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.
Comments
Post a Comment