Monday, 16 January 2012
Tail of the Blue Bird Pages 36-80
When I read this section of the novel, the first thing I thought about was the corruption of the government in Ghana. I found it outrageous that Kayo was pulled over and stopped and charged with trying to destabilize the government. The reader even gets a sense of this corruption on page 53 where Donkor says that these high level positions in the government are solely "by appointment". This theme of corruption is the principal focus of this reading, it goes on to mention how these corrupt officials will dodge taxes and partake in illicit activities as well. Ultimately the author shows us how these officials use their power beyond justice, they use it to attain what they want, when they want. Because the threat of arrest is one that not many are willing to risk, they feel obligated to comply. This section of the novel ultimately makes me wonder how the author truly feels about the law enforcement system in Ghana. Is the system really as corrupt in Ghana as this book makes it out to be, or is it just the authors bias clouding his writing? It's an interesting thought, but one that I will never know for sure.
Thursday, 12 January 2012
Jean-Baptiste Tati-Loutard
Through reading Loutard's poetry I noticed a striking theme of the sea repeated throughout his first four poems. It makes sense considering that they from a book called "Poemes de la Mer" which translates to sea poems/poems of the sea. He uses a lot of nature imagery throughout his poetry such as "tree of the seasons", "earth of the past", "flow of seed", "first call of the sun" (61) all of these can be found in his first poem News of My Mother. He, like many other African poets also uses dark imagery especially in his poems Noonday in Immaturity and Pilgrimage to Loango Strand. Images such as "scent of their blood", "scars burnt", "life sickens me", "blind me", "estuary of death" (62-63) all follow this pattern. It is rather disturbing and intense to read yet it still is very interesting, just in a dark way. I had trouble understanding what his poetry was really about, but I have a feeling that there was a source of bitterness in his life that caused him to write the way he did. I really enjoyed the first four poems of his collection but the proceeding ones were far to dark for me. This poet has pent up anger or bitterness about something in his life and I am curious as to what it could possibly be. I could only speculate as to what it might be.
Big Journal Entry: Poetry Presentations
I choose to analyze the collection of poems by Gabriel Okara from Nigeria. In my presentation I really tore these poems apart with analysis and what they could mean, and why the writer used the style he did. I veered away from the subject of the poets personal life and focused much more on the actual poetry itself and full-on analysis.
1. I was really happy overall with how my presentation went. There were however a few things that I could have done better though. To start, I felt like I really grasped a good understanding of what each poem in Okara's selection of poems was about. Even though I had not planned out every detail of presentation out clearly, a lot of what I had to was instinctual. The poems were very easy to talk about in this period of time, I covered all the main points I needed to cover with the exception of one thing. I forgot to mention any detail of Okara's personal life which I felt would have been extremely useful. The cons of not talking about the poets life are mainly that the class doesn't get a good understanding of the poets background, but more importantly it might be easier for them to see how his personal life had an effect on his poetry. Regardless, I really enjoyed this project because it was a low-stress assignment but more importantly it was actually cool to see how poets from each country differed and remained the same as well. One thing I did notice for some presentations was that some people found it difficult to maintain the full required time and as a result would drag on, speak slowly or start rambling on about non-important stuff. This wasn't a serious problem, however it was one that I did notice for a few presentations. Some people did put a lot of enthusiasm into their presentations and recitations of their poems, at least I really enjoyed reciting the poem. In terms of what I liked about my poetry, I really liked how easy it was to talk about and analyze. Here is an example:
Moon in the Bucket
in the bucket
the rusty bucket
with water unclean
the Moon dancing to the gentle night wind
Look! all you who shout across the wall
with a million hates. Look at the dancing moon
It is peace unsoiled by the murk
and dirt of this bucket war.
Right off the bat the first thing that the reader notices is the constant repetition of words in this case (look, moon and bucket) this is a stylistic element of the poem that is noticeable right off the bat. The language is extremely simple perhaps because Okara didn't want anyone to read this poem and not understand it. Words such as "dirt" and "rusty" make the reader thing of living in impoverished conditions in a poor settlement. And finally there is the imagery that Okara conjures, it is one of separation and anger. Phrases such as "shout across the wall" imply a sense of a separation between two groups of people. There is a lot more to be said even about a small poem of his like this.
2. Throughout African Lit. I have felt that taking a much more specific approach to either novels or poetry in general is the best way to analyze a poem as opposed to taking a broad view, it is important to know the background of who you are studying, but it is also important to not let that skew your analysis of that authors' writing. One assumption I did make from reading this collection of poetry that he wrote was how pessimistic he was. Okara leaves these disturbing and negative images in the head of the writers. He uses phrases such as "abandoned roots", "grief stricken mourners", "deathless earth", "earth dying" (229) in his poem The Snowflakes Sail Gently Down which I find amusing because it greatly contrasts with the soft sounding title he has. Another observation I made was that he had some sort of link to religion because he makes a reference to either god or gods in his poem. Though me mightn't have been very religious he still makes a mention of god in all his poems with the exception of his last one, Moon in the Bucket. Through his poetry and managed to come to two conclusions about him, first off there was undoubtedly a source of pessimism in his life as none of his poems offer any hope or overall positive message. Secondly, religion was of some importance to him because he makes a mention of god(s) in almost all of his poetry, perhaps he sought comfort in it which helped him deal with his pessimistic life?
3. I felt that my poet was very similar to Laksh's poet in a stylistic sense. Like Okara, Laksh's poet Dipoko uses words that convey a great sense of anguish and pessimism such as "agony", "black hood", "despairing" (37). I saw the greatest similarity his poet and mine but I noticed that a lot of these African poets despite all being from different countries still tended to use dark imagery that didn't give the reader a strong sense of hope. That being said, Okara is generally a unique poet. He doesn't have any strong political motivation that other poets and he wasn't directly exposed to the Apartheid movement. He is undoubtedly an interesting and unique poet who can't be compared side by side to another country and/or person.
1. I was really happy overall with how my presentation went. There were however a few things that I could have done better though. To start, I felt like I really grasped a good understanding of what each poem in Okara's selection of poems was about. Even though I had not planned out every detail of presentation out clearly, a lot of what I had to was instinctual. The poems were very easy to talk about in this period of time, I covered all the main points I needed to cover with the exception of one thing. I forgot to mention any detail of Okara's personal life which I felt would have been extremely useful. The cons of not talking about the poets life are mainly that the class doesn't get a good understanding of the poets background, but more importantly it might be easier for them to see how his personal life had an effect on his poetry. Regardless, I really enjoyed this project because it was a low-stress assignment but more importantly it was actually cool to see how poets from each country differed and remained the same as well. One thing I did notice for some presentations was that some people found it difficult to maintain the full required time and as a result would drag on, speak slowly or start rambling on about non-important stuff. This wasn't a serious problem, however it was one that I did notice for a few presentations. Some people did put a lot of enthusiasm into their presentations and recitations of their poems, at least I really enjoyed reciting the poem. In terms of what I liked about my poetry, I really liked how easy it was to talk about and analyze. Here is an example:
Moon in the Bucket
Look!
Look out therein the bucket
the rusty bucket
with water unclean
Look!
A luminous plate is floating -the Moon dancing to the gentle night wind
Look! all you who shout across the wall
with a million hates. Look at the dancing moon
It is peace unsoiled by the murk
and dirt of this bucket war.
Right off the bat the first thing that the reader notices is the constant repetition of words in this case (look, moon and bucket) this is a stylistic element of the poem that is noticeable right off the bat. The language is extremely simple perhaps because Okara didn't want anyone to read this poem and not understand it. Words such as "dirt" and "rusty" make the reader thing of living in impoverished conditions in a poor settlement. And finally there is the imagery that Okara conjures, it is one of separation and anger. Phrases such as "shout across the wall" imply a sense of a separation between two groups of people. There is a lot more to be said even about a small poem of his like this.
2. Throughout African Lit. I have felt that taking a much more specific approach to either novels or poetry in general is the best way to analyze a poem as opposed to taking a broad view, it is important to know the background of who you are studying, but it is also important to not let that skew your analysis of that authors' writing. One assumption I did make from reading this collection of poetry that he wrote was how pessimistic he was. Okara leaves these disturbing and negative images in the head of the writers. He uses phrases such as "abandoned roots", "grief stricken mourners", "deathless earth", "earth dying" (229) in his poem The Snowflakes Sail Gently Down which I find amusing because it greatly contrasts with the soft sounding title he has. Another observation I made was that he had some sort of link to religion because he makes a reference to either god or gods in his poem. Though me mightn't have been very religious he still makes a mention of god in all his poems with the exception of his last one, Moon in the Bucket. Through his poetry and managed to come to two conclusions about him, first off there was undoubtedly a source of pessimism in his life as none of his poems offer any hope or overall positive message. Secondly, religion was of some importance to him because he makes a mention of god(s) in almost all of his poetry, perhaps he sought comfort in it which helped him deal with his pessimistic life?
3. I felt that my poet was very similar to Laksh's poet in a stylistic sense. Like Okara, Laksh's poet Dipoko uses words that convey a great sense of anguish and pessimism such as "agony", "black hood", "despairing" (37). I saw the greatest similarity his poet and mine but I noticed that a lot of these African poets despite all being from different countries still tended to use dark imagery that didn't give the reader a strong sense of hope. That being said, Okara is generally a unique poet. He doesn't have any strong political motivation that other poets and he wasn't directly exposed to the Apartheid movement. He is undoubtedly an interesting and unique poet who can't be compared side by side to another country and/or person.
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