Season by Wole Soyinka Essay -- English Literature

Season by Wole Soyinka There seems to be a strange contrast between his choice of the word â€Å"decay†, which suggests things going to ruin and the final sentiment where the word â€Å"promise† indicates hope. I get the sense that Soyinka’s poem is contrived. He feels the urge to speak lyrically about this subject but does not seem to have found his authentic voice, or perhaps the theme is too complex for him to address in a sixteen line poem. This is reflected in lines such as â€Å"Pollen is mating time† which not only fails to make sense but is also rather clumsy. This poem begs comparison with Achebe’s â€Å"Refugee Mother and Child† that redefines aesthetics through comparison with traditional Western sensibilities. He shows the harsh reality of humans on the brink of starvation whilst Soyinka shows humans dependent on, yet in harmony with, nature. Soyinka too redefines some words through context but his spin on the relationship between humans and nature is a more hopeful one. The word â€Å"loved† is in the past tense thus indicating a time gone by. This suggests that the firs...