The Exordium of Adébáyọ̀ Fálétí’s Poetry

The background of Adébáyọ̀ Fálétí (1921 – 2017) was steeped in the Ọyọ̀ ́ Yorùbá culture. He had a princely connection to the throne of Ọyọ̀ ́ having been born by Dúrówadé Àyìnkẹ, a granddaughter of Prince Adé ́ ṣọ̀kàn, Bàbá Ìdódẹ, Aláàfin Àtìbà’s son, to Àkànbí Fálétí. Àkànbí Fálétí was a royal oral artist in the palace of Aláàfin Ṣiyanbọ́lá Oníkẹẹ̀ pé Ládìgbòlù (1911 – ́ 1944). He later practiced outside the palace, leading his own band, going about Ìlọrin and its environs and parts of Northern Yorùbáland. The late Pa David Adéníji of Ìwó, we reliably learnt, was one of his followers. Adébáyọ̀ Fálétí spent his early life in Ọyọ̀ ́ villages such as Àgbóóyè, Ọbanàǹkò and Kúrańgà (Ọlátúnji 1982a). Adébáyọ Fálétí learnt many Yorùbá tales and garnered other ̀ native wisdom from his father and other relations. Such relations include Jímọ̀ Ọládẹ̀jọ, who was adept in proverbs, and his childless aunt, an oríkì (charcterizational) poetry exponent. The western education he acquired and the Christianity he embraced were also part and parcel of his background. His primary school education was at Ọyọ̀ ́ (1939 – 1945), his secondary school education at Ìbàdàn Boys High school, Ìbàdàn, (1951 – 1955) and his University education at the University of Ìbàdàn (1965 – 1968). He took a bachelor’s degree in English with a subsidiary in French. There is no doubt that Adébáyọ̀ Fálétí would have been influenced by Yorùbá literary artists of his time, all of whom he studied in school. Among such Yorùbá literary precursors were A. K. Ajíṣafẹ, D. A. Ọbasá and D. ́ O. Fágúnwà. Adébáyọ Fálétí collected and transcribed oral poetic forms such ̀ as proverbs and oríkì following Obasá’s example before venturing into writing 110 Adedotun Ogundeji his own compositions. Though he had been writing before 1955, he did not come into the limelight until 1955, when his 719 lines long poem, “Ẹ̀dá Kò Láròpin” won the Festival of Arts award. This time may conveniently be considered the beginning of his poetic career. The poem also marked the direction which Adébáyọ̀ Fálétí’s important contributions to Yorùbá poetry was leaning. He adapted many traditional stories for his poetic compositions. There are 35 poems in the two collections of Adébáyọ̀ Fálétí’s Yorùbá poems (Ọlátúnjí 1984 b & 1984c), 13 in the first and 22 in the second. Adébáyọ̀ Fálétí’s poems, can conveniently be classified into two: the narrative and non-narrative. The narratives tell interesting stories, some of which are adapted from the Ifá corpus and other stories collected from his father, co-hunters and other sources. The non-narrative ones are made up of poetic discourses on various social and philosophical topics. There are eleven narrative poems in the two collections. The first contains ten, the second only one. It could therefore be safely concluded that the first is dedicated to narrative poems because only four of the thirteen poems in it are non-narrative. Since there is also only one narrative poem in the second, one could also assert that it is dedicated to non-narrative poems. Four of the eleven narrative poems, (‘Ẹ̀là Lọrọ̀ ’, ‘̀ Ṣàṣọrẹ’, ‘Alágbára Ilé àti Alágbára Oko’, and ‘Agbódóro ́ - gun’) are adapted from the Ifá corpus and there are strong evidences that ìjálá (Ogun poetry/hunter’s) is the original source of the story retold in ‘Adébímpé Ojẹ̀dòkun’. The poet was reported to have collected it from his father who informed him it was a true-life story (Ọlátúnjí 1982a). In our examination of the exordiums of Adébáyọ̀ Fálétí’s poems, we shall dwell more on his narrative poems than on his non-narrative poems and limit ourselves to the aforementioned two collections (Olatunji 1982b & 1982c).

“Sir Francis Drake in the Spanish Literature of the Armada”

The subject of this paper is Sir Francis Drake, Elizabeth I’s most famous privateer, and his role in Spanish texts composed throughout the Armada campaign of 1588. A well-known seaman in both the New World and Europe, Drake had a significant impact on Anglo-Spanish relations, acquiring a reputation as a violent and ambitious man determined to serve his country to the death. The fight against him was conducted not only at sea, but also in literature where he was decried as Spain’s worst enemy. In poems by Juan de Castellanos, Góngora, Cervantes and Lope de Vega, Drake is portrayed as the worst enemy Spain had ever faced. Lope de Vega’s La Dragontea, a long poem about Drake’s last voyage, shows how his fearless and arrogant nature, and his disdain for danger, were not enough to enable him to avoid death and to prevent Spaniards from ridiculing him and his fate.

Seerat-ul-Nabi ﷺ in the light of “Buqqa-e-Anwaar”

“Buqqa e Anwaar” is a long Poem written by Shamim Yazdani. This Poem is a Long Poem consisiting a complete book. So it is called one book poem. There is an ancient tradition of writing long poems consisting complete book. It’s a religious poetry about the life and seerah of our beloved Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. In this poem the poet talks about the Holy prophet PBUH Seerat and sunnat. Before Islam, the Arabs were plunged into the darkness of ignorance. They worshiped idols. After the arrival of our prophet enlightened the world. This poem shows Shamim Yazdani’s love, affection and respect for the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.

“The Trout Breaks the Ice” by Mikhail Kuzmin: Verse and Grammar

The author explores various compositional levels of the Russian modernist author Mikhail Kuzmin’s long poem “The Trout Breaks the Ice”. The levels are: (1) the grammatical tenses vs. the astronomical time (non-finite verb forms (imperative) are also assumed to indicate time); (2) the meters of this polymetric poem; (3) realistic vs. symbolic and (4) static vs. dynamic narrative modes. The analysis is done by the chapter, and the data are summarized in five tables. It turned out that certain features regularly co-occur, thus supporting the complex composition of the poem. In particular, the present tense and time regularly mark the realistic and static chapters written in various meters, whereas the past tense and time are specific to the realistic and dynamic chapters written in iambic pentameter. The article sheds new light on the compositional structure of Kuzmin’s poem and the general principles of poetic composition.

नदी किनारका माझी कवितामा पदपूर्वार्द्धवक्रता [Padapurvardha Vakrata in Nadi Kinar Ka Majhi (Fisherman by the river bank) Poem]

आचार्य कुन्तक प्रतिपादित वक्रोक्तिसिद्धान्त पूर्वीय साहित्यशास्त्रमा एउटा समन्वयशील सिद्धान्त मानिन्छ किनकि यो सिद्धान्तले पूर्ववर्ती आचार्यहरूका काव्यमान्यतासमेतलाई समेट्ने प्रयास गरेको छ । यस सिद्धान्तमा कुन्तकले वक्रोक्तिका विभिन्न छ भेद तथा तिनका उपभेदहरूको चर्चा गरेका छन् । यस लेखमा उनले प्रस्तुत गरेका वक्रोक्तिका छ भेदहरूमध्ये पदपूर्वार्द्धवक्रताका आधारमा सुप्रसिद्ध नेपाली कवि मोहन कोइरालाको नदी किनारका माझी लामो कविताको अध्ययन विश्लेषण गरिएको छ । यसका लागि सर्वप्रथम वक्रोक्तिसिद्धान्त र पदपूर्वार्द्धवक्रताको सङ्क्षिप्त सैद्धान्तिक चर्चा गर्दै विवेच्य कवितामा पदपूर्वार्द्धवक्रताको प्रगोग कसरी भएको छ भन्ने सन्दर्भलाई स्पष्ट पार्न उक्त कविताका कवितांशलाई उहाहरणका रूपमा प्रस्तुत गरी तिनमा पाइने पदपूर्वार्द्धवक्रताको अध्ययन विश्लेषण गरिएको छ । प्राथमिक र द्वितीयक दुवै स्रोतका सामग्रीको प्रयोग गरी वर्णनात्मक पद्धतिअनुसार विवेच्य सामग्रीहरूको विश्लेषण गरिएको यस आलेख मूलतः निगमनात्मक पद्धतिमा आधारित छ । यस अध्ययनबाट कवि कोइरालाको विवेच्य कवितामा पूर्वीय काव्यशास्त्रमा वर्णित पदपूर्वार्द्धवक्रताको सफल र सार्थक प्रयोग भएको निष्कर्ष निकालिएको छ । [Acharya Kuntak's theory of Vakrokti is considered to be a coherent theory in Eastern literature as it has tried to include the poetic values of the earlier Acharyas. In this theory, Kuntak discusses six different types of Vakrokti and its variants. In this article, the study-analysis of the well-known Nepali poet Mohan Koirala's long poem Nadi Kinar Ka Majhi (Fisherman by the river bank) has been analyzed on the basis of Padapurvardha Vakrata among the six distinctions presented by him. For this, first of all, by briefly discussing the theory of Vakrokti and Padapurvardha Vakrata, the study of Padapurvardha Vakrata found in the poem has been analyzed by presenting the verses of the poem as examples to clarify the context of how Padapurvardha Vakrata has been used in the poem. This article is based on the deductive method, analyzing the material according to the descriptive method using materials from both primary and secondary sources. It is concluded that the poet Koirala's discerning poetry has successfully and meaningfully used the Padapurvardha Vakrata described in Eastern poetry.]

Paz’s A Draft of Shadows: Rewriting the Past, the Present and the Self

Pasado en Claro (A Draft of Shadows) was first published in 1975. This long poem is the mental journey Paz embarks upon in pursuit of his own personal paradise. This article focuses on three of important concepts Paz explores in this poem and in his literary output as a whole: the scope of language, memory and otherness. In the case of language, and its expression in poetry, Paz’s most eloquent pages can be found in The Bow and the Lyre (1956), but especially in The Monkey Grammarian (1970), the account of another journey, through language and the acts of writing and reading. As a personal attempt at regaining a mythical past, A Draft of Shadows affords a view of both the vast narrative of Mexican history and Paz’s personal retelling of his own past. A journey like this is only possible via the winding path of memory, its expression in language, and an identity created as it follows its own trail.

Thomas Percy

Thomas Percy (b. 1729–d. 1811) is primarily remembered for his seminal collection of ballads, Reliques of Ancient English Poetry. However, the 1765 publication of this text was only the midpoint of an extraordinarily prolific decade. After publishing some original poems and a translation of Ovid’s elegy for Tibullus in the 1750s, the 1760s also saw Percy produce the first Chinese novel translated into English, Hau Kiou Choaan (1761); Miscellaneous Pieces Relating to the Chinese (1762); The Matrons (1762); Five Pieces of Runic Poetry (1763); a new translation of The Song of Solomon (1764); A Key to the New Testament (1766); and his influential study of “Gothic” art and society, Northern Antiquities (1770). He also worked on his long poem, The Hermit of Warkworth (1771), and edited the Northumberland Houshold [sic] Book (1770). This only covers his published works: during the same period, he worked on several other editing and translating projects—preparing an edition of The Spectator and other journals by Addison and Steele, for example—which never reached print. As Percy rose through the ranks of the Anglican clergy—becoming one of the king’s chaplains by 1770, Dean of Carlisle in 1778, and finally Bishop of Dromore in 1782—he stopped publishing new works, perhaps because he thought it detracted from the dignity of his ecclesiastical office. Nevertheless, his translations of Spanish ballads—Ancient Songs, Chiefly on Moorish Subjects—were ready for press in 1775 (though they were only published in 1932). His extensive correspondence also reveals his continuing interest in literary matters, and he was certainly ready to lend a hand to other scholars, providing they were sufficiently polite. In antiquarian circles, Reliques of Ancient English Poetry attracted considerable attention: his theory of minstrels’ high status was disputed, and his editorial practice was (and remains) controversial. The literary reception was more positive. Although Percy’s own ballad, The Hermit of Warkworth, was mercilessly parodied by Samuel Johnson, the medieval ballads he anthologized were profoundly important to Romanticism, both British and German. As critics increasingly attend to Percy’s work beyond Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, other aspects of his influence—including troubling legacies—have come to light. His work on Spanish and Chinese material has been taken as foundational for “world literature,” and scholars have debated whether Percy’s treatment of China is orientalist, or whether there are ethnonationalist and racialist elements to Percy’s Gothic interests.

“My Unwritten Novel”: The Long Poems of Gajanan Madhav Muktibodh between Genre and Form

The long poems of the Hindi poet Gajanan Madhav Muktibodh (1917–64) present a series of fantastic narratives, in which a nameless speaker journeys through a fantastic landscape. These works, often analyzed solely in terms of a supposed mythic, romantic structure, should be considered as a response to formal problems of the novel and the lyric in midcentury Hindi literature. Despite acknowledging these long poems as his most important contribution, literary critics display a marked discomfort with what they see as their excesses. Muktibodh’s writings, however, reflect his substantive consideration of the problems of narrative poetry. In Muktibodh’s most famous work, “Aṁdhere meṁ” (“In the Dark”), the long poem’s distinct formal structure is deployed to produce the disjointed paratactic narratives that typify Muktibodh’s work. Furthermore, this poetic structure is crucially influenced by free verse poetics in Marathi, making clear that any consideration of modern Hindi literature must take into account the complex interrelationships of literary cultures in South Asia. Thus, Muktibodh’s long poem prompts a reconsideration of the role of genre and form in our understanding of South Asian literary cultures and their engagements with the world.

No, I’m not… Chaucer? The Arabic motif in Troilus and Criseyde and Pushkin’s ‘The Prophet’ [‘Prorok’]

The article discusses two works of literature: Troilus and Criseyde, a long poem written in the genre of courtly romance (1382–1386/1387) by G. Chaucer, and ‘The Prophet’ [‘Prorok’] (1826), a poem by A. Pushkin. The two works are compared due to a common motif: the opening of the chest and swapping of the heart as a sign of the person’s spiritual regeneration. In her comparative analysis of the two poems, the author attempts to identify their common source or the likelihood of direct contact — whether Pushkin had come across Chaucer’s work and borrowed the motif directly. As for the heart being replaced, it seems both poets may have been inspired by several biblical stories. Further analysis of the motif of the chest being opened suggests that the research should focus on the Arabic tradition alone and take into account the potential influence of Islamic religious texts on Pushkin as well as Chaucer. Relying on the available data about Russian and European relations with the Arabic world, the article hypothesises about the ways in which the motif in question could have reached each of the poets. The author names the Quran as the common genetic source of the two poems.

‘An overwhelming sense of déjà vu’

Chapter 4 examines the importance of the long poem for Muldoon. It engages with his ever-expanding schemes of rhyme, and identifies a turn in Muldoon’s rhyming practice that coincides with his move to America. The archival discoveries in this chapter shed light on the most striking formal development of Muldoon’s American phase, namely, the introduction of a template of ninety end-words which recurs through multiple volumes. This rhyming procedure—a means of remembering and repeating earlier material—has become the blueprint for Muldoon’s longer forms (many of which are elegies), and gives rise to an extended intertextual performance of memory and mourning. If rhyme is often understood as a form of remembering, Muldoon’s long rhyming forms monumentalize the inability to forget, pulling the poet’s Irish past into his present and future writings in America.