Christopher Okigbo: Poems Literary Elements

The poems are related from the perspective of a first person subjective narrator.

The poems are written in an iambic pentameter.

The thunder is the main metaphor used in the poem "Hurrah for Thunder’’. The thunder is used in this context as a metaphor for the destructive power of human kind.

We find alliteration in the line "If they share the meat let them remember thunder.’’

In the poem "Love Apart’’ the narrator mentions the way young couples delude themselves. He claims many believe they are together and that their relationship will make them feel less lonely. He notes however ironically that most of the time more people feel lonelier in a relationship that they feel when they are single.

Narrative poems.

The poem "Hurrah for Thunder’’ takes place in Africa.

The tone used in the poems is a mocking one.

In the poem "Hurrah for Thunder" the protagonist is the elephant and the antagonists are the hunters.

The major conflict in the poem "Hurrah for Thunder’" is between the natural world in Africa and the civilized world.

The poem "Hurrah for Thunder" reaches its climax when the elephant is defeated.

The first line in the poem "Hurrah for Thunder’’ foreshadows the fall of the elephant.

In the poem "Hurrah for Thunder’’ the narrator mentions how the elephant was taken down by the thunder. This is however an understatement as the narrator later reveals that the hunters took down the elephant.

The elephant’s power is alluded in the line when the narrator describes him as pulling four big trees with just a wave of his hand. This has the purpose of making the reader understand just how powerful the animal is in comparison with the other creatures.

The term "grass’’ is used in the poem as a general term to make reference to humans and the human society.

No personification can be found.

We find a personification in the line "If I don’t learn to shut my mouth I’ll soon go to hell’’.

We find an onomatopoeia in the line "I, Okigbo, town-crier’’.