SECTION C: AFRICAN POETRY
Examine the use of contrast in Okara’s “Piano and Drums’
Explanation
The very title of the poem presents two contrasting musical instruments, a piano and drums. The former represents European culture while the latter, the African Culture. The poet uses these contrasting musical instruments to comment on their effects on him. The drums are simple and easy to play. On the other hand, the piano requires more effort to master. Auditorily, the drums are “pulsing” while the piano ‘wails’. The drums invoke memories of a past gone by – a past of ‘hunters crouched with spears’, a simple life filled with dances. The piano, on the hand, speaks of complex ways. faraway lands and the poet bring lost in the labyrinth of its complexities.
At the symbolic level, contrast is used as a device to sharpen the differences between the cultures,and to convey the poet’s attitude towards both. Interestingly, the poet devotes the first two stanzas to drums while only one stanza is assigned to the piano. This contrast in structure suggest his bias. It shows his sincere interest in the ways of his people. In each stanza, the poet examines the sound of the instrument and its effects on him. The piano is ‘wailing’ and speaks of “faraway lands” and complex ways, none of which the poet deciphers, leaving him confused.
The last stanza portrays the poet as one caught between the influence of two cultures. How ever, the force of the drums seems overwhelming and its tilts him towards the African culture.