Chants of a Native Son

07/17/21 • 3 min

“Chants of a Native Son” – a poem dedicated to a young lover’s village damsel. The persona beckons on the maiden to be the love of his life. He calls on his queen to “rise my beautiful princess / for I am waiting eagerly for you at the sand dune beside the / cyan flower river,” (lines 2-4). It ends with the persona’s longing to the lady to be his wife as signified by his “...wish to be the brave hunter in whose front [the maiden] shall kneel to give a cup of palm-wine” (lines 42-43).

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Letter to Poetry

Letter to Poetry is an engaging poem filled with questions from the persona who is a poet, to poetry. He talks about how poetry has engaged his heart.

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Alvan Boy

The poem “Alvan Boy” depicts the harsh realities facing Nigerian students as a result of infrastructural deficits on campus. The Alvan Boy, which represents a student in a dilapidated school hostel, is left to survive on the debris of a failed system where he faces myriad of problems like - water shortage, bed bugs, lack of power supply, among other things. The boy defies all odds to overcome his obstacles by resorting to help from the females at the Nkurumah hostel. He is “always ready to whistle and wink at Nkurumah queens” says the persona in line 38 of the poem.