ALT 302 Poetry Module (MULTIMEDIA) July 2015

KENYATTA UNIVERSITY
DIGITAL SCHOOL OF DISTANCE AND e-LEARNING
IN COLLABORATION WITH
SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
LITERATURE DEPARTMENT
ALT 302: POETRY
WRITTEN BY: EDITED BY:
MR. CHARLES KEBAYA DR. WAVENEY OLEMBO
Copyright © Kenyatta University, 2015

All Rights Reserved
July, 2015
Charles Kebaya, Poetry 2015 Page 1

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction to the Course ………………………………………………………..………………3
Lesson 1 Introduction to Poetry ……………………..………………….……………..…….…4
Lesson 2 Classification of Poetry ……………………………..……………………………..11
Lesson 3 Structure in Poetry ………………………………………………………………….26
Lesson 4 Sound Features in Poetry: Metre ……………………………..……………………..42
Lesson 5 Sound Features in Poetry: Rhyme ………………………………………….……….51
Lesson 6 Word Sounds in Poetry ….………………………..…………………………………60
Lesson 7 Language in Poetry: Imagery …………………………………...…………………...70
Lesson 8 Figures of Speech in Poetry ……………………………………….………………...87
Lesson 9 Interpretation of Mood, Attitude and Tone ……………………..………..…………98
Lesson 10 A Survey of Modern African Poetry ………………………….………..………...103
Lesson 11 Negritude Poetry ………………………...…………………………….…….…….111
Lesson 12 Major Poets: Okot P’Bitek …………………...…………………………………...119
Self- Assessment Exercises……………………………………………………………………..142
Glossary………………………………………………………………………………………...147

INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE
In this unit, you will learn key considerations in the study of poetry. Poetry, as you might be
aware from your Introduction to Literary Genres, is considered the oldest of the major genres of
literature. Accordingly, we have to begin by seeing it as a form of literary expression with all the
defining qualities of literature such as 1) imagination 2) creativity 3) suggestiveness 4) as a
mirror reflecting the individual’s perception of life experiences. Generally speaking, these
qualities apply to both oral and written forms of poetry but the medium of expression and
transmission are markedly different. Nonetheless, both manifestations of poetry share identical
content, form and effect. This is to say that irrespective of the obvious difference between these
forms of poetry their sources and end-purpose are the emotions and imagination of the poet on
the one hand and the reader or audience on the other; they convey significant truths about the
human condition and they employ a language that is deliberately adorned by use of figurative
expressions.
It is hoped that by the time you are through with this course, you would be confident enough to
appreciate poetry having acquired the necessary knowledge of what poetry is. Thus you should
also be able to conduct literary appreciation of a poem by focusing attention on its form
(manner/style) and content (matter/subject), etc.
Course Objectives
This course is designed to expose you to the nature, uses, elements, techniques and devices of
poetry. Its aim is to:
I. Enable you acquire an understanding of the character of poetry as a genre of literature

II. Enable you to understand the elements, techniques/devices, and forms of poetry
III. Impart to you knowledge that shall enable you differentiate forms of poetry through their
characteristic features
IV. Comment on the qualities of any given poem to demonstrate the skills of
criticism/appreciation you have acquired in this course.

LESSON 1
INTRODUCTION TO POETRY
1.1 Introduction
In this first lecture, we shall begin with an introduction to poetry. In this lesson you will learn
the basic considerations in the study of poetry which includes the definition of the term “poetry”,
its characteristics and end with the differences between oral and written poetry.
1.2 Lesson Objectives
By the end of this section, you should be able to:

1. Define the term ‘poetry’.
2. Describe the characteristics of poetry.
3. Differentiate between oral and written forms of poetry.
1.3 What is poetry?
It has often been asked: what is poetry? Answers given in response to this question have shown
that there are varied views regarding to what poetry means to different scholars. Since different
scholars have different perspectives regarding what poetry means, we shall not answer this
question by providing a single definition until we have considered a good number of available
definitions. The implication of this statement is that there is no one standard definition of poetry
that can satisfy all possible shades of opinions; rather an aggregate(d) definition that contains
aspects of some popular views or definitions representative of various critical approaches to
literature might just be the most sensible way to take. These latter views take cognizance of basic
concepts and words such as composition, words and their arrangement, expression,
emotion/feeling/passion, perception, thought, rhythm, imagination, etc. This will become clearer
to you by the time we define poetry by way of setting it apart as a specific genres of literature.

1.3.1 Definitions of Poetry
The following are some of the definitions of poetry from well-known poetry scholars, which
illustrate the varied views of this genre:
William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth defines poetry as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes
its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility: the emotion is contemplated till, by a species of
reaction, the tranquility gradually disappears, and an emotion, kindred to that which was the
subject of contemplation, is gradually produced, and does itself actually exist in the mind ”(qtd
Rehder, 1981).
Edwin Arlington Robinson

Robinson viewed poetry as the language that tells us, through a more or less emotional reaction,
something that cannot be said. All poetry, great or small, does this (Blumenthal 1998).
Edgar Allan Poe

In “The Poetic Principle”, Edgar Alan Poe considers poetry to be words as the rhythmical
creation of beauty. Its sole arbiter is taste. With the intellect or with the conscience it has only
collateral relations (Wiley 1989).
Percy Bysshe Shelley

Shelley has stated that poetry is the record of the best and happiest moments of the best and
happiest minds ( qtd Elkins and Forstner 1973).
Andrew Bradley
According to Bradley, An actual poem is the succession of experiences – sounds, images,
thoughts, emotions – through which we pass when we are reading as poetically as we can (qtd
Elkins and Forstner 1973).

Babette Deutsch
Deutsch defines “poetry as the art which uses words as both speech and song to reveal the
realities that the senses record, the feelings salute, the mind perceives, and the shaping
imagination orders” (Deutsch, 111).
Emily Dickinson
Dickinson has stated: If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold that no fire can ever
warm me, I know that it is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I
know that it is poetry (qtd Willis 1970).
Samuel Taylor Coleridge

According to Coleridge, poetry can be defined as “the best words in the best order”. This
observation points to the idea that poetry is a genre that has words selectively and carefully
chosen to communicate ideas (qtd Ameteshe, 1988)
Geoffrey Leech and Mick Short

For Leech and Short, poetry is defined as the art of using language figuratively to convey one’s
feelings or emotions. It is words arranged in a rhythmic pattern with regular accents (like beats in
music), words which are carefully selected for sound, accent and meaning to express
imaginatively ideas and emotions. Each poem has rhythm, melody, imagery, and form (Leech
and Short 1981)
From the above definitions or explanations of what poetry is, it is clear as we had said earlier on
that there cannot be a single definition that will be comprehensive enough to accommodate the
various shades of opinion and schools of thought regarding the exact nature of the genre. While
one cannot correctly adjudge one definition as superior, better or more comprehensive than
another, it is true that each of them has its point of emphasis which in turn places it in one or the
other of the great literary/creative debates over content, style and effect. It is thus clear that
Edgar Allan Poe’s conception of poetry as expressed above emphasises style or form over
content and effect while, on the other hand, both William Wordsworth and Edwin Arlington
Robinson focus more attention on content and effect in their definitions. In this regard, you

should take particular note of Emily Dickinson’s own idea of poetry whose essential criterion is
the effect it has on her and is capable of having on a reader. In a final analysis, one cannot fault
any one of these definitions given the special interests and period fascinations that shape them.
Besides the individual emphases noted in the definitions we have used as samples above, we
should take note of the occurrence of some common words and phrases such as
emotions/feelings, rhythm/rhythmical, truth, pleasure, imaginative expression, language, etc
which underscore the protean nature of poetry and which make it susceptible to being conceived
of variously by different scholars.
The object of poetry is confessedly to express one’s emotions. Indeed, poems are written about
some experiences which have caught the poet's interest and stirred up his feelings. These feelings
are put into words as clearly as he can. In this way, he makes it possible for people to share in his
experience. This, however, leaves us very far from a definition of poetry. This is so because to
bring thoughts or images for the sole purpose of expressing one’s emotions is not a preserve of
poetry alone. It is the province of the other genres of literature such as drama and novel in some
ways also.
Finally, we now attempt a definition that strives to distil the various elements of the explanations
we have made so far as follows: Poetry is a form of composition in verse form especially one
expressing deep feelings or noble thought in a rhythmic and generally beautiful or embellished
language written with the aim of communicating an experience. This definition contains the
grains of the essential elements of the genre of poetry (imagery, rhythm, sound and diction) to
which we will turn our attention in the next unit of this course material.
1.4 Defining Characteristics of Poetry
Amateshe (1988) identifies the following as key characteristics of poetry:

 relative brevity (with some notable exceptions)
 dense expression
 subjectivity more than other texts

 a musical or songlike quality
 structurally and phonologically over structured
 syntactically and morphologically over structured
 deviation from everyday language
 aesthetic self-referentiality (which means that they draw attention to themselves as an
art form both through the form in which they are written and through explicit references
to the writing of poetry).
1.5 Differences between Oral and Written Poetry
The following are key distinctive features of oral from written poetry:
Defining Features Oral Written
Medium of Expression Spoken word Written word
Existence Time immemorial A recent innovation/Modern
Accessibility Both to the literate and illiterate Only to the literate/Elite
members of society members in society
Ownership Communal Individual author
Mode of Delivery Oral Mute
Participation Attracting and involving No audience participation
participation from the audience
Creation Communal affair Individual affair
Public Rendition Rendered before public Private affair
Spontaneity Spontaneous, dynamic Fixed, static
Use of suprasegmental Reliance on suprasegmental Not depending on this.
features features such as metre, pitch,
tempo, and sonority to emphasize
the message
Antiphony Use of antiphonal structure Does not employ the
antiphonal structure

Put a video simulation on the differences between oral and written poetry.
1.6 Summary
Poetry is the oldest of the major literary genres that has been part of the traditions of man
through the ages; it has been manifested in most human ritual activities as well as served as a
ready means of entertainment in traditional festivals. Yet, in spite of its long history and
perennial occurrence and employment in important human activities, it has defied common
definition because it seems to strike different people differently.
Therefore, in this lesson you have learnt several definitions and explanations of poetry as a
literary genre. While a common definition has not been found and this is exemplified by the
multiplicity of samples of definitions examined, we have provided a definition that has
incorporated the major strands of the various explanations common to different traditions and
periods of literary history.
1.7 Activities
i. What is your understanding of the term poetry
ii. With examples, differentiate between oral and written poetry
iii. Give the characteristics of poetry.
1.8 References/Further Reading

Amateshe, Kisa. ed. An Anthology of East African Poetry. Essex: Longman Group
UK Ltd, 1988.
Buckingham, Willis. Emily Dickinson: An Annotated Bibliography: Writings, Scholarship,
Criticism and Analysis 1850-1968. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1970.
Blumenthal, Anna Sabol. The New England Oblique Style: The Poetry of Ralph Waldo Emerson,
Emily Dickinson, and Edwin Arlington Robinson. London: Peter Lang, 1998.
Cummings, Michael. and Robert, Simmons. The Language of Literature. London: Penguin,
1983.

Deutsch, Babette. Poetry Handbook: A Dictionary of Terms. London : Cape, 1965
Elkins A. C. and Forstner, L. J. The Romantic Movement Bibliography 1936-1970, 7 volumes
Ann Arbor, Mich.: Pierian Press, 1973.
Hollander, John. Rhyme’s Reason: A Guide to English Verse. New Haven: Yale, 2000.
Leech, Geoffrey& Mick. Short. Style in Fiction: A Linguistic Introduction to English
Fictional Prose. Essex: Longman Group Ltd, 1981.
Rehder, Robert. Wordsworth and the Beginnings of Modern Poetry. London: Croom Helm, 1981
Wiley, Elizabeth. Concordance to the Poetry of Edgar Allan Poe. Selinsgrove, Pa.: Susquehanna
University Press, 1989.

LESSON 2
CLASSIFICATION OF POETRY
2.1 Introduction
In our previous lesson, our energies were directed to defining poetry, its basic characteristics and
differences between oral and written poetry. In this lesson, we shall turn our attention to the
types of poetry and their defining characteristics.
By the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

1. Identify types of ‘poetry’.
2. Analyse characteristics of each type of poetry.
3. Identify and analyse each sub-type of poetry
2.3 Types of Poetry
When studying poetry, it is useful to consider the type of poem that you are handling. Knowing
the type of poem that you are dealing with helps you to understand the context and focus of the
poem. This lesson focuses on the types of poetry. There are two common types of poetry which
can further be sub-divided into smaller more specific categories:
i. Narrative poetry
ii. Descriptive poetry
2.3.1 Narrative Poetry

As the name implies, a narrative poem tells a story. Therefore, narrative poetry gives a verbal
representation in verse, of an event or a sequence of connected events. Incidents deriving from
the ordinary business of living, its ups and downs, provide material for narrative poetry.
Narrative poems shape and re-organize historical accounts in a figurative way told by a narrator
in the form of a persona. Thus, narrative poems might tell of a love story, the story of a father
and son or the deeds of a hero or heroine in society.

Characteristically, narrative poems may be simple or complex, long or short and they include:
1. Epic
It is a long, great narrative poem, which tells about the doings of one or more characters from
history or legend. It could be the adventures and famous exploits of a hero. Epics usually operate
on a large scale, both in length and topic, such as the founding of a nation (Masizi Kunene’s
Anthem of the Decades) or the beginning of world history (John Milton’s Paradise Lost). Epic
poems make use of epic conventions, use an elevated style of language and supernatural beings
take part in the action. The following are characteristics of an epic poem:
i. Descriptiveness
Because the epic is long, the poet has plenty of opportunity for vivid description. For
example, Milton in Paradise Lost took time to describe the shield and spear of Satan
in great detail.
ii. Choric nature

This refers to the fact that epic poetry is more or less an expression of public opinion,
that is, the thought and feelings of some large group or community. For example,
Kunene in Emperor Shaka, in many respects, rallies the people to take action using
the legendary deeds of Shaka, the great.
iii. High seriousness

The subject matter of the epic is always serious and seriously told. Epic poets are
usually over ambitious. They aim at setting an unbreakable standard in their works.
Their poems are therefore carefully and greatly planned. In epic poems, the hero faces
severe odds and difficulties. He, however, overcomes all his obstacles and records a
huge success after a hard struggle.

The hero who is a person of great stature and legendary and historical significance
and performs superhuman actions is of concern to the audience or reader because he
symbolises the aspirations and destiny of his nation or race.
iv. Expansiveness
An epic poem is of great length and scope with the action taking place over a long
period of time and extending over several nations, the world of the poet’s day or the
imagined universe. For example, Tamsir Niane’s Sundiata: The Epic of Old Mali
chronicles the rise of the Empire of Mali. It is based on the story of Sundiata Keita
and the building of the Empire of Mali in the thirteenth century and begins with a
prophecy made to Maghan Kon Fatta, the ruler of the small state of Mali. The epic
suggests the dominance of Traditional African Religion in thirteenth century Mali,
but at the same time indicates the importance of Islam in this changing society. In the
dualism that existed, rulers had to walk a thin line between the two systems, in order
to command the loyalties of both the Muslim merchant elites and the religiously
traditional masses. The epic reveals how an astute ruler like Sundiata could use both
Islam and traditional religion as political tools, taking out the right tool at the right
time for maximum effect.
v. Style of Writing
An epic poet employs narration as his/her writing style. The poet commences his
narration by stating his theme and invokes the muse to inspire and instruct him in his
task. The constituent episodes of the narrative easily arise from the main story and, as
a result, there are no parts that could be detached from it without loss to the whole.
The narration includes elaborate formal speeches by the main characters. Noteworthy
is the fact that the narrative style is grand and alternates between the sublime or
sustained elevation and grand simplicity.

2. Ballad
The ballad, one of the earliest forms of poetry, is a song that tells a story or conversely a story
told through song. Thus a ballad is a short narrative poem, adapted for singing, simple in plot and
metrical in structure, divided into stanzas of four lines (quatrains) rhyming alternately and
characterised by complete impersonality as far as the author or singer is concerned. For example,
S.T. Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is a popular literary ballad.
There are two main types of ballad, namely: the folk ballad (also referred to as the popular or
traditional ballad) and the art ballad (also referred to as literary ballad). These terms equally
intimate the origins and nature of this type of poetry. Accordingly, a folk ballad is anonymous
but we can safely infer that there must have been a poet since all poems are mostly composed by
individual poets. According to Hugh Holman “debate still rages as to whether the ballad
originates with an individual composer or as a group or communal activity” (52). Whether as
individual or group composition, the personal emotions of the composer or poet do not manifest
in his work. There is no first person singular (I), but where it strays in, it is always found in the
context of the speech by identifiable characters in the poem to whom it refers. Oral transmission
is the medium of spreading the song of the folk ballad.
There are different sub-categories of the ballad which include the ballads of history, of love, of
humour and of domestic tragedy. Others include ballads of the domestic border and ballads
derived from epic materials.
The following are the characteristics of ballads:
i. They use simple, uncomplicated language to present their story through narration,
dialogue and description.
ii. The language is usually simple, characterized by rhyme and repetition.
iii. They are often written in the form of a quatrain or four line stanza.
iv. Their rhyme scheme is either in abab or aabb form. You should note that in the first
rhyming pattern the first and third lines could rhyme (represented as ‘a’ in abab),
while the second and fourth lines (represented as ‘b’) must rhyme. In some ballads,

however, the first and third lines may not rhyme (as in abcb and xaxa, where ‘x’
represents ‘no rhyme’ and this deviation does not disqualify such lines as ballad
stanzas.
v. They focus on a single issue or a single episode of an issue.
vi. They rely on repetitions to keep time going, hence serving as a mark of rhythm.
vii. There is Absence or minimal utilisation of figures of speech except for the use of simple
repetition.
viii. There is use of refrains which aids musicality in the poem.
The following is a notable example of an art ballad:
A Red, Red Rose
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.
As fair thou art, my bonnie lass,

So deep in love am I;
And I will love thee still, my dear,
Till a’ the seas gang dry.
(Reeves, 60)
Put a simulation video explaining the types of narrative poetry
2.3.2 Descriptive Poetry
A descriptive poem is a comparatively short, non-narrative poem in which a speaker presents a

state of mind, an emotional state or the perceptible world. Descriptive poems use evocative,
concrete and clear images to bring out the subject matter making the reader to think about the
significance of these images. Therefore, the reader is compelled to examine the use of a
particular image and not any other by the poet. The following are the types of descriptive
poems.

a) Lyric
In its original form, the lyric was a poem sung to the accompaniment of a lyre – a classical
stringed musical instrument. In the Greek classical period, it was sung by a single singer and was
thus differentiated from the ‘choric’, which was performed by a group of singers. The term is
now applied to describe any poem that is light in tone, could be adapted into song and reflects
the personal mood or feeling of the singer or poet rather than narrates a story. This quality or
characteristic constitutes the main difference between it as a poetic type and the ballad and the
epic which concentrate on extra-personal subjects or themes. The lyric does not follow any rigid
metrical law (unlike the sonnet) by which it is identified and it is for this reason that it is often
regarded as a mode of writing rather than as a form.
The subjects of the lyric poet are as varied as his moods; thus he is at one time writing about love
and at other times he is expressing his feelings towards nature or merely giving vent to his
personal observations on life generally. However, the idea of unity of mood, of thought, of
feeling, and of style is essential to the lyric. Notably, the poet’s thoughts and feelings on some
issues or subjects are expressed often in a sharp, moving and vivid manner, to achieve the
musical effect. They are built up in a harmonious pattern by the use of rhymes, rhythm,
alliteration, assonance, repetition and personification.
William Wordsworth’s poem Rainbow below is a good example of a lyric poem:
RAINBOW
My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky;
So was it when my life began;
So it is now I am a man;
So be it when I grow old,
Or let me die!
The child is the father of the man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.
(William Wordsworth)

b) Ode
An ode is a rhymed or rarely unrhymed lyric poem often in the form of an address, expressive of
exalted or enthusiastic emotion (usually of elevated style and enthusiastic tone), especially one of
varied or irregular metre. An ode has been defined by Gosse as “any strain of enthusiastic and
exalted lyrical verse, directed to a fixed purpose, and dealing progressively with one dignified
theme” (qtd Holman 363).
In its earliest Greek form established by the poet Pindar, an ode was choral or sung by a group of
people who constituted the personas who moved in a dance rhythm in the dramatic poetry that
was the main matrix for the ode/form. More explicitly, Holman tells us that the term ode
“connotes certain qualities both of manner and form. In manner, the ode is an elaborate lyric,
expressed in language dignified, sincere, and imaginative and intellectual in tone. In form the
ode is more complicated than most of the lyric types. Perhaps the essential distinction of form is
the division into strophes: the strophe, antistrophe, and epode” (363). The dance movements of
the chorus are as follows:
i. strophe (movement to the left)

ii. Antistrophe (movement to the right)
iii. Epode (Chorus stands still).
The great period of the ode in English poetry began with Abraham Cowley who in the
seventeenth century popularised the Pindaric ode in English. There are three main types of odes
in English poetry, namely: the Pindaric (regular) the Horatian and the Irregular. The Pindaric ode
is a complex poem of some length on a subject of public interest or on an abstract quality,
written in rhyming or irregular pattern. On the other hand, the Horatian type modelled on the
odes of the Roman poet Horace, is less complex, calm, meditative and restrained and contains
only one strophe (homostrophic). Famous examples are Milton’s “Ode on the Morning of
Christ’s Nativity”, “To the Lord General Cromwell, May 1652”; Gray’s “The Progress of
Poesy”; the romantic odes including Wordsworth’s “Ode: Intimations of Immortality”, Keats’s
“Ode to the Nightingale,” “Ode to Autumn,” and “Ode on a Grecian Urn” and Shelley’s “Ode to
the West Wind”. Look at an example of John Keats’ “Ode to a Nightingale”:

My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains
My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,
Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains
One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk:
'Tis not through envy of the happy lot,
But being too happy in thy happiness,–
That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees,
In some melodious plot
Of beechen green, and shadows numberless,
Singest of summer in full-throated ease.
O for a draught of vintage, that hath been

Cooled a long age in the deep-delved earth,
Tasting of Flora and the country green,
Dance, and Provencal song, and sun-burnt mirth!
O for a beaker full of the warm South,
Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene,
With beaded bubbles winking at the brim,
And purple-stained mouth;
That I might drink, and leave the world unseen,
And with thee fade away into the forest dim:
Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget

What thou among the leaves hast never known,
The weariness, the fever, and the fret
Here, where men sit and hear each other groan;
Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last gray hairs,
Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies;
Where but to think is to be full of sorrow
And leaden-eyed despairs;
Where beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes,
Or new love pine at them beyond tomorrow.
(John Keats, Ode to a Nightingale)
Characteristics of an Ode
There are many characteristics of an ode, which distinguishes it from the other kinds of poems.
These features are enumerated below:
a. The poet addresses a person or thing in his ode. This is usually an indispensable
quality of an ode because whenever we read through an ode, we feel that the poet

is having conversation with somebody or something. For example, in “Ode to
Nightingale”, John Keats is addressing the Nightingale, in “Ode on a Grecian
Urn”, the poet is speaking to a Grecian Urn while Shelley’s “Ode to the West
Wind”, deals with the transience of the seasons and the rebirth and of new life that
spring represents. Hence, this unique quality distinguishes it from other types of
lyrical poetry.
b. The ode possesses an exceptionally sublime and elevated style. Every single poet
composes his ode in a highly figurative and dignified style. Almost all odes of
John Keats are best examples in this particular respect.
c. An Ode has a uniform and consistent metrical scheme. A stanza in the ode has a
hard and fast rhyme scheme, which the poet pursues from start to the end of the
ode.
d. Odes have sublime and elevated themes and bear wide-ranging significance.
However, the themes are not limited simply to the personality of the poet, but
rather are universal.
e. Another fundamental characteristic of an ode is its solemn and serious tone. An

ode is seen as an extremely serious poem and has a high sense of emotion that the
poet conveys to the reader. There is absolutely no room for humour or petty
things. Look at the odes of John Keats and you will realize that every ode of John
Keats is an epitome of solemnity in this regard.
f. The cathartic effect of odes is yet another essential characteristic. The poet vents
his/her emotions through the imagination in his ode. He imaginatively leaves the
real world and takes shelter in the world of his imagination, attaining the much
needed cathartic relief. Thus emotional catharsis is a salient feature of an ode.

c) Sonnet
A sonnet is a poem generally expressive of a single, complete thought, idea, or sentiment. It is
made up of 14 lines, usually five-foot iambic pentameters, with lines arranged according to one
of certain definite rhyme schemes. Holman defines this poetic form as “a lyric form of fourteen
lines, highly arbitrary in form, and following one or another of several rhyme schemes”.
You should take note of the section of this definition that I have highlighted; we shall have cause
to refer to it as we study the various structural and prosodic manifestations of the sonnet. Look at
the following example of a typical sonnet by William Shakespeare:
When in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes, a

I all alone beweep my outcast state, b
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries, a
And look upon myself and curse my fate, b
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope, c
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed, d
Desiring this man's art and that man's scope, c
With what I most enjoy contented least, d
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising, e
Haply I think on thee, and then my state, f
(Like to the lark at break of day arising e
From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven's gate, f
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings, g
That then I scorn to change my state with kings. g
(William Shakespeare)
Types of sonnets
The following are the types of sonnets:
a) Petrarchan/Italian
This type of sonnet consists of two parts or systems: a major part known as the octave made up
of the first eight lines and a minor part called the sestet made up of the last six lines.
There is usually a pause or turn in idea or thought at the end of the octave. This turn or break in
sense is known technically as the ‘volta’. This structure conventionally goes hand in hand with

the thematic content of the poem in that a statement of a problem, a situation or an incident in the
octave is followed by a resolution in the sestet.
The rhyme scheme of the octave is: abba, abba and this is fixed or invariable. On the other hand,
the rhyme scheme of the sestet varies, but it may consist of any arrangement of two or three
rhymes as long as the last two lines do not form a couplet that is, they do not rhyme. Thus, the
usual arrangement in the sestet is: cdcdcd or cdecde. An example is William Wordsworth’s “The
World is too much with us”
b) Miltonic
This type of sonnet is similar to the Italian form discussed above, but the only difference is that
the Miltonic does not observe the pause or turn at the end of the octave rather the poet lets the
octave to run-on into the sestet. Suitable examples of this type are: John Milton’s “On His
Blindness”; “On the late massacre at Piedmont” and Sonnet XXIII “Methought I saw my late
espoused saint”.
c) Shakespearean/Elizabethan/English
This type of sonnet differs markedly from both the Petrarchan and Miltonic forms. It consists of
three quatrains and a final rhyming couplet and its rhyme scheme is abab cdcd efef gg. At times
there is a division of material found in the Petrarchan sonnet or there is repetition with variation
of the statement in the three quatrains with the final couplet presenting a neat and laconic
encapsulation of the central thought in the poem. The volta sometimes occurs between the
twelfth and thirteenth lines. The following are examples of this type: “Shall I compare thee to a
summer day?”; “Let me not to the marriage of true minds”; “Since Brass nor stone, nor earth, nor
boundless sea” by William Shakespeare.
We said we would refer to the highlighted part of Holman’s definition while defining a sonnet.
We have seen how sonnets follow “one or another of several rhyme schemes” in our examination
of the areas of congruence and divergence in the structures and rhyme patterns of the three main
types of sonnets identified above. Although the arbitrariness of form has largely been shown in
the differences among the three types explained above, we should still add that this characteristic
alludes to the idiosyncratic manipulations of the basic markers of the sonnet such as the number

of lines (14) as well as the number of feet per line (5 iambic feet). These deviations were mainly
experimental as demonstrated in Gerard Manley Hopkins’ “Felix Randall” as well as in several
well-known pieces by the American poets such as William Carlos Williams, E.E. Cummings,
and John Crowe Ransom.
Characteristics of the Sonnet
1. Composition
Most of the sonnets have 14 lines, which can be broken down into four sections called quatrains.
A quatrain consists of four lines. The first twelve lines are divided into three quatrains and have
an alternating rhyme scheme. The final quatrain consists of just two lines which both rhyme. In
the three quatrains the poet establishes a theme or problem and then resolves it in the final two
lines, called the couplet.
2. Metre
Sonnets are written in iambic pentameter. A simple grouping of syllables, some stressed, some
unstressed, is called a foot. The iambic foot is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed
syllable. Pentameter means there are five feet in the line. “Iambic Pentameter,” then, means a
line of ten syllables, which alternates unstressed and stressed syllables resulting in five feet
according to the iambic rhythm as shown:
X / X / X / X / X /
When in disgrace with fortune and Men’s eyes
(Key: X – unstressed, / - stressed sounds)
3. Rhyme Scheme
Sonnets have got a regular rhyme scheme which follows the pattern: abab / cdcd / efef / gg (note
the four distinct sections in the rhyme scheme).
4. Treatment of the subject matter

Since a sonnet is constructed in a specific way, the treatment of the subject matter follows this
pattern of construction thus:
1st Quatrain: Establishes and introduces the subject matter
2nd Quatrain: Develops the sonnet’s subject matter. The metaphors also extend in this
quatrain.
3rd Quatrain: Rounds off the subject matter by introducing a twist to it.
The Couplet: Serves as the conclusion. It summarizes the sonnet’s subject matter, and
leaves the reader with an imaginative conclusion.
d) Elegy
An elegy is a sustained and formal poem setting forth the persona’s and/or poet’s meditations
upon death or another solemn theme (Holman, 183). The meditation is often occasioned by the
death of a particular person, a painful loss or a general calamity that touches not just the persona
and/or poet as an individual but a wider spectrum of persons in his community or mankind
generally. Thus the poem may also be a generalised observation or expression of a solemn mood.
Other poetic types that are akin to the elegy and whose labels are often misused in reference to
the elegy are (1) the dirge; a short, less formal poem usually in the form of a text to be sung, with
sub-types such as threnody which is mainly an equivalent to the dirge and monody which is an
elegy presented as an utterance by one person.
Popular examples of the elegy in English literature: John Milton’s “Lycidas”; Alfred Tennyson’s
“In Memoriam”; W.H Auden’s “In Memory of WB Yeats” and William Gray’s “Elegy, Written
in a Country Churchyard”. Look at Whitman’s “O CAPTAIN! My Captain”, an elegy for
Abraham Lincoln:

“O CAPTAIN! My Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:
But O heart! Heart! Heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
O Captain! My Captain! rise up and hear the bells;

Rise up–for you the flag is flung–for you the bugle trills; 10
For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths–for you the shores a-crowding;
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! Dear father!
This arm beneath your head;
It is some dream that on the deck,
You’ve fallen cold and dead.
My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;
From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won; 20
Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!
But I, with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.”
(Walt Whitman, O CAPTAIN! My Captain )
Distinctive Features of Elegies
i. Elegies rely on the persona’s and/or poet’s ability to memorize the deeds of those who
are no more. Most poets who wrote elegies were evidently awed by the frailty of human
beings and how the world completely forgets about the deceased at some point.
ii. Elegies use the first person singular point of view.
iii. Elegies explore issues such as destiny, justice and fate as subject matter.
iv. The poet associates the events of the deceased with events in his own life by drawing
subtle parallels.
v. Elegies are deep, connotative and metaphorical in terms of style.
vi. The mourner charges with negligence the nymphs or other guardians of the dead.

vii. Towards the end the poet generally tries to provide comfort to ease the pain of the
situation. Usually, the tone of the poem changes from that of grief and despair to joy and
assurance and an epiphanic realisation that death is a necessary prelude to another life.
Put a video simulation explaining types of descriptive poems.
2.4 Summary
In this lesson you have the major classification of poetry. While examining the types of poetry,
we also looked at the sub-types, their defining characteristics and examples for each category,
where possible. In is important for you as a student to understand the types of poetry because this
knowledge will come in handy in your everyday encounter with poems.
2.5 Activity
i. With examples, discuss the major classifications of poetry.

ii. Discuss the defining characteristics of an ode.
iii. Explain why elegies are common in Africa
2.6 REFERENCES/FURTHER READING

Holman, Hugh ed. (1972). A Handbook of Literature. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill.
Reeves, James ed. (1972). The Poet’s World: An Anthology of English Poetry. London:
Heinemann.
Bondunde, Charles (2001) Oral Traditions and Aesthetic Transfer: Creativity and Social Vision
in Contemporary Black Poetry, Bayreuth African Studies Series, 58. Bayreuth; Bayreuth
University.
Chukwukere, B.I. (1992) African Literature Today, 12 New Writing, New Approaches. Books,
London: Heinemann Educational, pp. 16-24.
Nwoga, I.Donatus (1979) Modern African Poetry: The Domestication of a Tradition. African
Literature Today, Retrospect and Prospect, No.10, New York: Africana Publishing
Company. pp.32-56.
EPICS FOR FURTHER READING
Kunene, Mazisi. Anthem of the Decades. London: Heinemann, 1981.

----. Emperor Shaka the Great: A Zulu Epic. London: Heinemann, 1979.
Maneniang’, Mubima. The Lianja Epic. Nairobi: EAEP, 1999.
Niane, Djibril Tamsir, Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali. London: Longman, 1965.

LESSON 3
STRUCTURE IN POETRY
3.1 Introduction
In the last lesson we discussed types of poetry. In this lesson we move on to another aspect of
poetry: structure. We are interested in the structural patterns and tools either only found or
uniquely used in poetry.

1. Define the word structure from a literary point of view
2. Identify and analyse various types of poetic structures
3. Relate the structure to meaning
3.3 Structure
Structure refers to the planned physical and internal framework of a poem. Structure in poetry
is realized at two levels:
(a) external
(b) internal
The external structure refers to the actual visible/physical shape or pattern of a poem such as
monostanza, multistanzaic, physical appearance of the poem. The internal structure looks at
how the ideas at hand are developed from stanza to stanza. The structure would therefore
have helped in exciting the reader’s mind to try and establish the relationship between the
form and content.
The structure used in poems varies with different types of poetry. The external structural
elements include the line, couplet, strophe and stanza. Poets combine the use of language and a
specific structure to create imaginative and expressive work. The structural realisations of some

poetry types are also used when considering the visual effect of a finished poem and enhance
the poem’s composition.
3.3.1 Physical Shape
Shape is one of the main things that separate poetry from other genres like prose. Poetry can take
on many formats, but one of the most inventive forms is for the poem to take on the shape of its
subject. The shape of a poem is more flexible, versatile and integral to poetry. For instance, look
at the shapes of the poems below:
Broken Car by Jonathan Sluder
What can I do with

a car that doesn't go
Can I find some way to fix it
How long will it be before I can go again
Can the car even be fixed or is it hopeless
I can't take a bus to work they aren't around
Stranded No Money
Damned Things
Rockets Red Glare by Jonathan Sluder

I
see
above
my head
sparkling
lights of
bright colors
Announcing
Signaling
Rejoicing
Sounding
dreaming
calling
to my
being
telling
me that I
am free of
oppressions
can you see
what they
Have Said

Birth of a Triangle by Alex Goldenberg
mama and papa and baby make three,

reaching sides of a three-sided tree.
oedipal winds rustle from leaves;
triangular shapes converting
dissimilarity into peeves.
straight lines connect
the corners turned;
mirrored sight
un-burned;
buried
am
i
Luna by Marie Summers
You
were my
first dandelion
wish, my cotton
candy kiss, and sweet
lullaby. With you nested
in the palm of my hand,
we became one with the night,
ruling over the stars in the sky.
You have been my guiding light
through sleepless nights, my
muse, and friend, always
lending a listening ear, and
offering your soft, glowing
light to ease my fears.
You are my warm,
goodnight moon,
Luna.

Swan and Shadow by John Hollander
Dusk
Above the
water hang the
loud
flies
Here
O so
gray
then
What A pale signal will appear
When Soon before its shadow fades
Where Here in this pool of opened eye
In us No Upon us As at the very edges
of where we take shape in the dark air
this object bares its image awakening
ripples of recognition that will
brush darkness up into light
even after this bird this hour both drift by atop the perfect sad instant now
already passing out of sight
toward yet-untroubled reflection
this image bears its object darkening
into memorial shades Scattered bits of
light No of water Or something across
water Breaking up No Being regathered
soon Yet by then a swan will have
gone Yes out of mind into what
vast
pale
hush
of a
place
past
sudden dark as
if a swan
sang
Task: i. What do the shapes of the poems suggest?

ii. How do the shapes enhance the delivery of the message in the poems?

3.3.2 Stanzaic or Verse arrangement
One of the features that distinguish poetry from other literary genres is the use of stanza(s). A
stanza refers to a group of lines in a poem, usually set of from the rest by a blank line. Such
groups of lines are commonly of more or less equal length. In the Shakespearian traditional,
such lines would also be metrically equal and often have a rhyme scheme.
Types of Stanzas
There are a great number of different stanza forms available to a poet as shown below:
a) Mono-stanzaic
Mono-stanzaic poems consist of a single stanza no matter the number of lines. Such poems tell a
connected story. Monostanzaic poems explore a single issue. Good examples are the sonnets.
For instance look at the sonnet below:
SONNET 18
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st;
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
(Willam Shakespeare)
b) Multi-stanzaic
Multi-stanzaic poems have several stanzas that make a single poem. Multi-stanzaic poems
express diversity in theme as they explore a number of issues in the same poem. A good
example of a multi-stanzaic poem is Richard Ntiru’s poem “If it is true”:

If it is true
That the world talks too much
Then let’s all keep quiet
And hear the eloquence of silence.
If it is true
That the world sees too much
Then let’s all close our eyes
And see the inner vision
Beneath the closed eyes.
If it is true
That the world hears too much
Then let’s close our ears
And listen to the chastity of
Inner music
That defies betrayal
By the wayward, wind.
If it is true
That the world moves too much
Then let’s stand statue still
And imitate the stubborn will
Of trees
That move without being peripatetic
For the dumb don’t tell lies

For the blind can’t be peeping-toms
For the deaf cannot eavesdrop
For the cripples can’t trespass.
c) A Tercet
A tercet, sometimes also called a triplet, is a stanza with three lines of the same rhyme (aaa or
two rhyming lines embracing a line without rhyme (axa).
Released from the noise of the butcher and baker,

Who, my old friends be thanked, did seldom forsake her,
And from the soft duns of my landlord the Quaker;

From chiding the footmen, and watching the lasses,
From Nell that burned milk too, and Tom that broke glasses
(Sad mischiefs through which a good housekeeper passes!);
From some real care, but more fancied vexation,

From a life parti-coloured, half reason, half passion,
Here lies after all the best wench in the nation.
(From: Prior, Jinny the Just)
d) Terza rima
The terza rima is a variant of the tercet famously used by Dante in his Divine Comedy. The terza
rima uses a chain rhyme: the second line of each stanza rhymes with the first and the third line of
the next stanza (aba bcb cdc etc.)
The snow came down last night like moths

Burned on the moon; it fell till dawn,
Covered the town with simple cloths.
Absolute snow lies rumpled on

What shellbursts scattered and deranged,
Entangled railings, crevassed lawn.
As if it did not know they’d changed,

Snow smoothly clasps the roofs of homes
Fear-gutted, trustless and estranged.
(From: Wilbur, First Snow in Alsace)
e) Quatrain
The quatrain is one of the most common and popular stanza forms in English poetry. It is a
stanza comprising four lines of verse with various rhyme patterns. When written in iambic
pentameter and rhyming abab it is called heroic quatrain:
The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,

The lowing herd wind slowly o’er the lea,
The plowman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.
(From: Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard)

f) Ballad stanza
The ballad stanza is a variant of the quatrain. Most commonly, lines of iambic tetrameter
alternate with iambic trimester. The rhyme scheme is usually abcb, sometimes also abab.
Down dropped the breeze, the sails dropped down,

‘Twas sad as sad could be;
And we did speak only to break
The silence of the sea!
All in a hot and copper sky,
The bloody Sun, at noon,
Right up above the mast did stand,
No bigger than the Moon.
Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.
(From: Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner)
g) Rhyme royal
The rhyme royal is a seven-line stanza in iambic pentameter which rhymes ababbcc. It is called
rhyme royal because King James I of Scotland used it:
A plain without a feature, bare and brown,

No blade of grass, no sign of neighbourhood,
Nothing to eat and nowhere to sit down,
Yet congregated on its blankness, stood
An unintelligible multitude,
A million eyes, a million boots in line
Without expression, waiting for a sign.
(From: Auden, The Shield of Achillles)
h) Ottava rima
The ottava rima derives from Italian models like the terza rima and the sonnet. It is a stanza with
eight lines rhyming abababcc. The most famous use of the stanza form in English poetry was
made by Byron in Don Juan, who skillfully employs the stanza form for comic effect; in the
following example the last line renders the slightly pompous lovesickness of the first seven lines
quite ridiculous.

“And oh! if e’er I should forget, I swear –
But that’s impossible, and cannot be –
Sooner shall this blue ocean melt to air,
Sooner shall earth resolve itself to sea,
Than I resign thine image, Oh, my fair!
Or think of anything, excepting thee;
A mind diseased no remedy can physic” –
(Here the ship gave a lurch, and he grew seasick.)
i) Spenserian stanza
A Spenserian stanza, famously used by Edmund Spenser in The Faerie Queene, has nine lines
rhyming ababbcbcc, the first eight lines are iambic pentameter, the last line breaks the slight
monotony of the pentameters and is often employed to emphasize a point. Look at for example
Spenser’s description of the Red cross Knight; the last line emphasizes the knight’s valour:
But on his brest a bloudie Crosse he bore,

The deare remembrance of his dying Lord,
For whose sweete sake that glorious badge he wore,
And dead as living ever him ador’d:
Upon his shield the like was also scor’d,
For soveraine hope, which in his helpe he had:
Right faithfull true he was in deede and word,
But of his cheere did seeme too solemne sad;
Yet nothing did he dread, but ever was ydrad.
(From: Spenser, The Faerie Queene)
j) Limerick
The limerick is used mainly for nonsense verse. It consists of five lines, two longer ones
(trimetre, one trochaic foot, two anapests), two shorter ones (anapestic dimetre) and another
trimetre (one trochee, two anapests). Edward Lear, one of the most famous limerick- and
nonsense verse writers, insisted that the first and the fifth line of the limerick should end with the
same word, usually a place name.
There was an old person of Dutton

Whose head was as small as a button.
So, to make it look big,
He purchased a wig
And rapidly rushed about Dutton
(Lear, Book of Nonsense Verse)

m) Villanelle
The villanelle stanza has five tercets rhyming aba and a final quatrain rhyming abaa. The lines of
the first tercet provide a kind of refrain, a recurring repetition of one or more lines. Thus the first
line of the first tercet is repeated as the last line of the second and fourth tercet, the third line of
the first tercet is repeated as the last line of the third and the fifth tercet. Look at the example
below in which both lines (first and third line of first tercet) form the last two lines of the
concluding quatrain:
The sick and dying father
Do not go gentle into that good night, a (line 1)

Old age should burn and rave at close of day; b (line 2)
Rage, rage, against the dying of the light. a (line 3)
Though wise men at their end know dark is right, a
Because their words had forked no lightning they b
Do not go gentle into that good night. a (line 1)
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright a
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, b
Rage, rage against the dying of the light. a (line 3)
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, a
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, b
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight a
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, b
And you, my father, there on the sad height, a
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. b
(Dylan Thomas, The sick and dying father)
3.4 Verse Forms
There are various verse forms in poetry. These include:
i. Closed/fixed Verse
Generally speaking, a closed form of poetry follows a pre-existing structure that is a standard,
highly-structured poem with a certain arrangement of metre, rhyme patterns, and/or topics. A
good example of a closed form is a sonnet. This is so because a sonnet is highly structured in

terms of composition that it has fourteen lines, follows a specific pattern of rhyme and is written
in iambic pentameter. For instance, the English, Elizabethan and Shakespearian sonnets end in a
rhyming couplet.
Often a closed form is also restricted by the subject matter. Other examples of closed form types
of poems include the haiku; a three line poem with a set syllable pattern of 5-7-5 and usually
written about nature. Thus, a closed form allows the poet to establish a pattern that will help him
or her create the desired effect in terms of meaning or sound. Some closed forms are established
by individual poets.
ii. Open/free Verse
In the words of Heese and Lawton, free verse “may be defined as rhythmical lines varying in
length, adhering to no fixed metrical pattern, and usually unrhymed (48). This implies that free
or open form is a poetic form which is dynamic and not restrained by rules of composition. It has
no established pattern to it, be it in line length, meter, rhyme, imagery, syntax, stanzas or any
particular pattern of stress or number of syllables per line. These characteristics were meant to
free poetry from the restrictions of formal metrical patterns and approximate the free rhythm of
natural speech.
In this sense, free verse is written with a general rhythm rather than any pattern of metre or line
length; it has a vague rhythm based largely on repetition, balance and variation of phrases or
parallel grammatical structure. There is no doubt that the absence of regular stress pattern or
metre may lead to the misconception that this type of verse is arbitrary and lacks the discipline
imposed by conventional rhythmic pattern. To correct this misconception, TS Eliot has rightly
quipped that no verse is free for the man who wants to do a good job since the absence of metre
does not indicate absence of rhythm. You should be able to detect the rhythmic pattern achieved
in a poem written in free verse through the peculiar variations in line length, repetition, etc
adopted by the poet. The following lines excerpted from T.S Eliot’s “The Love Song of J Alfred
Prufrock” are typical of the free verse form:

Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherised upon a table;
Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,
The muttering retreats
Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels
You should take note of the varied/irregular line lengths, the absence of a consciously contrived
rhyme scheme and the vague rhythm that approximates the rhythm of natural speech
Open or free form lets poets use every device at their disposal to create specific effects.
Although without regular metre, it has a certain rhythmic effect and organisation. Free verse can
be organised around syntactic units, word or sound repetitions, or the rhythm created by a line
break.
iii. Stichic verse
Stichic verse is a continuous run of lines of the same length and the same metre. Most narrative
verse is written in such continuous lines. Lyric poetry, for example, because it is closer to song,
usually uses stichic stanzas. Look at the poem below:
As wreath of snow, on mountain-breast

Slides from the rock that gave it rest,
Poor Ellen glided from her stay,
And at the Monarch’s feet she lay:
No word her choking voice commands;
She show’d the ring, she clasp’d her hands.
O! not a moment could he brook,
The generous prince, that suppliant look!
Gently he raised her; and, the while,

Check’d with a glance the circle’s smile;
Graceful but grave, her brow he kiss’d,
And bade her terrors be dismiss’d:
‘Yes, fair, the wandering poor Fitz-James
The fealty of Scotland claims.
To him thy woes, thy wishes bring;
He will redeem his signet ring.
(From: Sir Walter Scott, The Lady of the Lake, Canto VI)

iv. Blank verse
This is a type of metrical composition which typically consists of lines of unrhymed iambic
pentameters and was the dominant verse used for English dramatic and narrative poetry since the
16th century. In England it was first adapted by Henry Howard, the Earl of Surrey in his
translation of some books of Virgil’s Aeneid. Its original sources or homes were classical Greece
and Rome from where it was adopted by the Italian Renaissance writers.
It is called blank verse because, as opposed to the conventions of metrical compositions, it was
not in stanzas, rather it was marked by verse spacings that set off each sustained unit of meaning.
In the hands of a capable poet, it is “a supple instrument uniquely capable of conveying speech
rhythm and emotional overtones” (Encarta). Poets such as William Shakespeare, Christopher
Marlowe, John Donne, John Keats employ blank verse in the poetry. Look at the excerpt below
from Marlowe’s “Dr. Faustus”:
You stars that reign’d at my nativity,

Whose influence hath allotted death and hell,
Now draw up Faustus like a foggy mist
Into entrails of yon labouring clouds,……
So that my soul may but ascend to Heaven…
(Christopher Marlowe, Dr.Faustus)
Marlowe developed the use of blank verse in the late 16th century. The pattern utilized here is
iambic pentameter.
Characteristics of Blank Verse
 Has no fixed number of lines.
 It has a conventional metre.
 It is often used in descriptive and reflective poems.
 Can be composed in any kind of metre such as iamb, trochee, spondee and dactyl.
v. Heroic Verse
This is a type of verse with iambic pentameter lines rhyming in twos, aa bb cc, etc. It is called
heroic because it was the medium or form used for heroic/epic poetry and plays in English.
However, it evolved from the 14th century when it was the medium utilised by Geoffrey Chaucer

and was usually written in the ten syllable (decasyllabic) lines. Its use became widespread and
popular in the 17th and 18th centuries at which time it became known as heroic couplet. It is the
smallest unit of verse forms and as such it is quite restrictive as can be demonstrated in the
following examples drawn from the works of two great poets of Augustan or 18th century
English poetry:
There are two distinct types of the heroic couplet namely, the closed and the open. The closed
couplet is that in which the end of the two lines of the couplet coincides with the end of a
sentence, a complete thought or a self-contained unit of syntax, with a pause at the end of the
first line and a termination of that unit of thought at the end of the second line. Consider T.S
Eliot’s “The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock” and Sir Walter Scott’s “The Lady of the Lake,
Canto VI” cited above. Thus, this type constitutes a stanza but it is not separated from the lines
that precede or follow it. On the other hand, in the open couplet, the syntax is not symmetrical,
the lines run-on, and rhyme is a mere ornament rather than marking the end of the verse as in the
vibrant and rhythmical opening lines of Chaucer’s prologue to “The Canterbury Tales”:
Whan that Aprille with his shoures sote

The drogte of Marche hath perced to the rote,
And bathed every veyne in Swich locour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heet
The tendre croppes....
Put a video simulation on verse forms in poetry
3.5 Importance of Structure in Poetry
Structure plays a pivotal role in the interpretation of poems. The question for interpretation is not
primarily pegged on the name of the stanza form but what the stanza form does and how it
contributes to the meaning of the poem. In Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”, for example,
the appropriateness of the five-line stanza is clearly underlined since the poem is about two

roads, only one of which is taken, the other one is left behind or left over as it where, like the
fifth line of the stanza:
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;
Then too the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.
(From: Frost, The Road Not Taken)
Compare this to a poem by A.E. Housman:
White in the moon the long road lies,

The moon stands blank above;
White in the moon the long road lies
That leads me from my love.
Still hangs the hedge without a gust,
Still, still the shadows stay:
My feet upon the moonlit dust
Pursue the ceaseless way.
The world is round, so travellers tell,
And straight though reach the track,
Trudge on, trudge on, ‘twill all be well,
The way will guide one back.
But ere the circle homeward hies

Far, far must it remove:
White in the moon the long road lies
That leads me from my love.
(Housman, from: The Shropshire Lad)
Like Frost’s poem, this poem is about a traveller on a road. There is only one road in this poem
and the speaker focuses on the length of this particular road and on the distance it puts between
himself and his love. But the point is also that even the longest road will one day lead back to

where it started. The quatrains which are used here present a closed system. On the one hand
they lead forward. On the other hand, there is always a link to what has come before. The
alternating rhyme picks up a previous line, the last stanza repeats the rhyme and even two entire
lines of the very first stanza of the poem, it reaches back to its beginning leaving the distance of
the poem in between.
3.6 Summary
In this lesson you have learnt about structure in poetry. In this, we focused on both the external
and internal structures of a poem. We realized that the external structure of a poem refers to the
physical or visible shape of a poem. We underline the fact that the choice of a physical pattern in
a poem depends on the individual poet and what the poet intends to communicate. We also
looked at the internal structure of a poem. Here, we examined different stanzaic realizations of
poems and verse forms. Overall, we pointed out that both external and internal structure of a
poem aid in the interpretation of meaning.
3.7 Activities
i. Using illustrations, discuss the role of structure in poetry.
ii. Choose a poem of your choice and show how structure in poetry is important
in the interpretation of meaning.
iii. Do you think most traditional African poetry would fall within the closed or
open form of poetry? Explain.
Abrams, M.H. (1971). A Glossary of Literary Terms. Third Edition. New York: Holt, Rinehart &
Winston.
Pound, Ezra (1960). The ABC of Reading. New York: New Directions.
Reeves, James (1972). The Poet’s World: An Anthology of English Poetry. London: Heinemann.
Egudu, R.N. (1979). The Study of Poetry. Ibadan: University Press
Coleridge, Samuel T. (1972). “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”. In Reeves, J., ed. The Poet’s
World, 179 – 201.
Heese & Lawton, The New Owl Critic: An Introduction to Literary Criticism. Cape Town:
Nasou.

LESSON 4
SOUND FEATURES IN POETRY: METRE
4.1 Introduction
In this lesson, we shift our focus to sound features in poetry. We shall discuss various sound
features and how important they are in the study of poetry.

1. Define sound in poetry.
2. Define metre in poetry
3. Identify and analyse types of metre in poetry
4. Describe the importance of metre in poetry
4.3 Sound features in Poetry
Sound is one of the most pleasing features in a poem. Along with rhythm, it constitutes the
foundation of the musical quality that is associated with poetry as a form of literature.
Accordingly, its functions in a poem are similar to those of rhythm which we shall discuss later
in this module. The nature or significance of sound in a poem can be better appreciated when the
poem is read aloud. This, however, does not mean that the aural qualities are not realized when a
poem is read silently: for an experienced reader, these qualities remain and are realised as
inherent parts of the total poem because instead of the vocalized realisation that marks reading
aloud, these qualities are achieved through a process of sub-vocal enunciation. When effectively
deployed in a poem, sound effects enable the reader to achieve a state of mind in which he can
more readily appreciate the emotions and meanings conveyed in the poem by the writer. In the
words of Heese and Lawton, “much of the delight to be derived from the reading of poetry stems
from the pleasure experienced in contemplating patterns which are not only decorative but
significant” (33).

Generally, sound effects in poetry not only give aural/auditory pleasure to the reader, they
equally give added significance to the words used by the poet. In other words, sound in poetry is
used to convey meaning, emotions and pleasure. For example, the poet employs such literary
devices as alliteration, assonance, consonance, rhyme, onomatopoeia, repetition, refrain, etc., to
place desired emphasis on particular words as well as achieve specific emotions or sensations in
his work. It is important that the sound be appropriate to the experience or action presented in a
line, stanza or on the poem as a whole. The effects produced by sound in a poem could be good
or bad depending on how skilful the poet is. However, in this lesson, we shall discuss metre as
one of the aspects of sound.
4.4 Metre
Metre is one of the features of sound in poetry and it refers to the measured arrangement or
patterning of accented (or stressed) and unaccented (or unstressed) syllables in a line of a poem.
A syllable, from your study of phonetics and phonology, is that minimum utterance that can be
produced with one breath or pulse. Accent is defined as that aspect of a person’s pronunciation
which excludes, on the one hand, everything he has in common with all other speakers of the
language, and on the other hand, everything that comes under the two other classes of indices.
But in poetry, accent means metrical accent, that is, the stress placed on certain syllables in a line
of poetry. You should therefore expect to find a number of accented and unaccented syllables
arranged in a certain order. This order or pattern is what is called metre. Metres range between
one and eight. The type of metre, the number of feet in each, and the number of syllables in each
foot is given in Table 2 below:
Table 2: Type of Metre by Feet and Syllables
Metre Number of feet Number of syllables

Monometer One Two
Dimetre Two Four
Trimetre Three Six
Tetrametre Four Eight
Pentametre Five Ten
Hexametre Six Twelve
Heptametre Seven Fourteen
Octometre Eight Sixteen

The visual representation of the distribution of stress and non-stress in verse is called scansion as
shown:
X / X / X / X / X /
When in disgrace with fortune and Men’s eyes
Look at the poem below and identify stressed and unstressed syllables:
It is the Negro’s tragedy I feel,

Which binds me like a heavy iron chain,
It is the Negro’s wounds I want to heal,
Because I know the keenness of his pain,
Only a thorn-crowned Negro and no white,
Can penetrate into the Negro’s ken,
Or feel the thickness of the shroud of night
Which hides and buries him from other men
So what I write is urged out of my blood.
There is no white man who could write my book
Though many think their stories can be told
Of what Negro people ought to brook
Our statesmen roam the world to set things right
This Negro laughs and pray to God for Light!
(Claude Mckay, The Negro’s Tragedy)
From your reading, you identified stressed and unstressed syllables as shown:
X / X / X / X / X /
It is the Ne gro’s tra ge dy I feel
Which binds me like A heav y i (r)on chain
It is the Ne gro’s wounds I want to heal
Be cause I know The keen ness of his pain,
On ly a thorn crowned Ne gro and no white
Can pen e trate In to the Ne gro’s ken
Or feel the thick ness of the shroud of night

Now fill in the remaining lines of the poem.
Note:
i. Each line has strong and weak syllables alternating.
ii. Every line starts with a weak syllable except for the fifth and fourth lines which start with
a strong one.
iii. When used in a poem, conjunctions, adverbs, pronouns and articles are often unstressed
save for exceptional cases.
4.4.1 Types of Metre
There are different types of metre in poetry. For you to know the types of metre used, you must
also know the number of feet in the line, and the arrangement of the accented and unaccented
syllables. A foot is a group of syllables forming a metrical unit of between two or three syllables
as shown in the table below:
Foot Description
Iambic Foot of two syllables in which the first syllable is short and
unaccented and the second syllable long and accented.
Anapestic Foot of one stressed syllable is preceded by two unstressed

syllables
trochee Foot of two syllables of which the first is strong or accented
and the second weak or unaccented.
Dactylic Foot of three syllables in which the first is strong and the
other two, short and unstressed.
a) Accentual Metre
In accentual metre each line has the same number of stresses, but varies in the total number of
syllables. This implies that accentuated metre is a metrical system in which both the number of
stresses and the number of syllables between the stresses are regular. Strictly speaking, the
number of syllables should be identical for each line, but it is very often the case that a line

leaves one metrical foot incomplete, thus varying the number of syllables as a whole. Look at the
following example of accentual verse:
Sing, sing what shall I sing?

The cat's run away with the pudding bag string.
Do, do what shall I do?
The cat has bitten it quite in two.
In this stanza the lines have a different number of syllables (6, 11, 6, and 9, respectively) and still
they sound very much alike, because there are four strong accents in each (indicated by the
italics).
Just look at the opening lines of S.T. Coleridge’s “Christabel”:
'Tis the middle / of the night / by the castle / clock,

And the owls / have awakened / the crowing / cock;
Tu/-whit!/-Tu/-whoo!
And hark, / again! / the crowing / cock,
How / drow /sily / it crew.
In this example, there are four accented syllables in each line.
b) Syllabic Metre
Syllabic metrical systems have a fixed number of syllables in each line, though there may be a
varying number of stresses. They are named, quite simply, according to the number of syllables
in each line as shown in the table:
Number of syllables Name

Seven heptasyllabic
eight octosyllabic
nine enneasyllabic
ten decasyllabic
Eleven hendecasyllabic
Twelve dodecasyllabic
Here is an example:

In Panchatantra there is
A story of a strange bird
Whose droppings turn into gold.
Listen to that tale in verse.
This bird a hunter ensnared
And put it into a cage.
"It's an ill-omen," he thought
And decided to present
The bird to the king lest he
Be condemned to die for it.
The king was happy to own
Such a peculiar bird.
He ordered his guardsmen to
Give the bird choice food and drink.
But the king's counselor said,
"Why waste food and drink on it?
How can dung turn into gold?"
The king mused awhile and then
He shouted, "Set the bird free!"
Upon a door the freed bird
Sat and let its droppings fall.
The droppings turned into gold.
And then the bird flew away.
Here we note that each line has seven syllables. This kind of verse may easily be mistaken for
free verse. Its identity, however, can be preserved by giving due weight to every syllable in the
recitation.
c) Accentual-Syllabic metre
Accentual-syllabic metre is a combination of accentual and syllabic metre. In accentual-syllabic

each line has the same number of stressed and non-stressed syllables in a fixed order. This is by
far the most common metrical system in English verse. Here is a sample of the accentual-syllabic
from William Wordsworth’s “Daffodils”:
For oft, / when on/ my couch / I lie

In va/cant or/ in pen/sive mood,
They flash / upon / that in/ward eye
Which is/ the bliss / of sol/itude;
And then / my heart / with plea/sure fills,
And dan/ces with / the daf/fodils.

This is iambic tetrameter because it is iambic throughout and each line has four feet. Also note
that each line has eight syllables.
Put a video simulation on types of metre
4.5 Importance of Metre
When used in the right manner, metre plays an important role in understanding the subject matter
of a poem while it leads to more or less ridiculous contradictions and thematic incoherence when
used inappropriately. Look at Cowper’s poem “The Poplar Field” and comment on its usage of
metre:
The poplars are fell’d, farewell to the shade

And the whispering sound of the cool colonnade,
The winds play no longer, and sing in the leaves,
Nor Ouse on his bosom their image receives.
Twelve years have elaps’d since I last took a view

Of my favourite field and the bank where they grew,
And now in the grass behold they are laid,
And the tree is my seat that once lent me a shade.
(From: Cowper, The Poplar Field)
From your reading, you noticed that the poem has unsuitable metrical choice. The melancholy
topic is directly contradicted by the tendency of the anapest to assume a playful, skipping
rhythm.
On the other hand, thematic incoherence can of course be used successfully for a specific
function. A contradiction between topic and rhythm for instance, can achieve a comic or satirical
effect as in the following excerpt:
Corinna, Pride of Drury-Lane,

For whom no Shepherd sighs in vain;
Never did Covent Garden boast
So bright a batter’d, strolling Toast;

No drunken Rake to pick her up,
No Cellar where on Tick to sup;
Returning at the Midnight Hour;
Four stories climbing to her Bow’r;
Then, seated on a three-legg’d Chair,
Takes off her artificial Hair:
Now picking out a Crystal Eye,
She wipes it clean, and lays it by.
Her Eye-Brows from a Mouse’s hyde,
Stuck on with Art on either Side,
Pulls off with Care, and first displays ’em,
Then in a Play-Book smoothly lays ’em.
Now dextrously her Plumpers draws,
That serve to fill her hollow Jaws.
Untwists a Wire; and from her Gums
A Set of Teeth completely comes. […]
(From: Swift, A Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed)
The smoothness of the metre (iambic tetrameter), rhythm and rhyme smooth over and suppress
the squalid circumstances Corinna lives in. The poem satirises the merely superficial smooth
cover over a (physically) rotten core.
Meter appeals to our very sensibility because of the rhythm it produces in a poem. A good poet
does not employ metre just to produce some music effect or as mere decoration. He uses meter
purposefully to enhance meaning. The metrical patterns of a poem ought to relate to the
semantic aspects of the poem.
4.6 Summary
In this lesson you have learnt about sound in poetry. Particularly, we focused on the role of
sound in the study of a poem and realized that sound aids in the appreciation of the musicality of
a poem. In the process, we turned our attention to metre in poetry. Here, we define what metre is
and its realizations in a poem. We also examined the types of metre available to a poet. Finally
we showed the importance of metre in poetry where we emphasized the fact that metre is not
only employed to enhance rhythm but also the meaning of a poem.

4.7 ACTIVITY
i. What is sound in poetry?
ii. Discuss the role of sound in the poetry
iii. Discuss the role of metre in poetry.

Moore, G. and U. Bier (1968). Modem Poetry from Africa. Penguin: Books.
Murphy, M. J. (1972). Understanding Unseens. London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd.
Boulton, M. (1953). The Anatomy of Poetry, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Egudu, R. N. (1979). The Study of Poetry. Ibadan: University Press Ltd.
Phythian, B.A. (1979). Considering Poetry. London: The English University Press.

LESSON 5
SOUND PATTERNS IN POETRY: RHYME
5.1 Introduction
In this lesson, we turn our attention to rhyme in poetry. We shall discuss various sound features
and how important they are in the study of poetry.

1. Define rhyme in poetry.
2. Identify and analyse rhyme patterns in poetry
3. Analyse the importance of rhyme in poetry
5.3 Rhyme in Poetry
Robins and Hargreaves define rhyme as “the matching of sounds in particular words” (23). This
implies that rhyme is the repetition of similar sounds in two or more words in a poem. Rhyme is,
therefore, the agreement in sound between words or syllables. For instance, look at the last words
of each line in the excerpts of two poems below:
A Teacher
It is strange why I had to be a teacher

Wallowing in a life that is in rupture
I should have done better as a preacher
Probably I would have been richer
See those pastors on Sundays at the market
Confidently going through their racket
And coins jingle piling up their huge sachet
While poverty busy dusts a teacher’s jacket
(Bold is mine) (Christopher Okemwa, A Teacher, 42)

And again,
Stuck in a Groove
In the love-making dark street of my mind

Lurks about their swain who is going to die
He is not aware of it as he is ignorant and blind
To so many evils the cold stars shed from the sky
He nimbly gadabouts with intent to make love
While the abyss ogles at him with red malice
Ensnaring him where he is stuck in a groove
The heavens scream and retreat from his bliss
(Italics mine) (Christopher Okemwa, Stuck in a Groove, 83)
In the first poem, you will notice that words such as teacher, preacher, rupture, richer market and
racket rhyme. While in the second poem, the words mind and blind, love and groove, rhyme.
When said carefully, they fall into pairs. In examining the rhyming patterns in the excerpts of the
two poems, we realize that the first poem has this kind of pattern: aa, aa; bb, cb while the
second poem reveals this pattern: ab, ab, cd, ce. These rhyming patterns are referred to as rhyme
scheme.
The best way to think of rhyme is not as a series of lock stepping sound effects but as a system of
echoes. Poets use rhyme to recall earlier words, to emphasize certain points, and to make their
language memorable. In fact, rhymes can be extremely effective in making language take hold in
a reader’s mind.
5.4 Rhyme Pattern Variations
There are different kinds of rhyme:
a) End Rhyme or Terminal Rhyme
End rhyme is the most common rhyme pattern used by poets and it simply refers to the end
words of lines in a stanza of a poem having matching sounds. Two consecutive lines may rhyme,

or alternate lines may rhyme, or even more distant lines. Look at the excerpt of poem titled “A
Teacher”:

(Christopher Okemwa, A Teacher, 42)
Now, look at the last words of each line. The words fall into pairs and each pair of words ends in
the same sound. The words rhyme and they form end rhymes.
c) Internal Rhyme or Middle Rhyme
When the rhyme pattern involves rhyming a word half way through a single line of poetry with
the end word of the same line, it is called internal rhyme. It is used fairly frequently in ballads
and occasionally in other kinds of poetry. For example, look at the following lines from S.T.
Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”:
The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,

The furrows followed free;
We were the first that ever burst
Into that silent sea.
(from APPRECIATING POETRY)
Internal rhyme adds particular emphasis on the subject matter and also quickens the pace of the
rhythm in a poem.
d) Full Rhyme or Ordinary Rhyme
Full rhyme consists of two words or final syllables of words that sound exactly alike except for
the initial consonant sound:

sing ring king
indestructible ineluctable
e) Imperfect Rhyme or Half Rhyme or Near Rhyme or Slant Rhyme or Off Rhyme
Half Rhyme involves the use of words that suggest rhyme but, for some reason, fail to satisfy the
criteria of true rhyme. Sometimes the final consonant varies, so that the half rhyme is really
assonance:
been and bean,

keen and kin
More commonly, the final consonant is identical, but the vowel sound varies slightly:
Hall and hell
The effect of half rhyme is to create a sense of rhyme, with a slightly discordant feel.
f) Pararhyme or Partial Rhyme
This is a kind of rhyme where the first and last consonants are the same but the intervening
vowel is different. This implies that for pararhyme to occur, the consonant sounds of the two
related words are identical but the vowel sound must differ:
Flip and flop

Leaves and lives
Grained and groined
Lap and lip
mystery and mastery
The dissonance or slightly harsh, off key effect of pararhyme seemed especially suitable for
brutal subject matter.

g) Visual Rhyme or Sight Rhyme or Eye Rhyme or Courtesy Rhyme
In visual rhyme, words look alike but do not sound the same. Words spelt alike but not actually
rhyming:
one and bone

key and prey
low and how
love and move and drove
cough and bough and rough
h) Masculine Rhyme or Strong Rhyme
Rhymes that occur on stressed syllables are masculine. All monosyllabic rhymes of course, must
be masculine. Rhyming words of two or more syllables are masculine if the final syllable is
stressed:
street and meet,
man and ban,
desire and conspire
concentrate and felicitate
When the final syllable of the rhyme is a stressed syllable such as
defeat and repeat

request and invest
Such rhyming tends to produce a pronounced or emphatic effect. Single syllable rhyming tends
to have a pointed and telling impact.
i) Feminine Rhyme or Weak Rhyme or Double Rhyme
This refers to a rhyme in which the final syllable is unstressed as in
morrow and /sorrow

finger and linger.
straining and complaining,
slowly and holy.
Because the final syllable is unstressed, such rhyming tends to produce a falling away effect.

5.5 Functions of Rhyme
Rhyme achieves several functions in poetry:
i. rhyme enhances the rhythm of a poem:
Look at this poem:
In the love-making dark street of my mind

Lurks about their swain who is going to die
He is not aware of it as he is ignorant and blind
To so many evils the cold stars shed from the sky
He nimbly gadabouts with intent to make love
While the abyss ogles at him with red malice
Ensnaring him where he is stuck in a groove
The heavens scream and retreat from his bliss
(Christopher Okemwa, Stuck in a Groove, 83)
As you read through the poem, you realize that the sharp, light, one syllable rhyme accelerates
the movement of the poem quite dramatically. Thus, when used, rhyme tends to regulate the
rhythm in a steady, assured manner, or to convey a sense of finality, with its rounded neatness.
As we read a poem, rhyme may act upon us almost subconsciously, providing a flow and
satisfying unity that relates poetry to music. It also has the effect of linking together the words
being rhymed – words that one may not usually associate together. This can create an
unexpected, or surprise element that forces us to think sharply about what the poet is saying.
Look at the stanza below from Blake’s “The Garden of Love”:
Love seeketh only self to please,

To bind another to its delight,
Joys in another’s loss of ease,
And builds a Hell in Heaven’s despite.
A final general consideration concerning rhyme relates to its purely aural quality; that is, the
actual effect of the sound that is being rhymed. Much of the ‘music’ of the verse will lie in the
type of sounds that are repeated by the rhyme. However, it is clearly not good enough to point
out that various lines in a poem rhyme but what is achieved through the rhyme. To help you

think about what is achieved through rhyme, we focus on following as guidance: the harmony
rhyme creates, its role in giving emphasis to the words of a poet, its ability to focus the meaning
of a poem.
ii. Harmony
When we hear one word rhyme with another, we usually experience pleasure in finding harmony
between the two. Harmony creates a feeling of completeness, the sense that something has been
resolved or finished. Look at the following stanza from Eliot’s “Burbank”:
Burbank crossed a little bridge

Descending at a small hotel;
Princess Volupine arrived,
They were together and he fell.
The stanza is a little story in itself: Burbank, who is associated with a small hotel, meets Princess
Volupine and falls for her. The rhymes hotel and fell enact the sense of finality: Burbank, we
feel, has fallen hopelessly in love, and nothing can be done about it.
iii. Emphasis on Words and Meaning
When two words rhyme, you notice them. Poets exploit this by using rhyme to emphasize
important words. This in turn plays a pivotal role in understanding the use of diction in a poem.
Look at the excerpt of Okemwa’s “A Teacher”:

(Christopher Okemwa, A Teacher, 42)
Rhyme brings together teacher, preacher, richer and market, racket, sachet, jacket; polished,
visual, end rhymes. These prominent words are important to the poem’s meaning.

The visual end rhyme emphasizes that the preacher is richer but his richness is like a racket in
the market and increases the pace of the lines showing the fact that the preacher’s ability to
amass wealth seems unstoppable. By linking a teacher, preacher, richness with racket and
market, the end rhyme enacts the conflict in the poem: the illegal acquisition of wealth by
preachers. In this way, poets use rhyme to focus the reader’s attention upon words that are
central to the poem’s meaning. Therefore, rhyme’s ability to focus on the meaning of a poem is
an extension of the way it emphasizes certain words.
In terms of meaning, in the poem “A Teacher” above, the persona compares/contrasts his life as
a teacher and that of a preacher. The persona wonders why he wallows in poverty while the
preacher, who by not working hard actually working only on Sundays is pretty rich as compared
to the teacher. In fact the persona argues that while the preacher is busy counting his money,
“poverty dusts his jacket.” This way, the poet foregrounds the irony of life. The preachers who
are supposed to be giving spiritual guidance to the people, only rob them of the little they have
and hence enrich themselves. Therefore, rhyme has been used to show the contrast that exists
between the teacher and the preacher in order to bring out the harsh realities of life.
Put a video simulation on the functions of rhyme.
5.6 Summary
In this lesson, our key focus has been on rhyme. As one of the aspects of sounds in poetry, we
defined rhyme as the repetition of similar sounds and/or syllables, typically at the end of a verse
line. Rhymed words conventionally share all sounds following the word’s last stressed syllable.
We also pointed out that a rhyme scheme is usually the pattern of end rhymes in a stanza, with
each rhyme encoded by a letter of the alphabet, from a onward (ABBA BCCB, for example).
Rhymes are classified by the degree of similarity between sounds within words, and by their
placement within the lines or stanzas.

5.7 ACTIVITIES
i. Explain how you will engage the use of rhyme in the interpretation of a
poem
ii. Discuss why rhyme patterns are important to a poet.

Moore, G. and U. Bier (1968). Modem Poetry from Africa. London: Penguin Books.
Murphy, M. J. (1972). Understanding Unseens. London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd.
Gitumbi, N and Njuguna, N (2008) Appreciating Poetry. Nairobi: EAEP
Robins, P and Hargreaves, R.A (1981) A Poetry Course for KCSE. Nairobi: EAEP

LESSON 6
WORD SOUNDS IN POETRY
6.1 Introduction
In our previous two lessons, we have looked at metre and rhyme, key aspects of sound in poetry.
In this lesson, we turn our attention to word sounds in poetry such as consonance, assonance and
alliteration. Our key emphasis shall be the various ways in which word sounds are realized and
how important they are in the study of poetry.
6.2 Lesson objectives

1. Define repetition in poetry.
2. Identify and analyse repetition patterns in poetry
3. Analyse the importance of the forms of repetition.
6.3 Repetition
Repetition refers to the regular recurrence of certain sounds, words, phrases or entire lines to
emphasize key thematic ideas. Look at the excerpt from the poem below by T.S Eliot “Murder in
the Cathedral”
Yes! men must manoeuvre. Monarchs also,

Waging war abroad, need fast friends at home
Private policy is a public profit
Dignity still shall be dressed with decorum.
While reading, you may have noticed the repetition of the initial sound:
i. /m/ in the first line

ii. /w/ and /f/ in the second line
iii. /p/ in the third line
iv. /d/ in the fourth line

This kind of repetition, that is, the repetition of sounds, is the most common in poetry. Look at
the example by Richard Ntiru and identify the forms of repetition:
Listen – listen –
listen to the palpable rhythm
of the periodic pestle
into the cardinal cavity
of maternal mortar
…….
From your reading, you may have noticed the repetition of:
i. Sounds i.e /p/, /k/ and /m/

ii. Word i.e listen
Look at the poem excerpt below:
I beg You
I beg you,
If you feel something like love for me
Not to let me know it now
When I feel nothing so certain for you –
Wait until you’ve conquered my pride
By pretending not to care for me.
I beg you,
If you think your eyes will give you away
Not to give me that longing look
When you know it will force the moment –
Wait until our hearts have settled
Then put your head on my shoulder.
I beg you
Not to let us surrender to passion,
Until our liking has grown to love
Let’s stop and look back
Let’s draw apart and sigh
(Laban Erapu, I beg you)

In this example, there is a deliberate repetition of the line “I beg you” at the beginning of every
stanza. This form of line repetition is rare and often e n h a n c e s the mood of the poem. In the
poem above, the persona, a patient young man, is begging for restraint. The repetition
underscores the need for the two friends to understand each other, strengthen their love
before allowing passion to come in.
6.4 Forms of Repetition
It has been said above that much of the effects of literary texts depend on various patterns of
repetition. These include:
i. Alliteration
Alliteration refers to the repetition of same consonantal sounds at the initial position or beginning
of words or stressed syllables in a line of a poem. It is considered as a patterned repetition of
identical consonantal sounds at the beginning of words. Look at the examples below:
a. Kelly cooked curry kales for King Kong.

b. Peter Piper picked a piece of pickled pepper
c. Big bad Bob bounced bravely.
From your reading, you may have noticed the alliteration of sounds /k/, /p/ and /b/ respectively.
Let us now consider the use of alliteration in the following poem:
He sleeps soundly, breathing silently

Blaring music, banging doors, breaking glasses
Will not wake Waki up
He sleeps soundly on the streets
As if on a kingly cushioned bed
(Nyambura Njuguna, Street’s Child)
In your reading of the poem, you may have noted that the following sounds alliterate: /s/, /b/, /w/
and /k/. Again, read the poem below:
Along the miles of steel

that span my land
threadbare children stand

knees ostrich-bulbous on their reedy legs
their empty hungry hands
lifted as if in prayer.
(Dennis Brutus, Train Journey)
Task: a. Identify examples of alliteration in the poem.

b. How do the examples of alliteration that you have identified enhance the meaning of the
poem?
ii. Consonance
Consonance refers to the repetition of consonantal sounds in the medial or final position of
words or stressed syllables in a line of a poem. Look at the example below:
Huffer, a giant ungainly and gruff

Encountered a giant called Cuffer
Said Cuffer to Hugger, I’m Rough and I’m Tough
Said Hugger to Cuffer, I’m Tough
……………
They pinched and they punched and they smacked

And they whacked
And they rocked and they socked and they smacked
And they rapped and they slapped and they throttled and
Thwacked
And they thumped and they bumped and they bashed.
(Jack Prelutsky, Huffer and Cuffer)
From your reading, you may have noticed that ‘rough’ and ‘tough’ end in a similar consonantal
sound /f/ and ‘chooped’ and ‘booped’ end in a similar consonantal sound /d/. Identify other
consonantal sounds in the other stanza.
iii. Assonance
Assonance is another way a poet realizes sound effect in his poem and it refers to the repetition
of the same vowel sound in stressed syllables of words in line. The difference between assonance
and alliteration is that in assonance, unlike alliteration, the repetition of sounds involves vowels

and not consonants. The other difference is the lack of rigidity in the rule regarding the position
in which the identical vowel sounds should occur in words.
Read the two examples below:
i. With Gun, Drum, Trumpet, Blunderbuss & Thunder

ii. Take the fake paint away
From your reading, you will notice that sound /u/ is repeated in the first example while in line
two, the sound /ei/ is repeated. Read the poem below loudly:
He took a good look

At the nuisance tooth
And in awe exclaimed
’Tis the food and the mood
To blame for maim!
Large loomed his tools on the mouth

And off came the tooth with its roots!
(Njoki Gitumbi, The Verdict)
From you reading, you noticed that the following sounds show assonance:
a. /u/ is repeated in words ‘took’, ‘good’ and ‘look’ in line 1

b. /u:/ is repeated in words ‘food’ and ‘mood’ in line 3
Now, what examples of assonance can you identify in the poem below?
Crows on the wing!

What grace as they swing,
Rising and diving
Like fish in the billows
In the willowry air
Or softly as feathers
From broken pillows

Crows on the wing;
What a symphony sings
The wind in their wings
As they swoop and they rise
To the sea: to the skies
As they float in the light
Air, like fragments of night.
(Barnabas J. Ramon-Fortune, The Crow)
iv. Onomatopoeia
Onomatopoeia is a technical term that is associated with assonance and is used to refer to sound
symbolism which may not approximate a definite echo but which is powerfully suggestive of the
meaning. In other words, this is a device which is used in poetry to describe words that sound
like that which they describe such as Boom! Crash! Pow! Quack! to name but a few.
Read the poem below loudly:
The wind howls, the trees sway,

The loose house-top sheets clatter and clang
The open window shuts with a bang
And the sky makes night of day
Helter-skelter the parents run,

Pressed with a thousand minor cares
“hey, you there! Pack the house-wares!”
And “where on earth’s my son?”
Home skip the little children

“where have you been you naughty boy?”-
The child can feel nothing but joy
For he loves the approach of rain.
The streets clear, the houses fill,

The noise gathers as children shout
And nought that can move is still-
A bright flash! – a lighted plain;
Then, from the once-blue heavens,
Accompanied by the noise that deafens,
Steadily pours the rain.
(Pius Oleghe, A Sudden Storm)

From your reading, you may have noticed that words such as howls, sway, clatter, clang and
bang, all in stanza one, are onomatopoeic since they imitate sounds made by different objects in
the advent of the storm.
Task: a. Identify any other onomatopoeic words in the poem

b. Comment on the effectiveness of the use of Onomatopoeia in enhancing the meaning.
It is worth noting that onomatopoeic words are real words that are found in the dictionary and
communicate a meaning. They suggest the sound in question but do not imitate the actual sound
in question. Therefore the words describe the sound made during an action e.g crash, bang, or
roar.
v. Ideophones
This refers to the actual sounds produced during an action. Unlike Onomatopoeic words,
ideophones give the actual sound in an attempt to create a better impression in the reader’s mind.
Look at the examples below:
1. The vehicles rummed into each other buum!

2. He knocked on the door Kong! Kong!
3. Breaking stones kwa kwa kwa!
In the above examples, the heighted words attempt to imitate the actual sounds produced; they
are thus refered to as ideophones. Now look at the stanza below and identify ideophones used:
Bum! Bum! Bum!

The music booms to attract,
The young one- the louder the better
Pi…pii! pi…pii! pi…pii!
The matatu hoots
As it beckons passengers
I don’t like the loud music
But I am late I get in.
The matatu is full
The makanga bangs the door shut
(Nyambura Njuguna, For lack of Choice)

From you reading, you realized that both onomatopoeia and ideophones are used as:
i. Onomatopoeic words: booms, bang
ii. Ideophones: Bum, Pi…pii!
Put a video simulation on word sounds in poetry.
6.5 Importance of Word Sounds in poetry
Word sounds create or emphasize links between words which would otherwise be less
noticeable. Apart from enhancing the rhyme of a poem, word sounds enhance the meaning of a
poem. The sound patterns enhance both the pleasure in reading the poem and heightened
emotional response to the poem from the readers. However, each of the sound patterns, such as
alliteration, assonance and onomatopoeia, have a specific function to perform in a poem. It is the
task of an analyst to explicate such functions, because they, too, are part of what the poem
means, its overall and specific effects. For instance, look at the repetition of the phrase “By this
well” and how it impacts on the meaning in this poem:
By this well,
Where fresh waters still quietly whisper
As when I
First accompanied mother and filled my baby gourd,
By this well,
Where many an evening it’s clean water cleaned me;
This silent well

Dreaded haunt of the long haired Musambwa,
Who basked
In the mid-day sun reclining on the rock
Where I now sit
Welling up with many poignant memories;
This spot,
Which has rung with the purity of child laughter;
This spot,
Where eye spoke secretly to responding eye;
This spot,

Where hearts pounded madly in many a breast;
By this well,
Overhung by leafy branches of sheltering trees
I first noticed her.
I saw her in the cool of a red, red evening.
I saw her
As if I had not seen her a thousand times before.
By this well
My eyes asked for love, and my heart went mad.
I stuttered
And murmured my first words of love
And cupped,
With my hands, the intoxication that were her breasts.
In this well,
In the clear waters of this whispering well,
The silent moon
Witnessed with a smile our inviolate vows,
The kisses
That left us weak and breathless.
It is dark.
It is dark by the well that still whispers.
It is darker,
It is utter darkness in the heart that bleeds
By this well,
Where magic has evaporated but memories
linger.
Of damp death
The rotting foliage reeks,
And the branches
Are grotesque talons of hungry vultures,
For she is dead
The one I first loved by this well
(Henry Barlow, The Village Well)
As you read through the poem, the repletion of the phrase “By this well” heightens the emotion
of the reader as (s)he approaches the climax and as the poem comes to an end when we are told
what exactly happened by the well. Through the effective use of repetition, we get to learn of the
death of the woman the persona loved and we are able to sympathize with the persona’s

predicament, hence the ambivalent importance of the well to him.
6. 6 Summary
In this lesson, our key focus has been on word sounds. We defined word sounds as words that
appropriate to or describe particular sounds. We pointed out that repetition is the most dominant
form of word play in poetry and defined it as a regular recurrence of sounds, words, phrase or an
entire line a poem in order to emphasize key ideas in a poem. We also pointed out the forms of
repetition as being alliteration, consonance, and assonance among others. Finally, we pointed out
the role of word sounds in poetry as to enhance rhythm and meaning of a poem.
6.7 ACTIVITIES
i. Why will a poet engage word sounds in his/her poetry?
ii. Explain the effectiveness of Onomatopoeia
iii. If you were writing a poem, which word sounds would you
prefer and why?

Moore, G. and U. Bier (1968). Modem Poetry from Africa. London: Penguin Books.
Gitumbi, N and Njuguna, N (2008) Appreciating Poetry. Nairobi: EAEP.
Robins, P and Hargreaves, R.A (1981) A Poetry Course for KCSE. Nairobi: EAEP.

LESSON 7
LANGUAGE IN POETRY: IMAGERY
7.1 Introduction
In our three previous lessons, we discussed sound patterns in poetry. However, sound elements
cannot make much meaning on their own. Rather they make meaning when combined with
elements of language. In this lesson, we turn our attention into elements of language and their
significance in poetry.

1. Discuss the importance of language in poetry.

2. Identify and analyze forms of language use in poetry.
3. Describe the use of imagery in poetry.
7.3 Language in poetry
Language constitutes the bulk of tools by which poets convey their thoughts and experience.
Techniques of language manipulation in poetry make it appeal to our emotions through the
careful creation of certain mental pictures and images. Our minds and feelings are also
stimulated when concrete particulars rather than abstract pictures are used. It is in this way that
language plays a pivotal role in poetry. It forms the very essence of poetic study or criticism and
a full comprehension of its meaning and functions in the realisation of the total experience of any
poem is of paramount importance. In this lesson therefore we shall focus on language use in
poetry starting with imagery.
7.4 Imagery
In simple terms, imagery is a collective term used to denote the images in a poem or all the
objects and qualities of sense perception in a poem. In other words, it is a language that
represents sense experience as graphically as possible. Thus it is the sensory content of a poem

or a literary work in general that is meant to evoke a picture or an idea in the mind of a reader or
the audience, in the case of poetry. You must have had this experience on occasions when you
read a poem and images or pictures of the ideas and objects described or mentioned in the lines
appeared in your mind’s eye or are flashed on the mirror of your mind; you seemed to have seen
these pictures right before you on the page or in the spaces in front of you.
7.5 Types of Images
The following are the main types of images that you would find used either individually or in
combination by poets in their works:
a) Auditory
In this type of imagery, words or cluster of words evoke a sense of hearing of a specific sound.
Quite often, the auditory image manifests through the figure of sound known as onomatopoeia,
that is a combination of words whose sound seems to resemble or echo the sound it denotes:
“hum”, “murmur”, “bang”, “crack”, “hiss”, “screech” “hoot”. Examples of the use of auditory
imagery are the following excerpts from JP Clark’s “Night Rain” and Niyi Osundare’s
“Raindrum”:
It is drumming hard here

And I suppose everywhere
Droning with insistent ardour upon
Our roof thatch and shed
(JP Clark, Night Rain)
And:
The roof sizzle at the waking touch,

Talkative like kettledrums
Tightened by the iron fingers of drought
(Osundare, “Raindrum”)
And again:
Then the priest commanding
Intones the charge, and the latest
Instruments of slaughter stutter out
A message mortal...
(J.P Clark, “Benin Sacrifice”)

If you read carefully the first two excerpts above, you would definitely ‘hear’ the drumming,
droning, sizzling and talkative drops of the rain that sound like kettledrums on the thatched roof
of the persona’s abode as well as on the earth “licked clean by the fiery tongue of drought”. The
sound of the drum beat is common to both poets’ realisation of the experience conveyed in their
poems.
In the third excerpt, the sound of machine guns (‘instruments of slaughter’) is mimicked or
conveyed through the onomatopoeic word “stutter”. You will all agree that the sense of hearing
expressed in the three excerpts is what you are conversant with and would easily appreciate.
b) Olfactory
Images of this type evoke our sense of smell whether sweet, pungent, fragrant, etc. An example
of this is:
The air was heavy with odours

Of diarrhoea of unwashed children
Of rancid breath of public hide-and-speak.
The lines “odours of diarrhoea of unwashed children” and “stench of rancid breath” virtually
transport the reader, through his or her imagination, to the setting of the poem and make one a
co-perceiver of the odours described by the poet.
c) Tactile
This refers to the images that appeal to one’s sense of touch. A good example of this is the
memorable line from James Shirley’s poem “The Glories of our Blood and State”:
Death lays his icy hand on kings (Reeves 104).
This line makes someone feel by imagination the cold hand of death as it seizes its victim. You
must have often read in obituary announcements the mention or reference to the “cold hands of
death” that have snatched away a loved one; this expression accentuates the sense of touch by the
use of “icy” to underscore the coldness of death.

A similar poetic process takes place in these lines from Okinba Launko’s poem titled
“Separation”, where the coldness and aloneness of separation of people, probably former lovers,
are given a concrete approximation in the comparison/simile in the two last lines of the following
quotation:
So welcome again,
The old loneliness. I hear you spring awake and hiss,
Cold as the touch of steel
In a harmattan night;
The combination of “cold” and “harmattan nights” in the above lines, no doubt, sends a familiar
feeling through your mind and body; the harmattan season is associated with the cold draught of
the wind that blows from the Sahara Desert and most of us have felt it.
d) Gustatory
Images that evoke our sense of taste go by this name. Look at the two excerpts below:
I like to see it lap the miles

And lick the valleys up,
And stop to feed itself at tanks
And then prodigious step
(Emily Dickinson)
And:
My husband’s tongue
is bitter like the roots of the
Lyono lily
........ ........ .........
It is ferocious
like the poison of a barren
Woman
And corrosive like the juice of
the gourd
( Okot P’Bitek, Song of Lawino )

e) Visual
Quite often our sense of sight or vision is evoked by merely reading lines of poetry where a poet
has effectively utilised words or language that effectively create appropriate pictures in the
reader’s mind. Such resultant images are referred to as visual images or imagery; for example:
.... .... children

With washed-out ribs and dried-up
Bottoms struggling in laboured
Steps behind blown empty bellies
(Achebe Beware Soul Brother )
On reading these lines, one cannot help but visualise in his mind a picture of emaciated children
– the sad relics of the Nigeria-Biafra civil war of the nineteen sixties; the children are mere
ghosts of their former selves: their erstwhile robust bodies have now turned skeletal and their
bottoms are shrivelled and all these physical changes accentuate the “blown empty bellies”,
symptomatic of kwashiorkor.
f) Kinaesthetic
Kinaesthetic imagery refers to those images that call forth in the mind of the reader the
perception of movement. In other words, these are images that appeal to the reader’s sense of
movement or motion. Examples of this type of imagery are:
And ‘mid these dancing rocks at once and ever

It flung up momently the sacred river.
Five miles meandering with a mazy motion
Through wood and dale the sacred river ran.
Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean:
(T.S Coleridge “Kubla Khan” Reeves 177)
And:
From the west
Clouds come hurrying with the wind
Turning
Sharply
Here and there
Like a plague of locust
Whirling

Tossing up things on its tail
Like a madman chasing nothing
(David Rubadiri, “An African Thunderstorm”)
The lines, phrases and words I have highlighted above convey the impression of movement,
which a reader of the poems from which they have been excerpted cannot fail to realise in their
minds’ eyes.
A very useful approach to understanding of imagery is by seeing it as “a description of

something concrete whereby the writer conveys an impression of something else” (Heese and
Lawton 82). While this definition introduces a new set of words/terms/register that would further
aid our understanding of how an image works in a poem or in the realisation of the meaning of a
poem, it also focuses our attention on the necessary association of similar and dissimilar objects
or ideas in imagery as well as the expansion by accretion of the scope of words made possible by
its usage.
In this regard, we should note that ‘concrete’ means something that is perceivable or palpable to
some of the senses we have discussed above while ‘abstract’ means the opposite; that is, an idea
that could neither be seen, felt nor touched, etc. The use of imagery makes it possible for the poet
to bridge the gap between the abstract and the concrete in his perennial effort, in the words of
Shakespeare, to give “to airy nothing a local habitation and a name” (A Midsummer Night’s
Dream, V. i). A good example of this description of something abstract through concrete objects
or entities could be seen in the closing stanza of George Herbert’s poem “Virtue” as follows:
Only a sweet and virtuous soul,

Like seasoned timber, never gives;
But though the whole world turn to coal,
Then chiefly lives
In these lines, the abstract and reified ‘virtue’, which gropes towards concretion in the equally
impalpable ‘virtuous soul’, achieves a fully perceivable state in the comparison “like seasoned
timber” that does not break even when the hardest of pressures is exerted on it. In all the
examples we have used in the above section on the well-known types of imagery, we have to
realise by now that the ability of the reader to perceive and share fully in the pictures and

sensations the poet has captured in his verse comes or is achieved through the apt use of
language to impress his ideas in the minds of the readers. Take a look at the poem below:
Nightfall comes like

A dreaded disease
Seeping through the pores
Of a healthy body
And ravaging beyond repair
A murderer's hand
Lurking in the shadows;
Clasping the dagger,
Strikes down the helpless victim
I am the victim
I am slaughtered
Every night in the streets
I am cornered by the fear
Gnawing at me
In my helplessness I languish.
Man has ceased to be man

Man has become beast
Man has become prey
I am the prey
I am the quarry to be run down
By the marauding beast
Let loose by cruel nightfall
From its cage of death.
Where is my refuge?
Where am I safe?
Not in my matchbox house
Where I barricade myself against nightfall.
I tremble at his crunching footsteps,

I quake at his deafening knock on the door.
"Open up" he barks like a rabid dog
thirsty for my blood.
Nightfall! Nightfall!
You are my mortal enemy.
But why were you created?
Why can't it be daytime?
Daytime forever more?
(Oswald M. Mtshali, Nightfall in Soweto)

If you have read the poem very well, you will have come across the following images:
a) Images of Comparison
In this category of images, an item is compared with another using “like” and “as”. For instance,
this can be noticed in stanza one which has the following images:
Disease Night
pores
healthy body
In this stanza, the word “like’’ is used to liken or link the image of the nightfall to that of dreaded
disease:
Nightfall comes like

A dreaded disease
b) Images of destruction
In this category, the images are directly stated to show the destructive nature implied. For
example, in stanza 2, the words “pores” and “healthy body” are images used directly to illustrate
the destructive nature of the night. Again, the words “dagger”, “helpless victim”, “shadows and
Murderer’s hand” are all used to show destruction.
c) Metaphoric Images
This category of images refers to images created by comparing two things together without using
words such as like or as...as. Metaphoric images are evident in stanza 4:
Man has become beast

Man has become prey
I am the prey
I am the quarry to be run down
By the marauding beast

In this, man is likened to beast, prey and quarry. Other images in verse 4 stated directly are:
marauding beast, cage of death. By the use of metaphors, poems are compacted and
economically presented without much waste of words.
Put a video simulation on types of images in poetry.
7.7 Forms of Imagery
The following are the various forms of imagery:
i. Comparison
In this category of imagery, an item is either directly or indirectly compared to or contrasted with
another. There are two forms of comparative imagery:
(a) Metaphor
Metaphor refers to covert or indirect comparison. It is a kind of comparison which creatively

assigns the quality or attribute of one thing to another without verbalizing the grounds for
comparing of the two things. This is an implicit form of comparison which is based on particular
transferable qualities. Thus, while remaining distinct, the compared elements draw out and
emphasize certain attributes of each other while ignoring or suppressing the irrelevant attributes.
Look at the examples below:

i. Caleb is a green snake in the grass
ii. This task is a real mountain
In example (i) above, the attribute that is transferable between Caleb and that of the green snake
is that of danger. This implies that Caleb is a dangerous person who disguises himself just like
the green snake hides in the green grass so that it is not easily seen. I.A. Richards in Principles of
Literary Criticism points out that a metaphor is made up of two important aspects:
(a) tenor
(b) vehicle

In a metaphor, the term tenor is seen as the principal idea or subject of comparison while the
vehicle is the figure or image employed to convey the subject communicated. Look at the poem
below:
A leopard lives in a Muu tree

Watching my home
My lambs are born speckled
My wives tie their skirts tight
And turn away -
Fearing the mottled offspring.
They bathe when the moon is high
Soft and fecund
Splash cold mountain stream water on their nipples
Drop their skin skirts and call obscenities.
I'm besieged
I shall have to cut down the Muu tree
I'm besieged
I walk about stiff
Stroking my loins.
A leopard lives outside my homestead
Watching my women
I have called him elder, the one-from-the-same-womb
He peers at me with slit eyes
His head held high
My sword has rusted in the scabbard.
My wives purse their lips
When owls call for mating
I'm besieged
They fetch cold mountain water
They crush the sugar cane
But refuse to touch my beer horn.
My fences are broken
My medicine bags torn
The hair on my loins is singed
The upright post at the gate has fallen
My women are frisky
The leopard arches over my homestead
Eats my lambs
Resuscitating himself.
(Jonathan Kariara, A Leopard Lives in a Muu Tree)
In this poem, the subject matter is infidelity. Thus, infidelity becomes the tenor. The means
used to show this is through the use of animal imagery, through the use of the leopard. Hence,
the leopard becomes the vehicle through which the infidelity is told. Just like a leopard survives
by preying on other animals, the promiscuous man preys on the persona’s wives and in the

process producing “speckled lambs and mottled offspring”. Hence, the persona decries this
deceitfulness given that the adulterous man has sired children with his wives and that his wives
disrespect him.
It is worth noting that the use of metaphor of the leopard in the above poem serves to make the
meaning more forceful. Thus, the persona deploys metaphors meaningfully to clearly bring out
the idea of a kin betraying him by taking advantage of his impotence to prey on his wives.
Phrases such as “my sword has rusted in the scabbard” and “the upright post at the gate has
fallen” effectively draw our attention to the fact that the persona is sexually dysfunctional and
therefore very frustrated by the fact that he cannot satisfy his wives.
In making the meaning come out strongly, metaphors elicit all shades of emotions for us readers.
In “A Leopard Lives in a Muu Tree”, we sympathize with the persona’s predicament. We all pity
him because he has more than one wife yet he cannot satisfy them sexually hence they “turn
away” from him as they “tie their skirts tight”. We all feel the persona’s pain; he has to undergo
humiliation not only from his wives but also from the man who looks at the person with “with
slit eyes”. The fact that the promiscuous man is the persona’s kin, “the one-from-the-same-
womb”, adds to his humiliation and pain which we as readers all feel.
(b) Simile
A simile is a kind of comparison in which something is said to resemble another with regard to
certain specific attributes. Thus, this is a form of overt or direct comparison using the words
“like” and “as” given that the basis for comparison is explicit rather than implicit. This means
that the ground for analogy is clearly verbalized. Look at the example below:
An African thunderstorm
From the west

Clouds come hurrying with wind
Turning
Sharply
Here and there
Like a plague of locusts
Whirling

Tossing up things on its tail
Like a madman chasing nothing
Pregnant clouds
Ride stately on its back
Gathering to perch on hills
Like dark sinister wings;
The wind whistles by
And trees bend to let it pass.
In the village
Screams of the 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 us pass.
Clothes were like tattered flags

Flying off
To expose dangling breast
As jagged blinding flashes
Rumble, tremble, and crack
Amidst the smell of fired smoke
And the pelting march of the storm.
The havoc and destruction caused by an African thunderstorm is vividly captured in the above
poem through a number of similes. The sound and fury of the thunderstorm is portrayed through
apt images and onomatopoeic sounds. There is a strong local flavour both in theme and style of
the poem. The poet also uses various images and rhythmic patterns like alliteration and
onomatopoeia to convey a picturesque movement of the thunderstorm from when it sets in until
it bursts into a heavy down pour. Though the poem seems to be a straight forward description of
a natural phenomenon, there is an underlying meaning. The poet, it seems, wishes to remind his
readers that nature can be both benevolent and benign and is in complete control of man. One
cannot go against nature.

(ii) Symbolism
Symbolism is another figure of speech where writers create imagery through comparison. This is
a poetic art of representing persons, objectives or ideas with another. Chadwick defines
symbolism as “ the art of expressing ideas and emotions not by describing them directly, nor by
defining them through overt comparisons with concrete images, but by suggesting what these
ideas and emotions are, by recreating them in the mind of the reader through the use of
unexplainable symbols”(2-3). This implies that symbols signify reality that transcends the
referent.
Symbolism in poetry is an indirect expression of comparison which has a deeper meaning not
immediately apparent until you have brought together the various images used by the poet. The
coming together of all the images gives an overall impression of the symbol being used by the
poet. Take a look at the following poem:
Well, son I’ll tell you;

Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair
It’s hard tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor-
Bare.
But all the time,
I’s been a climbin’on,
And reachin’ landin’s
And turnin’ corners,
And sometimes goin’ in the dark
Where there ain’t been no light.
So, boy, don’t you turn back.
Don’t you sit down on the steps
‘cause you find it kinder hard
Don’t you fall now-
For I’se still goin’,honey,
I’s still climbin’
And life for me aint been no crystal stair.
(Langston Hughes, “Mother to Son”)

In this poem, the reference to life as not being “crystal clear” is symbolic. Crystal is a kind of
mineral that is used to make high quality glass used for ornamentation. It thus represents luxuries
and comforts in life. However, in this poem, when the persona says that life “ain’t been no
crystal stair” it symbolizes that life has not been an easy ride on the part of the persona. It has not
afforded her comfort but hardships. This is evident when she says “hard tacks”, “splinters” and
“boards torn up” all symbolizing the hardships, obstacles and hazards that she had to endure in
her life. The lack of comfort in life is further symbolized by the persona’s description of where
she live as “places with no carpet on the floor” and that she could sometimes go “in the dark”
because “there ain’t been no light” an indication of the tribulations that she has undergone in life.
However, regardless of all these difficulties, she talks of “I’s been a climbin’on” and “reachin’
landin’s” which symbolize her desire and resolve to forge ahead with life in order to reach her
destination.
Objects, ideas or actions can be used as symbols. For instance, a handshake is a symbol of
welcome or agreement. Peacock may symbolize pride. Thus, the way in which one or something
behaves may help one come up with an idea of symbolism. This normally depends on the choice
of words used by the poet. If the poem is about a bird which can sing, how convincing is the poet
in his choice of words? It could be a bird different from the one known to the audience and this is
where symbolism comes in.
Characters are also used as symbols in a poem. A character in a poem may symbolize oppression
depending on bow the character is developed by the poet. For instance, Atieno Oyoo in the poem
“Atieno Oyoo” has been used symbolically. She is a symbol of oppression for the less privileged
in the society. In this way, symbolism serves to:
a. Enhance the meaning in a poem by associating idea(s) in a poem with objects and
persons outside the poem.
b. Reinforce the meaning brought out by the reoccurrence of metaphors or images many
times in a poem.
c. Convey the deeper meaning of a poem through important objects that are used as
symbols.

(iii) Personification
Personification is a figure of speech in which inanimate objects, animals or abstract ideas are
endowed with human form, character, or sensibilities. Thus to personify an object or thing is to
attribute to it human life or feelings. Heese and Lawton described it as “another kind of image
where the ‘something concrete’ relates to human beings, while the ‘something else’ is not
human” (83). Animals, inanimate objects, even abstract ideas are made to behave like a person:
they can laugh, talk, sing, think, walk, feel or do many other things that a human being can do:
The rays of the new-born sun

search under the branches
The breast of the ripe pomegranate
and bite it till it bleeds.
Discreet and shuddering kiss

hard and scalding embrace
Soon the pure thrust
will draw purple blood.
Its taste will be sweeter,

because it was pregnant with desire
And with fearful love
and scented blossoms-
Pregnant by the lover sun.
(Rabiarivelo, “Pomegranate”)
In this poem, both the sun and the fruit are personified. The sun is said to search for the breast of
the pomegranate and to “bite it till it bleeds”. Yet a pomegranate, a fruit, has no breast! These are
human qualities that are attributed to the sun and pomegranate. Further, the sun and the
pomegranate are said to have a “discreet and shuddering kiss” and “hard and scalding embrace”,
activities that human beings are able to do. The sun in this case is described as a lover whose
warmth the pomegranate basks in. Therefore, the use of personification helps to bring the
message of the poem more clearly: the role of the sun in the fruit ripening process.
The discussion above reveals that poets do not use imagery -- that is, images in general -- as a
mere decoration in their poetry. Rather, they deploy imagery to help the reader see the subject
matter exactly as it appears to them. Imagery helps solve their problem, for it enables them to

present the subject as it is: as it looks, smells, tastes, feels and sounds. To the reader imagery is
equally important: it provides his imagination with something palpable to seize upon.
7.8 Importance of Imagery
Due to this power of imagery in poetry, poets utilise it to achieve the following important effects
in their works:
a. Arouse specific emotions in the reader or audience of their poems

b. Create beauty which is an important quality of poetry
c. Communicate thoughts
d. Achieve concretion of life experiences and ideas that are otherwise abstract
Accordingly, it is through imagery that the sense impressions and experiences evoked in a poem
acquire necessary vividness and clarity.
7.9 Summary
In this lesson, our focus has been on language use in poetry, with a particular focus on imagery.
In our analysis we showed that images in poetry are realized and perceived based our senses.
Accordingly we looked at how tactile, gustatory, visual, kinaesthetic, auditory and olfactory
images are realized in poetry. We also pointed out that imagery takes different forms such as
comparison, symbolism, and personification. Finally, we have shown that imagery plays a
pivotal role in arousing certain emotions and creating vividness and clarity of certain ideas in a
poem.
7.10 Activities
i. Of what value will it be for the reader to understand various forms of

images in poetry
ii. With examples from poems of your own, identify the poets use
imagery.

Moody, H. L. B (1968). Literary Appreciation. London: Longman.

Murphy, M. J. (1972). Understanding Unseens. London: George Allien and Unwin, Ltd.

LESSON 8
FIGURES OF SPEECH IN POETRY
8.1 Introduction
In our last lesson, we pointed out that language constitutes the tools by which poets convey their
thoughts and experiences in poetry. While looking at imagery, we noted that techniques of
language manipulation in poetry make it appeal to our emotions through the careful creation of
certain mental pictures and images. In this lesson, we shift focus to the use of figures of speech
in poetry.
At the end of this unit, you should be able to:

1. Identify the figures of speech used to communicate experiences or ideas in a poem.
2. Explain the point of comparison in the figurative expression
3. Discuss the aptness/effectiveness or otherwise of the figurative usage
8.3 Use of Figures of Speech in Poetry
In our definition of the term poetry, you recall the emphasis we placed on the figurative or
connotative nature of the language of poetry in our consideration of several definitions of the
genre. Among other points, we stressed that poetry communicates experiences in language
deliberately selected and arranged by the poet to create specific emotional as well as intellectual
responses through meaning, sound and rhythm. Another related point we made was that poetry,
in line with the general nature of literature, communicates experiences through indirection. This
deliberately contrived and indirect/suggestive language of poetry is achieved, mainly, through
some figurative usages among which are irony, contrast, allusion, metonymy, synecdoche, etc,
which we shall discuss in this lesson:

a) Contrast
Contrast as a figure of speech has been defined by R.N. Egudu as “the technique of juxtaposing
‘unlike characters, ideas, or images for the purpose of furthering or heightening an effect’”. He
continues, “like irony, or paradox, contrast is a device of finding direction by indirection which
... is part of what poetry is” (77). On the other hand, Hugh Holman refers contrast to as a
rhetorical device and goes on to stress its function of emphasis and clarity whenever it is
deployed in a poem or any other form of writing. In simple terms, contrast comes into play and
its effect is directly felt when ideas, objects, persons, situations are placed side by side in a
context in which their opposite qualities are made clear and striking. It is important to note that if
these ideas, persons, objects, etc are made to stand alone, the clarity engendered by this device of
contrast would be lacking. It is in this sense that Egudu has seen the device as a veritable means
of “finding direction by indirection;” it serves to throw into sharp relief the differences between
the ideas, objects, situations or characters contrasted/juxtaposed. Look at the poem “Loser of
Everything” by David Diop:
The sun used to laugh in my hut

And my women were lovely and lissom
Like palms in the evening breeze.
My children would glide over the mighty river
Of deadly depths
And my canoes would battle with crocodiles.
The motherly moon accompanied our dances
The heavy frantic rhythm of the tom-tom,
Tom-tom of joy, tom-tom of carefree life.
Amid the fires of liberty.
Then one day, Silence...
It seemed the rays of the sun went out
In my hut empty of meaning.
My women crushed their painted mouths
On the thin hard lips of steel-eyed conquerors
And my children left their peaceful nakedness
For the uniform of iron and blood.
Your voice went out too
The irons of slavery tore my heart to pieces
Tom-tom of my nights, tom-toms of my fathers.

In the poem above, contrast is used by the poet in highlighting stark realities of two different
historical periods in the national life of postcolonial society: a natural and peaceful order
depicted in nature imagery (in the first ten lines) and a ravished and militarised order represented
in images of machines and corruption (in the last ten lines). By juxtaposing these two contrasting
orders, the socio-political existence in a typical pre-colonial African setting and that in a colonial
regime become very clear and heightened in the poem.
b) Allusion
Allusion refers to reference to familiar objects or persons known to the audience as well as
readers. It also implies an indirect reference to a presumably familiar person, place, event, thing
or quoting from known authorities, journals or books. It is a literary device by which
implications are made to ridicule, euphemise and so on. The most common form of allusion is
biblical allusion where writers quote or make reference to the bible in their works of art. Look at
the example below:
If you hunger for a home,

That lies way beyond the blue,
Follow the slim path, its twists and turns
Keep on, though drudgery and irksome
But remember temptation looms here

A fidget will call for a fiasco
Like Lot’s wife be a mound of salt
And loose a healing from that intangible largesse
hand
(Christopher Okemwa, “Lift your eyes to Golgotha”)
The two stanzas above depict the poet’s reliance on Biblical teachings regarding salvation. One
could think that the poet has turned preacher. In the first stanza, the poet is talking about Heaven:
the home where Jesus went to prepare for mankind and where the faithful will ascend to in His
second coming. Christians believe that for one to be able to go to heaven, you need to follow ‘the
narrow path’. They argue that the narrow path is not any easy option since it is full of potholes
and thorns. Okemwa depicts these same characteristics in his version of the narrow path which

he calls “the slim path.” He also shows that his slim path not only has “twists and turns” but also
is tedious and requires one to work hard: all these being the characteristics of the narrow path.
Therefore, the poet shows that one ought to be extra careful in following the slim path, the
narrow path.
In the second stanza, he draws the analogy of Lot’s wife to depict the consequences of not
abiding by the requirements of the slim path. For instance, he artistically alludes to the case of
Lot’s wife in the Bible in concretizing the consequences that shall befall anyone who fails to
abide by the requirements of the slim path. In this way, he urges the readers to beware of what
will happen to them in case they transgress.
c) Irony
Irony is one of the most typical figures of speech in poetry. Hugh Holman has defined it as “a
broad term referring to the recognition of a reality different from the masking reality”. Put more
simply, it is a figure of speech in which the denotative, literal or ordinary meaning of a word or
expression is more or less the direct opposite of the sense intended by the speaker or, in this case,
the poet.
As a figure of speech, irony refers to a difference between the way something appears and what
is actually true. Irony, therefore, illustrates a situation, or a use of language, involving some kind
of discrepancy. The result of an action or situation is the reverse of what is expected. Part of
what makes poetry interesting is its indirectness, its refusal to state something simply as "the way
it is." Irony allows us to say something but to mean something else, whether we are being
sarcastic, exaggerating, or understating. Look at the stanza below:
Water, water, everywhere,

And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink.
(S.T. Coleridge, “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”)
It is ironical that there is “Water, water, everywhere” but there is no any drop to drink in “The
Ancient Mariner”. Look at the poem below:

Jolly Good Boss
He is a jolly good boss,

Sits behind a shiny mahogany desk,
Dreamy and contented like an over-fed python
That has just swallowed a bearded goat.
He is a good natural fellow,

Always patting the rumps of secretaries in tight skirts,
Which say: marry me if you dare
Laughs absent-mindedly and sinks back into dear oblivion
He is an industrious head
Get’s dog tired early in the morning from signing a few papers
Whose content he is mildly aware of
And leaves for lunch and for the day at 11.30
He is a humorous chap,
Jokes about how he is underpaid and overworked to his
Juniors
Who laugh subserviently to conceal their indignation
And grudging envy
He is a mighty generous comrade

Brags about his Christ-heart
Being a proud donor of a few bastards
To guileless girls under him
And believes he is in a God sanctioned mission
That dates back to Abraham
He is a jolly good boss

A perfect paragon of leadership.
(Kitche O. Magak, “Jolly Good Boss”)
From your reading of the poem, you may have noticed that both the title of the poem and the first
line of stanza one are ironic. The title misleads readers to believing that the boss that the persona
is talking is a wonderful man. Ironically, as we read through the poem, we realize that he is
inefficient, insensitive and promiscuous.
Let us also examine the opening lines of JP Clark’s short poem titled “The Cleaners” to illustrate
how this type of irony works as follows:

Look at the crew
Who after each disastrous race
Take over a public place
To wash it new.
They are themselves so full
Of muck ... ...
To begin with, the title of the poem is ironic because it runs contrary to the moral quality
expected of whoever would lay claim to being a cleaner. The irony is further strengthened by the
fact that “the crew” referred to is depicted as a group of persons who pretend to be morally above
board as opposed to the those who were responsible for the disastrous race that instigates their
reaction; and their professed intention is to wash clean the proverbial political “Augean stable”
when they themselves are not better than those they have ousted.
d) Hyperbole
Hyperbole refers to the use of deliberate exaggeration or overstatement for emphasis or to

achieve a humorous effect, without any intention to deceive the reader or audience. It is the
opposite of litotes. Take, for example, when you walk into your friend’s room after a long day of
back-to-back lectures and say: “I want to eat a basin of ugali”. Certainly, you know that you are
not capable of eating that quantity of food; but you have made the statement to emphasize how
hungry you are as well as to achieve humour. Robert Burn’s poem, “A Red, Red Rose”,
illustrates the nature and effect of hyperbole:
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.
As fair thou art, my bonnie lass,

So deep in love am I;
Till a’ the seas gang dry.
Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,

And the rocks melt wi’ the sun;
While the sands o’ life shall run.

And fare thee weel, my only love!
And fare thee weel awhile!
And I will come again, my love,
Tho’ it were ten thousand mile.
You should take note of the words and lines highlighted in the stanzas and attempt to appreciate,
enjoy and be able to discuss their effectiveness as hyperbole.
e) Metonymy
This involves the use of an object or idea to stand for or signify some other thing with which it is
closely associated, but which is not necessarily an integral part of it. In this type of figure/trope,
we commonly speak of “the king” as “the crown”, an object closely associated with kingship but
not an organic part of the person of the king or royalty. Similarly, the “scythe” and the “spade”
are made to stand for the peasantry that is closely associated with two objects as in the following
examples:
The glories of our blood and state
Are shadows, not substantial things,
There is no armour against fate,
Death lays his icy hand on kings;
Sceptre and crown
Must tumble down,
And in the dust be equal made
With the poor crooked scythe and spade.
(James Shirley “The Glories of Our Blood and State”)
Other examples are:
1. After much strife on the streets, the green berets were called in handle the situation (i.e. the
soldiers).
2. The man who lives across the street goes after any skirt in the neighbourhood (any female).
f) Synecdoche
Closely related to metonymy is synecdoche. Synecdoche as a device refers to when a portion or

part of a thing, animal or person is named with the intention of designating the whole. This is a

figure of speech in which a person, place or thing/object is made to stand for the whole or
conversely the whole is made to stand for a part. You should note that, as in the metonymy, this
figure works on the basis of association or relationship; but unlike the metonymy, however, the
part is an integral part of the whole as the whole is often a whole because it subsumes the part. In
addition, for the synecdoche to be effective and clear, it must be based on an important or a main
part of the whole and should be manifestly associated with the topic being discussed or in focus
as in these examples:
(i) This house was built by forty hands
(ii) Kenya has some of the best brains in the continent.
(iii) She died beneath the wave.
(iv) Brazil beat Germany in the 2002 world cup.
In the first example, the synecdoche of hands stands for people. In the second example again the
brains are not solitary brains but intelligent people. The wave in the third example is a
synecdoche for the sea. The last one is an example of a synecdoche where the whole (Brazil and
Germany) represent part (teams) and not the millions of Brazilians or Germans.
g) Oxymoron
In oxymoron, two words or phrases of opposite or contrary/contrasting meanings are placed side
by side to achieve a rhetorical effect. While such a juxtaposition may seem to be “pointedly
foolish”, it achieves sharp emphasis in the context in which it is used. Examples are the
following phrases and expressions:
Bitter sweet;
loving hate;
pleasing pain;
kindly unkind;
resounding silence;
conspicuous absence;
a dearness that lacerates;
h) Paradox
Paradox is a statement or expression which at first seems to be contradictory or senseless but

which on further or closer examination contains much truth. As a poetic device, it usually

contains an element of surprise or shock that is revealing of the potentials of words in poetry and
literature in general. The truth that is contained in paradox is often realised against a religious or
philosophical background. For example, the concept of the Fortunate Fall, as expressed by a
medieval lyricist, when taken literally does not make an apparent sense, but when read against
the Biblical/religious background of Man’s fall from divine favour in the Garden of Eden, it
conveys the truth of the interplay of the Fall and the advent and mission of Christ on earth. The
truth that transforms an apparently ‘unfortunate fall’ or disfavour into a fortunate ascendancy is
that it provides the necessity for the redemptive career of Christ.
Similarly, the paradox that runs through John Donne’s sonnet titled “Death Be not Proud” can
only be fully appreciated against an understanding and acceptance of the religious concept that
death is not a terrible end-all of man’s ontology; that death is a needful interlude between man’s
existence in this world and his transition to the next world:
Death be not proud, though some have called thee

Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not soe
..... ..... ..... ..... ..... why swell’st thou then?
..... ..... ...... .....
One short sleepe past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.
(John Donne, Death Be not Proud)
The elements of contradiction and shock combine here to give us a classic example of the
workings of a paradox; initially the idea that death is not mighty and dreadful does not sound
rational until the poet provides convincing reasons to back up his statement and concludes by
proving it so by showing that it is a mere necessary prelude to man’s resurrection that would
signal the end/demise of death! This typical shock resulting from a new awareness of an inherent
truth in an apparently absurd statement is also couched in a philosophical garb in the following
poem by William Wordsworth titled “My Heart Leaps Up”:

My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky;
So it was when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!
The Child is father of Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.
In this essentially Romantic poem, the poet gives lasting expression to the philosophy that a
child’s potentials are a presage of what he would become at maturity. But by the way it is
expressed, it conveys, on the surface, the ridiculous and contradictory impression that the child is
actually the father of man. It is only on close scrutiny against the Romantic philosophy of the
evolution of the child with all its positive and negative implications that its embedded truth is
realised.
JP Clark also offers us a fitting example of the use of paradox to reinforce poetic meaning in
“Letter from Kampala”, a piece that conveys the familial sentiments of the persona who is
engaged on a journey away from home as follows:
At this other end of Africa

It is of you alone
I think at home,
And the children:
I go further in order
To get home to you.
(JP Clark, Letter from Kampala, A Decade of Tongues, 95)
Taken literally, the two last lines would contradict the home sickness of a person who is actually
missing his wife and children, because he deliberately goes farther away from them/home instead
of moving in a reversed direction towards home. However, the truth in this seemingly absurd
progression is that, in order to complete his journey and return to his family, the traveller has to
reach the farthest limit of his journey. He will not achieve this if he stays at the beginning of the
journey.

8.5 Summary
In this lesson, our focus has been on the use of figures of speech in poetry. Though not
exhaustive, there are key figures of speech such as irony, contrast, hyperbole among others and
how they are used in poetry. It is now your turn to practise analyzing them in various poems.
Put a video simulation on figures of speech in poetry.
8.6 Activities
i. Using poems of your choice, explain how various figures of speech
are realized.
ii. Discuss how synecdoche can be realized in poetry.

Abrams, M.H. (1971). A Glossary of Literary Terms. New York: Holt, Rinehart, Winston.
Diop, David. (1973). Hammer Blows, Poems. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Egudu, R.N. (1977). The Study of Poetry. Ibadan: University Press.
Gardner, Helen. Ed. (1972). The Metaphysical Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Holman, Hugh (1972). A Handbook to Literature. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill.
Reeves, James. ed. (1972). The Poet’s World: An Anthology of English Poetry. London:
Heinemann.

LESSON 9
INTERPRETATION OF MOOD, ATTITUDE AND TONE
9.1 Introduction
In this lesson, we now turn our attention to the interpretation of mood, attitude and tone in
poetry. The three terms deal with feelings and/or emotions centered on a poem either by the
readers and/or the poet. It is therefore important for us to make clear distinctions and how each
of the terms is realized in a poem.
At the end of this unit, you should be able to:

1. Distinguish mood, tone and attitude in poetry.
2. Discuss how mood, tone and attitude are realized in poetry.
9.3 Mood
Generally speaking, mood refers to one’s state of mind or feeling at a particular time. In normal
everyday life, people talk of bad or good mood for negative or positive feeling respectively. In
poetry, mood refers to the atmosphere created or the state mind that one gets in reading a poem.
Mood also refers to the emotions aroused in the readers while reading a poem. The reader or
audience develops particular feelings in reading a poem or shares the feeling of the persona in
the poem. Take a look at the poem below:
Grass will grow
If you should take my child,

Give my hands strength to dig his grave
Cover him with earth
Lord send a little rain
For grass will grow
If my house should burn down

So that the ashes sting the nostrils

Making the eyes weep
Then Lord send a little rain
For grass will grow
But Lord do not send me

Madness
I ask for tears
Do not send me moon-hard madness
To lodge snug in my skull
I would you send me hordes of horses
Galloping
Crushing
But do not break
The yolk of the moon on me
(Jonathan Kariara, Grass will Grow)
In reading through the poem, you noticed that the persona is saddened by the subject matter.
Therefore the mood of the poem is sad, pitiful and even desperate.
It is important to note that a poet can write about a sad subject in a humorous way. This implies
that the mood of a poem is created as a result of the emotions we get from reading the poem. It is
also imperative to note that a poem may have more than one mood. There may be mood of a
stanza, line, etc.
In order to arrive at the mood of a poem, one must focus on the stanzas in a poem as well as
analyze the language used. What language has the poet used to pass the message across? Does
the language portray sadness, anger, nostalgia.?
The following are some of the words used to describe mood in poetry: happy, nostalgic,
humorous, angry, melancholic, bitter, quiet, violent, resigned, desperate, lighthearted, wistful,
desperate, relaxed, sad, fictional, imaginary, fanciful, idealistic, romantic, realistic, optimistic,
pessimistic, gloomy, mournful, sorrowful…
9.4 Attitude
Attitude refers to the persona’s and/or poet’s feelings towards the subject matter of the poem, i.e
how (s)he regards the subject matter. A person’s attitude is usually revealed through language,

stylistic devices and the tone of the poem. For instance, if the persona compares somebody to a
pig or a hyena, the image would show the persona’s contempt towards that person. Thus, his
attitude is contemptuous. Look at the poem below:
Western Civilization
Sheets of tin nailed to posts

driven in the ground
make up the house
Some rags complete

the intimate landscape
The sun slanting through cracks

welcomes the owner
After twelve hours of slave

labour
breaking rock
shifting rock
breaking rock
shifting rock
fair weather
wet weather
breaking rock
shifting rock
Old age comes early
a mat on dark nights

is enough when he dies
gratefully
of hunger
(Agostinho Neto, Western Civilization)
In this poem, the persona sympathizes with the workers because of their living conditions. He
pities the workers because of their working conditions. The poet uses ironic language to depict
his attitude when he says “dies gratefully of hunger”. The attitude of the persona towards the
workers is therefore sympathetic and piteous.

In poetry, we use adjective words such as indifferent, hateful, contemptuous, pitiful, disgusting,
resigned, and exciting among others to describe the attitude of a poem.
9.5 Tone
When a person talks about a particular subject, he does so in a particular manner. For example,
when a mother talks about her child, she may do so in a loving manner. Similarly, tone refers to
the manner in which a persona talks about the subject of the poem. Tone is a critical concept in
poetry and is often associated with the attitude adopted by the speaker regarding a particular
subject. This is usually gathered and understood from the kind of syntax and vocabulary used in
the poem. Take a look at the poem below:
Cow for Breakfast
Six o’clock
And you insist
I must kill a cow
For your breakfast
Here with me.
What size of breakfast

Will you require
For your lunch at
Twelve o’clock?
(A.W. Kayper-Mensah, Cow for Breakfast)
From your reading of the poem, you may have noticed that the tone is of disgust and/or anger.
The persona is disgusted with the demands for a cow of breakfast and feels that this is too much.
In order to bring out the persona’s revulsion of the subject, the poet uses exaggeration – a person
may not possibly ask for a whole cow for breakfast, but rather the image of the cow helps to
show the extent of the guest’s greed.
Some of the adjectives used to describe tone include formal, informal, serious, humorous,
amused, angry, playful, neutral, satirical, gloomy, conciliatory, sad, resigned, cheerful, ironic,
clear, detailed, imploring, suspicious, witty.

Put a video simulation on tone, mood and attitude.
9. 6 Summary
In this lesson, we have defined mood, tone and attitude in poetry. We defined mood as the
general atmosphere surrounding the reading of a poem, tone as the speaker’s attitude towards the
subject matter while attitude was defined as the persona’s and/or poet’s feelings towards the
subject. We also noted that these terminologies are realized through the poet’s use of language,
diction and stylistic devices in a poem.
9. 7 Activity
Using examples from poems of your choice, differentiate between the

following terms:
a. Tone
b. Attitude
c. Mood

Sehanu, K. E. and T. Vincent ed (1976). A Selection of African Poetry. London: Longman.
Murphy, M. J. (1972). Understanding Unseens London: Allen and Unwin Ltd.

LESSON 10
A SURVEY OF MODERN AFRICAN POETRY
10.1 Introduction
Modern African poetry is a term used to refer to the poetry written by educated Africans, often in
European languages, as opposed to African oral poetry which is expressed in the indigenous
languages. This lecture will consider the growth and development of modern African poetry.
10.2 Objectives
By the end of the lesson you should be able to:
i. Trace briefly the development of modern African poetry.

ii. Enumerate some salient features of modern African poetry.
iii. Elucidate the techniques deployed by modern African poets.
10. 3 An Introduction to Modern African Poetry
Modern African poetry is very different from most forms of poetry which focus on the
individual. It expresses African predicaments and world view within the context of the evolution
of African societies. It also addresses the problems of human existence which the Africans share
with the rest of humanity. It stems from communal culture and it is this communal spirit which
informs most of the poets in their creative works. The focus on society with its attendant social
criticisms is anchored in the African tradition. African writers in affirming their faith in their
native culture defend it against alien encroachments and prejudices. The Negritude writers, for
example, asserted their ‘Africanity’ to fight against colonial prejudices. Although they tended to
romanticize the past, their exaggerated portrayal functioned against cultural annihilation. A
number of modern poets express their defiance of their indigenous culture against the invading
Western one in many of their poems.

African poetry has grown. In the first generation of modern African poetry, there was an
incarnation of a dominant tendency of reaction against colonialism. Therefore, the thematic
concern in the main was to refute in a postcolonial fashion all forms of colonial insinuations
which had hitherto placed Africa in poor relation to the West. It was indeed an attempt to “write
back” in the same manner of textual articulation with which the West had depicted Africa; after
all, colonialism was executed, employing all forms of textual strategies (Elleke Boehmer
1995:13-15).
It thus becomes understandable why most of these early writers, from Sedar Senghor to
Christopher Okigbo to Agostinho Neto, to mention an arbitrarily representative few, joined in the
nationalist awareness which had commenced much earlier with African independence struggles
to highlight the impact of this colonial incursion and the need to revive the African heritage
hitherto condemned to oblivion by the colonial dispensation. This essentially was a
preoccupation of poets of the first generation in the period shortly before and after the wave of
independence in most African countries in the 1960s (Tanure Ojaide 1996: 75-76).
One poem which typifies this tendency is Kofi Awoonor’s “The Cathedral”. It is a lamentation of
the desecration and destruction of an otherwise authentic African milieu as represented by a tree
whose “boughs stretched, across a heaven/ [and] brightened by the last fires of a tribe”.
However, with the advent of colonialism, “surveyors and builders” are sent to cut it down and in
its place “A huge senseless cathedral of doom is built” (Kojo Senanu and Theo Vincent
2003:209). Other poets take other various approaches in the exercise of asserting and affirming
the African personality in their reaction to colonial views, while at the same time pointing out
ways to cultural reclamation. For instance, Okigbo’s “Heavensgate”, Okot p’Bitek’s Song of
Lawino and Song of Ocol, Senghor’s negritude poetry, Neto’s poetry, among others, are works of
this generation projected in this direction.
Perhaps one other tendency of this generation was the privileging of private or personal thoughts
in their works. Soyinka’s “To my First White Hairs” falls into this category. It is a creative
devotion to the surprise and excitement that accompany the sudden realization of the passage of
time as often signalled by the transformation of dark hair to grey. It also calls to mind Dennis
Brutus’ “The Sibyl” in which one encounters the externalization of some amatory infatuation

with a young lady. The attitude of these poets, it has to be explained, was actuated mainly by the
prevailing socio-political ambience of the time. Things were still relatively in order and all that
was needed was to celebrate Africanity and indulge in other forms of gratification.
African poets that gained prominence from the late 1950s can be said to be the second generation
poets and can be considered as Modern African poets. These poets started to write just before
and after independence in their respective nations. Modern Anglophone poets include Gabriel
Okara, Dennis Brutus, Kwesi Ekwesi, David Rubadiri, Wole Soyinka, J.P. Clark, Lenrie Peters,
Okot P’Bitek, Kofi Awoonor and Oswald Mtshali. From Francophone Africa, we have Leopold
Senghor, Birago Diop and Bernard Dadie. And from Lusophone region we have Agostinho Neto
and Noemia de Sousa to name but a few.
The second generation or Modern African poets can be differentiated from earlier poets both in
form and content. While the pioneer poets were preoccupied with freedom movements, restoring
human dignity and trying to abolish racism, the modern / second generation poets had set
themselves a different agenda. The second generation poets had an opportunity to receive higher
degrees both at home and abroad.
The term “neo- colonialism” gained currency in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The second
generation African poets were still concerned with the social ills of their societies especially
corruption and nepotism. They used their poems to express their disappointment over the new set
of leaders. They addressed the excessive use of power and the get rich quick syndrome which
became a pandemic scourge which the modern African poets wished to express through their
poems. Culture conflict also took the epicenter of many of their poems. This generation can be
said to have established the canon or what can be considered as parameters in which subsequent
poems or poets could be judged.
Thematically this generation of African poets took it upon themselves to challenge the deliberate
misconceptions of Africans by Europeans. They deliberately took the opposite stance in their
poetry and this manifested in poems such as Gabriel Okara’s “Piano and Drums” and Wole

Soyinka’s “Telephone Conversation”. The contrast between African and Western cultures is also
expressed in Okigbo’s “Heavensgate”, wherein all negative images are used to describe alien
culture and positive ones to describe the African way of life. In a similar manner Okot p’Bitek of
Uganda in his Song of Lawino portrays Lawino as a symbol of African culture, with dignity,
humility, respect and authenticity. She is painted as a contrast to Clementine and Ocol who
indiscriminately copy alien Western ways of life and so look absurd. Lawino assumes the royalty
and courage of a lioness and the beauty and gracefulness of a giraffe. Repulsive creatures such as
the hyena, monkey, ostrich and the python represent the copied alien ways. Soyinka too exploits
to a great extent the Yoruba pantheon in his plays, novels and poems. “Idanre,” the title poem
from his collection of poems titled Idanre and Other Poems, is centered on Ogun the God of
iron, war and hunting. In the same poem there are references to Sango, God of Thunder and
Lightning and Esu, the God of Chance.
J. P. Clark and Soyinka treat the theme of re-incarnation of the wanderer child in their poem with
a similar title “Abiku”. In his poem Soyinka treats the theme according to the Yoruba tradition,
while Clark treats it as Ogbanje according to the Igbo belief. But both poets express the
traditional African belief in the cyclic nature of life and the things that affect the space and time
of African tradition.
Modern African poets placed greater emphasis on form than content and most of the techniques
they used were Western. Such techniques included alliteration, assonance, rhyme, rhythm, and
also paradoxes and ironies. The language was rather cumbersome in terms of diction, vocabulary
and idioms. The use of symbolism was dense and clustered, which often resulted in
misunderstanding than understanding the poetry. Most words were used to render associated
meanings or ideas rather than the dictionary meaning. These poets were greatly influenced by
European writers such as William Shakespeare, T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Gerald Manley Hopkins,
W.B Yeats and the French Symbolists. What was ironical was that these poets while focusing on
African themes and preoccupations were using Western poetic techniques to express them. This
often times rendered their poetry obscure and difficult to understand. Poets like Okigbo, Soyinka
and Clark were musical in their poetry. Repetition was used to enhance musicality. While Clark
attempted to create ‘sprung rhythm’ with his repetitions, Soyinka’s expressive use of alliterations
often caused great impediments to comprehension. The poetry of this generation was very

academic in nature. In consequence the language of these poets becomes more recondite and
sometimes difficult to decode.
In the Portuguese speaking parts of Africa, especially in Southern Africa, the struggle for
emancipation from colonial rule had the most direct impact on the literature and poetry in
particular. The majority of writers had a profound commitment to the social and political
changes that were taking place in their region. Writers in Angola and Mozambique have
concentrated greatly on writing of verse; but very little is known of their work for reasons of
language. But critics of African writing acknowledge the high standards achieved by poets like
Agostinho Neto, Noemia de Sousa, Jose Craveirirho and others. While remaining firmly
committed to the struggle against Portuguese colonialism, the best of these poets kept close to
those emotions that could open up the warmest affections of lyricism in the portuguese language.
African poets of Portuguese expression like their French counterparts inherited the whole poetic
tradition and used verse to express public themes. Such a tradition combined indigenous African
traditions with Latin forms to create a powerful form of poetry that did not flinch from its public
function. Thus politics and the passionate desire for change became the dominant theme of this
poetry. Marcelino dos Santos, Jorge Rebalo, Costa Andrado and others like them gave to
Lusophone poetry verse its political character. Agustinho Neto’s poetry is a good example of this
kind of poetry.
The above brief explication of the content and form of Modern African poetry is indicative of the
social, political and cultural forces that were and are still at work on African poetry as a whole. It
also gives us a glimpse into the vast panorama of themes and styles of the significant body of
work in its long years of literary effort. It is also indicative that in Africa as is elsewhere the
development of poetry is closely knit with the social, political and economic development of
society. An in depth analysis of selected poems will reveal, what lies behind the tortured
obscurities of style and the recurrence of themes are as a result of the social, economic and
political forces often thought to be non-literary.
Modern African poetry thus seems to have risen from the aptness of poetry as a succinct verbal
art form in expressing feelings and attitudes in economically desperate times as Africans have
been going through. Commitment in African writing has always been present in one way or the

other. This seems to have been out by the thematic and technical preoccupations in much recent
African poetry. Modern African poetry expresses a strong and steadfast commitment towards
socio – economic change for the benefit of the people. It was only by the second half of the
1960s that most modern African poets matured and established themselves as power voices
across the African continent and beyond.
Thematically this generation of African poets took it upon themselves to challenge the deliberate
misconceptions of Africans by Europeans. The Negritude writers asserted their ‘Africanity’ to
fight against colonial prejudices. Modern African poets placed great emphasis on form than on
content. The second generation African poets were still concerned with the social ills of their
societies especially corruption and nepotism. They used their poems to express their
disappointment over the new set of leaders. Culture conflict also took the epicenter of many of
their poems. This generation can be said to have established the canon or what can be considered
as parameters in which subsequent poems or poets could be judged.
10.5 Content of Modern African Poetry
Modern African literature as a whole and modern African poetry in particular is informed by the
utilitarian nature of African culture. It is community oriented rather than based on individual
psychology, and is didactic for ethical and moral instruction. African poetry draws on beliefs,
world- view and folkloric heritage of the African people.
Viewed from the critical perspective of the content, African poetry deals primarily with
collective destinies of the African within his own human and physical environment. Although a
particular human living condition which the poet expresses is inserted in a time and space frame
work, his creative imagination has a temporal and spatial forward and backward movement,
which unfolds the evolution of the society and the life ways lived in it.
Modern African poets are greatly influenced by their rich oral literature which is essentially
didactic. Most poets make use of the functional didacticism of oral literature, to reflect the
culture, history, politics and society as a whole in their writings.

Put a video simulation on the content of Modern African Poetry.
Modern African poetry has not only deep and solid roots but also has a concrete and relevant
background and setting. The culture provides the poetry with allusions, images, symbols, and a
moral ethical imperative. The ethically rich culture has enhanced the works of the creative
writers who see themselves as having the social role of cleansing the society. New novels, plays,
and poems are modeled on folklore forms and techniques. Almost all African writings in general
and African poetry in particular display the combination of African oral techniques along with
certain artistic procedures common to both African and Western literatures. Therefore, African
poetry absorbs qualities of traditional, oratory, ritual, incantory rhythms and symbolic plant and
animal imagery originating from folklore.
10. 6 Summary
Modern African poetry has deep and solid roots in culture and tradition of the African people.
The culture provides the poetry with allusions, images, symbols, and a moral ethical imperative.
The ethically rich culture has enhanced the works of the creative writers who see themselves as
having the social role of cleansing the society. New poems are modeled on folklore forms and
techniques. Most poets make use of the functional didacticism of oral literature, to reflect the
culture, history, politics and society as a whole in their writings. These works demonstrate the
affirmation of faith by different generations of African writers in their cultural heritage.
10.7 Activities
i. Explain the development of Modern Africa poetry

ii. Discuss the major themes in Modern Africa poetry
iii. Explain any two styles used in Modern Africa poetry

10.8 References/ Further Reading
Nwoga, I. Donatus (1979) Modern African Poetry: The Domestication of a Tradition. African
Literature Today, Retrospect and Prospect, No.10, New York: Africana Publishing
Company. pp.32-56.
______ (1986) West-African Verse: An Anthology. Lagos Academy Press Ltd.
Adeko, Adeleke (1999) “Theory and Practice of African Orature.” Research in African
Literature, Vol.30, No.2, pp. 222-227.
Ajayi Ademola, S. (2005) African Culture & Civilization. Ibadan; Atlantic Books.
Aiyejina Funso (1988) “Recent Nigerian Poetry in English: An Alter-Native Tradition” in
Perspectives on Nigerian Literature 1700 to the Present. Vol. One Lagos: Guardian Books
Nigeria (Ltd).
Amuta, C. (1989) The Theory of African Literature: Implications for practical Criticism.
London: Zed Books.
Jones, O. Eldred & Narjorie Jones (ed) (1996) New Trends and Generations in African
Literature , No. 20, London: James Curry Ltd. pp. 1-8.
Ogede, S. Ode (1996) “New Trends and Generations.” African Literature Today, No.20,
London: James Currey Ltd. pp.62-72.

LESSON 11
NEGRITUDE POETRY
11.1 Introduction
In our previous lesson, we focused on modern African poetry where we pointed out that modern
African poetry draws heavily from the culture and traditions of the African people. In this lesson,
we turn our focus to Negritude poetry. Here, we shall briefly look at the rise of the Negritude
movement and its influence on poetry.
By the end of the lesson, you should be able to:
i. Briefly describe the Negritude movement

ii. Enumerate salient features of Negritude poetry
iii. Elucidate the techniques deployed by Negritude poets
11.3 Negritude Movement
The Negritude Movement was a movement developed by French-speaking black intellectuals in

the 1930s and was devoted to the investigation of the African heritage, culture, and identity. The
Negritude movement sought to embrace a common African heritage, to promote African cultures
and values in literature and art, and to assert the dignity and freedom of all people of African
descent. Negritude writers, including Léopold Senghor, were influenced by such Harlem
Renaissance writers as Langston Hughes and Claude McKay. The movement’s main concern
was the validation and valorization of a wide-ranging black aesthetic. It centred on the creative
and expressive potential of black consciousness, and through its transnational scope became one
of the pre-emptive cultural phenomena of the twentieth century.
Put a video simulation on the origin and development of Negritude Movement.

11.3.1 Negritude Poetry
Negritude poetry refers to the poetry that was written during the Negritude movement. Negritude
poetry has been viewed as poetry of protest written by African poets against exploitation and
racial discrimination, of agitation for political independence, of nostalgic evocation of Africa’s
past and visions of her future. Like other poetic conventions such as those of the sonnet, epic and
ballad which conform to a specific form, negritude poetry is classified based on the sentiments it
expresses.
Negritude poets claimed to re-write the Black history falsified by the West, explore the Black
culture and past, and redefine the sensitive values of the cosmos. They protested against all
forms of exploitation of Africa and the Caribbean. By proudly affirming their African cultural
and racial heritage, by celebrating the beauty of Africa and the enchanting charm of the Black
woman, the poets of Negritude had a prophetic mission and a mystical vision of/in the New
World. Their voices echoed complaints, hopes, and deep feelings of the Black people
denouncing the imperialistic western ethnocentrism.
11.4 Leopold Sedar Senghor’s Poetry
Senghor, born in Senegal, is one of the oldest and most prominent African poets. A poet
philosopher, scholar and statesman Senghor is also the greatest exponent of the philosophy of
Negritudism. Negritudism as an ideology was merely developed as a reaction to cultural
deprivation that African poets experienced in Europe. This led the educated elite to revive
through literature, the cultural values, and identify the beauty of Africa by extolling their
ancestral glories. This led to the use of traditional imagery, symbols and rhythm. Negritude has
passed through a number of phases and was at times accused of over sentimentalism.
Nevertheless, Senghor’s poetry gained great importance and won many international prizes for
his contribution to African literature as a whole and African poetry in particular.
I will pronounce your name
I will pronounce your name, Naett, I will declaim you , Naett!

Naett, your name is mild like the cinnamon, it is the fragrance in which
the lemon grove sleeps,

Naett, your name is the sugared clarity of blooming coffee trees
And it resembles the savannah, that blooms forth under the
the masculine odour of the midday sun.
Name of dew, fresher shadows of tamarind,
Fresher even than short dusk, when the heat of the dusk is
silenced.
Naett, that is the dry tornado, the hard clap of lightning
Naett, coin of gold, shinning coal, you my night , my sun!---
I am your hero, and now I have become your sorcerer, in order to
pronounce your names.
Princess of Elisa, banished from Futa on the fateful day.
Though this is a written poem, the word “pronounce” in line 1 and the repetitious declamation of
“Naett” suggest an orality which links the poem to the traditional form of poetry found in oral
literature. The repetition evokes the passion and fondness the poet has for the subject “Naett”.
This passion is reinforced by the poet’s exuberant comparison of “Naett” with various states in
nature: “mild like cinnamon”, “the fragrance in which, the lemon grove sleeps”, “the sugared
clarity of blooming coffee trees” and the freshness of “dew”, of the “tamarind”. He compares
Naett even to a “dry tornado” and “the hard clap of lightning”. Up to this point we get no clear
indication of who Naett is. But when he likens Naett to “coin of gold”, “Shinning coal, you my
night, my sun! ---”, we get the impression that this person who is so precious to the poet could
be a black woman. This impression is reinforced when he refers to her as “Princess of Elisa” in
the last line.
The above poem is symbolic in nature. In the poem, Senghor expresses his love and reverence to
all that is Black. Naett seems to symbolize everything African. In an evocative manner, the poet
celebrates his love concern for all Africans, especially the black women. Through the use of
similes and metaphors, Senghor’s praises everything black. The name “Naett” sounds like
“night” which suggests darkness or blackness.
Now, let us look at Senghor’s “Nuit De Sine” ( Night in Sine):
Woman, place your soothing hands upon my brow,

Your hands softer than fur.
Above us balance the palm trees, barely rustling

In the night breeze. Not even a lullaby.
Let the rhythmic silence cradle us.
Listen to its song. Hear the beat of our dark blood,
Hear the deep pulse of Africa in the mist of lost villages.
Now sets the weary moon upon its slack seabed

Now the bursts of laughter quiet down, and even the storyteller
Nods his head like a child on his mother’s back
The dancers’ feet grow heavy, and heavy, too,
Come the alternating voices of singers.
Now the stars appear and the Night dreams

Leaning on that hill of clouds, dressed in its long, milky pagne.
The roofs of the huts shine tenderly. What are they saying
So secretly to the stars? Inside, the fire dies out
In the closeness of sour and sweet smells.
Woman, light the clear-oil lamp. Let the Ancestors

Speak around us as parents do when the children are in bed.
Let us listen to the voices of the Elissa Elders. Exiled like us
They did not want to die, or lose the flow of their semen in the sands.
Let me hear, a gleam of friendly souls visits the smoke-filled hut,
My head upon your breast as warm as tasty dang streaming from the fire,
Let me breathe the odor of our Dead, let me gather
And speak with their living voices, let me learn to live
Before plunging deeper than the diver
Into the great depths of sleep.
In the above poem, Senghor captures the beauty of Africa in the image of womanhood. The
poem powerfully evokes beauty and fragrance of the African land symbolized by the woman as
used by the poet. The poem can also be seen as an invocation of the mystery, beauty and
fragrance of the African night: the stars, the moon, the trees, the quiet villages and the familiar
scenes associated with them. The dominant symbol of night or darkness in this poem can also be
said to be Senghor's style of praising the dark and beautiful skin of Africans.
The poem comprises four stanzas. The first stanza reveals Senghor's affection towards Africa. As
a negritude poet, he invokes Africa in the image of a female lover whose "perfumed hands (are)
softer than fur." Having reflected the beauty of Africa in the image of womanhood, in the

preceding stanzas Senghor begins to eulogize her qualities of motherhood, lover, giver, and
receiver in affective images.
Amidst these eulogies, Senghor expresses his anger towards the desertion of African villages and
ideals caused by colonialism. The "lost villages" in line 7 of stanza 1 can also be interpreted to
mean the forgotten and/or lost cultural ideals and values caused by colonization and
urbanization. In the third and fourth stanzas, Senghor eulogizes the eternal link between the
African ancestors, the living, and the unborn.
Thus, the poet portrays a black woman as an embodiment of his mother, lover and land. The
diction, rhythm, sound effect and symbols deployed by the poet leaves the competent reader in
no doubt that the poet is in love with Africa, his black beautiful mother and the African history.
11.5 David Diop’s Poetry
David Drop is another negritude poet. Though he died young in a plane crash, his few surviving
poems have placed him as a credible modern African poet. Look at the poem below:
Certitude
To those fatten themselves with murder
And measures their stages of their reign by corpses
I say that days and men
That the sun and the stars
Are shaping out the rhythmic brotherhood of all peoples
I say that the heart and the head
Are joined together in the battle line
And that there is not a single day
When somewhere summer does not spring up
I say that manly tempests
Will crush those who barter other’s patience
And the seasons allied with men’s bodies
Will see the enactment of triumphant exploits.
In the poem the poet recounts all the harm and degradation Africa and its peoples have been
subjected to in the hands of the colonial powers. He expresses his firm belief that nature itself
will find a solution to the obnoxious situation African nations find themselves in.

Drawing parallels with the changing nature of the seasons, Diop assures the world that after the
storm comes the calm. The poet reminds us that the indestructible link between man and nature
will surely bring hope and peace for the downtrodden. The hypocritical and destructive
influences of colonial rule and his dreams and vision for a free and independent Africa are all
embedded in his poem titled “Certitude”. The poet expresses his sincere faith that Africa will one
day break the shackles of slavery and return to its former glory.
Like poets of his time, who had undergone and experienced the humiliation of colonization, most
of his poems are full of nostalgia for Africa’s glorious past. Having said this, let us now look at
another Diop’s poem:
Africa
Africa my Africa
Africa of proud warriors on ancestral savannahs
Africa that my grandmother sings
On the bank of her distant river
I have never known you
But my face is full of your blood
Your beautiful black blood which waters the
wide fields.
The blood of your sweat

The sweat of your work
The work of your slavery
The slavery of your children
Africa tell me Africa
Is this really you this back which is bent
And breaks under the load of insult
This back trembling with red weals
Which says yes to the whip on the hot roads of
noon.
Then gravely a voice replies to me

Impetuous son that tree robust and young
That tree over there
Splendidly alone amidst white and faded flowers
That is Africa your Africa which grows
Grows patiently obstinately
And whose fruit little by little learn
The bitter taste of liberty.
(Birago Diop, Africa)

In this poem, Diop takes a nostalgic trip down the memory lane of Africa’s history, recalling the
proud warriors of the pre-colonial days, the subjugation and humiliation of slavery and colonial
period. It is pertinent to note the lyrical tone of the poem. The poem is addressed to Africa as if
Africa were a person - a mother or a wife. This style makes it both a lyric and an Ode,
commemorating freedom from slavery and colonialism. The diction here sustains the theme.
How fitting are such words as “Africa”, “beautiful”, “black”, “blood”, “liberty” which point to
Negritudism in an elaborate way.
However, the above poem can be thematically divided into three parts. In the first part, which
incidentally is stanza one, the poet extols the histories, the heroes and the ancestors of Africa
nostalgically in order to stimulate pride in achievement in noble past. This part of the poem also
portrays the negritude features in the sense that it captures the natural beauty of Africa in
retrospect. Also in this part, Africa is eulogized and portrayed as the giver of life, “Your
beautiful black blood that waters the fields.”
In the second part of the poem, through the speaker, Diop expresses his anger at injustice meted
out to the colonized Africa. His overt expression of anger against the degradation of Africans
could be found in the following lines. In the last part of the poem, the poet envisages the future
of Africa which he hopes will be bright. The subsequent lines reveal Diop’s visionary attempts to
restore the dignity of Africa and Africans.
Another negritude feature of Diop’s writing is the way he carefully draws his images from the
fauna and flora of Africa. Some of such images embedded in this poem include: “ancestral
savannahs”, “distant river”, “the fields”, and “midday sun”. Apart from these images, African
rhythm and sensibilities can also be perceived in this poem.
11.6 Summary
In this lesson, our key focus has been on Negritude poetry. Our analysis has revealed that
Negritude, as a movement, enscapulates the love for everything Africa whether it is “ugly” or

“beautiful”. In other words, Negritudism emphasizes on romanticizing Africa, that is, the simple
recognition of the fact of being black, and the acceptance of this fact, of our destiny as black
people, of our history, and our culture. This standpoint has shaped and contributed to the
development of poetry in a number of ways as we have shown in this lesson. Some of the
negritude features that are expressed in poetry include: an attempt to restore the dignity of Africa
and Africans; the captivation of the natural beauty of Africa in retrospect; the celebration of
African histories, heroes and ancestors; the portrayal and glorification of African images; anger
at injustice meted out to the colonized Africa; and a subtle exhibition of African rhythm and
sensibilities.
11.7 Activities
1. With illustrations from poems of your own choice, discuss the

influence of Negritudism.
2. Using examples of your choice, explain the characteristics of
Negritude poetry.
3. Discuss the contribution of Leopold Cedar Senghor in the
development of Negritude poetry.
Edwards, Brent Hayes. The Practice of Diaspora: Literature, Translation and the Rise of Black
Internationalism. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2003, pp. 119–85.
Kesteloot, Lilyan. Black Writers in French: A Literary History of Negritude. Washington, D.C.:
Howard University Press, 1991.
Senghor, Leopold S. Anthologie de la nouvelle poésie nègre et malgache de langue française.
Paris : Presses universitaires de France, 1948.
———. The Collected Poetry, Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1991.
Hymans, Jacques Louis. Leopold Sedar Senghor: An Intellectual Biography. Edinburgh:
Edinburgh University Press, 1971.
Warner, Keith Q. ed. Critical Perspectives on Leon Gontran Damas. Boulder: Three Continents
Press, 1988.

LESSON 12
MAJOR POETS: OKOT P’BITEK
12.1 Introduction
In this last lesson, we now focus on major poets. In lesson 10, we pointed out that some of the
major poets in Africa include Gabriel Okara, Dennis Brutus, Kwesi Brew, David Rubadiri, Wole
Soyinka, J.P. Clark, Lenrie Peters, Okot P’Bitek, Kofi Awoonor and Oswald Mtshali from
Anglophone Africa. From Francophone Africa we have Leopold Senghor, Birago Diop and
Bernard Dadie. And from the Lusophone region we have Jose Craverirha, Agostinho Neto and
Noemia de Sousa to name but a few. Though this lesson’s major objective is to focus on major
poets, it will be examine Okot P’Bitek’s Song of Lawino to give you a glimpse of how to engage
with major poets.
By the end of the lesson, you should be able to:

i. Examine the key concerns in Okot P’Bitek’s Song of Lawino.
ii. Examine the influence of traditional culture in P’Bitek’s Song of Lawino.
iii. Interrogate key aspects of language use in P’Bitek’s Song of Lawino.
12.3 Brief Background of Okot P’Bitek
Okot p’Bitek, (1931-1982), is one of the best known African poets. After the long domination of
the African literary scene by West Africans, Okot p’Bitek stormed the ‘literary scene of East
Africa’ with Song of Lawino in 1966 which was a translation of the Acholi version Wer pa
Lawino. This was followed by Song of Ocol (1970) and Two Songs: Song of Prisoner, Song of
Malaya (1971). As George Heron (1976) points out, Okot p’Bitek compels his readers to make
comparisons between his poems and traditional songs. The title ‘Song of…’ that he has given to
all his poems suggests the comparison. When Okot was writing his poem, he worked together
with friends. He read new versions of each chapter to these people as soon as they were

completed, and their comments were taken into account if the chapter needed rewriting. Thus,
even their methods of composition are similar to that of traditional songs: A group of singers
work together and continuously alter the songs as they perform. Okot has also published a
collection of essays, Africa’s Cultural Revolution; a collection of Acholi songs published as The
Horn of My Love (1974) and tales in Hare and Hornbill (1978).
Put a video simulation on the life history of Okot P’Bitek.
12.4 Key Concerns in P’Bitek’s Song of Lawino
a) Treatment of Culture
In the opening chapter of Song of Lawino, Lawino, the poet’s spokeswoman, uses the language
of appeal to her husband Ocol;
Listen my husband,
You are the son of a chief
The pumpkin in the old homestead
Must not be uprooted (41).
In this appeal, the prime question Lawino poses to her husband, regarding the uprooting of the
pumpkin, invites multiple meanings. What we read on the surface is Lawino’s recognition of
Ocol as her husband and a son of a chief. By implication though, it is not only Lawino that sees
Ocol as occupying an important position, but the people the chief presides over too. The tone
here also points to the importance of Ocol’s position in his community.
The question of uprooting a pumpkin also becomes significant to readers in this particular
context, and in this case, those that understand the Acholi culture, to whom the force of the
proverb that forms the basis of Lawino’s argument against cultural alienation is deeply rooted. In
the land of the Acholi, the pumpkin grows all year round and is therefore an important source of

food and life. No sensible person would uproot a pumpkin because it symbolizes the continuity
of Acoli traditional life as represented by Lawino. Lawino further appeals to her clansmen:
Listen to my voice:
The insults of my man
Are painful beyond bearing. (37)
In the above case, it is evident that Lawino uses the language of appeal to her clansmen who are
the most immediate people to whom she can get support or a form of intervention on her behalf.
Lawino portrays her husband as using a language of quarrel, hence a mixing of register when she
confronts him and quarrels with him saying:
Listen Ocol, you are the son of a

Chief,
Leave foolish behavior to little
children,
It is not right that you should
be laughed at in a song!
Songs about you should be songs
of praise! (34)
Also, the social condition ensures that the words uttered by Lawino, regarding the ojuu insects
have a different meaning from ones they would have had under other conditions. For a non-
African reader of Song of Lawino it may be difficult to comprehend the gravity of Ocol’s insult,
if the reader has never seen or known the ojuu insects, let alone seen a beer pot that Lawino
mentions in her complaint:
Ocol treats me
As if I am no longer a person,
He says I am silly
Like the ojuu insects that sit on
The beer pot. (38)

In Song of Lawino, although Lawino is not unfair to Europeans and does not try to impose her set
of beliefs on them, yet she is unreasonable in some of her criticism of Clementine. She uses a
language of rumour in her attack of Clementine:
Perhaps she has aborted many

Perhaps she has thrown her twins
In the pit latrine! (39)
For someone who is seeking justice and a fair hearing, the register of rumour is a direct mixing
of codes. So at one level Lawino uses the language of appeal and at another level she seems to be
spreading rumours about her co-wife and this mixing of registers produces irony. Furthermore,
Lawino uses assumed socially unacceptable language in the description of the different types of
dung to ridicule the kind of life Ocol has chosen:
The entire floor

Is covered with human dung
All the tribes of human dung!
Dry dungs and dysentery
Old dungs and fresh dungs. (46)
Her choice of registers shows the discrepancies in the life Ocol has chosen to live. The thought
of people littering with human dung shows the irresponsibility of the company Ocol is keeping.
In addition the field of entertainment which is described would not normally be associated with
‘all tribes of human dung’. The choice of words is also very telling; it is not even human waste
but dung like that of animals. So, in her register, Lawino is reducing the so-called elite to a less
than human state.
Lawino is not pleased with the behaviour of her husband, particularly as regards the hostile
reception that he gives to his visitors. There is a mixing of direct speech with reported speech
when she narrates,
And when the visitors have arrived
My husband’s face darkens
He never asks you in,
And for a greeting
He says

‘What can I do for you?’ (70)
In the above instance, Lawino shows how Ocol has become detached and alienated from his
people to the extent that he wants to have nothing to do with them.
b) Cultural Alienation
Lawino in throwing accusations against Ocol describes his actions when he is with Clementine.
She addresses him in the first person, and uses strong imagery to show her strong disgust for the
habits Ocol has decided to ape from the white men:
You kiss her on the cheek

As white people do
You kiss her open sore lips
As white people do
You suck slimy saliva
From each other’s mouths
As white people do (52)
Lawino’s accusation is that Ocol is an imitator, that he apes the ways of the white man by kissing
Clementine on her cheek the way white people do. This example of which there are many more
of a similar nature can be read as a direct response and confrontation with Ocol. It is an
emotionally charged exchange even though only Lawino is speaking.
Furthermore, she specifically addresses Ocol on the issue of aping the white man when she says:
You smoke cigars

Like white men,
Women smoke cigarettes,
Like white women,
And sip some poisons from the glasses (54).
Again, Lawino has not minced her words and has used similes to show that her people are copy-
cats; something that she is not happy about, when she talks to Ocol.

It is with nostalgia that Lawino remembers the days when Ocol was courting her. She reminds
him of the things that he used to like, and wonders what has now become of him. She openly
reminds him:
You loved my giraffe-tail bangles,
You admired my sisters… ‘, ‘you trembled… (59)
In the above case, Lawino is talking to Ocol in a particular dialogue regarding what he used to do
and has seemingly lost interest in doing. Lawino continues to accuse her husband and in this
instance it is as if she is before a clan’s meeting and telling them what is happening to her
marriage:
My husband refuses
To listen to me
He refuses to give me a chance
My husband has blocked up my path
Completely
He has put up a road block
But has not told me why
He just shouts
Like house-flies
Settling on top of excrement
When disturbed! (61)
In the above example, Lawino seems to be talking to somebody else in a specific dialogue,
regarding her husband’s unbecoming behaviour.
The rhetorical questions that Lawino asks her husband implicitly show that she is involved in a
form of dialogue with her husband about their culture. She is still not convinced that Ocol could
have wholeheartedly embraced a foreign culture, and this forces her to question his following the
ways of a white man as though the African didn’t have an established culture. She says:
Like beggars
You take up white men’s adornments
Like slaves or war captives
You take up whitemen’s ways
Didn’t the Acholi adornments didn’t black people have
Their ways? (60)

She continues her attack:
Didn’t your people have amusements?
Like half wits
You turn to white men’s dance… (60)
Lawino in the above instances talks as if Ocol was directly before her and she is taking the
opportunity to show disapproval of his turning to foreign ways, thus disregarding his own.
Similarly, Lawino’s response to the accusations of her husband Ocol about her dress styles,
especially her hair shows aspects of cultural alienation. She describes to her listeners the views
of Ocol, thus:
My husband tells me
I have no ideas
Of modern beauty
He says
I have stuck
To old fashioned hair styles. (65)
Lawino seems to be talking to a third person, when in narration of the woes, brought to her by
Ocol, she says:
He insists
I must eat raw eggs
Smelly, slimy yellow stuff
He says
It is good for me!
There is something in eggs
Which is good for the bones (86).
From Lawino’s narration the reader is probably able to sympathise with her, regarding how
unfairly she is treated.
Lawino softly portrays a traditional village setting to her implied listener. This makes one
confirm that a form of dialogue described by Bakhtin is taking place when two actual people talk
to each other on a common subject: cattle
You hear the flutes,

Of the herdsmen

Bringing the cattle home. (93)
… A man listens
To the roar of his own bull
And shouts praises to it (93)
She continues to narrate her troubles to someone else when she states the opinion her husband
has of her, thus eliciting our sympathy:
My husband says
I am useless
Because I waste time (94)
Lawino seems to involve herself in a dialogue when she goes ahead to defend her not knowing
much about the other dances, while having pride in the dances that her mother taught her.
Lawino uses negative sensuous imagery to show the effects of cultural alienation. This is clearly
despicable in description of her co-wife Clementine’s looks:
Her lips are red-hot

Like glowing charcoal
She resembles the wild cat
That has dipped its mouth in blood.
The mouth is like raw yaws… (41)
It should be noted that Clementine’s lips are not red hot in the physical sense. Clementine has
only used lipstick, an artificial substance to enrich her beauty. Red is the colour which at first
sight gives Lawino the impression that someone has been dipping their mouth in blood, or that
the lips like glowing charcoal. The repugnant description is intended to create a negative image
of Tina and to belittle and ridicule her.
In an incident related to the above, Lawino gives the effect of kissing someone with red lips,
though this is not explicitly stated. The reader has to make out an underlying meaning of what
Lawino says, and not merely take her utterances at face value. She says:

And the lips of the men become bloody
With blood dipping from the red-hot lips
Their teeth look
As if they have been bored in the mouth. (52)
The actual fact is that as a result of kissing one who has used lip-stick, it may be possible that the
lip-stick is transferred onto the other party’s lips, and not that blood actually dries from the lips.
Similarly, if the reader is to take literally the similes used by Lawino, it would be hard for him to
imagine that Clementine is a living being, rather than a dead one. As a matter of fact, Lawino
tries her best to give an apt portrayal of her co-wife, and presents her as being ill-looking because
she starves to be slim:
And when she walks
You hear her bones rattling
Her waist resembles that of a hornet
The beautiful one is dead dry.
Like a stump she is neatless
Like a shell
On a dry river bed (44)
Furthermore, Lawino logically demonstrates the uniqueness of racial qualities. When one group
forsakes its own nature and imposes on itself alien values, there is incongruity. That is why it is
unnatural for an African woman to try to make her hair like a white woman’s. Clementine, with
whom Lawino shares her husband, “returns from cooking her hair” in order to make it look like a
white woman’s. If surface meaning is taken, the reader may not understand the meaning of
Lawino’s utterances, hence the need for a deeper understanding of what she means when she
says:
When the beautiful one
With whom I share my husband
Returns from cooking her hair
This results in her resembling:
A chicken
That has fallen into a pond;
Her hair looks
Like the python’s discarded skin (69)

Blacks who forsake their natural ways become artificial and weird. Lawino continues to exhibit a
misunderstanding of the idea of combing or perming one’s hair when she vividly relays to the
readers what happens to Clementine’s hair:
They fry their hair

In boiling oil
As if it were locusts
And the hair sizzles… (70)
She culminates her description of what happens, with the description of how the hair turns out.
…. It lies lifeless
Like the sad and dying banana leaves
On a hot and windless afternoon. (70)
It would be a mistake for one to take Lawino’s utterances for the literal truth, since it is
practically impossible for one to dip the head in boiling oil and remain alive. The utterances of
Lawino are taken to have a deeper meaning attached to them, than that which meets the reader’s
eye. There is something suicidal in the act of deliberately killing one’s ‘vigorous and healthy’
self. Besides, there is something demoniacal and strange in frying one’s hair in boiling oil.By
implication, Lawino emphasizes that white women are beautiful with their own kind of hair, and
the strangeness creeps in with black women transposing to themselves what is naturally not
theirs.
There are only two instances in Song of Lawino where Lawino is talking about the use of modern
household items and it becomes clear in her description that such descriptions spell of ignorance.
A case in point is when she talks about the purpose served by the white man’s stoves. In her
simplicity, she does not exactly talk about food preservation which is the main idea as presented
by Okot in Lawino’s argument:
The white man’s stoves

Are good for cooking

Whiteman’s food:
For cooking the tasteless
Bloodless meat of cows
That were killed many years age
And left in the ice to rot! (78)
That Lawino mentions “bloodless meat left in the ice to rot” is a pointer that she talks about
something greater: preservation of food.
Another instance which shows Lawino’s ignorance to modernity is when she talks about the way
the husband values time. She, in her own understanding, begins to give a picturesque description
of a clock:
On the face of the clock
There are writings
And its large single testicle
Dangles below.
It goes this way and that way
Like a sausage-fruit
In a windy storm (89)
The reader of Song of Lawino finds humour in Lawino’s language which is rich in imagery: “like
a sausage–fruit”, and her personification of the clock, attributing a dangling testicle to it whose
oscillations would coincide with the ticking of the seconds’ hand of the clock.
12. 5 Language use in Song of Lawino
a) Use of Animal Imagery

Lawino uses animal imagery to bring out various issues making it sometimes difficult for a non-
African reader to fully grasp if the reader has never seen the animals of which she talks. For
instance, Lawino uses the language of cajole to describe her husband, and thus elicit sympathy
from her listener saying:
His eyes grow large
Deep black eyes
Ocol’s eyes resemble those of
The Nile perch!
He becomes fierce
Like a lioness with cubs,

He begins to behave like a
Mad hyena (39).
It is interesting to note that Lawino follows with a rebuttal:
He says I am blocking his progress,

My head, he says,
Is as big as that of an elephant… (39).
Lawino’s clinical and somewhat repugnant description of her co-wife Tina is achieved through
the use of similes. Her intention is clear: she wants to discredit Tina and prevent her from
competing for Ocol’s love. Lawino describes her:
Her lips are red-hot

Like glowing charcoal
She resembles the wild cat
That has dipped its mouth in
Blood… (41)
Further reference to Clementine is that,

She resembles the wizard;
She looks like the guinea fowl (41).
Lawino also likens Clementine’s physical appearance to that of a hyena:
Her body resembles

The ugly coat of the hyena;
Her neck and arms
Have real human skins!
She looks as if she has been
Struck
By lightning; (43)
By using imagery drawn from the Acholi community, Okot is able to give his poetry its
Africanness.
Lawino conversationally boasts about the beauty of her voice comparing it to the Ogilo bird:

Nobody’s voice was sweeter
Than mine!
And in the arena
I sang the solos
Like the ogilo bird
At sunset. (60).
The above stanza is like reminiscence about her prowess to a closed audience.
Lawino, attacks Ocol, in connection with native adornments, which she describes in terms of
variety in the animal kingdom. She says:
Listen
Ostrich plumes differ
From chicken feathers
A monkey’s tail
Is different from that of the
Giraffe,
The crocodile’s skin
Is not like the guinea fowl’s
And the hippo is naked, and
Hairless (64).
Furthermore, Ocol’s behaviour as described in a simile by Lawino is not pleasant at all:
When I walk past my husband

He hisses like a wounded ororo snake
Chocking with vengeance (69).
Though Okot draws his symbols and images from the traditional culture yet, the behaviour of the
ororo snake is not understood universally; rather it is limited to only a certain geographical
context. Lawino sets to mock the Catholic religion in another instance. She does not understand
Catholics, their Bible, and its teachings. She ridicules the Catholic priests with whom she could
not get on and describes one particular incident where there was a verbal exchange between a
particular priest and Lawino’s group of baptismal candidates:
He shouted words at us
And we shouted back at him,

Agitated and angry
Like the okwik birds
Chasing away the kite
From their nest.
We repeated the meaningless
Phrases
Like the yellow birds
In the lajanawara grass (114)
The non-Acholi reader of Song of Lawino will not understand the behaviour of the Okwik nor
will he know how the yellow birds behave.
b) Plant Imagery
Lawino uses a series of plant images to foreground her concerns. For example, when Lawino
recalls the time when Ocol was wooing her, Okot leaves two words untranslated: ‘lyonno’ and
Nya-Dyang’. These give the passage a feeling of strangeness but without necessarily making it
difficult to understand. These words are used by Lawino as she reminices about her past:
When Ocol was wooing me

My breasts were erect
And they shook
As I walked briskly,
And as I walked
I threw my long neck
This way and that way
Like the flower of the lyonno lily
Waving in a gentle breeze.
And my brothers called me
Nya-Dyang… (58)
For the Acholi reader of Song of Lawino, it is probably easier to understand the weight of the
simile from the plant world that Okot uses than for a foreign reader of the same text. And
whereas ‘Nya Dyang’ has no specific meaning, the foreign reader can infer from the various
items in the text that the name has to do with something positive, beautiful or praiseworthy. This
is regardless of the fact that the reader has no hint as to whether ‘Nya Dyang’ belongs to the

plant or animal world or indeed to the inanimate world; but the attributes of the image gain in
being mentioned in close proximity with the beautiful lily from the plant world.
Lawino further expresses a sense of beauty of nature in her region by continuing to draw images
from the plant world. She personifies these images when she says:
The obiya grasses are flowering

And the pollok blossoms
And the wild white lilies
Are shouting silently
To the bees and butterflies!
In the next lines, she continues:

And when you go
To the well
Or into the freshly burnt
Woodlands
To collect the red oceyu
Or to cut oduggu shrubs,
You find them
Lurking in the shades
Like the leopardess with cubs (68)
Lawino does not only ascribe beauty to the plant world; she also imbues it with animate qualities
of motion and tender relationship such as exists between the leopardess and her cubs.
The shrubs and grasses that Lawino mentions are ‘pollok’, ‘oceya’ and ‘oduggu’ respectively.
Okot intentionally does not translate the names of the grasses and shrubs, into English; rather
they remain in the form in which they are. There is, for instance, the suggestion of richness in the
various categories of vegetation from grasses (obiya) to shrubs (odduggu) to the blossoming or
flowering pollok, possibly a tree, and there is the brightness by the red colour of the oceya.
In another instance, Lawino describes the trees used for firewood in Acholi. She gives them
Acholi names. It would be difficult for a non-Acholi reader of the text to differentiate the trees
that are good for firewood, from those that are not, if one does not know the language of the
Acholi. Lawino says:

Oywelo and lucoro and kituba
Are no use as firewood…
Labwori is alright
It is perfectly dry… (82)
Opok is easy
To split with the axe:
Yaa burns gently
It burns like oil
Poi is no use for firewood (83)
Again, Okot does not translate the names of the trees, but rather he leaves them in Acholi.
Nevertheless, the non-Acholi will, short of knowing what the various mentioned trees look like,
gain some understanding in terms of the functions of the trees. He will grasp the essential point
which is that the trees that can potentially be used as firewood are given in four categories by
Lawino. Those which are no good: (Oywelo, lucoro, kituba), that which is good (Yaa); that
which is easy to split (Opok) and that which is good only when perfectly dry (Labwori).
In addition to Lawino’s view of nature as a context on its own right for lovers, an account of its
beauty, of nature as worth of celebration as nature, and of nature as useful in supplying firewood
for human kind, she also identifies one aspect in which nature is useful to humankind, that of
supplying medicine. In her description of medicines commonly used, a reader familiar with the
Acholi culture will easily understand what Lawino is describing. Some of the medicines and
cures are:
The roots of bomo

For stomach aches
The roots of omwombye
Is chewed for bad throats
The shoots of lapena and olim

Are chewed when they have
Removed the blockage in the throat
Fresh wounds are treated
With ogali or pobo (151)

All the above examples of useful traditional herbs are not easily understood by the non-Acholi
reader of Song of Lawino. The essential point in what Lawino says is that the trees have
medicinal value. The non-Acholi will not know what these trees will look like, regardless of the
names and what they look like. His understanding will be that they are useful for curatives
purposes.
c) Internal Monologue
Lawino has to defend herself against the accusations labelled against her by Ocol and goes on a
self-justifying crusade. She extols her virtues and those of Acoli womanhood in which the
husband is the centre of attention and the pivot of the homestead. Lawino puts up self-defence in
a form of internal monologue when she states:
I am not unfair to my husband

I do not complain
Because he wants another woman
Whether she is young or aged!
Who has ever prevented men
From wanting women? (45).
In raising a self defence, it is assumed that Lawino is making a response to an earlier utterance;
made by Ocol when accusing his wife of blocking his bid to get another woman. This self-
defence could also be as a result of the common talk in Lawino’s community.
Furthermore, in defending herself about her relationship with her co-wife Clementine, Lawino
seems to imply that the competition between Clementine and herself is not balanced, since Ocol
and Clementine do not seem to have given her a chance. She says:
I am not angry
With the woman with whom
I share my husband
I do not fear to compete with her (47)

It is most likely that Lawino seeks to defend herself and clear the air about how she feels towards
her co-wife. This may stem from an earlier utterance to the effect that she is angry because she is
a co-wife.
In another instance of internal monologue, Lawino makes a response to an earlier utterance when
she defends herself against the accusations made by her husband that she is ignorant of the
dances of foreigners. Lawino’s utterance anticipates and responds to potential objections from
others with different views when she says:
It is true
I am ignorant of the dances of
Foreigners
And how they dress
I do not know.
Their games
I cannot play,
I only know the dances of our
People (48).
In this Lawino shows that though she is ignorant of the dances of foreigners, she takes comfort in
the fact that she knows the dances of her people which are vigorous, healthy and innocent.
Lawino continues to involve herself in a monologue when she goes ahead to defend her not
knowing much about other dances, while having pride in the dances her mother taught her. She
seems to be telling those who have expectations of her knowing the foreign dances that this is
not the case. The dances that she knows and takes pride in are those of her people. She says ‘’I
will not deceive you’’ as if to reply to someone who may be challenging the truth of her words.
Even though we hear only Lawino’s words, her utterances are strongly suggestive of some other
speakers that evoke her responses.
….. I do not know the dances of

White People
I will not deceive you,
I cannot dance the samba!
You once saw me at the orak
Dance

The dance for youths
The dance of our People (48)
Lawino, in a monologue, seems to condemn anything alien and that does not help her image as a
defender of authentic ways in any region of the world. Her attitude toward Western dance
illustrates this narrow-mindedness:
It is true, Ocol
I cannot dance the ball-room
Dance
Being held so tightly
I feel ashamed,
Being held so tightly in public
I cannot do it,
It looks shameful to me! (51)
Likewise, Lawino makes utterances that are a response to a probable accusation from her
husband Ocol. Ocol has accused her of not knowing the names of the months. She therefore has
to make utterances that are defensive.
I do not know
The names of the moons
Because the Acholi
Do not name their moons (102).
A classic example of how one’s speech mode might be a direct response to a previous utterance
is in case of Lawino’s words:
My husband says
My head is dumb and empty
Because, he says,
I cannot tell
When our children were born (104).
She straight away launches into a self-defence technique, by explaining when her children were
born.
I know that Okang

My first born
Was born at the beginning
Of the Dry Season
And my little girl
In the middle of the rains
Okang was born
In the middle of the famine
Called Abongo-wang-dako ….. (105).
In the above case, Lawino is speaking to somebody else about the accusation of her husband.
Lawino probably speaks at a particular time, following the accusations made by Ocol.
In awe and wonder, Lawino describes events surrounding lighting and thunder. She describes it,
not from firsthand experience, rather from what she has heard other people say about it. That
Lawino is engaged in a form of internal dialogue is evident in her words:
They say
It is listening to lightning
They say
The white man has trapped
And caught the rain-cock (76).
She continues,
They say
When the Rain-Cock
Opens its wings
The blinding light… (76)
The use of the pronoun ‘they’ makes us more aware of the fact that Lawino is reporting what
some people have already said. They are in response to an earlier utterance. Lawino even asks
rhetoric questions which is evidence that at the particular time when she speaks, she, holds a
specific dialogue with someone else, where she expresses her fears regarding the use of the
electric stove: she uses the pronoun ‘you’ which is an indicator that she is involved in a dialogue
with a particular person.
I am terribly afraid
Of the electric stove
And I do not like using it

Because you stand up
When you cook
Whoever cooked standing up? (78)
She continues in a detailed description of what goes on in her mother’s house at meal times. She
describes a typical scene when the family sits on the earth floor to share millet bread. Later on, as
though addressing herself, Lawino engages in asking some rhetorical questions regarding her
inability to cook European dishes, of which she does not want to take any blame:
… I do not enjoy
White men’s foods
And how they eat.
And how they eat
How could I know?
And why should I know it? (56)
d) The Language of Appeal
Right from the start of Song of Lawino, the protagonist uses several titles as she appeals to
several hierarchies now that by virtue of her husband’s choice, she is regarded as inferior: by him
or she is moved to assert her equality:
Son of the Chief

Now you compare me… (37)
She continues:
My friend, age-mate of my brother
Take care of your tongue
Be careful what your lips say (37).
In the above instances, we see that Lawino is not pleased with her husband’s actions and
responds in a friendly appeal that later translates into a warning, to use his words carefully. She
appeals to him as someone who occupies certain positions in the clan, community and their
home.

Furthermore, Lawino devotes herself to ridiculing her co-wife, Clementine. She brings it to her
audience’s notice that Ocol is now in love with a modern woman. Lawino uses the language of
appeal:
Brother, when you see Clementine!

The beautiful one aspires
To look like a white woman (41)
In continuing to describe Clementine and to hurl insults at her, Lawino directly appeals to her
clansmen:
O! My clansmen
How aged modern woman
Pretend to be young girls (43)
In what seems to be a gentle response in comparison to the harsh words of Ocol, in the above
case, Lawino seeks through her utterance to stir a debate among the clansmen about the
behaviour of modern women through the use of speech. The modern women pretend to be young
girls, and Lawino tells us that they mould the tips of the cotton nests so that they are sharp, that
they sleep with their nests tied firmly on their chests, though actually they have empty bags on
their chest. Even though in the larger context Lawino confronts and challenges her haughty,
stubborn and uncompromising husband, her register shifts from time to time, from that of plea to
that of rage according to the issues she happens to be addressing at each point.
Lawino directly refers to Ocol as a friend when she says:
Ocol, my friend
Look at my skin
It is smooth and black
And my boy friend
Who plays the nanga
Sings praises to it. (73).
In addressing Ocol specifically, Lawino is able to not only appreciate her beauty, which is
appreciated by her boy friend, but also to show pride in not imitating the white woman. She also
points her own perception of her husband as an equal partner and friend.

12.6 Summary
In this lesson, we have looked at Okot P’Bitek’s Song of Lawino. Our analysis has revealed that
P’Bitek draws his symbols and images from traditional culture and uses Acholi oral songs,
proverbs and similes in foregrounding key issues in his poetry. This shows that as a poet, P’Bitek
attempts to bring the hitherto marginal elements of oral expression such as repetition, lampoon,
conversational, proverbial and idiomatic language into poetic expression. The lesson has also
revealed an internal stratification of language in situations where Lawino and Ocol used a
mixture of registers, for example the language of quarrel, of appeal, of rumour and cajoling.
12.7 Activities
1. With illustrations from Song of Lawino, explain the effectiveness of
the use of imagery in the anthology.
2. Discuss the use of orality in Song of Lawino.
3. Compare the use of imagery in Okot P’Bitek and Dennis Brutus.
12.8 Reference/Further Reading

Okot p’Bitek. Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol. Nairobi: East Africa Publishing House, 1972
Breitenger, E. (Ed). Uganda.The Cultural Landscape. Kampala: Fountain Publishers
Limited, 1999.
Goodwin, K. Understanding African Poetry: A study of Ten Poets. London Heinemann
Educational Books Ltd.; 1982
Heron, G. The Poetry of Okot p’Bitek, London, Heinemann, 1976.
Jones, Eldred Durosimi, eds. African Literature today. Vol.6. London: James Curry Ltd.
1992
Okumu, Charles. (1992). The Form of Okot p'Bitek's Poetry: Literary Borrowing from Acoli
Oral Traditions. Research in African Literatures . , 23 (3), 53-66.
Ofuani, Ogo A. (1985). The Traditional and Modern Influences in Okot p'Bitek's Poetry. African
Studies Review,. 28 (4), 87-99.
Ogo A. Ofuani. (1988). Digression as Discourse Strategy in Okot p'Bitek's Dramatic Monologue
Texts. Research in African Literatures,. 19 (3), 312-340.
Ojaide Tanure. (1986). Poetic Viewpoint: Okot P'Bitek and His Personae. Callaloo. 27 (1), 371-
383.

SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISES
Exercise 1
Read the poem entitled; Stanley Meets Mutesa below and do a detailed appreciation of the poem:
Stanley Meets Mustesa

Such a time of it they had;
The heat of the day
The heat of the night
And the mosquitoes that followed.
Such was the time and
They bound for a kingdom.
The thin weary line of carriers
With tattered dirty rags to cover their backs;
The battered bulky chests
That kept on fa1ling off their shaven heads.
Their tempers high and hot,
The fierce sun scorching
With it rose their spirits
With its fall their hopes
As each day sweated their body dry and
Flies clung in clumps to their sweat-scented backs
Such was the march
And the hot season just breaking.
Each day a weary pony dropped

Left for the vultures on the plains;
Each afternoon a human skeleton collapsed;
Left for the Masai on the plains.
But the march trudged on
Its khaki leader in front
He the spirit that inspired
He the light of hope.
Then came the afternoon of a hungry march

A hot and hungry march it was;
The Nile and the Nyanza
Lay like two twins
Azure across the green countryside
The march leapt on chaunting
Like young gazelles to a water-hole.
Hearts beat faster
Loads felt lighter
As cool water lapt their soft, sore feet.
No more the dread of hungry hyenas

But only tales of valour when
At Mutesa's court fires are lit.
No more burning heat of the day
But song, laughter and dance.
The village looks on behind banana groves,
Children peer behind reed fences;
Such was the welcome
No singing women to chant a welcome
Or drums to greet the white ambassador;
Only a few silent nods from aged faces
And one rumbling drum rolls
To summon Mutesa's court to parley
For the country was not sure
The gate of reeds is flung open
There is silence
But only a moment's silence
The tall black king steps forward,
He towers over the thin beard of the white man
Then grabbing his lean white hand
Manages to whisper
"Mtu Mweupe Karibu"
White man you are welcome.
The gate of polished reed closes behind them

And the west is let in.
(David Rubadiri, Stanley Meets Mutesa)
Have you completed the literary appreciation of the poem? If you have, you can crosscheck your
answers with the ones presented in this section:
a) Subject Matter/Theme
The poem is a narrative which recalls the visit of a nineteenth century explorer, Henry Stanley, to
Buganda (present day Uganda), and the meeting with king Mutesa. The satire or sarcasm
symbolises the arrival of colonial power into the land.
b) Background and setting
The poem has a colonial background, set in East Africa and symbolising Henry Stanley's
exploration. The rivers mentioned in the poem suggest exploratory venture.
c) Language and Style
The following have been employed in the poem:

i. Use of symbolism
Stanley is the white ambassador; Mutesa represents the black race. The meeting
symbolises the African subscribing to the Western
ii. Contrast
White versus black, heat of the day contrasted with the chill of the night, the tall king
contrasted with the frail, smallish, lean white man, etc.
iii. Use of repetition
Such a time of it they had/
Such was the time
No more the dread of hungry hyenas

No more burning heat of the day } To illustrate the primitive and harsh
African life
iv. Parallelism
Each day a weary pony dropped

Each afternoon a human skeleton collapsed
v. Metaphor
The white man likened to khaki leader

The Nile and the Nyanza likened to two twins
vi. Simile
The march leapt on chaunting
Like young gazelles to a water-hole
vii. Appropriate Diction

The use of words to depict the life of the traveller: weary line of carriers. tattered dirty
rags. battered bulky chests. such was the march, the march trudged on etc. diction to
show the beauty of the land.
viii. Alliteration
"battered"/ "bulky", "clung"/ "clumps", "sweat- scented", "two"/
twins" etc.
ix. Personification
Nile and Nyanza presented as twins.
x. Onomatopoeia
"rumbling" echoes the sound of drum.

SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 2
Read the poem below and attempt questions that follow:
UNTO THY HAND
I thought I should recognize her

Even in sleep
This mixture of bush
And electric stars
Mud
And skyscrapers
Could be no other
Than our mother city

I feel confident
She’s ready to receive me,
Wet with goodness
For me to suck
Though at every sound and shadow
My step falters
For on that same breast
Has suckled
Brother Kondo and brother Saint
I have faith
Some night watcher will
Behost me
Or guide me on the way to safety
Unless the ones
Who grab the bag
And rip the clothes
Of lone travelers
Get me first
You wave me welcome

Gesticulating with your hands
The city has been purged
Of nepotism and corruption
Yet stationed at the main gate
Was your mother’s brother’s son
What happened to the old guard?

Questions
a) Identify the voice of the poem.

b) What is the poem about?
c) Identify and illustrate the dominant image used in stanza one.
d) Discuss the use of contrast in the poem.
e) Explain the tone of the poem
Have you attempted the questions? If you have, you can crosscheck your answers with the ones
presented in this section:
a) Persona: A person / resident who has been away from the city for some time / a traveler.
b) The poem is about the contrasts evident in the city / hypocrisy among city dwellers
c) Dominant image — personification
City referred to as “her / even in sleep / mother city / for she’s ready to receive him / breasts / for
me to suck.
d) Use of contrast
 Mixture of bush and electric stars

Indicator: underdeveloped areas and developed.
 Mad and skyscrapers
Indicator: poverty and opulence
 brother Kondo and brother saint - evil and upright
 The night watchers and the robbers / muggers.
Indicator: The guardians / protectors and the criminals
 He is told about the purge of nepotism and corruption and yet he observes that it is still being
practiced.
Indicator: It brings out hypocrisy.
f) Tone — ironic I sarcastic

“I thought………..” implies the unpredictability of the city. The city is regarded as a mother yet
there are Kondo and he is frightened while in the city - shows there is insecurity

GLOSSARY
Accent/stress: The prominence or emphasis given to particular syllables. Stressed

syllables usually stand out because they have long, rather than short, vowels, or
because they have a different pitch or are louder than other syllables. It is also
used to refer to an emphasised syllable due to pitch, loudness or the rhythms of
normal speech.
Alliteration: The repetition of identical consonant sounds at the beginning words in a line
of a poem.
Assonance: The repetition of vowel sounds or a pattern of similar vowel sounds in a line
of a poem.
Ballad: A poem that tells a story similar to a folk tale or legend and often has a repeated
refrain.
Blank Verse: Verse that does not employ a rhyme scheme but employs some kind of
meter.
Consonance: The repetition of similar consonant sounds at the middle or end of words in
a line of a poem.
Dactyl: A foot consisting of three syllables where the first is long or stressed while the
other two are short or unstressed.
Dactylic Meter: A front stressed meter comprised of three syllables per foot.
Elegy: A poem that laments the death of a person, or one that is simply sad and
thoughtful.
Epic: A long narrative poem that records the adventures of a hero.
Feminine rhyme: A rhyme that occurs in a final unstressed syllable.
Foot: The most basic unit of a poem’s meter, a foot is a combination of long and short
syllables.
Free verse: Verse without formal meter or rhyme patterns.
Hyperbole: also called an overstatement. It refers to a statement that is boldly
exaggerated to add emphasis without intending to be literally true.
Iamb: A metrical foot of two syllables, one short (or unstressed) and one long (or
stressed).The iamb is the reverse of the trochee.
Iambic pentameter: A type of meter in poetry, in which there are five iambs to a line.
Iambic meter: An end stressed two syllable foot.
Image: Images are references that trigger the mind to fuse together memories of sight
(visual), sounds (auditory), tastes (gustatory), smells (olfactory), and sensations of
touch (tactile). Imagery refers to images throughout a work or throughout the
works of a writer or group of writers.
Imagery: a word, phrase, or figure of speech that offers sensory impressions to the reader
and also conveys emotions and moods through its verbal pictures.
Internal rhyme: Either where a word in the middle of a line of poetry rhymes with the
word at the end of the line.
Irony: a device that writers use to reveal a reality that is otherwise different from what
appears to be true.
Limerick: A light, humorous poem of five usually anapestic lines with the rhyme scheme
of aabba.

Lyric: A poem that expresses the thoughts and feelings of the poet. A lyric poem may
resemble a song in form or style.
Masculine rhyme: A rhyme that occurs in a final stressed syllable.
Metaphor: a figure of speech that makes an indirect comparison between two unlike
things without using the words like or as.
Meter: Is the regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables that make up a line of a
poem.
Metonymy: A figure of speech in which one word is substituted for another with which it
is closely associated.
Mood: The general feeling that a poem provokes in a reader.
Near Rhyme: Term used to describe a number of devices which come close to full rhyme
but don't create the perfect chiming sound.
Nursery Rhymes: Jingles written for children.
Ode: A lyric poem that is serious and thoughtful in tone and has a very precise, formal
structure.
Onomatopoeia: use of words which imply intended actions e.g buzz, bash, smash, gallop.
Ottava rima: A type of poetry consisting of 10- or 11-syllable lines arranged in 8-line
“octaves” with the rhyme scheme abababcc.
Oxymoron: a form of paradox which is usually condensed in which two contradictory
words are used together, as in ‘bitter honey’, ‘joyful tears’,’ sweet pain’.
Paradox: a contradictory statement.
Pentameter: A line of poetry that has five metrical feet.
Personification: Personification involves giving human traits (qualities, feelings, action,
or characteristics) to non-living objects (things, colors, qualities, or ideas).
Quatrain: A stanza or poem of four lines.
Rhetorical question: the kind of question which doesn’t require immediate answers.
Rhyme: The occurrence of the same or similar sounds at the end of two or more words.
The pattern of rhyme in a stanza or poem is shown usually by using a different
letter for each final sound.
Rhyme royal: A type of poetry consisting of stanzas of seven lines in iambic pentameter
with the rhyme scheme ababbcc.
Satire: a literary technique which involves ridiculing a vice or a character but in a
humorous way. Satire is used for exposure (of the vice) or correction (of the
character).
Sarcasm: the use of remarks which mean opposite of what they say and which are made
in order to hurt a person’s feelings or to criticize the person in a humiliating way.
Setting: the physical and social context in which the action of the story takes place.
Simile: a figure of speech that makes direct or explicit comparison between two things
using words such as like, as, than, appears and seems.
Sonnet: A lyric poem that is 14 lines long.
Suspense: a style that the writer employs to make the reader anxious of what is going to
happen next.
Scansion: The analysis of a poem's meter. This is usually done by marking the stressed
and unstressed syllables in each line and then, based on the pattern of the stresses,
dividing the line into feet.

Speaker: the voice behind the poem – the person we imagine to be speaking. It’s
important to note that the speaker is not the poet.
Style: the manner in which a writer arranges words and actions in order to achieve certain
effects in a work of art.
Symbol: a person, object or word which represents something else.
Symbolism: the use of symbols in a work of art to represent ideas.
Synecdoche: A figure of speech in which a part is used to designate the whole or the
whole is used to designate a part.
Terza rima: A type of poetry consisting of 10- or 11-syllable lines arranged in three-line
“tercets” with the rhyme scheme aba bcb cdc.
Tetrameter: A line of poetry that has four metrical feet.
Tone: The implied attitude of a writer toward the subject and characters of a work.
Theme: the central idea or meaning of a work of art.
Trochee: A metrical foot of two syllables, one long (or stressed) and one short (or
unstressed). The trochee is the reverse of the iamb.

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KENYATTA UNIVERSITY

DIGITAL SCHOOL OF DISTANCE AND e-LEARNING

SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES

ALT 302: POETRY

WRITTEN BY: EDITED BY:

MR. CHARLES KEBAYA DR. WAVENEY OLEMBO

Copyright © Kenyatta University, 2015

Charles Kebaya, Poetry 2015 Page 1

Introduction to the Course ………………………………………………………..………………3

Lesson 1 Introduction to Poetry ……………………..………………….……………..…….…4

Lesson 2 Classification of Poetry ……………………………..……………………………..11

Lesson 3 Structure in Poetry ………………………………………………………………….26

Lesson 4 Sound Features in Poetry: Metre ……………………………..……………………..42

Lesson 5 Sound Features in Poetry: Rhyme ………………………………………….……….51

Lesson 6 Word Sounds in Poetry ….………………………..…………………………………60

Lesson 7 Language in Poetry: Imagery …………………………………...…………………...70

Lesson 8 Figures of Speech in Poetry ……………………………………….………………...87

Lesson 9 Interpretation of Mood, Attitude and Tone ……………………..………..…………98

Lesson 10 A Survey of Modern African Poetry ………………………….………..………...103

Lesson 11 Negritude Poetry ………………………...…………………………….…….…….111

Lesson 12 Major Poets: Okot P’Bitek …………………...…………………………………...119

Self- Assessment Exercises……………………………………………………………………..142

Charles Kebaya, Poetry 2015 Page 2

I. Enable you acquire an understanding of the character of poetry as a genre of literature

Charles Kebaya, Poetry 2015 Page 3

1.2 Lesson Objectives

By the end of this section, you should be able to:

1.3 What is poetry?

Charles Kebaya, Poetry 2015 Page 4

Edwin Arlington Robinson

Edgar Allan Poe

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Charles Kebaya, Poetry 2015 Page 5

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Geoffrey Leech and Mick Short

Charles Kebaya, Poetry 2015 Page 6

1.4 Defining Characteristics of Poetry

Amateshe (1988) identifies the following as key characteristics of poetry:

Charles Kebaya, Poetry 2015 Page 7

1.5 Differences between Oral and Written Poetry

Charles Kebaya, Poetry 2015 Page 8

1.8 References/Further Reading

Charles Kebaya, Poetry 2015 Page 9

University Press, 1989.

Charles Kebaya, Poetry 2015 Page 10

2.2 Lesson Objectives

By the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

2.3 Types of Poetry

2.3.1 Narrative Poetry

Charles Kebaya, Poetry 2015 Page 11

ii. Choric nature

iii. High seriousness

Charles Kebaya, Poetry 2015 Page 12

Charles Kebaya, Poetry 2015 Page 13

The following are the characteristics of ballads:

Charles Kebaya, Poetry 2015 Page 14

The following is a notable example of an art ballad:

A Red, Red Rose