Discuss the theme and tone of Piano and Drums by Gabriel Okara

The piano and drums are a poem by Gabriel Okara, which clearly reflects the culture in post-colonial Africa. Discuss the theme and tone of piano and drums by Gabriel Okara example of the essay. The reader can discover that throughout his poetry he is very troubled by the personality of people and the influence of their traditional culture on them. Also, this is confirmed by the slightly muffled tone of his poetry and points to his repulsive character.

However, the poem is filled with emotion, which indicates that all the same people are connected with more than one culture. In his poem, the author reflected on the dawn of the coming century of colonialism and the duel between Western and African cultures. It is the piano and drums that embody the two cultures. The magical rhythm of the drums remained a distant memory of the time when African residents were happy. But the piano’s weeping muffled the sound of the drums.

The poet was able to really incredibly reflect the reader’s life experience and the influence of two completely different societies. Using his contrasts, he exposes the background, thereby maximizing the emotions associated with the cultural conflict. The main theme of this poem is the cultural conflict of Africans, as well as a clash between the social values ​​of the author himself.

The poet tries to convey to his readers the purity of African culture before civilization and how she has been impelled to change the traditional culture. However, the author does not mind against the choice of any other culture, but he does not mix them together. If you need to Discuss the theme and tone of piano and drums by Gabriel Okara Essay Sample get here to learn more.

Piano and Drums is a poem which basically themed and created by two different and opposing culture in the poem, the piano culture and drums culture which suggested by the poet whenThe culture of drums is straight forward, and direct, and this just like the world and culture in the ancient years which before civilization. People do not hide their real selves, showing and communicate without pretending as well as showing what they really are in the wordings, ‘raw’, ‘primal’, and ‘rugged’. They call out for danger by beating drums as to warn others, although the world is competitive and dangerous. The culture of drums is primitive, simple and natural which really shows the real side of human.

However, the culture of piano has just taken the opposite seat with the culture of drums. This is described as a complex culture in the modern city which was civilized years ago in the poem which we could saw in the wordings, ‘concerto’, ‘coaxing diminuendo’, ‘counterpoint’, ‘crescendo’, ‘labyrinth’ and ‘daggerpoint’. Feelings are complex and hard to understand, people hide their feelings in their mind by many pretentious motion. They create some ‘coaxing diminuendo’, ‘counterpoint’ in order to make their lives more civilized. However, in our surprise, the ending of this culture is just losing themselves and mind in the culture which described in the poem, ‘But lost in the labyrinth of its complexities’.

Also, the use of alliteration in the last stanza – ‘And I lost in the morning mist’, and the sentence ‘wandering in the mystic rhythm’, has helped expressing the hesitation and uncertainty tone of the poet which he felt confused while living between the culture of piano and drums, the real and simple but dangerous world and the civilized but pretentious world. He knew that if he takes the culture of drums, he could find him real self which as he told in the poem, ‘topples the years and at once I ‘m in the mother’s laps a suckling’. Nevertheless, if he chose the culture of piano, he would feels no where to hide himself and finally lost his mind. This is so hard and difficult for him to choose, therefore, he is now just wandering between this two cultures until he find what he wants and without hesitation and uncertainty