Author(s) :

Sansan SIB.

Volume/Issue :

Abstract :

This paper purposes to situate the extent to which modern African poetry since its emergence has been alienated or influenced by western poetry in the broader sense. The paper adopts for this sake a stylistic analysis to compare some selected poems by W. H. Auden and Atukwei Okai. A keen analysis is therefore done through the exploration of the stylistic tools such as sound, lexis, semantics, discourse, context and syntax 4 to accede the depth of the linguistic forms and the poetic discourses of the two poets. The study of the stylistic background underlying the two poets’ works has thus proven that though Okai’s poems share some key features with Auden’s poetic experience, his poetry derives its potency essentially from the African poetic lore. It is thus maintained throughout the survey that what may appear as an alienation can be attributable to the common values shared by poetry worldwide. In fact, though conveying his thoughts through a borrowed western language, the Ghanaian poet has succeeded to anchor his poetic experience within the African poetic background through the successful appropriation of oral and traditional poetic devices.

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