lenrie peters poetry

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 14

Theme and Style in Lenrie Peter’s Poetry

        Born in 1932 in Bathurst in the Gambia, Lenrie Peters was educated at Cambridge University where he qualified as a medical doctor. As a poet, Lenrie Peters’ poetic themes encompass Africa’s socio-political values, and the negative effect of Western colonialism on the indigenous African culture. Unfortunately, however, neither these themes nor the style with which he articulates them, have been given serious critical attention. This essay provides the missing perspective not only to expand the frontiers of his criticism, but to draw attention to the series of Africa’s socio-cultural problems which need to be urgently addressed.

I

        As a poet, Lenrie Peters’ subject matter encompasses a wide variety of themes. Douglas Killam and Ruth Rowe describe him as follows: “He is generally regarded as one of the most intellectual of his generation, Ideas -- about politics, evolution, science, and music -- orchestrate his images in the form of debates”¹.

        Unlike some of his contemporaries who idolize or romanticize Africa (e.g. David Diop, “Africa”; Abioseh Nicol, “The Meaning of Africa”), Lenrie Peters does not go out of his way to celebrate the greatness of Africa. Rather, he looks closely at the challenges and predicaments of the continent against a backdrop of contemporary realities. For example, it is from this point of view that he discusses the long poem, “It is time for reckoning Africa”.

        To be sure, Africa, for Peters, has long been the object of denigration and ridicule by other nations; both for what they perceive the continent to be -- as backward and barbaric, and also for what they have done to it in material terms, including exploitation. The poet begins with an attack on the traditional rulers, whom he describes mockingly in stanza four as “Maudors” who:

…Sit on wicker thrones

ghosted by White ants

a hundred Marabus at hand

living on the fat of the land.²

       

Peters also has scathing words for the soldiers who recklessly stage military coup-de-tats on the pretext that they want to sanitize society or get rid of its problems. Much like J.P. Clark’s lyric, “The Cleaners,” who assert their readiness to clean up the rot in the body-politic, the soldiers -- who are the objects of the poet’s ridicule -- rather than do a good job of cleaning the political rot -- soon themselves become the rot. Consequently the poet urges all citizenry -- that is, the soldiers and civilian leaders alike -- to take responsibility for their own actions in order to ensure good governance. Apparently, for the poet, he sees no end to the political mess:

all threatening coups

and claiming vast receipts

like winsome children

feeding on mother’s milk

The seats of government

leveled at the dice

they get the mast

who tell the biggest lies

……………………….

oh country of great hopes

and boundless possibilities

will the seed grain

perish for ever.

Will river run

endlessly with bloods

saints resort to massacre

and all your harvests burnt?

        (SAP p. 169-70).

        Mention must be made of the poem’s title, “It is time for reckoning Africa,” which subtly hints at the fact that the continent has existed long enough to recognize the need to take stock of events, if it must grow. True, Africa was known as the cradle of human civilization. Today, however, that thinking appears to be a myth, especially considering the giant strides made by other continents, where, for example, in the field of science and technology, the African continent pales considerably by comparison.

        As a historical poem it employs the Biblical allusion of Noah’s Ark where humanity was saved from extinction from the face of the earth. It also employs the four-line quatrain structure which makes it fairly easy to read. Beyond these, the turgidity of Peters’ verse is generally acknowledged which, for example, prompts David Cook to comment on him as follows: “Even in an established poet’s work, like Lenrie Peters, there are moments when one is at a loss to interpret a certain arrangement of lines aloud, particularly when invited to emphasize a normally unstressed word at the end of line”³.

        The concluding stanza of the poem is illuminating: it does not give up hope on Africa. Rather, it urges the continent to forge ahead, to follow the “strait path/from world to better world.” Indeed, the entire lyric recalls Chinua Achebe’s The Trouble With Nigeria, which its author says is.

a savage indictment of the current

system and a message of hope for

the future. The time for action

is now.⁴

        Another poem of remembrance or reminiscence where Peters bares his mind on the growth and development of things, is “One Long Jump,” which chronicles the state of human development in the universal scheme of nature. In this poem, man and nature are seen together, in close proximity and unanimity with one another, with nature speaking to man in “a language of birds and flowers” (an echo of Wordsworth’s “the birds thus sing a joyous song” in his Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood).

        Artfully crafted, Peters repetitively employs the complex phrase “One Long Jump” in each of its four stanzas, apparently to illustrate the continuity in human civilization and in nature. While the first two stanzas celebrate the celestial glory and beauty of the natural world, the concluding two stanzas lament the gradual deterioration and decay of the universe as a result of human activity and wanton inanity. The employment of such images as “Never quite the same/Because things get mouldy,” “And milk loses its taste/ On the coated tongue,” “So we can never arrive/At the beginning,” “It is enough/To seek the shortcut/To the grave,” clearly illustrates the gradual decline into oblivion of human quests and ambitions. Its message recalls Dr. Samuel Johnson’s The Vanity of Human Wishes.

        The poem would have lost its grace and effectiveness without documenting the contrary states of nature, and without its apt employment of the repetitive and complex line “One long jump,” which links the past with the present, the dead with the living. Furthermore, the moral lesson which the poem enunciates -- e.g., that everything in life has its rise and decline, its beauty and ugliness -- makes it an important literary masterpiece.

II

        Peters’ treatment of the theme of Western colonialism is reflected in such poems like “We Have Come Home,” “Homecoming,” and “Lost Friends.” But it is the aftermath of Western colonialism which he discusses, and not its nature or its processes, as found in the works of most of his contemporaries.

        In “We Have Come Home,” the poet discusses the predicament of some African students who, upon returning home from their studies abroad, discover -- to their chagrin -- that nothing positive has been accomplished or preserved for them regarding the promises made to them to return home. In order to press home their demands, the students continue to emphasize their argument through the employment of the refrain, “We Have Come Home,” which runs through each of the respective four stanzas.

        The fulcrum of the poem’s argument derives its origin from the perennial problem often encountered by African students from their parents who urge them to return home upon the completion of their studies. Frequently, these students are promised several alluring benefits which, unfortunately, are never fulfilled. The use of the following images, for example, suggests the students’ sense of disappointment that there is nothing for them at home to return to: “Sunken hearts,” “the true massacre of the soul,” and the “death march/violating our ears.” Similarly, the satisfaction which they derive from their foreign studies is suggested by “We have come home/Bringing the pledge,” and the “spirit which asks no favour/of the world/But to have dignity” (SAP, pp. 163-64).

        As a poem which explores contemporary realities, it is likely to appeal to future generations as well as to current readers. In this poem, there is a ringing tone of anger and satisfaction, sorrow and joy, exhortation and compromise. The interplay between the bad and the good, the hopeless and the hopeful, adds an interesting paradigm to Peters’ poetic narrative.

        In this poem, Peters does not directly mention the pain of suffering which some of his contemporaries like Senghor, Kofi Awoonor, David Diop, and others articulate -- e.g., discrimination, inclement weather, nostalgia -- rather, he employs images, metaphors, and allusions to document his experience (e.g., “bloodless wars,” “massacre of the soul,” the “songs of other lands”). This strategy does not only bespeak the poet’s objectivity, it also shows his determination not to be sentimental about deep personal matters.

        “Homecoming,” much like the preceding lyric, discusses the havoc which Western colonialism has wrought on Africa’s socio-cultural and political values like malignant nemesis:

The present reigned supreme

        Like the shallow floods over the gutters

Over the raw paths where use had been

        The house with the shutters

Too strange the sudden change

        Of the times we hurried when we left

The times before we had properly arranged

        The memories that we kept.

Our sapless roots have fed

        The wind-swept seedlings of another age.

Luxuriant weeds have grown where we led

        The virgins to the water’s edge.

There at the edge of the town

        Just by the burial ground

Stands the house without a shadow

        Lived in by new skeletons.

That is all that is left

        To greet us on the home-coming

After we have paced the world

        And longed for returning⁵.

        The last two lines of this poem painfully highlight the frustration and agony of many African students who, having traversed the entired globe in quest of the golden fleece of knowledge, are rewarded with platitudes. The image, “new skeletons,” symbolizes the new sense of hopelessness -- as distinct from the old, like illiteracy, ignorance, poverty, etc -- which these students encounter upon their return home from abroad. In most cases, they find that there are no health facilities, no electricity, and no gainful employment. For these students, apparently, there is something dreary and foreboding about “Homecoming.” The reference, “Too strange the sudden change,” suggests the sudden and dramatic reversals in their living conditions.

        Other images employed by the poet to illustrate his sense of disappointment include the “shallow floods over the gutter,” the “raw paths where we had been,” the “sapless roots,” the “luxuriant weeds,” and the “wind-swept seedlings of another age” (MAP, p. 87) These images connote and denote the sense of ennui and hopelessness which awaits anyone contemplating a homecoming upon completion of studies abroad.

        Also of interest are Peters’ frequent references, some of which echo the work of established or famous poets -- such as his employment of the phrase “sapless roots,” which recalls Ezra Pound’s “one sap and one root” in his lyric “A Pact.” Such reference as this enlarges the canon of Peters’ poetic experience. Nor can one fail to appreciate his skilled aesthetic craftsmanship, exemplified in the poem’s quatrain structure.

III

        The theme of post-colonialism looms large in Peters’ poetry. In “Lost Friends,” for example, he laments and lampoons the behavior of the African elites who foolishly imitate the western life style:

They are imprisoned

In dark suits and air-conditioned offices

Alsatians ready at the door

On the saliva carpeted floor

They spend their nights

In jet airlines-

Would change them in mid-air

To show how much they dare

Drunk from the vestigo

Of never catching their tails

They never seem to know

When not to bite their nails

Their new addiction

Fortifies their livers

They are getting there

While the going’s good

They have no time for dreamers.

                (SAP, p. 167)

        Each of the poem’s stanzas contributes progressively to the overall sense of greed, hypocrisy, and vanity which Peters castigates. For example, stanza one exposes the hypocrisy of the educated elites who wear “dark suits” to their offices in rejection of their indigenous cultural attire. Stanza two exposes their pride and materialism: in order to show off their wealth, they fly from time to time in “jet airlines. Stanza three metaphorically condemns their excesses as they do not recognize when “enough is enough” (“They never seem to know/when not to bite their tails”). And stanza four castigates the general sense of moral lapse and disorientation of the African elites.

        Each of the stanzas, too, is a quatrain, except the fourth one, which is a quintet -- apparently employed either to demonstrate his maturity and independence to exploit his own freedom of “poetic license,” or to dramatize the state of cultural perversity and moral decay into which society has unfortunately degenerated. The poem’s title is also interesting: it suggests the fact that the current state of his “friends” is completely irredeemable.

        “The Fence” discusses the moral dilemma which confronts the poet as a result of the conflict between traditionalism and the new modernity triggered by post-colonialism. It is a watershed that divides humanity from making a specific determination: shall I or shall I not? Here the gains of traditionalism are set against those of modernity-- a kind of “maze and morass” nexus. Herein lies the poem’s intricate rhetorical virtuosity.

        The moral divide which Peters projects in “The Fence” can be viewed from another perspective, that is, as a conflict between the mundane world and the spiritual universe. Peters does not make a specific choice between the two sides. Rather, he discusses the gains and the losses of both and leaves us to make our own individual choice.

        As is usual with Peters, he has a penchant to explore diverse poetic forms; here, for the most part, the stanzas are written in trimerous lines (stanzas, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, & 7), whereas stanza five contains seven lines. While the theme of opposites which he discusses is universal, he employs appropriate antithetical images to reflect his vision of thought (e.g., “truth and untruth,” “past and future,” “forwards and backwards”). Furthermore, the poem enacts philosophical aphorisms as exemplied, for instance, in “time moves forwards and backwards,” and “the body ages relently.” The overall effect of all this is that it places Peters and his poetics on a literary apogee that is metaphysical and yet authentic.

        Of note in the poem is the callous behavior of the African elites towards their neighbors: they are indifferent to the sufferings of others (“They have no time for dreamers”); they are selfish and greedy (“their new addictions/fortifies their livers”); and they are hypocritical (they would “change in mid-air/To show how much they dare”).

        Furthermore, the contempt which the poet has for the African elites is suggested by his reference to them passively and uninterestedly through the epithet “they,” which he repeats thrice in the poem. Finally, no adjective can be more disdainful than the image “Lost,” which Peters employs derisively in the poem’s trite title.

IV

        A close review of Lenrie Peters’ poetics reveals his wide technical range, both in the handling of his themes and in his architectonics. While his subject matter embodies colonialism, post-colonialism, and a recognition of Africa’s socio-cultural values, he does not romanticize them as some of his contemporaries would do. His experimentation with poetic form consists of his adroit employment of repetition, antithesis, contrast, the quatrain measure, and metaphysical imagery. There is no room for sentimentality or romanticism in Peters’ verse. He writes dispassionately, cautiously, and with conviction and authority.

Notes

1.          See The Companion to African Literature, eds G.D. Killam and R. Rowe (Oxford, Bloomington, & Indianapolis: Oxford & Indiana University Press, 2000), p. 211.

2.          See A Selection of African Poetry: New Edition, introduced and annotated by K.E. Senanu and T. Vincent (Burnt Mills, Harlow, Longman Group Ltd., 1976), p. 169. Further quotations from this anthology will be abbreviated parenthetically in the text as SAP, followed by the page number(s).

3.          David Cook, African Literature: A Critical View (London: Longman Group, 1977), p. 40

4.          See the back cover of Chinua Achebe’s The Trouble With Nigeria (Enugu: Fourth Dimension Publishers, 1983).

5.          Gerald Moore and Ulli Beier, The Penguin Book of Modern African Poetry (London: Penguin Books, 1998), p. 87.

Works Cited

Achebe, Chinua. The Trouble With Nigeria. Enugu: Fourth Dimension Publishers, 1983

Cook, David. African Literature: A Critical View. London: Longman Group, 1977.

Killam, G.D. and Ruth Rowe. The Companion to African Literatures. Oxford, Bloomington & Indianapolis: Oxford and Indiana University Press, 2000

 

Moore, Gerald. and Ulli Beier. The Penguin Book of Modern African Poetry. London: Penguin Books, 1998.