Modern African Literature: December 2011

Through all ten of Tati-Loutard's poems in this anthology, the ideas of birth, death, and nature reoccur in some form. He expresses and connects these themes through figurative language such as metaphors, personification, and hyperbole.
In "News of My Mother," he calls nature through lines like "I am now very high upon the tree of seasons" and "by this fifteenth day of the moon." He uses this natural element to describe his feelings of this very idea of death that is so persistent through all of his works. In this poem specifically, he is speaking in regard to the death of his Mother, whom he clearly cared a lot for. This poem stands out to me because he is speaking of his personal encounter with death, rather than the idea in general.
He also often brings up the contrast of light and darkness, and how certain actions may be associated with a certain shade, per se. In "The Voices" he mentions "the insult and darkness of refusal" also known as "a sea full of impurities." All of his poems are or contain a very dark element. Whether it be death, or just something like the above mentioned "refusal."
HE often mentions the idea of death calling him, as if he were suicidal. In "Pilgrimage to Loango Strand" he says "Life sickens me." Then In "Death and Rebirth" he says "Does Death call me? Will it at least offer me / a mirror, a sheet of light where I can glimpse / My profile beyond the grave?" Notice he brings up the concept of light, this time implying a knowledge of some kind. He is clearly queasy about the unknown that is paired with life after death.

Modern African Literature

Wednesday, 14 December 2011

Analysis of Tati-Loutard's Poetry

Tuesday, 6 December 2011

Pre-Poetry