Festac Senior College, Language Department [2014/2015 session]

African Poetry
Vanity
By Birago Diop
1. If we tell, gently, gently
2. All that we shall one day have to tell,
3. Who then will hear our voices without laughter,
4. Sad complaining voices of eggars
!. Who indeed will hear them without laughter"
#. If we roughly of our torments
$. %ver increasing from the start of things
&. What eyes will watch our large mouths
'. Shaped y the laughter of ig children
1(. What eyes will watch our large mouth"
11. What hearts will listen to our clamoring"
12. What ear to our pitiful anger
13. Which grows in us li)e a tumor
14. In the lac) depth of our plaintive throats"
1!. When our *ead comes with their *ead
1#. When they have spo)en to us in their clumsy voices+
1$. ,ust as our ears were deaf
1&. -o their cries, to their wild appeals
1'. ,ust as our ears were deaf
2(. -hey have left on the earth their cries,
21. In the air, on the water, where they have traced their signs
22. .or us lind deaf and unworthy Sons
23. Who see nothing of what they have made
24. In the air, on the water, where they have traced their signs
2!. And since we did not understand the dead
2#. Since we have never listen to their cries
2$. If we weep, gently, gently
2&. If we cry roughly to our torments
2'. What heart will listen to our clamoring,
3(. What ear to our soing hearts"
Festac Senior College, Language Department [2014/2015 session]
Piano and Drums
By Gabriel Okara
When at rea) of day at a riverside
I hear the /ungle drums telegraphing
the mystic rhythm, urgent, raw
li)e leeding flesh, spea)ing of
primal youth and the eginning
I see the panther ready to pounce
the leopard snarling aout to leap
and the hunters crouch with spears poised+
And my lood ripples, turns torrent,
topples the years and at once I0m
in my mother0s laps a suc)ling+
at once I0m wal)ing simple
paths with no innovations,
rugged, fashioned with the na)ed
warmth of hurrying feet and groping hearts
in green leaves and wild flowers pulsing.
-hen I hear a wailing piano
solo spea)ing of comple1 ways in
tear2furrowed concerto+
of far away lands
and new hori3ons with
coa1ing diminuendo, counterpoint,
crescendo. 4ut lost in the layrinth
of its comple1ities, it ends in the middle
of a phrase at a daggerpoint.
And I lost in the morning mist
of an age at a riverside )eep
wandering in the mystic rhythm
of /ungle drums and the concerto.
Festac Senior College, Language Department [2014/2015 session]
The Dining Table
By Gbanabom Hallowell
*inner tonight comes with
gun wounds. 5ur desert
tongues lic) the vegetale
lood6the pepper
strong enough to push scorpions
up our heads. 7uests
loo) into the oceans of owls
as vegetales die on their tongues.
-he tale
that gathers us is an island where guerillas
wal) the land while crocodiles
surf. 8hildren from Alphaeta with empty palms dine
with us+ switchlades in their eyes,
silence in their voices. When the playground
is emptied of children9s toys
who needs roadloc)s" When the hour
to drin) from the cup of life tic)s,
cholera rea)s its spell on crac)ed lips
:nder the spilt
mil) of the moon, I promise
to e a revolutionary, ut my ;ile, even
without triutaries comes la3y
upon its own ;ile. 5n this
night reserved for lovers of fire, I0m
full with the catch of gun wounds, and my oots
have suddenly ecome too reluctant to wal) me.
Festac Senior College, Language Department [2014/2015 session]
The Panic of Growing Older
By Lenrie Peter
the panic
of growing older
spread fluttering winds
from year to year
at twenty
stilled y hope
of gigantic success
time and e1ploration
at thirty
a sudden thro of pain
laoratory test
having nothing to show
legs cried
in domesticity allow
no sudden leaps
at the moon now.
8opyoo) isected
with red in)
and failures<
nothing to show the world.
-hree children the world perhaps
the world e1pects
it of you. ;o
specialist0s effort there.
4ut science give hope
of twice three score
and ten. hope
is not a grain of sand
inner satisfaction
dwindles sharp
lades of e1pectation.
.rom now on the world has you.
Festac Senior College, Language Department [2014/2015 session]
The Anvil and the Hammer
By Kofi Awoonor
8aught etween the anvil and the hammer
In the forging house of a new life,
-ransforming the pangs that delivered me
Into the /oy of new songs
-he trapping of the past, tender and tenuous
Woven with fire of sisal and
Washed in the lood of the goat in the fetish hut
Are laced with the flimsy glories of paved streets
-he /argon of a new dialectic comes with the
8harisma of the perpetual search on the outlaw0s hill.
Sew the old days for us, our fathers,
-hat we can wear them under our new garment,
After we have washed ourselves in
-he whirlpool of the many rivers0 estuary
We hear their songs and rumours everyday
*etermined to ignore these we use snatches
.rom their tunes
=a)e ourselves new flags and anthems
While we lift high the anner of the land
And listen to the revereration of our songs
In the splash and moan of the se
Festac Senior College, Language Department [2014/2015 session]
;on Afrrican >oetry
8rossing the 4ar
BY ALFRED, LORD E!!Y"O!
Sunset and evening star,
And one clear call for me?
And may there e no moaning of the ar,
When I put out to sea,
4ut such a tide as moving seems asleep,
-oo full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the oundless deep
-urns again home.
-wilight and evening ell,
And after that the dar)?
And may there e no sadness of farewell,
When I emar)+
.or tho@ from out our ourne of -ime and >lace
-he flood may ear me far,
I hope to see my >ilot face to face
When I have crost the ar.
-he >ulley
BY GO!G H!B!T
When 7od at first made man,
Aaving a glass of lessings standing y,
BCet us,D said he, Bpour on him all we can.
Cet the world0s riches, which dispersEd lie,
8ontract into a span.D
So strength first made a way+
-hen eauty flowed, then wisdom, honour, pleasure.
When almost all was out, 7od made a stay,
>erceiving that, alone of all his treasure,
Fest in the ottom lay.
Festac Senior College, Language Department [2014/2015 session]
B.or if I should,D said he,
B4estow this /ewel also on my creature,
Ae would adore my gifts instead of me,
And rest in ;ature, not the 7od of ;ature+
So oth should losers e.
BGet let him )eep the rest,
4ut )eep them with repining restlessness+
Cet him e rich and weary, that at least,
If goodness lead him not, yet weariness
=ay toss him to my reast.D
The "choolboy
By #illiam Blake
I love to rise in a summer morn,
When the irds sing on every tree+
-he distant huntsman winds his horn,
And the s)ylar) sings with meH
5 what sweet company?
4ut to go to school in a summer morn, 2
5 it drives all /oy away?
:nder a cruel eye outworn,
-he little ones spend the day
In sighing and dismay.
Ah then at times I drooping sit,
And spend many an an1ious hour+
;or in my oo) can I ta)e delight,
;or sit in learning@s ower,
Worn through with the dreary shower.
Aow can the ird that is orn for /oy
Sit in a cage and sing"
Aow can a child, when fears annoy,
4ut droop his tender wing,
And forget his youthful spring?
5 father and mother if uds are nipped,
And lossoms lown away+
Festac Senior College, Language Department [2014/2015 session]
And if the tender plants are stripped
5f their /oy in the springing day,
4y sorrow and care@s dismay, 2
Aow shall the summer arise in /oy,
5r the summer fruits appear"
5r how shall we gather what griefs destroy,
5r less the mellowing year,
When the lasts of winter appear"
4irches
BY !OB!T #!O"T
When I see irches end to left and right
Across the lines of straighter dar)er trees,
I li)e to thin) some oy@s een swinging them.
4ut swinging doesn@t end them down to stay
As ice2storms do. 5ften you must have seen them
Coaded with ice a sunny winter morning
After a rain. -hey clic) upon themselves
As the ree3e rises, and turn many2colored
As the stir crac)s and cra3es their enamel.
Soon the sun@s warmth ma)es them shed crystal shells
Shattering and avalanching on the snow2crust6
Such heaps of ro)en glass to sweep away
Gou@d thin) the inner dome of heaven had fallen.
-hey are dragged to the withered rac)en y the load,
And they seem not to rea)+ though once they are owed
So low for long, they never right themselvesH
Gou may see their trun)s arching in the woods
Gears afterwards, trailing their leaves on the ground
Ci)e girls on hands and )nees that throw their hair
4efore them over their heads to dry in the sun.
4ut I was going to say when -ruth ro)e in
With all her matter2of2fact aout the ice2storm
I should prefer to have some oy end them
As he went out and in to fetch the cows6
Some oy too far from town to learn aseall,
Whose only play was what he found himself,
Summer or winter, and could play alone.
5ne y one he sudued his father@s trees
Festac Senior College, Language Department [2014/2015 session]
4y riding them down over and over again
:ntil he too) the stiffness out of them,
And not one ut hung limp, not one was left
.or him to conIuer. Ae learned all there was
-o learn aout not launching out too soon
And so not carrying the tree away
8lear to the ground. Ae always )ept his poise
-o the top ranches, climing carefully
With the same pains you use to fill a cup
:p to the rim, and even aove the rim.
-hen he flung outward, feet first, with a swish,
Jic)ing his way down through the air to the ground.
So was I once myself a swinger of irches.
And so I dream of going ac) to e.
It@s when I@m weary of considerations,
And life is too much li)e a pathless wood
Where your face urns and tic)les with the cowes
4ro)en across it, and one eye is weeping
.rom a twig@s having lashed across it open.
I@d li)e to get away from earth awhile
And then come ac) to it and egin over.
=ay no fate willfully misunderstand me
And half grant what I wish and snatch me away
;ot to return. %arth@s the right place for loveH
I don@t )now where it@s li)ely to go etter.
I@d li)e to go y climing a irch tree,
And clim lac) ranches up a snow2white trun)
Toward heaven, till the tree could ear no more,
4ut dipped its top and set me down again.
-hat would e good oth going and coming ac).
5ne could do worse than e a swinger of irches.
Festac Senior College, Language Department [2014/2015 session]
"onnet $%
By #illiam "$ake%peare
Shall I compare thee to a summer@s day"
-hou art more lovely and more temperateH
Fough winds do sha)e the darling uds of =ay,
And summer@s lease hath all too short a dateH
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold comple1ion dimmed,
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
4y chance, or nature@s changing course untrimmedH
4ut thy eternal summer shall not fade,
;or lose possession of that fair thou ow@st,
;or shall death rag thou wander@st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow@st,
So long as men can reathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.