OURS TO PLOUGH NOT TO PLUNDER BY NIYI OSUNDARE
OURS TO
PLOUGH NOT TO PLUNDER
BY NIYI OSUNDARE
The
earth is ours to plough and plant
The
hoe is our barber
The
dibble her dimple
Out
wish mattocks and machetes
Bring
calabash trays and rocking baskets
Let
the sweat which swells earth root
Relieve
heavy heaps of their tuberous burdens
Let
wheat fields raise their bread some hands
To
the ripening sun
Let
legumes clothe the naked bosom
Of
shivering mounds
Let
the pawpaw swell and swing its head ward breast
Let
water spring
From earth’s unfathomed
fountain
Let gold rush
From her deep unseeable
mines
Hitch up a ladder to
the dodging sky
Let’s put a sun in
every night
Our earth is an unopened
grain house
A bustling barn in some
far, uncharted jungle
A distant gem in a
rough unhappy dust
This earth is ours to
work not to waste
Ours to man not to maim
This earth is ours
plough, not to plunder.
CONTENT
ANALYSIS OF THE POEM
Ours to Plough, Not to plunder in an emotional poem in
celebration of one important aspect of nature. It takes a look at mother earth
and its resources and passionately calls on man to maintain and guard in rich
natural endowment.
The poet sees the earth as a piece of inexhaustible well
of natural resources, and appeal to man to make constructive and good use of
such resources.
In the first stanza, the poet admonishes man to use
the hoe the tillage of the soil with care just as the barber would care for the
hair he cuts. Even the holes ‘dibbles’ made on the soil is seen as spots of
smiling cheek ‘dimple’.
In stanza two and three, farming equipment and crops
are mentioned with deep interest. The natural courses of growth of farm crops
are seen both in their bounties and protectiveness. Here, wheat, fruits and
pawpaw trees are shooting out to the sun and legumes covering the open soil.
In stanza four the pictures of the mineral deposits in
mother earth are revealed. Water and gold are called forth from the deep of the
earth. They with other earthly abundance should be used to put joy on the faces
of everybody.
In stanza five, the poet hammers on the earth’s
virginity fullness and gracelessness.
The last stanza is a reliving of the poet’s appeal
that man should make constructive, decisive, meaningful and good used of the
earth and its resources. In order words, man should not destroy the earth in
the course of our daily activities.
The part is a statement of caution and that of
awareness to man to use his position and resources for the betterment of the
world and its people.
POETIC
DEVICES
Metaphor: Line 2: “The hoe is a barber”; line 8: “Wheat fields…
bread some hands”; line 12: “Pawpaw… head ward breasts”; line, “Sun in every
night” and lines 22 – 24.
Personification: Line 10:”legumes clothe… “ line 21: “Unhappy dust”;
line 3: “dibble her dimple”; and line 12:
“Let the pawpaw swell and swing its head ward breast”.
Alliteration: Line 1: “Plough and plant”; line 3: “dibble her
dimple” and line 4: “mattocks and machetes”.
Assonance: Line 3, 4 and 6 “the dibble her dimple “ “Out with
mattocks and machetes”, and “let the sweat which swells earth root.
Consonance: Lines 13, “Let water spring”; line 15, “Let gold rush”;
line 19, “Our earth is an unopened grain house” and line 20, “a bursting barn
in some far uncharted jungle”.
Repetition: The first and last line of the poem. “This is ours to
plough”.
THEMES
(i)
The call for the
effective development of the earth resources
(ii)
The rich
inexhaustible endowment of nature
(iii)
The call to
maintain our world and protect it from falling into pieces
MOOD
The poem’s mood is that of hope, happy world,
weariness, with a warning that is universal.
TONE: The tone of
the poem is reflective, sober and imperative.
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