Great West African Poems 2

GREAT WEST AFRICAN POEMS 2
The notes that follow poems are designed to help in the extraction of the meaning of poems and in the appreciation of the technique of the poets.
The general pattern of the notes should be clearly understood. The first line-by-line explanations are those of difficult words or words used in a sense special to the poem; these are followed by interpretations of meaning and comments on the technique of the poetric expression.
Here are some poems from Wole Soyinka, Birago Diop, Kwesi Brew and J.P Clark

Wole Soyinka: He was born in 1934 at Abeokuta, Nigeria. He studied in University of Ibadan and at Leeds University, England where he graduated in English Language and Literature. The SEASON is one of his many poems.

SEASON
Rust is ripeness, rust,
And the wilted corn-plume
Pollen is mating-time when swallows
Weave a dance
Of feathered arrows
Thread corn-stalks in winged
Streaks of light. And we love to hear
Spliced phrases of the wind, to hear
Rasps in the field, where corn-leaves
Pierce like bamboo slivers
Now, garners we,
Awaiting rust on tassels, draw
Long shadows from the dusk, wreathe
The thatch in woods-smoke. Laden stalks
Ride the germ's decay- we await
The promise of the rust

Birago Diop: He was born in 1906 at Dakar, Senegal. He was educated in Senegal and in France where in qualifed in veterinary surgeon. VANITY is one of his many poems he used in expressing the presence of the ancestor.

VANITY
If we tell, gently, gently
All that we shall one day have to tell,
Who then will hear our voices without laughter,
Sad complaining voices of beggars
Who indeed will hear them without laughter?
If we roughly of our torments
Ever increasing from the start of things
What eyes will watch our large mouths
Shaped by the laughter of big children
What eyes will watch our large mouth?
What hearts will listen to our clamoring?
What ear to our pitiful anger
Which grows in us like a tumor
In the black depth of our plaintive throats?
When our Dead comes with their Dead
When they have spoken to us in their clumsy voices;
Just as our ears were deaf
To their cries, to their wild appeals
Just as our ears were deaf
They have left on the earth their cries,
In the air, on the water, where they have traced their signs
For us blind deaf and unworthy Sons
Who see nothing of what they have made
In the air, on the water, where they have traced their signs
And since we did not understand the dead
Since we have never listen to their cries
If we weep, gently, gently
If we cry roughly to our torments
What heart will listen to our clamoring,
What ear to our sobbing hearts?


KWESI BREW: He was born in 1928 at Cape Coast, Ghana, was orphaned at an early age. He had his studies in Ghana. THE MESH is a love poem.

THE MESH
We have come to the cross-roads
And I must either leave or come with you
I lingered over the choice
But in the darkness of my doubt
You lifted the lamp of love
And I saw in your face
The road that I should take

J.P CLARK: John Pepper Clark was born at Delta, Nigeria in 1935. He studied in the university of Ibadan. He is a graduate of English Literature. STREAM SIDE EXCHANGE is a poem about the future put in the simple frame work of childhood anxiety.

STREAM SIDE EXCHANGE
Child:    River bird, river bird
    Sitting all day long
    On the hook over grass
    River bird, river bird,
    Sing to me a song
    Of all that pass
    And say,
    Will mother come back today?
Bird:    You cannot know
    And should not bother;
    Tide and market come and go
    And so shall your mother.