preview

Allegory In Fisher's Invocation

Decent Essays

African heritage emanates from a different tone and poetic genius in in Gabriel Okara’s poetic imagination in Fisherman Invocation. Okara concerns with the problems of man and human existence. Okara’s love of music, art and literature is reflected in his close attention to details of scenery. Also as a painter, Okara’s ability to create an atmosphere, a mood or a situation is one of his greatest poetic styles. Fisherman’s Invocation centers around the plight of human condition, and particularly, Okara’s attention to the Nigerian people who have gone through the periods of national and personal conflicts and crises. Okara meditates on the indigenous imagery, and the traumas and tribulations of nation building that left Nigerians divided.
The first poem “The Fisherman’s Invocation” is structured as a dialogue between two fishermen on a canoe, a political poem but is heavily shrouded by the mystery that the reader may lose its significance. It centers around Nigeria’s struggle to achieve political independence. Two fishermen, one who is mature, positive …show more content…

Structured in the form of an allegory, this poem has a political undertone that haunts Nigeria and its journey toward independence. The devastation occurred during and after the civil war could have been averted if the situation was handled by the mature statesmen. The Young God’s impassioned temperament, “Power is burning in our hands like/the sun/ Or have you by your quiescence / changed roles and he is now your master?”, displeases the Old God, and he restrains from it, “You speak like the young of god / or man. By the grace or curse of man / you came into being only a thousand years ago / many there were like you who died / before they came or lived only / a while and died in ignorance/ or simply wasted away for lack of sacrifice” (Okara

Get Access