THE PIANO AND THE DRUMS

CLICK HERE TO READ GABRIEL OKARA’S BIOGRAPHY

 

 

INTRODUCTION

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. 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.

In essence, Gabriel Okara perceives the desecration of the African way of life from the musical perspective, and comes out to lament about it through the instrument of poetry.

 

 

THE POEM,  THE PIANO AND THE DRUMS

When at break of day at a riverside

I hear 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 concerto.

ANALYSIS OF THE POEM, THE PIANO AND THE DRUMS

STANZA ONE

In this stanza, the poetic persona speaks of the sound of the jungle drum. This sound of drum he feels is mystical, that is, there are so many supernatural things that comes with it. The sound of the drum to him, creates agility, strength and quickness of action. This can be seen from lines 3 to 4 as he runs into imagination to the primordial time picturing what this sound would do to the jungle residents:

 

“… 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”

 

All is action and natural. The poetic persona with a straight use of imagery and comprehensible words draws the readers’ attention to the fact that everything about this sound is in their natural states using words like, “riverside, jungle, raw, fresh,” names of animal in the jungle – natural habitat, and the last line of the stanza speaking of a hunter with spear ready to strike and hunt.

Everything about this stanza depicts the freshness of nature and life as of the old.

 

STANZA TWO

Once again, the poetic persona remembers of years back when he was still an infant in his mother’s laps suckling her breast (lines 9 to 11). Suddenly, he is walking the paths of the village with no new ideas of a way of life different from the one he is born into:

 

“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.”

 

STANZA THREE

Then, here in stanza three, reality changed as the poetic persona came in contact with a different sound from a faraway land:

 

“Then I hear a wailing piano

Solo speaking of complex ways in

Tear-furrowed concerto;

Of far-away lands”

The change in the sound came with a different instrument other than African native drum, and it also produces a sound that is different with so many musical technicalitieswhich the poetic persona expresses with musical dictions in words like, “concerto, diminuendo, crescendo.” He deploys them to emphasize the difficulty in understanding this new sound

 

“… but lost in the labyrinth

Of its complexities…”

 

Consequently, in the last four lines, the poetic persona laments on the level of confusion the new sound brings when it mixes with the drums:

 

“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”

 

On a general note, the poet discusses the confusion that is created when western culture mixes with African culture. Any attempt to unify the two results to confusion and disorder. Therefore, one is keenly advised to abhor such style of life. If you want to be African, be it, otherwise, live like the white man.

The poetic persona is not against choosing any of the cultures, but don’t mix them together. Indirectly, he warns us against becoming whiter than the white themselves or more civilized than civilization.

 

THEMES OF THE POEM, PIANO AND THE DRUMS

1. Celebration of nature – In stanza one, the way the poetic persona expresses the details of the jungle drum depicts his appreciation of the normal natural environment of things.
2. No place like home – Although, this theme cannot be identified on a surface level in the poem, but, when the poetic persona laments over the confusion that emanates from the contact of the two instruments: piano and drum (African lifestyle and western lifestyle), he shows how comfortable one can be at home with the things and way of life that he is familiar with. There was no confuse when it was all African and their drums until civilization came.
3. Living a double standard lifestyle – By emphasizing the confusion that comes out from the marriage of the piano and drum sounds, the poetic persona tells us that living two contracting lives can only breed confusion and complexities.
4. Acculturation – The notion of acculturation is brought into the poem with the contact of the piano and the drums. Acculturation is when two distinct cultures meet and start to adopt and absorb each other’s norms.
5. Cultural conflicts. – The poem also shows that two distinct cultures cannot stay together as any such attempt will result to conflict of norms, traditions and believes. For instance, as many analyst has proposed, the conflicts in Nigeria that appear in the forms of ethnicity(tribalism), favoritism, nepotism, nonchalant attitude to public work and so on, is as a result of the incompatibility of the three major tribes in Nigeria and the many others. However, irrespective of these abnormalities, Nigeria still calls for unity in diversity.

 

STRUCTURE OF THE POEM, PIANO AND THE DRUMS

It is a poem of three stanzas with 29 lines. It has no consistent rhyming scheme, hence one can say that it is mainly a free verse.

 

DICTION OF THE POEM, PIANO AND THE DRUMS

The language of the poem is simple, visual and intelligible.

MOOD/TONE OF THE POEM, PIANO AND THE DRUMS

The mood of the poem is that of dilemma, mixed feelings and confusion, and the tone is that of lamentation.

 

FIGURES OF SPEECH IN THE POEM, PIANO AND THE DRUMS

1. Imagery – the poetic persona deploys visual words that create vivid image in the mind of the readers. Some of the words and phrases are: riverside, jungle drum, bleeding flesh, leopard snarling, blood ripples, mother’s laps, hurrying feet, groping hearts wandering etc.
2. Repetition – Repetition, they say, is for emphasizes. The words, “lost and complexity” is used in two places each in the poem. This is not for normal usage of words, but, to emphasize the incompatibility and confuse that comes with the mixture of the two cultures.
3. Enjambment – the poem has so many run-on-lines as the poetic persona tends to express his mind.
4. Synecdoche – “hurrying feet” and “groping hearts” are used to refer to Africans. The feet and hearts are parts that represent a whole.
5. Metaphor – the kind of metaphor used in the poem is similar to what is called start metaphor.

Lines 2 and 3 of the first stanza, “I hear the jungle drums telegraphing/ the mystic rhythm,” compares the rhythm of the drum to that of a mystic rhythm.

Lines 2 and 3 of the second stanza, “… in my mother’s lap a suckling,” compares the poetic persona to an infant.

The last line of the third stanza, “but lost in the labyrinth of its complexities,” compares the complexity of the piano to that of a maze.

6. Simile – this can be seen in lines 3 and 4 of stanza one, “…raw like bleeding flesh…”
7. Reminiscence – in stanza one the poetic persona remembers the primordial era and its freshness of nature. Likewise, in stanza two, he recollects of his childhood as a suckling.
8. Allusion – the poetic persona also made a historical allusion to the primordial age which is also referred to above as a reminiscence.
9. Symbolism – the drum and piano in the poem symbolize African and western culture respectively.
10. 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.

 

Now for better understanding, read the poem again.