The Dining Table by Gbanabom Hallowell – Analysis, themes, figures of speech, mood/tone, structure and diction

BIOGRAPHY

The Dining Table by Gbanabom Hallowell

THE DINING TABLE

Dinner tonight comes with

gun wounds. Our desert

tongues lick the vegetable

blood—the pepper

strong enough to push scorpions

up our heads. Guests

look into the oceans of bowls

as vegetables die on their tongues.

The table

that gathers us is an island where guerillas

walk the land while crocodiles

surf. Children from Alphabeta with empty palms dine

with us; switchblades in their eyes,

silence in their voices. When the playground

is emptied of children`s toys

who needs roadblocks? When the hour

to drink from the cup of life ticks,

cholera breaks its spell on cracked lips

Under the spilt

milk of the moon, I promise

to be a revolutionary, but my Nile, even

without tributaries comes lazy

upon its own Nile. On this

night reserved for lovers of fire, I’m

full with the catch of gun wounds, and my boots

have suddenly become too reluctant to walk me.

 

The Dining Table by Gbanabom Hallowell

ANALYSIS

The poem, The Dining Table, is a narrative poem in which the poet explains the human ordeal of his people during the war. As a free verse, the poem made it possible for the poet to pour out his experience poetically as he experienced it without being restricted by the rhyme and rhythmic patterns of poetry

The experiences in the poem are recollected from the events of the war that occurred in Sierra Leone years back. The poem is all about war, its pain, and suffering as well as the cause of the war. Hence, the poetic persona deploys poetic techniques to present his thoughts.

STANZA ONE OF THE POEM. THE DINING TABLE

The poem opens up with the phrase, “dinner tonight.” Unfortunately here, the poetic persona is not referring to that kind of merriment. He compares the Sierra Leonean war to dinner and gun wounds as the meal. So, since it was a every terrible time for them, he calls when it happened ‘night’ which means dark time.

He points out that what they expect from the dinner is gun wounds, and injured body filled with blood with heavy pains:

“Dinner tonight comes with

Gun wounds. Our desert

Tongues like the vegetable

Blood – the pepper

Strong enough to push scorpions

Up our heads.”

The meal (gun wound) lies on their drenched body (desert tongue) causing great pains.

Then people who came to see the events of the war gaze on the effects of the war and also felt the pains too:

“… Guests

Look into the oceans of bowls

As vegetables die on their tongues”

 

STANZA TWO OF THE POEM The dining table by Gbanabom Hallowell

“The table

That gathers us is an island …”

Here, the poetic persona attempts to inform us that the dining is actually an island – sierra Leone. Guerrillas and crocodiles refer to the fighting oppositions who according to the poetic persona select (surf) children from tender age (alphabet – ABCD  class) to join them in the fight. And these kids watch as people are slaughtered in their presence:

“Surfing children from alphabeta with

Empty palms dine(fight)

With us; switch blades in their eyes,”

The children have no option but to be silent and take what the day brings. Since the war has denied them the childhood privileges of playing with toys, let them play with guns then. The ending of this stanza shows that there is no longer any kind of merriment in the land, for even the dying suffer cholera.

“Silence in their voices when the play-ground

Is emptied of children’s toys

Who needs road block? When the hour

To drink from the cup of life ticks,

Cholera breaks its spell on cracked lips”

In this second stanza, the poetic persona narrates the events of the war and the abusive part that children have to play in it.

STANZA THREE OF THE POEM The dining table by Gbanabom Hallowell

In this last stanza, the poetic persona affirms his stand on the war. He takes to be a revolutionary, which means, he will fight alongside those who fight to change the status quo. But, he also affirms that this war is meant for those who love violence. That he is tired of the injuries and destructions that the war brings, for even his boots no longer help him to walk again. He uses the flow of river Nile as a preamble to his retirement from the gun wounds’ dinner:

“… I promise

To be a revolutionary, but, Nile, even

Without tribulations come lazy

Upon its own Nile. On this

Night reserved for lovers of fire, I’m

Full with the catch of gun wounds, and my boots

Have suddenly become too reluctant to walk me.”

 

The poetic persona never resents the war for it cause, rather, the he resents it for the destruction it brings to the land. Notice this first and second line of the third stanza, “under the spilt/ milk of the moon…” The use of night elements in the poem is to portray darkness – the time of war. Metaphorically referring to the rays of the moon as a spilt milk, he affirms that under any glimpse of light(this light might mean winning) in the war, he will remain a revolutionary. Then, he says, that even the river Nile, without suffering anything gets tired of flowing as a river. That is to say he is not leaving the dinner of gun wounds for the lovers of fire because he is afraid, but, because he is tired of the inhumanity and destructions it bears; he is just tired of the war itself.

@  The dining table by Gbanabom Hallowell

Indirectly, he tells us, never to continue a disastrous battle, even when we are winning and still have the strength to conquer. The harm war brings is more that the pride that comes with winning it.

 

THEMES OF THE POEM, The dining table by Gbanabom Hallowell

1. War – The first two lines of the poem. “dinner tonight comes with/gun wounds…” directly translates, “ the battle in the dark time comes with a lot of injuries and devastations.” The narrative of the poem points accusing finger to the events of war and the troubles that come with it. This is evident with the deployment of the following words and phrases in the poems: blood, die, switch blades, cholera, revolutionary, gun wounds and boots.”
2. Destruction – the poem also emphasizes destruction and pain all through the stanzas including the suffering of children who were used as fighters in the war.
3. Child Soldering – Lines 12 to 16 shows the use of children in the poem as soldiers and the sadness that creates silent in them as they see no reason to play since their play grounds are now battle grounds. This can also cause psychologically trauma for the children. However, the poetic persona makes reference to this aspect of the war in order to show the level the war got to and its deep effects on the leaders of tomorrow.

EXTRA THEMATIC ANALYSIS

Learn to swallow your pride – The manner in which this poem is interpreted entails the interpretation of each and every word in it using the situations surrounding the poem. This particular part of this poem that talks about pride cannot be identified on a facial level. Take a look at this:

Since the situation surrounding the poem is that of war, the poet used words like tonight to mean darkness, dinner to mean war and gun wounds to refer to food. Of course war occurs in dark times and dinner in the night. That is the relationship in the poem.

Then, in the first two lines of the third stanza, he speaks of the spilt milk of the moon. Note, not in all nights that we see the rays of the moon, and in the context of this poem, it means a glimpse of victory (light). That is, it seems that they are winning the fight. So, one can say that in these lines, it seems he meant that since we are winning the fight, I will keep on fighting alongside the revolutionary, but wait o, let not the pride of victory overshadow my thinking and sense of humanity. Let me stop this fight, not because I am afraid or that we are about losing the war, but because I don’t like the effect on our society. So let me for now leave it for those who love the battle.

”under the spilt milk of the moon

(As we are winning the war)

I promise to be a revolutionary

(I wish to continue the fight)

But, Nile, even without tribulations, come lazy upon its own Nile

(Although we are not losing, we have to cease fighting).”

 

In the following lines, he points out that the war is meant for lovers of fire (destruction, violence and killings) and not for humane minds like his. Take note of the use of “fire” instead of “light.”

In essence, even under the sense that they are winning the war, he chooses to stop the fighting there to save the land first. This is sacrificial wisdom in display. He overlooks the pride of victory.

The dining table by Gbanabom Hallowell

POETIC DEVICES USED IN THE POEM, THE DINING TABLE.

1. Hyperbole – Exaggeration runs in the poem along the following lines:
2. Lines 2 to 4, “the pepper strong enough to push scorpions up our heads.” This line heightens that the gun wounds causes a very terrible pain like that of a scorpion sting.Line 19, “cholera breaks its spell on cracked lips.” This line exaggerates the wide spread of cholera during the dark (war) time.Other phrases are, “oceans of bowls” “surfing (taking) children from alphabeta” just the way the crocodile move (surf) in the water

2. Metaphor – the entirety of the poem is metaphorical as well as symbolic. In lines 3 and 4, pepper which is a vegetable, is compared to blood due to its red color – an attribute it shares with the blood and the very fact that it creates pain, and that the flow of blood out of injury is accompanied with pain. The eating of dinner is also compared to the fighting of war, and the meal compared to gun wounds. The only element comparison here is that the two entails the gathering of people. War does not necessary happen in the night, but since night symbolizes darkness, dinner and war can be compared as they both happen in the dark times.

There is another metaphor to recognize in the poem; the word, vegetable in line 8, the last line of the first stanza is used to compare to human beings who are butchered like vegetables (as translated here, this is also a hyperbole). The word, “tongue” in the same line also refers to human eyes. To understand it more, let’s go back to lines 2 to 4: “our desert (dry)/ tongues (eyes), like the vegetable/blood – pepper”. Here, the poetic persona points out that their dry eyes is as red as pepper. Note that the word, vegetable, in that line just means vegetable. Hence, the redness of their eyes is compared to the redness of pepper.

More so, in the poem, the two fighting opposition armies are compared to guerrillas and crocodiles. The rays of the moon are compared to spilt milk

3. Antithesis – of course, it antithetical to place dinner, which is a thing of joy, in opposite to gun wounds which is a thing of pain: Dinner tonight comes with gun wounds. Silence in their voices as seen in line 11 is also an antithesis. (Silent voices – oxymoron).
4. Bathos – there is also a movement from something interesting to something that is uninteresting in the line, dinner(interesting) tonight comes with gun wounds(not interesting).
5. Pun – there is play on words in lines 22 to 24 in which the first “Nile” means the river Nile, while the second “Nile” refers to the function of the river or what the river is expected to do, which is to flow well.

OTHER FIGURES OF SPEECH ARE:

The dining table by Gbanabom Hallowell

1. Symbolism – The word “tonight” symbolizes darkness, pepper and scorpion – pain, the table – Sierra Leone, and fire symbolizes destruction.
2. Metonymy – “Alphabeta(ABCD)” in line 12 is a level of children’s schooling which is used to represent early childhood school.
3. Imagery – the poem is a pool of imagery. From the very beginning of the poem, words are laced with visual imageries. The words and phrases that creates this effect in the poem are, dinner tonight, gun wound, desert tongues, vegetable blood, pepper, scorpions, guerrillas road blocks, Nile and so on. Fish the others out and leave them in the comment box below.
4. Rhetorical question – line 17 has the rhetorical question, “Who needs road blocks?” which does not demand any answer.
5. Personification – “pepper strong enough to push scorpions up our heads.” This line gives pepper the attribute to push something. “Cholera breaks it spell on cracked lips” makes cholera, a sickness, to look like an animal object that can willfully bring change upon human beings.

STRUCTURE OF THE POEM The dining table by Gbanabom Hallowell

The poem is a free verse with three irregular verses. It is also a narrative poem as the poet tries to chronologically line up the events of the war.

DICTION/LANGUAGE OF THE POEM, The dining table by Gbanabom Hallowell

The language is contemporary and intelligible. The only difficulty in the language is the fact that most of the words are laced with images.

@The dining table by Gbanabom Hallowell

MOOD AND TONE OF THE POEM, The dining table by Gbanabom Hallowell

The mood of the poem is that of pain and worry and his tone emphatic and towards the ending, it became that of lamentation.