Details of the Poem, Vanity by Birago Diop BACKGROUND The title, “Vanity”, literary means having immense interest in one’s appearance, achievement or material things. But, as the title of this poem, it figuratively refers to Africans’ penchant attitude towards material things often imported from the western world at the expense of African culture, value… Continue reading Details of the Poem, Vanity by Birago Diop
Category: WAEC/NECO
Sonnet 18: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Sonnet 18: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date; Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his… Continue reading Sonnet 18: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
The Anvil and The Hammer by Kofi Awonoor
The Anvil and The Hammer Caught between the anvil and the hammer In the forging house of a new life Transforming the pangs that delivered me Into the joy of new songs The trapping of the past, tender and tenuous Woven with fibre of sisal and Washed in the blood of the goat in… Continue reading The Anvil and The Hammer by Kofi Awonoor
Birches BY ROBERT FROST
Birches When I see birches bend to left and right Across the lines of straighter darker trees, I like to think some boy's been swinging them. But swinging doesn't bend them down to stay As ice-storms do. Often you must have seen them Loaded with ice a sunny winter morning After a rain. They click… Continue reading Birches BY ROBERT FROST
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… Continue reading The Dining Table by Gbanabom Hallowell
The Pulley by George Herbert
The Pulley When God at first made man, Having a glass of blessings standing by, Let us, said he, pour on him all we can: Let the world’s riches, which dispersed lie, Contract into a span. So strength first made way; Then beauty flowed; then wisdom, honour, pleasure. When almost all was out, God… Continue reading The Pulley by George Herbert
Piano and Drums by Gabriel Okara
Piano and 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,… Continue reading Piano and Drums by Gabriel Okara
Crossing the Bar BY ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON
BIOGRAPHY Alfred, Lord Tennyson was the most renowned poet of the Victorian era. His poetic writings inspired a lot of authors. Born in England in 1809, Alfred, Lord Tennyson began writing poetry as a boy. He was first published in 1827, but it was not until the 1840s that his work received regular public acclaim.… Continue reading Crossing the Bar BY ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON
Vanity by Birago Diop
Vanity If we tell, gently, gently All that we shall one day have to tell, Who then will hear our voices without laughter, Sad complaining voices of beggars Who indeed will hear them without laughter? If we cry roughly of our torments Ever increasing from the start of things What eyes will watch our… Continue reading Vanity by Birago Diop
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