Once Upon A Time By Gabriel Okara Summary
Have you ever heard of a “once upon a time”? Will a memory of a genuine smile be witnessed again? The poem entitled “Once Upon a Time” clearly describes the clash of ancient Africa and modern Europe by leaving people without a clear sense of how to behave and where to look for guidance which creates chaos. The poem written by the Nigerian poet Gabriel Okara emphasizes his cry for the mislaid innocence of the youth and he criticized the insincerity and pretense of the adults wearing different masks. The author also wants people most specifically the modern Africans that they sometimes don’t know who they are and what they should be. The poem is about a father who is talking to his son about how things changed from when he was young and when …show more content…
I want to be what I used to be when I was like you. I want to unlearn all these muting things. Most of all, I want to relearn how to laugh, for my laugh in the mirror shows only my teeth like a snake’s bare fangs! So show me son, how to laugh; show me how I used to laugh and smile once upon a time when I was like you.” These stanzas show a father and a person who shows regret and who thirsts for the past. The last stanza also shows his great desire to relearn genuine laughter and smile. When we live with lies, we will always feel a missing part, when we live with lies; we will never feel genuine happiness. Okara born on the year 1921(Okara’s biography) just like all the other Africans suffer the white men’s rule and cruelty, they learned the things they never thought they would learn and the most painful part is they learned to be fake and unhappy because of their traumatic experiences. They live with fear, anger and pain. As a person coming from this scenario that just went out and saw someone so pure and so innocent, all you can do is wish and pray to never have experience such terrible things and to never have learned how to be someone you are not. The father was actually asking his son to show him to be true to himself, because only in reality and honesty to oneself about your real feelings, it is also the only time when we will find true satisfaction and
My Papa's Waltz Syntax
690 Words | 3 PagesIn stanza 3 states “But I hung on like death,” uses simile. It benefits the cause of alcohol that soon becomes tragic for the son. He’s gotten used to it that being abused, death can affect him. Additionally it touches people's ideas to illuminate the true meaning of the poem and to create a negative picture in the reader's mind that is shown by the son of an abusive father. In stanza 13 through 14, “You beat time on my head with a palm caked hard by dirt.”
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Domestic Violence In My Papa Waltz
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Future In Don Bailey's A Few Notes For Orpheus
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Truth By Gwendolyn Brooks Analysis
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Connotation In My Papa's Waltz
902 Words | 4 PagesAnother example of this, in the last stanza, lines 15-16, is made as Roethke notes “[t]hen waltzed me off to bed/[s]till clinging to your shirt.” The last lines of the poem show the true relationship at the end of all the confusion lost in the midst of the middle of the poem. The father loves his son and waltzes him to bed and the boy, loving his father, slings to his shirt to stay with him. The poem expresses the confusion and complexity created in a relationship such as this one between father and son, but at the end, the confusion is unnecessary and what prevails is not the negatives, but instead the positive aspect of
Abuelito Who Poem Theme
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The Father And Spirituality In Cormac Mccarthy's The Road
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