Chinua Achebe: Collected Poems

Chinua Achebe has indeed earned the title "The Father of Nigerian Literature"! His trilogy is a vivid portrayal of Igbo Nigerian culture including pieces of Igbo language to reinforce the stories. The pace is quick and the characters well developed. I would highly recommend this book as well as his collection of poems.

I just finished reading Chinua's Collected Poems about Nigeria. I really loved it. It was entirely accessible and he provided a few end notes that were helpful but not entirely necessary because he was easy to follow. I believe that it is harder to be an accessible and beautiful poet than simply to string complex language like gaudy baubles. Chinua always remembers his reader.I will be reading his novels in the future. I always love when someone like Chinua or Garcia-Marquez opens my eyes to other cultures and sets them in equal standing. Too often literature is filtered through "Western" lenses, and while the use of English itself is such a lens, the tone and authority of writers like Chinua to speak their truth with simple eloquence is the highest art.My favorite poems in this slim volume were: "Pine Tree in Spring" captures the essence of being true to oneself and one's core values. This is a theme throughout the work but here it so so pure and forthright that the poem shines brightly for me in this short and direct poem. "A Mother in a Refugee Camp" captures the transcendence and permanence of sentiment and the value of love in a way that few poems can do. Through this work, you can watch a husk be formed as the vitality of life drains slowly, so slowly away. It's sublimely painful and fully beautiful. "Beware, Soul Brother" is possibly my favorite poem not only in the book, but one of my favorite poems ever. It captures the need for the artist to stay close to the earth and to channel substance. At this skill Chinua is a master. I cannot express how important this, to have substance in art, but Chinua does it perfectly.

Within the bright yet unremarkable cover of this small book is the world as seen through the eyes of Mr. Chinua Achebe. The world witnessed by this talented Nigerian-born author and poet contains death, hope, strife, hunger, joy, love, wisdom, and wonder-and Achebe ushers his audience on an emotional journey through them all. As I read "Collected Poems", I became more interested in the poet himself and was driven to learn more about the man behind the words. What continues to impresses me the most about Achebe is the half-century span of his creative effort and quiet achievement in literature. As I thought more on this, I found that beside his sometimes brutally heart-wrenching imagery, what disturbs me about this man's literary work is that America is mostly unaware of its existence.As undeniable proof that big things come in small packages, Achebe's mastery of the English vocabulary shines in this thin but powerful collection of poetry. He begins with a short preface then presents his poetry in five categorized chapters. At the back of the book are a few pages of notes, which I found to be a welcome and indispensable reference.Steeped in the tragedies of a Biafra too soon forgotten, the chapter titled "Poems About War" is perhaps the most compelling. Achebe brings to light aspects of war sometimes overlooked. For example, in "A Mother In A Refugee Camp," a mother's love for her child converges with her hopeless acceptance of that child's imminent death from starvation. Passing on into the chapter of "Poems Not About War," the reader will discover such gems as "Public Execution In Pictures" and marvel at Achebe's ability to capture the emotion of such an event. The poem expresses gratitude that children who see of atrocities in newspaper photographs have not themselves witnessed them firsthand. At the same time, there is an unspoken regret that they may never fully understand injustice and or human suffering.Much of this book has seen prior publication in 1973's "Christmas in Biafra and Other Poems". For those of us whose memory of the Biafran War has grown dim and for those unfortunate enough not to have read his earlier book, the reintroduction of Achebe's vision in "Collected Poems" is nothing short of a gift. So mired are we in our own day-to-day minutia that we rarely notice what has happened or what is happening elsewhere in human terms. Mr. Achebe has, with his elegant words in "Collected Poems", given both a reason and a means to see beyond our own doorstep.

Chinua Achebe: Collected Poems is a book that celebrates the brilliance and virtuoso of a gifted writer. Achebe's language is elegant. His visionary committment is impressive. Much of the poems are reinforced by the poet's employment of images and elements from the African oral tradition. "A Wake for Okigbo" is superbly written. The poem is a tribute to Achebe's childhood friend and arguably Africa's greatest poet, Christopher Okigbo. Okigbo's death in the heat of the Nigerian civil war robbed the world of his full potential. This poem is fine tribute to him by a close friend and kinsman. Achebe's references to elements from Igboculture works wonders in this poem and gives readers something to cheer about the poet's unlimited gifts as a writer. Other poems that standout include "Christmas in Biafra" and "A Mother in a Refugee Camp." These poems are testimonies to major historical and cultural milestones and events that defined Achebe's generation and post independence Nigeria.Overall, the collection is solid. Only a writer with Achebe's pedigree can handle the English language with such sophistication and class.

Fantastic collection. Loved the breakdown of sections of war, post war, Biafra etc. A real insight into the artist's life and the Biafran struggle and underlying Igbo culture within Nigeria, and in it's own short-lived, hard fought for state. The seeds that Achebe sowed, Adiche, Obiama followed. All hail Achebe. Without struggle there is no art.

Achebe's publisher apparently preferred his novels. But many of these poems are distillations of vivid moments of reaction to the circumstances which Achebe presents in a wider context in his novels, and as such valuable complements to them.

as expected

Leider ist die Sammlung nicht vollständig.Qualität und Aufmachung entspricht den Erwartungen bei dem Preis.Wer Achebe mag - kaufen!

Ok