ENGL 263: POETRY AND DRAMA

THE CONTENT OF THE COURSE IS MADE UP OF THE FOLLOWING:

A: SIX SELECTED POEMS
B: ONE PLAY (DRAMA)
DETAILS OF COURSE CONTENT
• POETRY: A: THINGS FALL APART BY KOFI KINATA
• B: SHE WALKS IN BEAUTY BY LORD BYRON
• C: THE SECOND COMING BY WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS
• D: WHEN I CONSIDER HOW MY LIGHT IS SPENT BY JOHN MILTON
• E: DEATH IN THE DAWN BY WOLE SOYINKA
• F: NIGHT RAIN BY JOHN PEPPER CLARK
• DRAMA: MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
INTRODUCTION: WHAT IS LITERATURE? AND
WHAT IS POETRY
• Literature is a subject that is interested in the study of creative works.
These works could be fictional(created through imagination) or they
could be biographical(true to life and are divided into
autobiographical and biographical works). We study these works to
educate ourselves about life, about the culture of other people and
our own culture, to draw moral lessons, to entertain ourselves, to
learn how language is used creatively, to sharpen our skills in
criticism, and to develop our creative skills. Though literature studies
creative works, these works are written by humans who lived in
particular societies and in our world and therefore take the raw
material of their works from life and hence, there is a closer link
between literature and life.
GENRES OF LITERATURE
• Literature is generally divided into three genres: poetry, drama and
prose. Poetry is the oldest and the most condensed, drama is the next
in terms of age and prose is the youngest. Literature can exist in the
written form and is therefore referred to as written literature and it
can also exist in the oral form and is therefore referred as oral
literature or orature. The basic ingredient common to both written
and oral literature is the idea of creativity when it comes to the use of
language. Language is like a paint to the creative writer or composer.
Language is used to creatively paint the images and imagery that a
writer or composer wants to paint for our mental consumption and to
prick our senses. Depending on which genre the writer/composer is
into, we can have poets, dramatists/playwrights, and novelists.
What is poetry?
• Poetry can tentatively be defined as a form of art that has a message and
uses a specific medium to express that message. The medium of expression
could be language, performance or performance together with language. A
poem is therefore a unique way of expressing an emotion, giving an
opinion or telling a story. Poetry is an art form whose pleasure is derived
mainly from sound.
• We have two main types of poetry: the narrative poetry and the lyrical
poetry
• Narrative poetry as the name denotes is a kind of poetry that is used to tell
or narrate a story. Narrative poems include the epics and the ballads.
Because of their narrative nature, they tend to be long and extansive but
their language is verse and not prose. Example of epics include the epic of
Sundiata, The Rape of the Lock by John Pope, Paradise Lost by John Milton,
etc. We also have primary epics, secondary epics and mock epics
What is poetry?
• Lyrical poetry, unlike the narrative one, is usually short, highly
rhythmic and is used to express the feelings, musings or emotions of
a speaker/ persona in a poem. The word lyrical is derived from the
name of a musical instrument called the lyre because of the close
association between the lyre and this kind of poetry. The sonnet, the
ode, the elegy, the dirge, the epithalamium, the aubade, the
villanelle, the haiku etc are all examples of lyrical poetry.
• A third type of poetry that is less known is the dramatic poem. It
possesses the elements of surprise, dialogue and the use of poetic
features. My Last Duchess by Robert Browning is a clear example of
the dramatic poem.
FEATURES OF POETRY
• Every poem has all or most of the following features:
• Poet versus persona/personae
• Title
• Subject matter
• Theme
• Structure
• Language(diction, imagery)
• Setting
• tone
Features of poetry
• Atmosphere
• Connotative/ denotative meanings
DETAILS ON FEATURES OF POETRY

• Every written poem has an author/ composer/ or the one who wrote it.
That person who composed the poem is different from what we technically
referred to as the persona(e) of the poem. The persona is the speaking
voice in the poem. In analyzing the poem and for the sake of objectivity, we
normally refer to the persona as the one who does or says most of the
things in the poem. We always want to take away the author from the
poem and concentrate on the context, language, imagery, structure and
sound pattern in the poem. By so doing, we remain objective and faithful
to what the text of the poem says and not concentrate on the biography of
the author in order to elucidate meaning on the poem. In traditional oral
poetry, it is possible to come across compositions that have collective or
communal ownership. In the written case, it is always individual ownership
that is involved.
DETAILS ON FEATURES OF POETRY
• Most poems have titles. These titles serve as a window to the content
or meaning of the poem. Sometimes, the way a poem is titled throws
a lot of meaning into the content of the poem. In other words, there
could be a direct link between the meaning of a poem and its title.
However, sometimes, some writers intentionally use titles that are
ironical, paradoxical, exaggerated, etc in order to mislead
unsuspecting readers and to create a special meaning. Sometimes,
such tricky titles lead to the addition of creative flair to the meaning
of a poem. For example, The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born by Ayi
Kwei Armah and The Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta are
some of the crafty titles that can easily mislead unsuspecting readers
DETAILS ON FEATURES OF POETRY
• A poem’s subject matter is what the poem is all about. If the poem is
written on war, we say the subject matter is on war or it is about war.
If it is a poem on death, we say the subject matter is death. However,
there is a close relationship between subject matter and theme. If the
poem talks about war and the subject matter is war, then the theme
refers to the specific general moral lesson about war that the poem
talked about. From the subject matter we derive the theme and
whereas the subject matter can be stated in a word, the theme is
usually a clause or a sentence. Thus, there is a specific reason why we
write on war, love, death, unfaithfulness, etc. That specific reason is
what usually constitutes the theme of the poem
DETAILS ON FEATURES OF POETRY
• Structure in poetry is an important and interesting feature. It is
interesting because it is not every poem that is written in two or three
or four stanzas. A single line can constitute a whole poem. At the
same time, there are some types of poems that have fixed structures.
Such poems include the sonnet, the villanelle, the haiku, etc. In
looking at the structure of the poem, we are interested in the division
of the poem into stanzas, how many lines per stanza, we are
interested in the mid-rhymes and end rhymes, we are interested in
any rhyming scheme that we can establish, we are interested in types
of lines used(run-on lines/end stopped lines), the use caesura etc and
how they all contribute to the overall meaning of the poem.
DETAILS ON FEATURES OF POETRY
• Language is the paint and brush of the poet and therefore, words used in
the poem cannot be glossed over. Language in poetry is normally divided
into two sections for detailed analysis(diction/imagery). The choice of
words used in the poem is normally referred to as diction and the literary
devices or figures of speech used constitute the imagery. In analyzing these
two aspects of the poem, we usually concentrate on how appropriate the
diction or imagery is to the subject matter and theme, how they contribute
to the meaning of the poem and the beauty of the language used, how
technical, ordinary, archaic they are and why. It is not enough to identify an
image and move on. Its meaning and contribution to the overall meaning
of the poem and the beauty of language used must be explained as well.
DETAILS ON FEATURES OF POETRY
• Setting is also an important component in poetry. It simply refers to
the place where the poem is set or written. We can therefore talk
about historical and geographical settings. These two elements talk
about time and place and these elements are important in poetry
analysis. They help understand the context of the literary piece. Tone
also is the attitude of the persona towards the subject matter based
on the choice of words. The tone could be ironical, harsh, critical,
satiric, passionate, detached, etc
WHAT IS VERSE?
• Verse is the language of poetry. Verse is any arrangement of words to
produce a regular effect through metre, rhythm, and or rhyme.
Consequently, all poetry is written or composed in verse, but not all
poems have the attributes of metre, rhythm and rhyme as well.
• Blank verse has all the features of poetry except, in most cases,
rhyme. In most of the Shakespearean plays, almost all the noble
characters speak in blank verse whereas villains and common
characters speak in prose. Blank verse is usually in iambic pentameter,
the nearest pattern to human speech.
WHAT IS VERSE
• Free verse is a kind of arrangement of words that does not give much
attention to metre or rhyme, or even rhythm. Its distinctive feature as
poetry derives from the sequence or iteration of ideas than anything else;
it is therefore very much like prose arranged in shorter lengths to give the
visual shape or structure as that of the verse. Metre, rhythm, and rhyme
are therefore incidental to free verse. The poetry of T. S. Eliot and most
other 20th century poets is largely free verse.
• Rhyme: This is the sameness of the sounds of words (particularly their
ends) that are not related in meaning. Thus the endings of the words have
similar sounds though the words are not synonyms. Rhyme was one of the
distinguishing features of poetry up to the beginning of the 20th century;
but it is now, along with other things, no more a requirement of poetry.
WHAT IS VERSE?
• Rhyme could be true or false. A true rhyme is a rhyme involving two words
with the same (or different) vowel arrangement in spelling but have the
same vowel sound in pronunciation; e.g, sound and found, bough and bow.
A false rhyme is one in which two words with the same vowel arrangement
in spelling have different pronunciation; e.g bow (weapon) and bow (to
bend).
• Rhythm: rhythm is the movement of words through a regular succession
of strong and weak accents that gives indication of “pulse” or “beat” in
poetry or prose. Rhythm is more important to poetry than it is to prose.
Rhythm engages the ear through a regular flow of feet and thereby enables
the mind to take in definite stretches of thought and feelings expressed in
the lines. A break in rhythm nearly always implies a break in thought and
feeling and calls for a new adjustment or reaction from the reader or
listener.
WHAT IS VERSE?
• Metre: This is the word used in describing the fixed foot-pattern in a
whole poem. It simply means measure. It is the metre which gives the
rhythmic shape of the whole poem. Some poems have rigid or regular
metre in which the rhythmic shape of the first stanza is repeated
throughout the whole poem; others have irregular metres in which
the rhythmic shape varies from stanza to stanza. There is therefore a
close link between music and poetry and the example of the ballad
and the lyric attest to this.
THE SONNET
• It is a poem that has a fixed form: fourteen lines. The composer of sonnets
is often referred to as a sonneteer. The sonnet is the most popular example
of the lyric. The etymology of the word sonnet can be traced to the Italian
word ‘sonnetto,’ which means a sound or a song. Obviously, considering its
musical nature, it is the meaning of ‘a song’ that fits the word. The sonnet
started as a literary composition in Italy and was made popular by
Francesco Petrarch and hence the name Petrarchan sonnet. The Petrarchan
sonnet is normally divided into an octave and a sestet. The rhyming
scheme for the octave is normally constant while the rhyming scheme for
that of the sestet remains flexible and changeable. For the octave, we
normally have abba, abba as its rhyming scheme. The sestet can take the
form of cd, cd, cd, or cde, cde or a different combination altogether. There
is usually a volta in between the octave and the sestet in which there is
always a change in the line of argument presented in the poem
THE SONNET
• It was much later that the sonnet moved to England and English
writers experimented with the sonnet for some time. Shakespeare
wrote a lot of sonnets and he also helped in establishing the form of
what later became known as the Shakespearean, English or
Elizabethan sonnet. Instead of composing it in an octave and a sestet,
the English sonnet was rather composed in quatrains and a couplet.
The quatrains present the argument and the couplet sums up or
resolves the problem stated in the poem. The rhyming scheme for the
typical Shakespearean sonnet is normally abab, cdcd, efef, gg. The
typical Shakespearean sonnet is usually composed in the iambic
pentameter.
THE SONNET
• Much later, another version of the sonnet was developed in England
by another group of authors. This third version was known as the
Spenserian sonnet which was also composed in quatrains and a
couplet but with a different rhyming scheme. The rhyming scheme for
the Spenserian sonnet is usually abab, bcbc, cdcd, ff.
“DEATH IN THE DAWN” BY WOLE SOYINKA
• Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka was born in Abeokuta, South-
west Nigeria on July 13, 1934. He is a Yoruba by tribe and has written
works in poetry, drama, prose and essays as well. In all, his novels are
about three(The Interpreters, Season of Anomy and his most recent
novel which was published in September 2021 and titled Chronicles
from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth. He won the Nobel
Prize in literature in 1986 and has gone on to win Europe Theatre
Prize and other awards. His poetry has been widely anthologized and
most of his plays staged all over the world. His prose works are also
studied in universities all over the world.
Soyinka as a dramatist
• Soyinka is best known as a dramatist and has published many plays since he
started writing. The Swamp Dwellers and The Lion and the Jewel (a light
comedy), which were performed in Ibadan in 1958 and 1959 and were
published in 1963. Later satirical comedies are The Trial of Brother Jero
(performed in 1960, publ. 1963) with its sequel, Jero’s Metamorphosis
(performed 1974, publ. 1973), A Dance of the Forests (performed 1960,
publ.1963), Kongi’s Harvest (performed 1965, publ. 1967) and Madmen and
Specialists (performed 1970, publ. 1971). Among Soyinka’s serious philosophic
plays are (apart from “The Swamp Dwellers“) The Strong Breed (performed
1966, publ. 1963), The Road ( 1965) and Death and the King’s Horseman
(performed 1976, publ. 1975). In The Bacchae of Euripides (1973), he has
rewritten the Bacchae for the African stage and in Opera Wonyosi (performed
1977, publ. 1981), he bases himself on John Gay’s Beggar’s Opera and Brecht’s
The Threepenny Opera. Soyinka’s other dramatic works are A Play of Giants
(1984) and Requiem for a Futurologist (1985), King Baabu (2002) and The
Beatification of Area Boy(1995).
STYLE AND PREFERRED THEMES
• Soyinka’s themes are eclectic and diverse: they include racial
discrimination, man’s inhumanity to man, political corruption, social
injustice, death, etc. He uses elaborate imagery in the form of satire,
antithesis, dramatic monologue, biblical allusions, etc to enlighten,
entertain and celebrate different topical issues. He is generally
regarded as a difficult poet and hence there is no enthusiasm in
exploring the full range of his poetic art. K. E. Senanu and T. Vincent
write that “ Soyinka’s writings are sophisticated” while D. I. Nwoga
says that Soyinka’s poetry is characterised by “obscure allusions,”
“turgidity” and an “abstract and esoteric language”.
THEMES IN DEATH IN THE DAWN BY WOLE
SOYINKA
• The first theme in Death in the Dawn is the inevitability of death. No
matter what we do as humans, we cannot avoid death. The
inevitability of death as a theme is refereed to in his other poems
such as Post Mortem, Death in the Dawn, Prisoner and Season
• The next theme in the poem is the uncertainties about life. To bring
this theme into fruition, the author uses devices such as antithesis in
the title, irony and contrast in other sections of the poem to establish
this theme.
• Finally, the last theme one can talk about in the poem is myth and
ritual or the theme of superstition. Africans as we are, the belief in
spiritual things that cannot be scientifically proven is with us.
 ANALYSIS
• Death in the Dawn by Soyinka
• Traveller, you must set out
At dawn. And wipe your feet upon
The dog-nose wetness of earth.
• This is the first stanza of this dramatic monologue in which the persona
addresses the reader as a Traveller and life in general as a journey that we all go
through in life. In this journey, death is unavoidable and nothing is certain. The
title contains an antithesis in the combination of death and dawn. Dawn
symbolizes new beginning, hope, and has a positive connotation. But death
occurs in a dawn thus nullifying all the positive connotations of dawn as a
symbol of hope and new beginning. This makes life uncertain and it also makes
death inevitable. The persona recommends travelling at dawn when the earth is
still wet like “the dog-nose wetness”. This is a powerful metaphor that is African
in its origin and aptly compares the dampness of the earth at dawn to the nose
of a dog. The nose of the dog is usually wet just like the earth is usually damp at
dawn.
ANALYSIS
Let sunrise quench your lamps, and watch
Faint brush pricklings in the sky light
Cottoned feet to break the early earthworm
On the hoe. Now shadows stretch with sap
Not twighlight’s death and sad prostration
This soft kindling, soft receding breeds
Racing joys and apprehensions for
A naked day, burdened hulks retract,
Stoop to the mist in faceless throng
To wake the silent markets - swift, mute
Processions on grey byways…
ANALYSIS
The second stanza is a an eleven line stanza in which the persona advises the
reader to set off for the journey early enough. It is the sunrise that will
replace the lamp of the traveler in the middle of the journey. The traveller
must set off at the time when farmers and traders set off early in the
morning to the farm and market respectively. “Faint brush pricklings in the
sky light” refers to the early morning sun rays and the shadows that are
created by the early morning sun rays are full of vitality and stand up straight
in contrast to the twilight’s shadows that lie prostrate on the ground. Again,
while the morning shadows will grow darker and stronger and point to life,
the twilight shadows point to disappearance in the night. Thus contrast is
created here between life and death, telling us how intertwined the two are.
Racing joys and apprehensions for the naked day is also used here to
highlight the uncertainties about life: the naked day is the source of both
joys and apprehensions. The “grey” image which represents death in Post
Mortem and other poems has been referred to in this poem again.
ANALYSIS
On this
Counterpane, it was -
Sudden winter at the death
Of dawn’s lone trumpeter, cascades
Of white feather-flakes, but it proved
A futile rite. Propitiation sped
Grimly on, before.
In this third stanza of the poem, reference is made to the killing of a white cock by a car. The
feathers of the cock after it has been hit by the car are described as “sudden winter” and the
cock itself personified as “dawn’s lone trumpeter”. The falling feathers are further described as
“ cascades of white-feather –flakes”. The killing of the cock is supposed to be a propitiatory
rites to the god of road, ogun and which is supposed to save the life of the driver. However, we
are told that the rite is a futile one and will not achieve the desired effect. This is what raises
the theme of myth and ritual or the theme of superstition. We believe in gods, in ancestors and
in the role of the fowl as a propitiatory animal to the gods and ancestors. The use of alliteration
as contained in the fifth and sixth lines of this stanza is interesting. It captures the lightness of
the feathers and the ease which they are flying and landing on the ground as if it is a cascade of
water.
ANALYSIS
The right foot for joy, the left, dread
And the mother prayed, Child
May you never walk
When the road waits, famished.
In this fourth stanza, the theme of superstition or rites and myth is
continued. The belief is that the road has a god in the form of ogun,
and when it is famished(personified), it can easily cause accidents. It is
also believed that by stepping out with the right foot, one can avoid
bad luck whereas stepping out with the left foot first brings bad luck.
Every mother’s prayer is that the son or daughter should never travel
when the road is famished.
ANALYSIS
Traveller you must set forth
At dawn.
I promise marvels of the holy hour
Presages as the white cock’s flapped
Perverse impalement - as who would dare
The wrathful wings of man’s Progression…
In this fifth stanza, the persona continues to address the reader as Traveller and
this traveller must set out at dawn. The white cock is knocked by the car and the
persona warns of the marvels (wonders) of travelling at dawn as the white cock is
knocked dead by the car. The angry wings(wheels) of man’s progression actually
refers to the car. The speed at which it is moving is compared to a car flying and
metaphorically, this progression also refers to scientific and technological progress
in life. Life is not only short but progress in man’s life is also moving at a very fast
pace. Ellipsis is used in the last line of this stanza create meaning that is unsaid in
the poem in this stanza
ANALYSIS
But such another Wraith! Brother,
Silenced in the startled hug of
Your invention — is this mocked grimace
This closed contortion – I?
In this last stanza, the persona refers to another death. We just witnessed the
death of the cock, and now there is another death. This death is rather ironic: “ a
Brother is silenced in the startled hug of his own invention.” The car created
through man’s invention to provide comfort and progress is the source of this
death. This contrast between the good and bad side of the car helps in highlighting
the theme of uncertainty in the poem. The car is personified by hugging this
Brother. It is again personified by being startled: the car itself is surprised about the
sudden death of the driver. The sudden but painful expression of death on the face
of the driver is captured here. The last line of the stanza ends with a rhetorical
question by the persona. The question accentuates the universal nature of death:
no human can escape it. It is the turn of the driver today, but it could be the turn of
the persona tomorrow.
STRUCTURE AND LANGUAGE
The poem is divided into six stanzas of varying length. It is written in
free verse. The language is appropriate to the subject matter of death
and it depicts the futility of man’s effort aimed at avoiding death. All
the rites and myths or the superstitions about death are unable to help
man enjoy life forever. Apart from using the appropriate diction,
Soyinka also deployed varied imagery in this poem: the title contains an
antithesis, there are also instances of personification, metaphor,
symbolism, irony, contrast, alliteration,etc that have all been used to
delineate the theme of death and the uncertainties that go with life on
this earth.
She Walks in Beauty
By Lord Byron (George Gordon, 1788-1824)
She walks in beauty, like the night

Of cloudless climes and starry skies;

And all that’s best of dark and bright

Meet in her aspect and her eyes;

Thus mellowed to that tender light

Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

She Walks in Beauty
By Lord Byron (George Gordon)
One shade the more, one ray the less,

Had half impaired the nameless grace

Which waves in every raven tress,

Or softly lightens o’er her face;

Where thoughts serenely sweet express,

How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.

She Walks in Beauty
By Lord Byron (George Gordon)
And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,

So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,

The smiles that win, the tints that glow,

But tell of days in goodness spent,

A mind at peace with all below,

A heart whose love is innocent!

Who Is Lord Byron?
Lord Byron—George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron to be precise—is
one of English literature's most infamous figures. He was part of the
British Romantic poets, in particular the second generation (along with
Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats). This particular poem was
published in his collection Hebrew Melodies (1815), which was
originally intended to be set to music (which perhaps is reflected in the
simplicity of the poem's meter).
What is Romanticism?
Romanticism is an intellectual orientation that characterized many
works of literature, painting, music, architecture, criticism, and
historiography in Western civilization over a period from the late 18th
to the mid-19th century. Romanticism can be seen as a rejection of the
precepts of order, calm, harmony, balance, idealization, and rationality
that typified Classicism in general and late 18th-century Neoclassicism
in particular. It was also to some extent a reaction against the
Enlightenment and against 18th-century rationalism and physical
materialism in general. Romanticism emphasized the individual, the
subjective, the irrational, the imaginative, the personal, the
spontaneous, the emotional, the visionary, and the transcendental.
What is Romanticism?
Among the characteristic attitudes of Romanticism were the following:
a deepened appreciation of the beauties of nature; a general exaltation
of emotion over reason and of the senses over intellect; a turning in
upon the self and a heightened examination of human personality and
its moods and mental potentialities; a preoccupation with the genius,
the hero, and the exceptional figure in general and a focus on his or her
passions and inner struggles; a new view of the artist as a supremely
individual creator, whose creative spirit is more important than strict
adherence to formal rules and traditional procedures; an emphasis
upon imagination as a gateway to transcendent experience and
spiritual truth.
ANALYSIS
This is an eighteen line poem that is written in three stanzas. It has has
an alternating rhyming scheme in the form of ababab, cdcdcd, and
efefef. The subject matter is on beauty, the beauty of an unnamed lady.
In this poem, contrasting features such as darkness and light, day and
night, inner beauty and physical beauty, emotions and thought are
combined to strike a balance and achieve a harmony that is unique and
rare in nature. This may explain why the rhyming scheme keeps
alternating in order to accommodate these contrasting features in the
poem. The language (diction and imagery) is simple as reflected in most
Romantic poems. The poem is highly lyrical. The innocence of the lady,
the purity of her heart, the serene nature of her thoughts are all
displayed on her face.
Analysis
Themes of the poem include the idea that true beauty is a blend of
both the physical and the inner beauty. That it is always possible to
strike a delicate balance between contrasting features as is the case of
the unnamed beauty in the poem.
Analysis
The and imagery are both simple and appropriate for the subject
matter. Literary devices such as simile, personification and other sound
devices have been used in the poem to achieve harmony. The most
outstanding expression in the poem is “She walks in beauty.” This is an
expression that gives a unique meaning to the entire poem. It tells us
that the lady does not look beautiful or walks beautifully. She is the
true definition of a perfect balance between inner beauty and outer
beauty.
Night Rain by J. P. Clark
What time of night it is
I do not know
Except that like some fish
Doped out of the deep
I have bobbed up bellywise
From stream of sleep
And no cocks crow.
It is drumming hard here
Night Rain by J. P. Clark
It is drumming hard here

And I suppose everywhere

Droning with insistent ardour upon

Our roof thatch and shed

And thro' sheaves slit open

To lightning and rafters

Night Rain by J. P. Clark
I cannot quite make out overhead
Great water drops are dribbling
Falling like orange or mango
Fruits showered forth in the wind
Or perhaps I should say so
Much like beads I could in prayer tell
Them on string as they break
In wooden bowls and earthenware
Night Rain by J. P. Clark
Mother is busy now deploying

About our roomlet and floor.

Although it is so dark

I know her practiced step as

She moves her bins, bags and vats

Out of the run of water

That like ants gain possession

Of the floor. Do not tremble then

Night Rain by J. P. Clark
But turns, brothers, turn upon your side
Of the loosening mats
To where the others lie.
We have drunk tonight of a spell
Deeper than the owl's or bat's
That wet of wings may not fly
Bedraggled up on the iroko, they stand
Emptied of hearts, and
Night Rain by J. P. Clark
Therefore will not stir, no, not

Even at dawn for then

They must scurry in to hide.

So let us roll over on our back

And again roll to the beat

Of drumming all over the land

And under its ample soothing hand

Joined to that of the sea

Night Rain by J. P. Clark
• We will settle to sleep of the innocent and free.
Analysis
John Pepper Clark is a Nigerian poet. He has composed other poems
such as Streamside Exchange, Ibadan, Olokun, Night Rain and Abiku.
Night Rain is a one stanza poem with 47 lines. It is written in free verse
and the setting is a typical rural setting in Africa. In the poem, the
persona who is a child recounts the story of a heavy rain fall at dawn.
The room in in which the person and his brothers as well as their
mother are living in is just a roomlet. This alone depicts their poor
status in life. But besides that, the thatch of the room leaks and as the
rain keeps drumming on the thatch, the persona can see the mother in
the darkness going about and placing containers at strategic points
where the roof is leaking. This is to prevent the water leaking into the
room from spreading all over the floor in the room.
Analysis
Thus, while the mother is up from sleep and is trying to prevent water
from leaking into the floor of the room where the children are sleeping,
the persona and his brothers are fast asleep. As children, they have no
worries and responsibilities and can afford to sleep soundly. Therefore,
the persona would advise the brothers to just roll over to the other end
of the mat and continue to sleep. The persona and his brothers are
compared to a doped fish or wet bats and owls that cannot fly due to
the fact that they are drenched and wet. The poem starts on a note of
despair and ends on a note of optimism.
Analysis
Imagery such as doped fish and bedraggled owls and bats are apt in the
poem. They describe the deep spell of sleep in which the persona and
his brothers find themselves. One other thing that one needs to take
note of is the use of verbs in the “_ing” form in order to denote action
and the continuous falling of the rain. Verbs such as drumming,
droning, dribbling, falling, deploying, filing, loosening, soothing, etc
have all been used in the poem. The themes such the rugged nature
of rural life (theme of poverty)and the helplessness of man in front of
natural forces are highlighted in the poem.
Things Fall Apart by Kofi Kinata (Fante
Version)
Oh oh aah ooh ah ah Call me Kofi Kinaata
[Verse 1]
Friday chapel all night Saturday na ye wo club no mo
Yɛ le yɛ more things Women, shoker bugu cup no mo
Ade ye ship na ɔde Bible no baa yɛ no
Nkrɔfo sie nara nso di schnapp no bɛ yɛ
Nti girls na wo duro chapel a wo kɔ yɛ no
Bra bɛ hwɛ, wɔn nso a na club no wo kɔ yi
Things Fall Apart by Kofi Kinata
[Chorus]
Nti Nyame som paa na yɛ le som yi a?
Bisa wo nua, ne bisa woa so wo ho
Nyame som paa na yɛ le som yi a?
Ma Jehovafo no rebaa ne ɛrɛguani
Nti Nyame som paa na yɛ le som yi a?
Nae ɛtale obi nu kun dɛ plaster yi
Nyame som paa na yɛ le som yi a?
Hwɛ so ma me a ɛleku no agye ne dan yi
Things Fall Apart by Kofi Kinata
[Verse 2]
Me sie atamuda paa…
Ɛda a Nyame bɛba physical
Sɛ won consider pa dia…
Anhwɛ na heaven wɛn ya nipa
Cos, nokware no wɔ hɔ Nso asɔfo yi w’ntumi w’nka
Sikasɛm ne nti chapel ahiafoɔ ntumi w’mba
W’ntumi w’mba oo
Ɛho mpo na ndi the things fall apart
Ɛka a wo sie anointed men touch
Chapel yi w’wɔ schools paa
Nso members yi w’ntumi w’nkɔ bi
Things Fall Apart by Kofi Kinata
[Chorus]
Nti ɛyɛ Nyame som paa na yɛ le som yi a?
Bisa wo nua, ne bisa woa so wo ho
Nyame som paa na yɛ le som yi a?
W’ma agyanka na asɛm ayɛ mɔbɔ yi
Nti Nyame som paa na yɛ le som yi a?
Wo nua fom wo a, atumi fa nkyɛ no yi
Nyame som paa na yɛ le som yi a?
Don Nana Amu ade na wo de ahyɛ bitters yi, asey
Things Fall Apart by Kofi Kinata
• Verse 3]
Hwɛboo sofo yegyi woa wo ho
Adi yi a, ɛka yi ɔda woa w’nu
Wo ara hwɛboo na di ye ɔda woa’nu
Hwɛboo sɔfo yegyi woa wo ho
Ɔsie ɔyɛ American ne Muslim, ɔnom bibiabi
Nkurofo w’adi yi ɔda woa w’nu
Hwɛ, ɛhu Christian, ɛhu Muslim, ɛhu nkaefo no Ɛhu sɔfo, ɛhu komfo basaa
Kataasihyɛ, prɔyɛ, bɔ na ɔhyɛ nso wa nyɛ MP wo kurom kwan no nsu tɔ a pakyaa
Obia sie ɔyɛ bad man
Ɛno nti lecturer pɛ sɛ ɔno wo da
Ansaa na wa ma wo pass mark
For money we go shed blood
Nyame bɛ yɛ, ɔbɛ kye, yɛ ntum, yɛ pɛ no fast fast
Nti (so) fast life, fast cars, fast trap pot
Church service hɔ na yɛ hu snap chat calls
31st ɔwo church, ɔdi ne ho a ma Nyame
On the 3rd na w’gye no ho kɔ Trek
Part time Christian, you want fight full time devil
You dey joke
Things Fall Apart by Kofi Kinata
Chorus]
Nti Nyame som paa na yɛ le som yi a?
Nyame som paa na yɛ le som yi a?
Nti Nyame som paa na yɛ le som yi a?
Nyame som paa na yɛ le som yi a?
Things Fall Apart by Kofi Kinata(English
version)
Friday is all night in the chapel
Saturday we all go to the club
We are mixing up the drinks in the glass
Cos the ship that brought the Bible
People say is the same that brought the schnapp
So the girls that attended the church service
Were the same that turned up at the club
Things Fall Apart by Kofi Kinata(English
version)
Is this Christianity ( true worship )?
Ask your neighbor
And ask yourself as well
Is this Christianity ( true worship )?
When Jehovah's Witnesses appear
You run to hide
Is this Christianity ( true worship )?
Unrepentant side-chick
Is this Christianity ( true worship )?
Tenant trying to usurp a landlord
Things Fall Apart by Kofi Kinata(English
version)
On judgment day when God appears physically
He would have to lower His standards
Else no soul will make it to heaven
Because the pastors are refusing to preach the truth
The demand for money
Is preventing the poor from attending the church
It's like Things Fall Apart
When you complain they retort
"Don't touch my anointed"
The churches have schools
But the members are unable to afford them
Things Fall Apart by Kofi Kinata(English
version)
Is this Christianity ( true worship )?
Ask your neighbor
And ask yourself as well
Is this Christianity ( true worship )?
The needy is made miserable
Is this Christianity ( true worship )?
You never forgive your offenders
Is this Christianity ( true worship )?
"Drink but don't get drunk"
You've turned it into bottles full of 'bitters'
Things Fall Apart by Kofi Kinata(English
version)
Imam stop worrying yourself
The people are still drinking
I have observed that Abu is still boozing
Imam stop worrying yourself
He says he is an American Muslim
So he smokes weed and steals
There is no difference between the Christian and Muslim
Nor the pastor and the traditional priest
It's a total mess
Corruption, decadence, unfulfilled promises
MP the road to your village is un-motorable when it rains
Everyone wants to be bad
So the lecturer wants sexual favours
Before you pass his course
Others shed blood for money
God can help but He is slow; we can't wait
We want it fast-fast
So fast life, fast car, fast track court
Things Fall Apart by Kofi Kinata(English
version)
In the church we see snapchat godesses
31st December she is in church
Dedicating her life to God
3rd January she is back on trek

Part-time Christian, you want to fight full time devil

You are joking!

Is this Christianity ( true worship )?

Analysis
Martin King Arthur popularly known as Kofi Kinaata is a Ghanaian
musician and songwriter from Takoradi. He is noted for his Fante rap
and freestyle and therefore known as the Fante Rap God (FRG).Apart
from his rap prowess, he has grown into a very good singer taking the
highlife genre by storm. Kofi Kinaata was born on the 15th of April 1990
and raised in Effiakuma. Effiakuma is a residential town in the Western
Region of Ghana. He attended Nana Brempong Yaw School and
completed his secondary education at the Takoradi Technical Institute.
Analysis
Subject matter: religion and chaos
Themes: The theme of moral decadence as a canker in the Ghanaian society
The theme of corruption as a weakness in the Ghanaian society in the society
The mad rush for material wealth/the worship of money in place of God
Thus moral decadence and corruption are deeply entrenched in all the sections of the
society. Pastors, traditional chief priests, Imams, Members of Parliament, lecturers and
church goers and Moslems are all corrupt. They see moral decadence as something that is
normal and even advance reasons to support both corruption and moral decadence. That
is why the artiste argues that unless God lowers His standards on judgment day, nobody
will make it to heaven. The language is simple and straight forward and the issues raised
are contemporary issues in Ghana. These are issues that concern all sections of the
Ghanaian population: the youth, the aged, the Christians, Moslems, traditionalists,
academics, politicians etc. The conclusion is that we cannot fight full time devil by being a
part-time Christian, Moslem or traditionalist. We need to take our religion seriously and let
the word of God reflect in our daily activities and interactions with one another.
THINGS FALL APART BY KINAATA__Language
Obviously, the poem is set in Ghana and issues raised in the poem first of all
pertain to Ghana before they can be extended to other African countries.
Allusions of different kinds(historical, Biblical, literary) have been used to
address issues in the poem. The title of the song is a literary allusion to both
Achebe’s work and to Yeats poem “The Second Coming”. The origin of the
title of the song can therefore be traced to Yeats. A rhetorical question
which has been turned into a refrain is also worth noting in the poem. As a
device that can be analysed both as a refrain and a rhetorical question, it
adds a loaded meaning and function to the poem. Thus, the question does
not demand immediate answers but it is meant to prick the conscience of
listeners and to give them something to ponder over. The repetitive use of
the question in the form of a refrain also emphasizes meaning and provides
rhythm at the same time. Besides, the subject matter of the poem is
embedded in this line of the song
THINGS FALL APART BY KINAATA__Language
Other devices such as apostrophe(Imam stop worrying yourself), sound
devices such as alliteration(So fast life, fast car, fast track court),
assonance (Abu is still boozing) have all been used to highlight issues in
the poem.
Drama
Drama is usually written for the stage. A play is usually divided into acts and scenes
and there are actors or dramatis personae who act out the play on stage. Stage
directions are usually given to enable anyone who wants to stage the play to be
able to do so.
Drama has been traditionally divided into tragedy, comedy and tragi-comedy. In
tragedy, there must be a tragic hero who has the qualities of a tragic hero so that
when falls, it excites pity and fear in us bringing about catharsis. Aristotle gives the
best definition and description of tragedy in his book The Poetics. In tragedy, there
is no poetic justice and both the language and subject matter of tragedy are
serious. On the other hand, there is always poetic justice in comedy and the
language and subject matter of comedy are not like those in tragedy. There is good
measure of humour in comedy and there is also the use of wit in comedy. In
between comedy and tragedy, we have tragi-comedy. Tragedy-comedy combines
the qualities of both tragedy and comedy.
Who is William Shakespeare?
The most influential writer in all of English literature, William Shakespeare was
born in 1564 to a successful middle-class glove-maker in Stratford-upon-Avon,
England. Shakespeare attended grammar school, but his formal education
proceeded no further. In 1582 he married an older woman, Anne Hathaway,
and had three children with her. Around 1590 he left his family behind and
traveled to London to work as an actor and playwright. Public and critical
acclaim quickly followed, and Shakespeare eventually became the most
popular playwright in England and part-owner of the Globe Theater. His career
bridged the reigns of Elizabeth I (ruled 1558–1603) and James I (ruled 1603–
1625), and he was a favorite of both monarchs. Indeed, James granted
Shakespeare’s company the greatest possible compliment by bestowing upon
its members the title of King’s Men. Wealthy and renowned, Shakespeare
retired to Stratford and died in 1616 at the age of fifty-two. At the time of
Shakespeare’s death, literary luminaries such as Ben Jonson hailed his works
as timeless.
Shakespeare’s works
Shakespeare’s works were collected and printed in various editions in
the century following his death, and by the early eighteenth century his
reputation as the greatest poet ever to write in English was well
established. The unprecedented admiration garnered by his works led
to a fierce curiosity about Shakespeare’s life, but the dearth of
biographical information has left many details of Shakespeare’s
personal history shrouded in mystery. Some people have concluded
from this fact and from Shakespeare’s modest education that
Shakespeare’s plays were actually written by someone else—Francis
Bacon and the Earl of Oxford are the two most popular candidates—
but the support for this claim is overwhelmingly circumstantial, and the
theory is not taken seriously by many scholars.
Shakespeare’s works
In the absence of credible evidence to the contrary, Shakespeare must
be viewed as the author of the thirty-seven plays and 154 sonnets that
bear his name. The legacy of this body of work is immense. A number
of Shakespeare’s plays seem to have transcended even the category of
brilliance, becoming so influential as to affect profoundly the course of
Western literature and culture ever after.
Much Ado About Nothing_ PLOT
Leonato, a kindly, respectable nobleman, lives in the idyllic Italian town
of Messina. Leonato shares his house with his lovely young daughter,
Hero, his playful, clever niece, Beatrice, and his elderly brother, Antonio
(who is Beatrice's father). As the play begins, Leonato prepares to
welcome some friends home from a war. The friends include Don
Pedro, a prince who is a close friend of Leonato, and two fellow
soldiers: Claudio, a well-respected young nobleman, and Benedick, a
clever man who constantly makes witty jokes, often at the expense of
his friends. Don John, Don Pedro’s illegitimate brother, is part of the
crowd as well. Don John is sullen and bitter, and makes trouble for the
others.
Much Ado About Nothing_ PLOT
When the soldiers arrive at Leonato’s home, Claudio quickly falls in love
with Hero. Meanwhile, Benedick and Beatrice resume the war of witty
insults that they have carried on with each other in the past. Claudio
and Hero pledge their love to one another and decide to be married. To
pass the time in the week before the wedding, the lovers and their
friends decide to play a game. They want to get Beatrice and Benedick,
who are clearly meant for each other, to stop arguing and fall in love.
Their tricks prove successful, and Beatrice and Benedick soon fall
secretly in love with each other. But Don John has decided to disrupt
everyone’s happiness. He has his companion Borachio make love to
Margaret, Hero’s serving woman, at Hero’s window in the darkness of
the night, and he brings Don Pedro and Claudio to watch.
Much Ado About Nothing_ PLOT
Believing that he has seen Hero being unfaithful to him, the enraged
Claudio humiliates Hero by suddenly accusing her of lechery on the day
of their wedding and abandoning her at the altar. Hero’s stricken family
members decide to pretend that she died suddenly of shock and grief
and to hide her away while they wait for the truth about her innocence
to come to light. In the aftermath of the rejection, Benedick and
Beatrice finally confess their love to one another. Fortunately, the night
watchmen overhear Borachio bragging about his crime. Dogberry and
Verges, the heads of the local police, ultimately arrest both Borachio
and Conrad, another of Don John’s followers. Everyone learns that Hero
is really innocent, and Claudio, who believes she is dead, grieves for
her.
Much Ado About Nothing_ PLOT
Leonato tells Claudio that, as punishment, he wants Claudio to tell
everybody in the city how innocent Hero was. He also wants Claudio to
marry Leonato’s “niece”—a girl who, he says, looks much like the dead
Hero. Claudio goes to church with the others, preparing to marry the
mysterious, masked woman he thinks is Hero’s cousin. When Hero
reveals herself as the masked woman, Claudio is overwhelmed with joy.
Benedick then asks Beatrice if she will marry him, and after some
arguing they agree. The joyful lovers all have a merry dance before they
celebrate their double wedding.
THEMES
The theme of deception/gullibility
The theme of honour/chastity
The theme of love