What is Poetry?

Poetry is the expression of deep feelings of joy or sadness through the use of carefully and creatively selected words. These feelings are captured through figurative use of language like metaphor, simile, personification, hyperbole etc. As pointed out earlier, you may call a person a pig because of how bad you feel about the person’s personality. Jesus is called the Lion of Juda not because He is a lion but because He cannot be beaten in any way. He wins every battle. You could be so troubled or excited so much that you lack words to express your innermost feeling, and you liken the situation or person to something else that would create a more vivid picture. This is what deep feeling is about. Feelings expressed through poetry can be said to be more intense than that expressed in prose or drama.

In calling someone a dog, you try to economise words and time and space. You use a few words within a short time and space to say a lot. You try to talk about how good a person is and instead of taking all the words in the world to describe your feeling about this person, you could just summarise in the few words: “He is an angel.” You won’t need any more time or words for explanation. With poetry, you can use only ten lines to say something that would need one hundred prose lines to say.

Now I am sure you can see how important poetry is. Even in prose, writers now use poetic language because of the convincing effect it would add to their story. It makes an expression more vivid and convincing. You may also decide to start writing poems from now, or speak in poetic terms. If I say that “I have been to your house a thousand times to look for you,” don’t call me a lair, because I am not lying; I am using hyperbole to express how seriously I needed to meet with you and that I have made every effort to find you.

Know who the writer of a poem is if you want to understand the poem

Not mandatory, but it is important to know who the writer of a poem is, where he was when he wrote the poem. His experience definitely has affected or influenced his writing. As said earlier, poetry is an expression of a genuine feeling from the heart of the writer. There are no lies in them and they are mostly not fiction. It has been observed that poets die young. You should know why because we have said earlier that it is the person’s deep feeling. That feeling could be that of pain, regret, frustration and it may be that of excitement or great joy. However, the majority are sad which may explain why most poets would die at young age. Some even commit suicide because of their painful experiences. Even though we celebrate them through there writing.

Analysis of Gabriel Okara’s Piano and Drums

Before you go through this analysis, read “How to Understand Poetry”

Now let us ride on over this piece of poem; “piano and drum” by Gabriel Okara. You should read it first to the end, then try to understand it and get what it is about. On the surface, it may not be making much sense but with close attention you will see the sense in it.

When at break of day at a riverside
I hear the jungle drums telegraphing
the mystic rhythm, urgent, raw
like bleeding flesh, speaking of
primal youth and the beginning
I see the panther ready to pounce
the leopard snarling about to leap
and the hunters crouch with spears poised;

And my blood ripples, turns torrent,
topples the years and at once I’m
in my mother’s laps a suckling;
at once I’m walking simple
paths with no innovations,
rugged, fashioned with the naked
warmth of hurrying feet and groping hearts
in green leaves and wild flowers pulsing.

Then I hear a wailing piano
solo speaking of complex ways in
tear-furrowed concerto;
of far away lands
and new horizons with
coaxing diminuendo, counterpoint,
crescendo. But lost in the labyrinth
of its complexities, it ends in the middle
of a phrase at a daggerpoint.

And I lost in the morning mist
of an age at a riverside keep
wandering in the mystic rhythm
of jungle drums and the concerto.

Does this poem make any sense to you? Maybe it does and maybe only little and maybe not at all. If it looks confusing, maybe we should try looking up some difficult words in the dictionary.

e.g.

i.                    mystic – seeking to know God

ii.                  primal – primitive

iii.                panther – a black leopard

iv.                pounce – to attack

v.                  snarling – growling

vi.                crouch – bend low

vii.              concerto –

viii.            horizons –

ix.                groping –

x.                  ripples –

xi.                labyrinth –

xii.              diminuendo –

xiii.            counterpoint –

xiv.            topples –

 

Do this for the first stanza and read again and try to make some sense.

Talking about riverside in the morning, jungle drums, primal youth, panther, leopard, hunters and spears should give an idea that the stanza is about a rural setting, a village let’s say. Usually in the villages people go to the stream early in the morning to get water. Perhaps the persona has just done the same, and he hears the sound of drum in the bushes; and drums are sometimes used in the villages to send messages to the people. He “hears the jungle drums telegraphing the mystic rhythm” – a message of urgency and fear about the illiterate villagers who are mostly hunters. The people are faced with a leopard - a dangerous animal.

I am sure you can now have a picture of villagers, precisely youths, trying to defend themselves against a leopard in the bush in the morning. Now find the meanings of difficult words in stanza two.

Line nine shows the terrible feeling of the person and suddenly, he feels like a baby who cannot help himself because he does not know how. He is confused in this jungle and feeling helpless.

In stanza three he hears “a wailing piano where the singer’s voice is that of weeping and talking about something new that has forced itself into the society to change the original existence.

Stanza four he says he is lost and confused because of the nature of the jungle drum and concerto.

The jungle drum represents our traditional society, its culture and experience. The piano concerto represents the western civilization. It is true that this days, the African society is a mixture of African traditions and western civilization so that people are confused not know how to live the tow. They find it difficult to hold onto any of the two alone. This is the position of the persona on the sad note. Civilization has changed our way of life yet it has not left it any better.

How do you feel at this point? The poem is simple, is it not?

Now let’s examine the poetic devices Okara has used. You can try that first before you come back and we do it together.

-          You can notice the flow of idea from line one to line two, what do you call that? It is a run on line. The writer uses that to break the long whole of idea into smaller parts so the reader can follow easily. The poem has run-on-line all through.

-          I hear the jungle drums telegraphing. You may ask; can drums send telegraphs? So, what would we call such expression? “The same applies to wailing piano.” Is it personification?

-          Line 4 – “like bleeding flesh” is an example of simile. The writer compares the mystic rhythm to a wounded body to make the message of agony very vivid.

-          “break of day” in line one, shows the repetition of vowel sounds which is an example of assonance. Likewise “jungle drums.”

-          Alliteration can be seen in “panther …pounce, turns torrent, morning mist”.

-          Repetition – “at once” is repeated in lines 11 and 13

-          Metaphor – “my blood ripples”.

Leave a comment about how you feel about this discussion.

Ask other questions.

Types of poetry

1.      Lyric: this is a short song that expresses personal feelings about certain important issues. A lyre is usually played to accompany it.

2.      Narrative poem: this poem tells a story.

3.      Ode: is a poem which speaks about the quality of a person or an object in an appreciative manner. Example: Ode on a Grecian urn, by John Keats.

4.      Pastoral: this poem describes the simple life of a rural community, like shepherds, farmers, music, dance etc. which distinguishes the rural people from the urban people.

5.      Ballard: this is a story passed from one generation to another by word of mouth, through a song accompanied by a dance. Its theme is often tragic.

6.      Sonnet: this is a fourteen-line poem divided into two verses of six and eight lines (sestet and octave). It usually captures themes of love.

7.      Epic: this is a long narrative poem often about heroic achievements. It captures historic facts about heroes which may be human or supernatural.

8.      Limerick: it is poem of five lines with the rhyming scheme aabba. It does not address serious issues because its words are usually indecent and humorous.

9.      Lullaby: this is poem that is song for a child to go to sleep.

10.  Panegyric: this is a poem of praise used in a traditional African setting. It is used to praise humans, animals or gods whether on positive or negative references.

11.  Blank verse/ free verse: this is a poem that does not have a rhyme scheme.

12.  Dirge: it is poem used to express grief when a person dies. It is a sorrowful song.

13.  Traditional poem: this is a poem that is African in form and style.