I.N.C. ANIEBO (1999, 2007). NOTES ON AFRICAN POETRY: CHAPTER ONE; FUNDAMENTAL POETIC ELEMENTS.
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
Notes on African poetry delivers to its readers an entertaining account and perspective on African poetry. Its content deals mainly on, FUNDAMENTAL POETIC ELEMENTS, THE EVOLUTION OF AFRICAN POETRY, EXPLICATING AFRICAN POETRY, POEMS FOR ANALYSIS AND BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION. But this essay’s scope encompasses and focuses on the chapter one- FUNDAMENTAL POETIC ELEMENTS.
CHAPTER ONE: FUNDAMENTAL POETIC ELEMENTS.
Starting with the definition of poetry, which the author, I.N.C. Aniebo gave as” a patterned form of verbal or written expression of ideas in concentrated, imaginative, and rhythmical terms.” , The reader is taken on a journey through the different poetic elements, which are listed and explained, numbering up to seventy one (71) poetic elements. Almost every poetic element has an example to clearly illustrate it. These examples include words syllabified and poems.
The author, Ifeanyichukwu Ndubuisi Chikezie Aniebo, commonly known as I.N.C Aniebo was born on the 31st march, 1939. He is a Nigerian novelist and short story writer. He bags the title “The master craftsman of the short story”. As a zealous lecturer who has in mind to carry his reader along, he writes, “Some changes have been made in this edition such as the addition of many poems for analysis, and a few more analysis to assist my frustrated students who continue to find poetry an alien beast no matter how much I try to convince them otherwise.” (I.N.C. Aniebo, preface to the second edition, page iv.)
The author goes on to list and explain seventy (70) poetic elements, starting with the meter, which is the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables established in a line of poetry. Also the foot which is a unit of meter. He goes on to give types of metrical feet and metrical lines, which are;
Iambic foot
Trochaic foot
Anapaestic foot
Dactylic foot
Spondaic foot
Pyrrhic foot
Metrical lines;
Monometer – one foot line
Diameter – two foot line
Trimeter – three foot line
Tetrameter – four foot line
Pentameter – five foot line
Hexameter – six foot line
Heptameter – seven foot line
Octameter – eight foot line.
The chapter explores other poetic element such as Verse forms, which is divided into rhymed, blank and free verse. It also divides and explains categorically the devices of poetry. The first being the Devices of sound which are;
Rhyme
Rhyme scheme
Position of rhyme
End rhyme
Internal rhyme
Kinds of rhyme (Masculine, feminine and triple rhyme)
Alliteration
Onomatopoeia
Assonance
Consonance
Refrain
Repetition.
All of these are explained further with poems that contain these mentioned devices. Likewise the devices of sound are;
Figures of speech
Simile
Metaphor
Personification
Synecdoche
Metonymy
Hyperbole
Litotes
Antithesis
Apostrophe
Symbol
Stanza
Couplet – two line stanza
Triplet – three line stanza
Quatrain – four line stanza
Quintet – five line stanza
Sestet – six line stanza
Septet – seven line stanza
Octave – eight line stanza
Special stanzas include;
Heroic couplet
Terza rima
Limerick
Ballad
Rime royal
Ottava rima
Spenserian
Sonnet
Italian or petrarchan sonnet
English or Shakespearean sonnet
Prosody
Poetic diction
All these are given with examples, mostly poems to enable readers fully understand them. All these are contained from page one to twenty nine.
The organization of the book conforms to the academic needs of 100 level students. Its audience is clearly 100 level students, and being a lecturer of creative writing and literature at the English department of the university of Port Harcourt, he wrote this book to rescue students from their misconception of literature.
However, in my opinion, this masterpiece should be read alongside o’level literature textbooks to give beginners a deeper understanding of the devices.
-Amabebe Alexander
Q -To a human who refuses to imagine, to understand the rhythm of life and distinguish its sounds, to that human is poetry in its glory an alien beast
-Amabebe Alexander
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