THE PIANO AND THE DRUMS BY GABRIEL OKARA The central theme of the poem
hinges on the effect of foreign culture to Africans
. This theme he elaborates using the effect of music on the poetic persona as an analogy. The poem tries to emphasize the purity of African content before the interference of civilization.
The poem Piano and Drums is short, simple and concise. The author,
Gabriel Okara
, describes his life experiences of two very different societies, Africa and the Western world. The speaker's emotions are described through the main theme; cultural conflict.
What does the piano symbolize in piano and drums?
Symbolism – the drum and piano in the poem symbolize
African and western culture
respectively. Personification – While lines 2 and 3 in stanza one shows the drum telegraphing like a human being, lines 17 and 18 also depicts the piano speaking like a human being.
Where do I choose Gabriel Okara?
‘I' in Okara's poems generally refers to
the tribe
. … The poet implies that he is currently imprisoned in the present generation and its identity crisis. The earlier generation's gaze would not go beyond; but his does and to him, the world is looked at from the brink.
What type of poem is piano and drums?
Piano and Drums is
a four-stanza narrative poem
. It speaks of the surreal and mentally challenging experience the persona has gone through one early morning. We will look at the subject matter of the poem Piano and Drums, stanza by stanza.
What is the mood of the poem piano and drums?
Confusion
trails the mood of the speaker in the poem, Piano and Drums. The speaker is at the riverside in the morning and then comes the “mystic rhythms of jungle drums.” It comes like bleeding flesh, reminding him of the beginning of life.
What is the setting of piano and drums?
THE PIANO AND THE DRUMS BY GABRIEL OKARA
In the poem, the piano and the drums, the poetic persona shows the difference between the normal lifestyle of Africans and that of the modern world. The setting of the poem, as is seen in the poem,
dates from the advent of civilization to the modern time.
Who wrote the poem Abiku?
Poetry: Abiku by
J. P. Clark
.
What is the poem vanity all about?
The poem addresses
the need for Africans not to neglect their past or roots
, obviously, the poet-persona is concerned about the abandonment of ancestral ways and the teachings of the ancestors, as obtainable in the traditional African society, by the westernised generations of Africans.
What kind of person is Gabriel Okara?
Gabriel Okara, in full Gabriel Imomotimi Gbaingbain Okara, (born April 21, 1921, Bumodi, Nigeria—died March 25, 2019, Yenagoa, Nigeria),
Nigerian poet and novelist
whose verse had been translated into several languages by the early 1960s.
What is the major theme of the poem Abiku?
Theme of Arrogance- Abiku is
boastful and arrogant
. He does not care about how people feel when he keeps coming and dying. He does not even pity the mother who is suffering.
What is the meaning of Abiku?
Abiku is a Yoruba word that can be translated as “
predestined to death
“. It is from (abi) “that which was born” and (iku) “death”.
What is the metaphorical theme of the poem Abiku?
This poem, Abiku talks about
the mythical world of a child
, the stubborn spirit Abiku that goes and comes back to its mother for rebirth on a continuous process. This poem is an appeal to Abiku to show pity on the ill-fated mother whose lot has been to bury one child after the other.
What was the prominent theme in the poem vanity?
The
theme of wisdom of the ancestors
is invaluable in the Poem Vanity by Birago Diop. The peom presents ancestors as a weservoir of sound teaching and wisdom which are sufficient to guide their offspring through the challenges of life these teaching and wisdom are describe as “cries” and “wild appeals”.
