Ode on Lagos: This Lagos Nawa and other poems

By Jeff Unaegbu

ODE ON LAGOS is a very descriptive poetry book about Lagos, the former capital of Nigeria, and other cities (Onisha, Abuja, Nnewi and Inyi). The first poem is adjudged the longest metrical poem on Lagos by a Nigerian. It is 700 lines long with a prologue, a body and an epilogue. The prologue and epilogue are written in fixed verse (6 syllables and 8 syllables for each line alternately) and are16 lines long each. The body is 668 lines long It is written in fixed verse (pentameter for each line) and rhymes ababcdcd. First of all, the poem scans the prima facie scenes of Lagos (8 stanzas); next, it savors the colours of Lagos (stanza 9); then, it attacks its dirt (stanza 10), senses its smell (stanzas 11-12); and noise (stanzas 13-16). It also observes its conductors (stanzas 17-19), Agberos (stanza 20-24), finally, this poem relaxes on some sweet-bitter jeremiads portraying the inner core of Lagos from life in Ajegunle, economic and traffic struggles, fierce survival strategies, debauchery, fraud, psychological consequence (stanzas 67 and 68), fuel scarcity (stanza 69), church and herbal fraud through to more of the psychological mould. "Onitsha: The Resilient City" is 200 lines long. It is written in "beat" style. The poet uses the "rap" beats of today's music to encase the lines. The first verse is an invitation to all and sundry to "hustle for scanty spaces" in Onitsha . The next four verses deals with the smell of Onitsha, a motif then comes in (stanza 6), the dirt of Onitsha comes next (stanza 7-9), the noise (Stanza 10-12), motif and then the commercial quality of the markets of Onitsha (Stanza 13-20), dangerous beggars (Stanza 21-23) then comes a long portrayal of the survival frenzy of Onitsharians and finally an elaboration of the motifs (Stanzas 48-50). "Abuja" is only 5 lines long. It is a free verse. It captures the changing environment of Abuja in capsule picture form. The new life of Abuja clashes with the ancient lore of Abuja . "Nnewi" is a free panegyric poem. It portrays the prima facie life of Nnewi intertwined with its illustrious sons and naturalized citizens. "Inyi, My Inyi" is on the author's country home. It is a free verse. The first verse portrays Inyi as a changing place. Modernity is taken the baton from antiquity. The second verse exposes the palm resources of Inyi. The third verse is a revisit of the first verse in high sounding words. The last verse is an array of the illustrious sons of Inyi. Another poem on Lagos is the shortest poem of the collections in this book. It is a single portrayal of the heavy skyscrapers, rush, noise, dirt and coastal nature of Lagos - all in four lines

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1077275161
• ISBN13: 9781077275164
• Release Date: January 2006
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 112 Pages
• Weight: 0.39 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.0" x 9.0"