| Photo is from africanheritage website |
The Poet
Bernard Daddie has made impact on African literature_ to the best of his ability, no doubt about that. The poet was an Ivorian born in Assinrie in the year 1916.The poem "Dry Your Tears Africa" is one among the pieces we can point at and say "Bernard Daddie truly loves Africa".
The 3 Themes
Here,naijapoets.com.ng will mention the three major themes in the poem. These are the theme of assurance, the theme of nostalgia, and the theme of fertility.
(1) THE THEME OF ASSURANCE:- "Your children come back to you/ Out of the storm and squalls of fruitless journeys" is a sentence assuring the Africa which the imaginative sense of the poet believed was lonely and crying. Even the title of the poem puts Africa in a lacking or needy position "Dry Your Tears Africa". We didn't just see why the children are coming home but how the children will care for mother Africa in the last stanza of the poem:
"Dry your tears, Africa!
Your children come back to you
their hands full of play things
and their hearts full of love.
They return to cloth you
in their dreams and their hopes".
"Dry your tears, Africa!
Your children come back to you
their hands full of play things
and their hearts full of love.
They return to cloth you
in their dreams and their hopes".
(2) THE THEME OF NOSTALGIA:- Nostalgia is a homesick feeling or longing for home. It can also be referred to a bittersweet yearning for the things of the past. One of the things that can cause the feeling of nostalgia is displeasure. The poet's journey became cloy, full of excuses as seen in stanza two:
"Through the crest of the wave and the babbling of the breeze
Over the gold of the east
and the purple of the setting sun,
the peaks of the proud mountains
and the grasslands drenched with light
They return to you
Out of the storm and squalls of fruitless journeys".
"Through the crest of the wave and the babbling of the breeze
Over the gold of the east
and the purple of the setting sun,
the peaks of the proud mountains
and the grasslands drenched with light
They return to you
Out of the storm and squalls of fruitless journeys".
(3) THE THEME OF FERTILITY:- Bernard Daddie louds the natural and mineral riches of Africa. The seven lines of stanza four was dedicated to showing how the abundant resources in the continent from the clearness of the sky to the charm of Africa's foliage:
"And our senses are now opened
to the splendour of your beauty
to the smell of your forests
to the charm of your waters
to the clearness of your skies
to the caress of your sun
And to the charm of your foliage pearled by the dens".
Continue Reading >>>
"And our senses are now opened
to the splendour of your beauty
to the smell of your forests
to the charm of your waters
to the clearness of your skies
to the caress of your sun
And to the charm of your foliage pearled by the dens".
Continue Reading >>>
Samuel C. Enunwa aka samueldpoetry
(the Leo with wings flying)
(the Leo with wings flying)
