By Kola Eke
Department of
English and Literature
UNIVERSITY OF BENIN
[Introduction
] [Chin Ce as
a Romantic]
[Nature
as Source of Pleasure] [
Nature
as a Source of Pain]
[Africa Research Home]
I. Introduction
CHIN CE stands out as a prolific
author among the new generation of African writers. A unique quality of this
writer lies in his creativity which permeates all the genres of literature. He
has to his credit such collections of short fiction as Children of Koloko, Gamji
College and The Beautiful Ones. Besides, he has written a novel entitled The
Visitor. In addition, he has two published volumes of poetry: Full Moon and An
African Eclipse. His essays such as “Riddles and Bash” and “Bards and Tyrants”
among others have appeared in journals and major internet websites.
This
paper focuses on the Romantic sensitivity that runs through Chin Ce's Full Moon
(abbreviated FM). Few African poets have been concerned with nature and the
natural world in contrast to English poets who have written much more on nature.
One of the remarkable things about romantic poets is their interest in natural
objects. Writing on romanticism, David Wright, states:
Romantics elegize
and idealize nature. Nature is seen by romantics to be consoling or morally
uplifting; a kind of spiritual healer… nature is invested with personality;
human moods and moral impulses are seen reflected from it (XV).
What
strikes us here is Wright's perception of the anthropomorphic nature of romantic
poetry. Seen against this background, the common denominator of such poets is
their ability to treat natural objects as human beings as C.M. Bowra
declares:
In nature all romantic poets found their inspiration. It was
not everything to them, but they would have been nothing without it; for through
it they found those exalting moments when they passed from sight to vision and
pierced, as they thought, to the secrets of the universe (13).
Bowra
corroborates the idea of the romantics' great respect and admiration for nature.
This group of poets believes that a moment with nature can generate visionary
powers. What matters most is this interpenetration of human mind and nature.
Although one of the dominant traits of the romantics is their intermingling of
nature and mind, Abrams warns against the danger of perceiving them only in
terms of their interest in nature and natural objects:
To a remarkable
degree external nature the landscape, together with its flora and fauna became a
persistent subject of poetry… (however) it is a mistake, to describe the
romantic poets as simply “nature” poets (116).
One of the most reliable
critiques of romanticism is the celebrated William Wordsworth
himself:
What does then the poet? He considers man and the objects that
surround him as acting and re-acting upon each other, so as to produce an
infinite complexity of pain and pleasure… (258).
Wordsworth, a major
romantic, conceives of nature as serving two purposes: nature's dual role as a
source of joy and sadness. As Wordsworth reveals, the common fact of romantic
poets is to read meanings into landscape.
II. Chin Ce as a Romantic
One can hardly
think of a poem in Chin Ce's Full Moon that is not connected with nature. Nature
is the strongest element in his poems and it is the connecting thread running
through them. Full Moon poetry is not so much a description of natural objects
as of the feelings associated with them. In many of Chin Ce's poems there is a
natural background, but they deal more with relationship between human mind and
nature. One can therefore refer to the sensivity which runs through Chin Ce's
poems as romantic. In Chin Ce's poetic universe, mind and nature act and react
upon each other to generate a network of pleasure and pain.
III. Nature as Source of Pleasure
“In
The Radiance”
In his passionate desire for oneness with nature, Chin Ce finds
delight in adoring the sun.
My heart takes a leap
When the warmth of
your presence
stirs the dying embers
A close reading of “In The
Radiance” (FM 24) reveals the poet's technique of deliberately investing natural
objects with human attributes:
Which sparked and glowed
in the wind.
Strength filled with your loving breath
my fire lights…
The
pleasure in nature is here depicted in his loving and minute description of the
sun. These descriptions never move far from the natural object before him, and
are the work of the most thorough observation. In the first place, there is a
“leap” in the speaker's mind as a result of the “radiance” of sunset. The sun
lives and works in real sympathy and fellowship with the human soul because of
the warm light shining through. Besides, the radiant heat of the sun is said to
stir “the dying embers” of the speaker's “heart.” To discover the insight that
the poem reveals requires careful reading and deep sensitivity. Chin Ce's
rhetoric is highly metaphorical as he shows us a picture of dying fire. The
purpose of this metaphor at this point is used to paint the depressing mood of
the speaker. Through the evocative power of language, the fire that is burning
low is likened to the speaker's low spirits. This method of comparing a low
burning coal to the depressing mood of the speaker supports the statement that
poetic creation “makes the stated fact appear in a special light” (Langer
536).
However, the spirit becomes elevated from of the radiant energy from
the sun. The poem tries to show how the mind may be affected by the external
world, signified by the sun. The sun, which is giving a warm bright light fills
us with the spirit of gaiety, and leaves our mind in great happiness.
“In the
Radiance” conceptualizes the effects of loving observation of the sun. As hinted
earlier, the sun is alive, and not dead. It has not only life, but also feeling.
It is a living being endowed with “loving breath”. The sun is endowed not only
with life and feeling, but also with the ability to build up “strength” in the
speaker. Chin Ce gives to the sun features of humanity. Here we are not so much
observers as lovers of nature. The sun does not exist by and for itself alone;
it radiates and works on a scheme of interchange and mutuality with us. The
radiance of the sunset does spiritually correlate with the moods of the speaker.
To the sensitive mind the sun is a symbol of peace, order and joy.
What
strikes one forcibly in reading Chin Ce's poem is the anthropomorphic imagery
that runs through:
You tended this fire
To dance in orange glows
And now here's my light and life
in the radiance of your
eyes.
The radiant sun imposes himself upon the mind, and we cannot but
read spiritual meanings in the sun's face. In the above, the spreading out of
warm light is seen as an act of volition. Nature becomes to the speaker an
inspirer of a passionate and comprehensive “love”, a deep and purifying “joy”.
The poet conveys this to us through the suggestive power of his art. Through the
poet's imagination, one visualizes a pot in which a goldsmith is heating metals
into gold. Just like a goldsmith is smelting metals into gold in a laboratory,
the sun is said to be radiating “joy”. In this connection, we cannot but agree
with the statement that poetry is the use of “unorthodox or deviant forms of
language” (G.N. Leech 136). In what seems to be a deviation from the accepted
norms, Chin Ce equates the sun to a goldsmith.
Flames fed by the tinder
of your love
and smelted in life's blazing crucible
for joy only
pure and golden
For the speaker, there is “joy” to be found in natural
objects, especially in the “orange glow” of the sun. This interaction between
man and nature is to him not merely an abstract thing, but something physically
experienced. The speaker becomes conscious of the world outside him as a living,
moving phenomenon. The poet is able to achieve this effect by investing the sun
with human qualities. In particular, the radiance and dancing movement of the
sun are very therapeutic. They are means of associating the sun primarily with
peace, tranquility and joy. But, more importantly, is the speaker's sense of the
correlative and intercommunicating force of the radiating sun and the human
mind.
“Jos”
The primary concern of another poem entitled “Jos” (FM 56)
is the power of nature to move human spirit to joy. This intuitive turning to
nature is the fundamental impulse behind this poem. Like many other romantic
poets, Chin Ce derives his solace from the spirit of nature:
I like to be
like
these rocks of the endless age
crouched and slumbering
in the
Northern heat.
The “rocks” are no longer mere natural objects, but a
thing of vital and mysterious power, and an object of love. To produce the kind
of pleasure which the poet speaks there has to be closeness, even a familiarity
with these “rocks” in Jos, Nigeria. In these lines, there is evidence of an
entirely new relationship with nature. To Chin Ce, the “rocks” have a strong
organic unity with man, there are no borderlines and man becomes part of the
rocks. Chin Ce, again, uses anthropomorphic imagery with startling effects. His
imagination recognizes the life of natural objects and hence he decides to enter
into a relationship with these rocks not just seen for their beauty, but for
their ability to carry out such human activities as sleeping and crouching. By
the personification of the rocks, the poet provides a transition to guide the
reader from his innocent way of looking at rocks to a manner of
transcendentalism which he continuously celebrates. In the sleeping and
crouching states of the rocks, the poet draws a source of inward joy, which
could be shared by all human beings. It is a poem in which this lofty feeling of
intimate communion with nature is most expressed.
Part of our enjoyment of
this poem comes from the recurrent anthropomorphism that extends to the second
stanza:
How long is your meditation
You giants bored and
(all
around the greenery)
barely seeing?
Frequently the triumph of Chin
Ce's art depends on the success of his investment of humanity on nature. The
poet recasts the external world of the rocks only in order to get beyond it. He
attempts to locate visionary power through their several layers. What makes the
poem unique is that it expresses not mere outward beauty, but the meditative
mood of the landscape. One is struck by the skillful method with which the poet
draws the intellectual from the visual. So the rocks are not just seen for their
giant nature, but for their ability to express some of the elusive truths and
perceptions of the mind. Chin Ce projects into the landscape his own feelings
and sentiments; his joy is transferred to the natural objects. One of the
pleasures of reading the poem lies in how the poet ascribes meditative abilities
to the rocks. This being the case, we feel we can commune silently, privately
and spiritually with nature. One may derive additional pleasure from reading the
third stanza:
Through seasons of wind and mist
nothing can rile your
colloquium
grim monarchs
with the clouds of guards above.
Very
likely by the time one reads the above stanza, one can relate the poem to a
relationship between man and nature. Chin Ce's poem begins and ends with the
appreciation of nature. The poet chooses particular words because of their
richness of implication and their range of suggestion. It is the poet's firm
belief that we can learn from nature wisdom and truth. In his imagery of the
“rocks” as one large conference hall, the poet embodies the idea of nature as a
teacher. This image serves more than a pictorial purpose. Rather, it indicates
an attitude towards nature that includes a belief in nature's power to teach
mankind. It is the study of nature, here represented by the rocks, that best
brings out the inner life within us, that best suggests to us the worthy and the
noble. Hence they are perceived as “monarchs”. The rocks will teach us more than
we can learn and men become wise as they make nature their teacher. To see
nature in this light is the source of exuberant joy. One moment of communion
with nature gives us much wisdom because they are rocks of “endless age”. In
describing the natural objects as a seminar hall, the poet provides an index of
his own happiness. This image is employed not only to stimulate our imagination,
but also to convey romantic feelings. The poem sharpens our perception of the
natural objects around us, showing us the happy interaction between mind and
nature.
“Tenderly”
Chin Ce has a great, and engaging capacity, for
adoring nature. This is one of the most striking and persistent features of
“Tenderly” (FM 40-42). The romantic poets have always been celebrated for their
love of natural objects. This poem evokes the tender flight of swans with
inexhaustible enthusiasm:
The wind and tide shall rise
to her name,
the swans
of the skies far as
Everest's cold peaks.
From the
above, one notices that the poem is only superficially about the rising tide of
water and the windy atmosphere. The poet takes interest in the ebb and flow of
the tide because it is close to the swans' natural habitat. In other words, the
swans live in the immediate environs of water. So the poet looks minutely into
the world of these birds, starting from their immediate environment.
The bond
between the “tide” and the “swans” is felt, not just expressed. The rising tide
urges each swan to take a flight across the sky. Then as the “wind” starts to
blow strongly, each swan can fly as high as Mt. Everest. The poet has been
elevated into a state where he delights in the beauty of things that exist at
the level where the swan lives. This symbiotic relationship between the birds
and other natural objects, such as the wind and streams is what excites the
speaker. The whole of nature still conspires to make the “swans” happy as they
perch on the mountaintop to
… rally round to beckon she
who dwells in
a heart dancing
and swirling with the chirruping
birdling…
The
great moments are those in which the beauty of the swans' circular flights and
melodious songs come alive. What the speaker experiences is a share of the
birds' own happiness. For the world of the swan is full of beauty and joy. We
attain a state of happiness through appreciating the flights and songs of these
natural objects. To the speaker, the swans have no part in misery, as they are
seen either “dancing” or “chirruping” with joy. He ascribes a state of perfect
happiness to the swans. This is because it is common to see them swirling
happily. While flying across the sky, they twist and turn in different
directions and at varying speeds. This goes to indicate that they are free from
the stress of this world. The melodious songs of the swan further heighten this
state of happiness.
The wind in her wings shall ride
till the very
end of time
swinging in hearts
that reach to the heights of
love.
These are lines by which we can best know that the birds are living
a life of happiness. The swans flying in the winds, fill the speaker with the
spirit of happiness, and live in his mind a joyful and permanent memory. The
speaker looks at the flying swans as a source everlasting and spiritual
refreshment.
If the poet is seen to speak of immediate joy in the presence of
nature, the following lines make it as clear as possible:
Only to light
up the fire
of my heart
A shining aurora in my dreams
One cannot
ignore the poet's feelings concerning natural things, for they are not uttered
casually, but frequently and consciously. One senses a probing curiosity into
the workings of the mind, which is beautifully compared to the happiness of
nature. Anthropomorphic images are the elements or body of his poem. The whole
frame of the poem is one, which suggests the happiness of the “brook”, “tide”
and the “swans”.
The brook shall rise to join
the tide
when her
radiance
lights up the spheres.
The poet's description of the natural
world clearly derives from first-hand experience. At a point the field of
reference moves from the physical world of the “swans” and other natural objects
to the mental world of the poet.
And my eyes shall see
the glory
of that tenderly soothing shimmering
There is a blending here of
mind and nature. The feelings that nature arouses are one that all can enter
into relationship with. This fitting of the individual mind to the world of
nature is apparent in the word “aurora”. This indicates how natural objects have
vitalized the poet's spirit. It also indicates a luminous atmospheric
phenomenon, which has helped to brighten up the poet's mood. The word aurora is
used to illustrate the joy, which is embodied in the mind's responsiveness to
the beauty of natural objects. Here, aurora stands apart in its emphasis on a
symbiosis between the happiness of the swans and that of human kind. Chin Ce
does idealise nature. To him, nature is one source and nourishment of our
feelings and part of our being. Thus there is not a moment of any day of our
lives when the “swans” are not producing “glory”.
“Queen of the
Night”
It would be correct to assert that Full Moon is an affirmation that
man can get all the happiness he needs from nature as revealed in “Queen of the
Night” (FM 53-55). The pleasure that nature inspires is possible only in
watching the Queen's “crescent” which is usually “calling forth in joy”. This is
a point of crucial importance for the appreciation of the poem. It is a vision
of the universal order of which the moon and flowers are parts of a landscape of
joy. “Queen of the Night” is Chin Ce's attempts to reconcile the blossoming
nature with that of man. One looks at the “”full-rounding” of the moon and
flowers as a kind of happiness one gains from nature. This is because when the
flowers are in blossom it always “cast a golden spell” on human kind. In this
context the “Queen” is an image of triumphant beauty.
The poem's strength of
refreshment comes from its reminder of the “brimming” powers of the moon. This
is capable of pouring “richly splendour/in many lives that hunger”. These lines
achieve their purpose, which is to emphasize that the air is always fragrant
with scents from the “Queen”. So the speaker's senses are open to the beauty of
the moon's fragrance like flowers around him. This appeal to the senses of smell
and taste is to show that nature seems to be actively beneficent to man.
The
“Queen” is definitely operating upon the speaker's sensibility, shaping it,
making his mind fit to the external world:
How I watched you brighten
when cuddled in my bed
my night with your luscious gazing
Your
light is warmth of my dream
And the dark may look as day
when coming out
to pee
To behold your full bright gaze.
Here as elsewhere, one
notices a process by which the objects seen in the landscape are invested with
fragrance and brightness by the speaker's own mind. Man and nature, mind and the
external world of flowers are geared together in unison. The “luscious gazing”
of the flowers, illustrates that the speaker's mind is actively imposing a
pattern upon the Queen. So there is peace of mind from the “light” and sweet
fragrance of the Queen. In this case, one can say that the Queen affects the
mind, and the mind reciprocally affects the Queen. Besides, in presenting the
Queen as “cuddling” on his bed, the speaker ascribes feelings and passions to
her. This shows us how the world of the flowers and the human mind are
harmoniously adapted to each other; so the great union of mind and nature is
consummated.
“Night”
In “Night” (FM 15), there is genuine pleasure of
feeling the freshness of the natural world. For the speaker there is joy to be
found in the calmness of the night:
The night is calm
And commanding
stillness reigns
Chin Ce continues with the practice of ascribing to
natural objects human feelings and emotions. He does not see the external world
as a dead matter, devoid of human attributes.
In the poetic context, the
night has a power, which can inspire love. The nocturnes are said to be
peacefully at rest too.
Even the crickets have slept
Like tired
children after moonlighting
This is to indicate that nightfall is the
norm, a worldly paradise to which living things must return to regain their lost
calmness.
Out of my closet dances my dream
joyfully
I feel the
radiant of love
Halo over my head.
Moreover, the “commanding” ability
of nightfall is an attempt to enable mankind to live in the material world by
entering into harmony with it. Man is integrated and subservient to the powers
and processes of nightfall. Man works in partnership with his environment.
No
poem better illustrates that there is harmony between the inner and outer,
between mind and nature:
And around my cheeks
sweet swinging songs
palpitate with the living breath
And I can feel another
life
There is evidence of an entirely new relationship with nightfall.
Here the poet associates night with “love” both physical and spiritual.
The night is the dawn
of your never-ending love
As it comes
surrounding me.
Nightfall radiates the type of beauty and pleasure that
never changes. It therefore symbolizes permanence in the midst of change and
decay. Chin Ce expresses the permanence of natural beauty and its joys. Nature
calmly fulfils herself forever. Besides, the “night” itself has become a living
thing. In the poem delight springs from the fact that nightfall is able to
breathe new “life” into the speaker. The night's breath and the breathing within
the speaker, are brought together, and then interlinked. There is recognition of
man's affinity with nature and the unifying spirit that runs through all things.
This unity marks the attainment of inner peace.
“Full Moon”
What is
important about the poem entitled “Full Moon” (FM 25-27), is the elevation of
moonlight above the level of ordinary object. It is a poem of the mind and its
relations to the external world, especially the “moon”. The beautiful
description of the moonlight makes one almost want to worship it along with the
speaker:
Full moon shines upon the dream
of youth
and wisdom may
take its time
The passions gather with violent
crackling and nothing
can stop the animated fire.
One is struck, upon reading the poem, by
the care with which the moonscape before the speaker's eye is described. The
influence of nature upon him is such that the “moon” is perceived as living.
With Chin Ce, the moonlight should no longer be taken for granted, it is now to
been as a human object, gifted with passionate and energetic feelings. These
very few lines show that one moment of communion with the great moods and beams
of moonlight can generate enough “wisdom”. Characteristically, the poet is often
personifying natural objects. One can think of the “moon” as a human
being:
We had met
at crossroads, knowing not
whence you came
from the misty dawn of time
to this world of violet flowers.
What
is impressive about the poem is the way in which it sees the speaker and the
moonlight as travellers who always run into each other. Here, the “crossroads”
suggests the universality of moonlight. This implies that wherever one may be
located, one experiences the ray of beautiful light from the moon.
It is all
too easy to think of the poem as a dramatic monologue or lyric. There is some
form of dialogue between the speaker and the moon, but this is revealed from the
discourse of the single speaker:
Your voice cut like symphony in the
woods
enchanter roses among the flora:
'follow me and we will search
hidden corners of the mind
to be joined where dread pales
in million
spectra of truth!'
Although Chin Ce's “Full Moon” is spoken by one person
as he walks in the “woods” by moonlight, it does not have all the features of a
dramatic monologue. For one thing, the foundation of the poem is not the
revelation of the speaker's temperament but the development of his observation
and feelings about the moonlight's beauties and magical powers. One feature,
which the poem shares with the dramatic monologue, is that there is a single
speaker who pretends to be interacting with a personified object, the moon. The
poem, moreover, resembles dramatic monologue because there is an interplay of
what has been referred to as “dramatic action, and action which takes place in
the present” (Byron 8). The dramatic action involves the “Full Moon” telling the
speaker to “follow” him to a place where people go to rest, so as to be
protected from terror. Besides this action takes place in the present, so the
reader becomes an observer, watching as the moon takes the speaker to a haven.
Chin Ce's haven is a place where “dread pales” in “spectra of truth”. The
spectroscopic imagery equates the haven to a prism, which separates the world of
“dread” from happiness. In this bold picture is embodied the poet's belief that
nature is a spectrum of joy.
The poet believes that, we can learn from the
moonlight wisdom and truth and get joyful. Close attention to the details of the
poem reveals profound and elaborate bonds of love between the shining moon and
the speaker. The sight of moonlight impresses the speaker's soul with quietness
and beauty. By following the moon, the speaker's action is an indication of the
union between the physical world and human mind. Chin Ce's faith in the healing
power of nature is an outcome of the mysterious power of the moon to enter into
the deep recesses of the mind.
IV. Nature as a Source of
Pain
“Prophecy”
Chin Ce's poem entitled “prophecy” serves as a
reminder that nature can be cruel too. The poet intensifies natural processes
around the speaker till they seem part of his predicament:
Somewhere on
the mountain height
and filling may puny strength
around the slums,
through the corners
windy gusts of my breath.
When these lines are
considered as whole, the sense of interaction between the speaker and the
landscape is very prominent. Every detail of the setting illuminates the
speaker's state of mind. Not only are the “slums” through which the speaker
moves striking, they also reveal a great deal about his feelings. The “wind” is
blowing very hard as the speaker takes a walk around an area of the city. This
environment is littered with buildings that are dirty and in bad condition. The
“wind” which is blowing very hard intensifies our perception of the hardship,
including the poor inhabitants of these areas. As a people, they are entirely
depressed by their surroundings, and the stormy “wind” acts as a physical
correlate to their pains. Here, the “wind” is not merely accidental; it serves
as a negative rather than positive purpose. Chin Ce makes the stormy weather
appropriate to the mood of his speaker:
Around the merchant by his wares
calling his hundred clients
and state hounds on sirens, snouts
aimed
at ubiquitous foes.
There is a certain penetration of sadness into the
poem. This is due to the cumulative impression created by the weather. From
these lines one can realize the interrelationship of man and nature, showing
nature as terrifying and potentially callous force. Nature is seen presenting
its most somber aspect to the speaker when he is most desolate. Apart from the
speaker, nature is of no help to the petty “merchants” around the “slums”. For
the traders the stormy atmosphere is one of the hostile forces against which
they must struggle for survival. Besides, the violent behaviour of some security
officers is corroborated and exacerbated by the stormy wind.
Somewhere at
a distant point
gathers a mighty storm
but only few ears shall hear
the sound of my silent cries.
Our awareness of the elements in this
poem is very crucial; the climate seems as substantial as the speaker as well as
the other poor people whose fate are being depicted. The violent storm is a fit
background to the approaching ruin that awaits victims of police brutality.
Nature does intervene to make the people more uncomfortable or it is often
rather cruel to their plight. In this direction, the gathering of a “mighty
storm” is the physical counterpart to the wielding of guns by the policemen.
There is that same blend of mind and nature, which is characteristic of
romanticism. Nature then is treated as wild and threatening, stimulating violent
passions.
“Sweet Reminisce”
“Prophecy” is not the only poem in which
the mood of a speaker is reflected in the natural environment. In “Sweet
Reminisce” in (FM 21), Chin Ce, no longer interested in the physical beauty of
the world around him, is now aware of its ugliness and acute estrangement of
man. The poem's speaker gets an added sorrow from his fellowship and association
with outward scenes:
Those days were lonely moments
Drowsing under
the wooden shade
The sun relentlessly frowned
down on a fast scorching
earth.
“Sweet Reminisce” opens with the speaker remembering a period of
loneliness in his life. The speaker's mood is suddenly broken in upon by the
appearance of sunshine. Even though the speaker is “drowsing” under a tree, he
can still feel the sterner aspect of nature. This is because of the fierce
nature of sunlight. Here nature is cruel rather than loving, destructive rather
than helpful, dangerous rather than friendly. From the above, one notices a
transition in the movement of Chin Ce's nature poems. As shown in the preceding
section, the poet thinks only of the joys of life, of the smiling aspect of
nature, of peace and tranquility. But here he recognizes the frowning aspect of
nature. It shows how the “sun” has nourished bad impulses in the speaker's
heart. Here is a natural scene, grave to the point of melancholy, which
emphasizes the speaker's mood:
I remember how we'd stand and talk
Till the sun had long receded
Toward the western skies to snore
Behind her darkened drape.
This is a good example of anthropomorphism
in Chin Ce's poetry. Earlier on, the “sun” is ascribed the human quality of
frowning. Now the “sun” long gone is said to be snoring after exacerbating the
speaker's loneliness. These lines illustrate the statement that a poet
communicates meaning by sharpening and intensifying our capacity for
visualization (Vacharyulu, 168). One tends to visualize a sinister baby sleeping
on its mother's back. The receding “sun” is draped around the incoming darkness
of night. In this context the setting sun is the baby; while night becomes the
mother.
The speaker communicates his pains, we are unhappy to share in it and
sad to observe that nature frowns at him:
Lonely moments those days; ears
Tuned to the pulses of the night
Moon-gazing, collapsing space,
I
had traversed the cosmic skies.
This is a poem, which can stand as a
typical expression of the feelings of isolation and loneliness. Its title,
“Sweet Reminisce”, is therefore ironic and misleading. This is because it
contains unpleasant memories. There are strong indications in the poem that
natural objects such as the “sun” and “night” are intensifying the speaker's
loneliness. The poem works through remembered impressions of nature.
I'd
sail all through the night
Dreaming dreams within my heart
How so close
the beat of our souls
Yet how so far away from reach.
We are rather
reminded of those moods when we are not happily related to the world around us.
Chin Ce characterizes the relationship between man and nature in terms of
cruelty. In his quest to find means of conveying his “lonely” feelings, Chin Ce
looks outwards to nature to find emblems of the mind. The poet describes it
through natural correspondences: the frowning sunlight and the “gazing” moon,
this is more than a mere correspondence, and it is a kind of bad relationship
between the internal mind and the external world. There is evidence of this in
the antithesis of the last two lines. Where one notices that the mind of man and
nature are not working positively.
“Sail On”
Chin Ce displays
originality and keen observation of the seascape in “Sail On” (FM 6). His
peculiar power lies in blending description with reflection:
I have
sailed to distant lands
By a hundred ships of war.
I have seen deep blue
hands
Cradle the million fishes below.
One of the ways in which this
poem can be understood is too see the speaker as recounting a symbolic fishing
expedition. The poet is an authority in questions relating to the influence of
external things on man. In it, the seascape is frequently portrayed as an evil
influence. The poet's use of synecdoche is a great indictment of nature's
callousness. It is used to emphasize that the adventurers are suffering from the
biting effect of cold. Closer reading indicates that the seascape has an
unpleasant influence on the speaker:
Sometimes the howling winds haunt my
dreams
Bringing echoes from distant lands
And the lapping of the
mournful waters
often brim and drum in my ears.
Chin Ce's greatness
lies in the truth and originality of his observation of the seascape. What must
be stressed is that the poem's speaker shows himself conscious of being in a
hostile environment. In this connection one is always reminded that the wind is
blowing terribly around the crew. Apart from this, the waves are portrayed as
lapping against the “ships”. Moreover, the “waters” are said to be in a
“mournful” mood. Natural objects according to these lines manifest themselves in
dangerous forms. As usual in Chin Ce, natural things are endowed with human
qualities. Within the framework of the poem, it is his principal means of
showing us nature's living hell.
The poem's last stanza emerges clearly as
the cyclically unending influence of nature on human feelings:
And the
journey shall rise again
As the sea that flow to the vast ends of space
For the many secrets of the hidden waters
shall nudge the restive dreams
of soul.
This is an attempt to draw the speaker's spirit into the sad
mood of his natural surroundings. The sad mood of the seascape is incomplete
without the mood of man into which it flows. With Chin Ce, nature and the human
minds are inseparable. This practice of drawing human realm and the realm of
natural objects governs all of his poems. So long as the seascape is “restive”,
the speaker's mind will be troubled. The mourning seascape affects both the
receptive mind and the responsive feelings, making it difficult to catch “the
million fishes below”.
V. Conclusion
If there is any constant
motif in the poetry of Chin Ce, which is comparable to Wordsworth, it is the
natural objects and the human mind upon which each poem centres. The functioning
of nature and mind is for the poet the ultimate theme of poetry; in his poems
the phenomenon actually receives its consummation. One has noticed that natural
objects chiefly inhabit the scenes of most of his poems. Nature can be heard
moving through the length and breadth of his poetry. Chin Ce recognizes that
nature may be the source of good as well as of evil. It may excite unholy
passions as well as good thoughts. In his poetry nothing in nature is dead. The
poems are largely concerned with human beings as objects upon which external
forces act unchecked. The poet views nature with fear and terror as often as
with joy. If nature is a potential lover, she is also a potential enemy.
Most
of the poems do share certain unmistakable characteristics. One can list the
various potentialities the poet finds in rocks, flowers, moonlight, sunlight and
nightfall. Chin Ce feels the joy offered to us in nature and depicts it with
extraordinary power in poem after poem. The poet insists in some poems that man
should not be seen as a foreigner in the world of natural objects. One way in
which he best achieves the happiness potentially available to him is dependent
in his participation in that world.
One has noticed that nature has its dark
sides too. Nature is sometimes benevolent to man; sometimes hostile. To be sure,
the poet does attribute to natural objects themselves the primary quality of
exciting sadness. He expressly points to nature's hostility in a good number of
poems. This unity of nature's sorrowful mood to human mind is so prominent and
persistent a feature of Chin Ce's poetry as to seem as much a habit of
style.
No African poet, save Leopold Senghor of Negritude fame has ever shown
man's attachment to external objects or of the soothing and scorching emotions
which nature infuses in us. Chin Ce feeling about the natural world finds their
fullest expression in Full Moon. Often the landscape, moonscape, seascape,
sunrise and sunset are an integral part of the experiences of the various
speakers. They react to them with joy and sadness. These speakers are usually
integrated into nature, or nature is absorbed into them. Chin Ce emerges as an
African poet who in mood and temper seems closer to William Wordsworth than any
other of the generation past and present. In other words, his poems can stand
side by side with the best of Wordsworth. This impressive body of work makes him
a significant voice and a leading poet of the African
heritage.
Works
Cited
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