By Theodore G Vincent and Kojo Senanu
'A magnificent work - and although published decades ago, not
really dated as this is quintessential poetry dished out by some of the most
outstanding poets/writers in African history. This was/is a veritable textbook
and general work throbbing with the acme of poetry as produced by great early
African writers. The names of the poets whose works are introduced here are
illustrious - they include Lenrie Peters (Gambia), Okot p'bitek (Uganda),
Leopold Senghor (Senegal), Wole Soyinka, J. P Clark (Nigeria), Kofi Awoonor,
Kwesi Brew (Ghana), David Rubadiri, Denis Brutus (Southern Africa) among many
others. This is a top-notch work which also includes the best of translations,
even from African languages into English. The approach of the authors is
sublime; as we are given brief biographies of the poets, and then individual
poems are brilliantly analysed, with excellent comments and explanation. In the
process we can appreciate the variegated figures of speech, general imagery and
ideas of so many poems. We learn for example that poets like Soyinka and Peters
are rather "difficult", yet the authors *editors, rather, pull out
all the stops to simplify or explain their work in detail. The variety of
selected sample poems is extraordinary - for example, one can relish a work
like Lest we should be the last (by Kwesi Brew) whose dazzling simplicity
reaches a bathetic crescendo...'
- Malome
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