WE HAVE COME HOME BY LENRE PETERS




WE HAVE COME HOME BY LENRE PETERS
We have come home
From the bloodless war
With sunken hearts
Our boots full of pride
                                    5          From the true massacre of the soul
                                                When we have asked
                                                “What does it cost?
                                                To be loved and left alone”

                                                We have come home
                                    10       Bringing the pledge
                                                Which is written in rainbow colors?
                                                Across the sky – for burial
                                                But it is not the time
                                                To lay wreaths
                                    15       For yesterday’s crimes.
                                                Night threatens
                                                Time dissolves
                                                And there is no acquaintance
                                                With tomorrow
                                    20       The gurgling drums
                                                Echo the stars
                                                The forest howls
                                                And between the trees
                                                The dark sun appears

                                    25       We have come home
                                                When the dawn falters
                                Singing songs of other lands
                                                The death march
                                                Violating our ears
                                    30       Knowing all our loves and tears
                                                Determined by the spinning coin
                                                We have come home
                                                To the green foothills
                                                To drink from cup.
                                    35       Of warm and mellow birdsong
                                                To the hot teaches
                                                Where the boats go out to sea
Threshing the ocean’s harvest
And hovering, plunging
                                    40       Gliding gulls shower kisses on the waves

                                                We have come home
                                                Where through the lightning flash
                                                The famine the drought,
                                    45       The sudden spirit
                                                Lingers on the road
                                                Supporting the tortured remnants
                                                            Of the flesh
                                                That spirit which asks no favor
                                    50                   Of the world
                                                But to have dignity.


CONTENT ANALYSIS OF THE POEM

We Have Come Home is a statement of victory of a flesh graduate who is returning home after years of rigorous academic pursuit. He makes the experience a universal one. They have obtained the Golden Fleece. This success is acquired at great physical, mental and spiritual cost. The happiness expressed by the returnee – the fresh graduates – is out only for the certificates or degrees labored by them to acquire but for surviving the hostile and uncooperative foreign environment in which they schooled and resided.

In spite of the hostile environment, the poet does not think it is wise and ripe to start pointing accusing fingers at anyone but to plan for life after school.

The poet also paints the political, cultural and moral atmosphere of Africa were the returnees had returned to.
The poem also centers on harmony and beauty in human activities, the firmaments and the vegetation of Africa.

In stanza three, thought of the homecoming shifts to the sad notes. The returnees’ pride of foreign values and ideas cannot take away their uncertainties about the present times.

In stanza four, the poet revisits the atmospheric conditions of Africa.

In the last stanza, the poet cries about the unpleasant climatic condition in Africa that has brought on the people drought and famine, making them to be poor. The returnees cannot go back to Europe but have to stay and support the “tortured remnants” in Africa in their attempt for a worthy place under the sun with “human dignity”.


POETIC DEVICES

Metaphor: Lines 2, 11 and 24 as in, “…the bloodless wars”, “…written in rainbow colors” and “The dark sun appears”.
                       
Personification: Lines 4, 22 and 40, “Our boots full of pride,” “The forest howls” and “Gliding pull shower kisses on the waves”.

Hyperbole: The poet’s academic achievement is deliberately colored by such hyperbolic words as “bloodless war” and “rainbow colors” in line 2 and 11.

Alliteration: Line 27, “singing songs…”

Assonance: Line 22, “The forest howls”.

Onomatopoeia: Lines 29, 42 and 43 “violating our ears”, “where through the lighting flash,” and “And thundering rain”.

Consonance: Line 47, “supporting the tortured remnants”.

Repetition: The title of the poem: “We Have Come Home“, is repeated in all the stanzas.

THEMES
1.     Theme of victory
2.     Racial discrimination
3.     Theme of uncertainty

MOOD
The mood in the poem is that of melancholy and uncertainty. The uncertain expectation is the lot of the graduates, and they were and sad because of the situation they met at home, which is a far cry from their former situation in Europe.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                


                                   
  




  
                             






WE HAVE COME HOME BY LENRE PETERS
We have come home
From the bloodless war
With sunken hearts
Our boots full of pride
                                    5          From the true massacre of the soul
                                                When we have asked
                                                “What does it cost?
                                                To be loved and left alone”

                                                We have come home
                                    10       Bringing the pledge
                                                Which is written in rainbow colors?
                                                Across the sky – for burial
                                                But it is not the time
                                                To lay wreaths
                                    15       For yesterday’s crimes.
                                                Night threatens
                                                Time dissolves
                                                And there is no acquaintance
                                                With tomorrow
                                    20       The gurgling drums
                                                Echo the stars
                                                The forest howls
                                                And between the trees
                                                The dark sun appears

                                    25       We have come home
                                                When the dawn falters
                                Singing songs of other lands
                                                The death march
                                                Violating our ears
                                    30       Knowing all our loves and tears
                                                Determined by the spinning coin
                                                We have come home
                                                To the green foothills
                                                To drink from cup.
                                    35       Of warm and mellow birdsong
                                                To the hot teaches
                                                Where the boats go out to sea
Threshing the ocean’s harvest
And hovering, plunging
                                    40       Gliding gulls shower kisses on the waves

                                                We have come home
                                                Where through the lightning flash
                                                The famine the drought,
                                    45       The sudden spirit
                                                Lingers on the road
                                                Supporting the tortured remnants
                                                            Of the flesh
                                                That spirit which asks no favor
                                    50                   Of the world
                                                But to have dignity.


CONTENT ANALYSIS OF THE POEM

We Have Come Home is a statement of victory of a flesh graduate who is returning home after years of rigorous academic pursuit. He makes the experience a universal one. They have obtained the Golden Fleece. This success is acquired at great physical, mental and spiritual cost. The happiness expressed by the returnee – the fresh graduates – is out only for the certificates or degrees labored by them to acquire but for surviving the hostile and uncooperative foreign environment in which they schooled and resided.

In spite of the hostile environment, the poet does not think it is wise and ripe to start pointing accusing fingers at anyone but to plan for life after school.

The poet also paints the political, cultural and moral atmosphere of Africa were the returnees had returned to.
The poem also centers on harmony and beauty in human activities, the firmaments and the vegetation of Africa.

In stanza three, thought of the homecoming shifts to the sad notes. The returnees’ pride of foreign values and ideas cannot take away their uncertainties about the present times.

In stanza four, the poet revisits the atmospheric conditions of Africa.

In the last stanza, the poet cries about the unconductive climatic condition in Africa that has brought on the people drought and famine, making them to be poor. The returnees cannot go back to Europe but have to stay and support the “tortured remnants” in Africa in their attempt for a worthy place under the sun with “human dignity”.


POETIC DEVICES

Metaphor: Lines 2, 11 and 24 as in, “…the bloodless wars”, “…written in rainbow colors” and “The dark sun appears”.
                       
Personification: Lines 4, 22 and 40, “Our boots full of pride,” “The forest howls” and “Gliding pull shower kisses on the waves”.

Hyperbole: The poet’s academic achievement is deliberately colored by such hyperbolic words as “bloodless war” and “rainbow colors” in line 2 and 11.

Alliteration: Line 27, “singing songs…”

Assonance: Line 22, “The forest howls”.

Onomatopoeia: Lines 29, 42 and 43 “violating our ears”, “where through the lighting flash,” and “And thundering rain”.

Consonance: Line 47, “supporting the tortured remnants”.

Repetition: The title of the poem: “We Have Come Home“, is repeated in all the stanzas.

THEMES
1.     Theme of victory
2.     Racial discrimination
3.     Theme of uncertainty

MOOD
The mood in the poem is that of melancholy and uncertainty. The uncertain expectation is the lot of the graduates, and they were and sad because of the situation they met at home, which is a far cry from their former situation in Europe.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                


                                   
  




  
                             



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