), liens utiles
Akyea, E. Ofori, “Ewe (Heritage Library of African People)” in http//www.amazon.de./Ewe-
heritage-library-African-Peoples/dp/0823919803/ref.

Awoonor, Kofi “Worldcat Identities” in http://worldcat.org/identities/Lccn-n50-35144.

Clark, John, Pepper et al, “CafeAfricana” in www.cafeafricana.com/

Ejizu, I. Christopher, “African Traditional Religions and the Promotion of Community Living in
Africa” in www.afrikaworld.net/afrel/atr- community.htm,

Holcombe, John E. “Marxist Views” in www.texte.com./theory/Marxist.views.html

Mckoy, Sheila Smith, “This Unity of Split Blood: Tracing Remnant Consciousness in Kofi
Awoonor’s come the voyager at last” in http://inscribe.iupress.org/toc/ral/33/2-47k.

Nyamiti, Charles, “Ancestor Veneration in Africa” in www.afrikaworld.net/afrel/atr-nyamiti. htm,

Wheen, Francis. “Why Marx is Man of the Moment” in http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/html

Wolf, Werner “Aesthetic Illusion as an Effect of Fiction” in http://www. Encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-
139307946.html

Wright, Derek, “Kofi Awoonor” at http://www.ghanaweb.com/GanaHomePage/people/person.php.

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