The Piano and The Drums - Gabriel Okara

Welcome readers! This blog is written in response to the task assigned by Megha Ma'am from Department of English, MKBU. This blog deals with the paper of African Literature. This blog is a part of thinking activity and it carries the detailed information, summary and analysis of Gabriel Okara's Poem - 'The Piano and The Drums.'  

The Piano and The Drums - Gabriel Okara 

In the poem, the piano and the drums, the poetic persona shows the difference between the normal lifestyle of Africans and that of the modern world. The setting of the poem, as is seen in the poem, dates from the advent of civilization to the modern time. The central theme of the poem hinges on the effect of foreign culture to Africans. This theme he elaborates using the effect of music on the poetic persona as an analogy. The poem tries to emphasize the purity of African content before the interference of civilization.

In essence, Gabriel Okara perceives the desecration of the African way of life from the musical perspective, and comes out to lament about it through the instrument of poetry. 

In Piano and Drums, Okara employs the idiom of music to discuss the subject of culture conflict. Piano represents western culture that was introduced by European colonialist, while drums stands for the indigenous african culture. A negritude poem, the lyric explains the crisis of identity that confronts Africans who live a double life as a consequence of the colonial conquest and the imposition of a foreign way on them.  The poet-persona is born into an African culture that is in close proximity to nature, which is evoked in the first two stanzas.

 'Piano and Drums' is a postcolonial poem by Nigerian Poet Gabriel Okara. The tone and atmosphere of the poem - 'The Piano and The Drums' seems to be sad and displays that there is regret in the poet's mind as a result of negligent side that Africans have turned to their culture. 

About Gabriel Okara :-           

                              

Gabriel Okara is a Nigerian poet and novelist whose work has been translated into several languages. After his first poem, “The Call of the River Nun,” won an award at the Nigerian Festival of Arts in 1953, several of his poems were featured in the Nigerian literary journal Black Orpheus. In his poetry, Okara draws from Nigerian folklore and religion while exploring extremes within daily life through circular patterns. In addition to a novel, and several books of adult poetry, including The Fisherman’s Invocation (1978), Okara has published two collections of children’s poetry, Little Snake and Little Frog (1992) and An Adventure to Juju Island (1992).  He has been called "the Nigerian Negritudism". He was awarded the Commonwealth Poetry Prize in 1979 for The Fisherman's Invocation.

Gabriel Okara : Collected Poems includes the poet's earliest lyric verse along with poems written in response to Nigeria's war years, literary tributes and elegies to fellow poets, activists, and loved once long dead; and recent dramatic and narrative poems. The Introduction by Brenda Marie Osbey contextualizes Okara's work in the history of Nigerian, African and English language literatures. 

Gabriel Okara : Collected Poems is at once a treasure for those long in search of a single authoritative edition and a revelation and timely introduction for readers new to the work of one of Africa's most revered poets.  His poetry depicts that the suppressed people are trying to retrieve the loss. One of Gabriel Okara's famous poems are - The Piano and The Drums   and  'You Laughed and Laughed and Laughed'. Okara was deeply concerned with the fate of ancient African culture. 

About the Poem :- 

  The poem ‘The Piano and The Drums’ was published in ‘Collected Poems (edited and with an introduction by Brenda Marie Osbey)’ in 2016 in Part I: Early poems.  

The poem, Piano and Drums, symbolises two different cultures that have influenced the poet-speaker, the African and Western culture. The “jungle drums” symbolize the African world, while the “piano” represents the Western world. Gabriel Okara poetically sketches these two different worlds using their creation, musical objects that are associated with them, to create a rhythmic blend of melody that exposes the multifaceted influence of these cultures on him. Therefore, he becomes confused on which path to follow. Africans are known for their talking drums that communicate diverse messages. The piano is strange to Africa. It is a Western musical instrument that found its way to Africa through the coming of the white men.

               

The last stanza of the poem shows the poet-speaker in a dilemma. He is stuck on the same spot where the poem begins, the riverside. He is completely lost in the “mist” of two incompatible cultures that make up his existence. His indecisiveness has rendered him stagnant on the same spot not knowing whether to follow the mystic rhythm of the jungle drums or the wailing piano in a concerto.

The drum which represents African culture is simple, natural but unsophisticated. The piano which represents western civilization is more advanced but complicated. So, the poet-speaker is caught in a tangled web of his African root and past, and his exposure to modern civilization through education. The poem ends with the irresolution of the poet-speaker as he is unable to balance his life in between the two cultures. 

                            THE POEM,  THE PIANO AND THE DRUMS

When at break of day at a riverside

I hear jungle drums telegraphing

the mystic rhythm, urgent, raw

like bleeding flesh, speaking of

primal youth and the beginning,

I see the panther ready to pounce,

the leopard snarling about to leap

and the hunters crouch with spears poised.

And my blood ripples, turns torrent, 

topples the years and at once I’m 

in my mother’s laps a suckling;

at once I’m walking simple

paths with no innovations

rugged, fashioned with the naked

warmth of hurrying feet and groping hearts

in green leaves and wild flowers pulsing.

Then I hear a wailing piano

solo speaking of complex ways

in tear- furrowed concerto;

of far away lands

and new horizons with

coaxing diminuendo,  counterpoint, 

crescendo, but lost in the labyrinth of its complexities, it ends in the middle of a phrase at a daggerpoint

And I lost in the morning mist

of an age at a riverside keep

wandering in the mystic rhythm

of jungle drums and concerto.

Analysis of the Poem - 'The Piano and The Drums' :- 

Stanza One :-  In this stanza, the poetic persona speaks of the sound of the jungle drum. This sound of drum he feels is mystical, that is, there are so many supernatural things that comes with it. The sound of the drum to him, creates agility, strength and quickness of action. This can be seen from lines 3 to 4 as he runs into imagination to the primordial time picturing what this sound would do to the jungle residents : 

“… Speaking of

Primal youth and the beginning

I see the panther ready to pounce

The leopard snarling about to leap

And the hunters crouch with spears poised”

 All is action and natural. The poetic persona with a straight use of imagery and comprehensible words draws the reader's attention to the fact that everything about this sound is in their natural states using words like, “riverside, jungle, raw, fresh,” names of animal in the jungle – natural habitat, and the last line of the stanza speaking of a hunter with spear ready to strike and hunt. Everything about this stanza depicts the freshness of nature and life as of the old. 

Stanza Two :- Once again, the poetic persona remembers of years back when he was still an infant in his mother’s laps suckling her breast (lines 9 to 11). Suddenly, he is walking the paths of the village with no new ideas of a way of life different from the one he is born into : 

“At once I’m walking simple

Paths with no innovations,

Rugged, fashioned with the naked

Warmth of hurrying feet and groping hearts

In green leaves and wild flowers pulsing.”

Stanza Three :-  Then, here in stanza three, reality changed as the poetic persona came in contact with a different sound from a faraway land : 

“Then I hear a wailing piano

Solo speaking of complex ways in

Tear-furrowed concerto;

Of far-away lands”

The change in the sound came with a different instrument other than African native drum, and it also produces a sound that is different with so many musical technicalities which the poetic persona expresses with musical dictions in words like, “concerto, diminuendo, crescendo.” He deploys them to emphasize the difficulty in understanding this new sound 

“… but lost in the labyrinth

Of its complexities…”

Consequently, in the last four lines, the poetic persona laments on the level of confusion the new sound brings when it mixes with the drums : 

“And I lost in the morning mist

Of an age at a riverside keep

Wandering in the mystic rhythm

Of jungle drums and the concerto”

On a general note, the poet discusses the confusion that is created when western culture mixes with African culture. Any attempt to unify the two results to confusion and disorder. Therefore, one is keenly advised to abhor such style of life. If you want to be African, be it, otherwise, live like the white man. The poetic persona is not against choosing any of the cultures, but don’t mix them together. Indirectly, he warns us against becoming whiter than the white themselves or more civilized than civilization.

Structure of the Poem :-  It is a poem of three stanzas with 29 lines. It has no consistent rhyming scheme, hence one can say that it is mainly a free verse.

Diction of the Poem :-  The language of the poem is simple, visual and intelligible. 

Mood / Tone of the Poem :-  The mood of the poem is that of dilemma, mixed feelings and confusion, and the tone is that of lamentation. 

 Conclusion :-  To Conclude, In "The Piano and the Drums," Okara masterfully contrasts the Western piano with the traditional African drums, symbolizing the clash of cultures. While the piano's music is technically refined, it lacks the raw emotional power of the drums that speak to the African soul. The poem celebrates the enduring spirit of African culture, warning against the erosion of cultural identity. Through vivid imagery, Okara affirms the importance of preserving traditional art forms and embracing one's roots in the face of Western cultural dominance. 

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