Description
Book SynopsisChinua Achebe is one of the founding fathers of African literature in English, a writer of world stature whose novel Things Fall Apart is one of the essential works of the twentieth century. This Collected Poems draws on his three collections of poetry, and includes seven previously unpublished poems; it reveals a lifetime of poetic engagement with politics, war and culture, inherited wisdom and the making of new futures. Achebe's poems are ironic, generous and tender, drawing deep on the Igbo traditions of his African roots, confronting the continent's harsh realities of violence and exploitation.
Trade Review'There was a writer named Chinua Achebe, in whose company the prison walls fell down.' Nelson Mandela 'The father of African literature in the English language and undoubtedly one of the most important writers of the second half of the twentieth century.' Caryl Phillips 'Chinua Achebe is gloriously gifted with the magic of an ebullient, generous, great talent.' Nadine Gordimer 'He taught us a way of integrating what we know from being African with what we've become - hybrids of a kind.' Nuruddin Farah 'A magical writer - one of the greatest of the twentieth century.' Margaret Atwood
Table of ContentsTable of Contents In Lieu of a Preface: A Parable Prologue 1966 Benin Road Mango Seedling Pine Tree in Spring The Explorer Agostinho Neto Poems About War The First Shot A Mother in a Refugee Camp Christmas in Biafra (1969) Air Raid Biafra, 1969 An "If" of History Remembrance Day A Wake for Okigbo After a War Poems Not About War Love Song (for Anna) Love Cycle Question Answer Beware, Soul Brother NON-commitment Generation Gap Misunderstanding Knowing Robs Us Bull and Egret Lazarus Vultures Public Execution in Pictures Gods, Men, and Others Penalty of Godhead Those Gods Are Children Lament of the Sacred Python Their Idiot Song The Nigerian Census Flying Epilogue He Loves Me; He Loves Me Not Dereliction We Laughed at Him Notes
