By Paul Liam
Adesokan Babatunde’s Waliyullah’s Canticles for Abeni demonstrates wit and native consciousness in appropriating the concept of love and emotion. Through the twenty- three poems in the 32-page chapbook, published by INKspired, we encounter love laced with traditional aesthetics akin to the nostalgic evocation of emotions brought about by the sight of Amala and Ewedu in a fancy restaurant. Canticles for Abeni reminds the reader of the beauty of nature through metaphorical representations that project the essence of love. In other words, Waliyullah depicts love within the social- cultural context of the poetic persona’s purview as this can be seen through the various allusions to Yoruba words which serves to enhance the quality of the persona’s love interest. The allusion to Yoruba cultural nuances creates multiple effects in the reader’s mind as the reader is caught between enjoying the lyricism of the poems and their
cultural symbolicism.
Love poems are complex to write, especially love poems that speak to the core of human emotion, because everyone lives under the illusion that love is common to all therefore anyone can write about love. Writing about love is complex because it is a
theme that supposedly comes naturally to everyone, particularly to budding poets, and as a result of this readers are washed with redundant metaphors and clichés that fail in stirring any emotion in the mind of the reader. To write evocative love poems that
engage the sublimity of the human subconscious, the poet must be able to think beyond the superficial conjectures of love to birth original metaphors. For example, when we speak of William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 18”, we speak of the angelic representation of
love woven in the fabric of nature metaphors. We do not only encounter love as an abstract prosaic idea but as a concrete physical aesthetic that can be felt, seen, and smelt. It is in the same vein that we speak of T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred
Prufrock”.
The foregoing premise foregrounds the grave responsibility and imagination associated with the composition of love poems that speak to our human essence. Waliyuallah’s poems come very close to fitting the artistic obligations reminiscent of the
aforementioned poems in terms of creative explorativeness. For example, in the poem, “Abeni Mi”, the atmosphere is akin to that which is found in Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 18”, the weather is a major accomplice in the manifestation of the poetic persona’s love
triangle. While Shakespeare’s poem begins with a rhetorical question that makes a comparison between the subject of the poem and summer’s day, in Waliyullah’s “Abeni Mi” the poetic persona employs anthropomorphism in conditioning the “cloud” to
perform the complementary role of enhancing his love interest. Although, in the poem, no comparison is made between the cloud and the persona’s love interest, however, we are made to see the performative role of nature in not only enhancing the subject of the
poem but in being a major accomplice in the way that the enormous emotion of the persona is enabled by complementary actions of the elements. This assertion is supported by the careful choice of words employed by the persona, this is more prominent in the early part of the poem which has been represented below for emphasis,
Abeni, the cloud cakes into a new day
& the dawn dazes your brightness into
my eager eyes. The light that faded
late yesternight arrives early –
It is here to pamper you at sight
Aaa—beeeee—niiiiiiii mi
My voice ferries the sweetness of
a singing bird & it falls like a rainbow
shell. Early this morning when my palm
is still pure, free, from toil of the day
I lay it on you & I funnel the blessing
of the new day into your parting lips
(p.14)
In the poem, “Canticle”, we are met with the replication of Christopher Okigbo’s overtly familiar restitutive supplication opening contained in one of his most famous poems, “The Passage” in which the persona is said to have returned to the river goddess,
“Mother Idoto” in penance and worship. Although Okigbo’s persona’s restitution was to a spiritual deity and goddess of the river regarded as the source of life, Waliyullah’s supplication in “Canticles” is to love, the woman of his dream. And it is right from the
opening stanza of the poem that we encounter the allusion to Okigbo, as the persona declares,
Before you, mountains of milk
Naked I come
Before your goggling glories
A pleading prodigy
(p.15)
While we might be put off by Waliyullah’s allusions, we cannot fail to acknowledge his clever diversion from direct imitation, his use of original metaphors gives credence to his ingenuity. The poeticity of Waliyullah’s poems is most evident in the language of the
poems. As one reads through the poems, one cannot help but admire Waliyullah’s deployment of language in conveying his messages whether they be pious or lascivious in nature. In the poem, “I have no strength to pull out”, we encounter refreshing language as exemplified by this line, “If the forest is the lung of the earth, let me seed myself in the air you consume” (p.17). Another interesting aspect of the collection is the dual personality of the persona, but aren’t all human beings wired that way? There is always the positive and negative side of things maybe not in equal measure. In many of the poems, especially the earlier ones in the collection, the persona presents himself as a gentle lover and gentleman willing to please his lover and we see how attempts to
achieve this through the various hyperbolic colouration of his expressions towards his lover, but as we go deeper into the collection the supplicating tone changes into an arrogant one that demands assuredly instead of pleading for acceptance. A fine example is the last two stanzas of the poem, “My love falls from a tree” in which the persona asserts,
… chaste, waits without a haste
But my love like a local herb
has no dosage. It’s a whirlwind
the lady has to embrace.
(p.24)
The persona in the above stanzas tells of how powerful and infectious his love is by comparing it to a “local herb” that has no dosage. Of course, local herbs have no dosage but have been said to be active in the treatment of various diseases so it is relatable that the persona thinks of himself as a “local herb”, a cure for love. But he doesn’t stop there as proceeds to compare his love to a “whirlwind” which the lady has no choice but to embrace. The persona regards himself as charming and irresistible and he is not ashamed to boast of its effect on his lover who having been overwhelmed would have no choice but to embrace him for who he is, a force of love. However, what is of interest is how the persona goes from a gentle beseeching lover to an aggressive one that is boastful at the same time. Clearly, humans are gentle in their times of need but become arrogant when they have gotten what they want, this depiction seems to illustrate this position.
Perhaps, the most astounding poem in the collection is the ode to Iseyin town entitled “Iseyin”, and the profundity with which the persona speaks of the town leaves no one in doubt that he is truly a son of the soil. Iseyin, an agrarian town in Oyo State of South West Nigeria is renowned for its pastoral opulence and the famous Ado Awaye Hanging Lake as well as its many rocks. It is striking that the persona speaks of the town as a woman for it is only the qualities of a woman that best describes her greenness. By
highlighting the unique features of the town, the persona creates a goddess-like image of the town, enticing others to bear witness to her mystery. The persona shows us how to love our towns and homelands with all of us. One cannot help but be fascinated by
the persona’s eloquent portrayal of a town he loves dearly and the following lines summarises the crux of the poem,
River Ogun spills across the towns’
waist like mercurial beads. A
huge mountain
wears white cassava flakes like
a damsel’s make-up.
(p.30)
In conclusion, it suffices to posit that, Waliyullah is a fine poet with great promise, his sense of beauty is not in doubt as is his knowledge of metaphorical representation. He writes with the consciousness of a mature mind and one cannot help but admire his wit.
Perhaps, a full collection would prove that the poet’s social consciousness is not only limited to his obsession with cupid’s thighs. We might be lucky to get a glimpse of a grander social construct beyond love rhetoric.
Paul Liam is a poet, author, and literary critic. He is a Contributing Editor with Daily Review Newspaper and is also the National Coordinator of the World Poetry Movement for Nigeria.