Oumar Farouk Sesay’s “ The Song of the Women of my Land”
Sesay’s “Song of the Women of my Land’’ examines the human condition, the suffering of women, oppression, pain, the ravages of time and death. Social criticism is at the heart of this poem. The poem further underscores the point that people die but artists or poets have the ability to preserve them in their art, for all eternity.
The title of this poem is long – “Song of the Women of my Land”. It fills our mouths and teases us. Our hearts dance and we are eager to know the song and sing along with the poet if possible. We discover, as we read that this poignant song is a dirge and the women are the downtrodden women in the poet’s land who have no voice in the land that they call home.
In “Song of the Women of my Land”, the poet’s heart reaches out to the underprivileged and oppressed peasant women of his land and he immortalizes them and their song. Whenever we read this poem we recall the plight of these women and their forlorn song makes us think about what man has made of man. Or, to put it another way, what man has made of woman.
The opening visual image of a sculptor chipping away at bits of wood gives us an impression that the persona will talk about a thing of joy or something beautiful. The action of “a sculptor chipping away at bits of wood” is serious work and demands focus and commitment. However, the simile in which the action of the energetic sculptor at work is compared to time (personified) chiselling away at “bits of their memory” suggests that this poem is anything but joyous. For all its vivid and lively opening, the poem is rather gloomy. When a sculptor chips wood away, he destroys it in order to perfect it. The irony here is that though the artist chisels the rough edges away for the work of art to become perfect, time chisels everything away until, not only the lyrics and memories, but also the women themselves are gone.
This poem examines the suffering of women, the ravages of time and the inevitability of death. It further underscores the point that people die but artists or poets have the ability to preserve them in their art, for all eternity.
The whole atmosphere of this poem is sombre or melancholic. The women emerge as victimised and ill-used individuals, who plough the fields tirelessly but have nothing to show for all their hard work, other than emptiness, dereliction, and privation. The only thing that is meaningful in their lives is their song. It is all that they have. Sadly, even that, they cannot keep. Diction such as forlorn, servitude, cuffed, dereliction, decapitated, anguish, lost, pain, dying, scars, laboured, ghosts, reinforce the fact that these are oppressed and broken women who hardly have any joy in their lives:
They sang in the forlorn fields
About their lives; song
Of how they ploughed the terrain of their landscape
For memories of lyrics lost in the vast void of time
In those days when a song beheld the memory of lives
When servitude cuffed the ankles of their soul
And dereliction decapitated the epic of their lives
The above lines reveal that the women in this poem are both physically and spiritually bound to servitude and tyranny. They are the neglected and downtrodden women who make a lot of sacrifices and yet are abused, scorned and abandoned. Note how in spite of their hard labour they harvest only cuffed ankles and decapitated lives. The biting irony is, they are treated no better than slaves in their motherland.
Their song is the single thing that gives them relief or comfort in their world of anguish. They turn to it in joy and sorrow – especially sorrow:
With a song, they sponged off their anguish
To behold their collective pain
Give lyrics to the tune of their lives
Cheat the tyranny of time
In spite of the fact that the women habitually lose themselves in their song to escape from the harsh reality of life, “Yet time strips the lyrics and scars the tune”. Time emerges as a wilful, violent and merciless element that “strips and scars” the poor women’s song until it is no more. From what we have seen, the song itself has changed! It is no longer as inspirited as it was originally and becomes a fading tune.
Unfortunately, the song left behind does not have sufficient vigour to tell the tale of the women of the poet’s land. It cannot withstand the onslaught of time and finally dies, like the women.
However, though the song dies, by some trick of fate, the tune remains behind to roam the forlorn fields just as the women did before their passing.
The wind captures the song and (this is the turning point) endows it with the breath of life:
Now feeding the verses of poets, it echoes in fields
Wriggling in rhythms and melodies,
Hollering in distant tunes
In places far afield from the forlorn fields,
where the song of their lives died.
Note the pro-life continuous verbs in this segment of the poem -feeding (perhaps suckling, nourishing), wriggling (almost like a new-born babe), hollering (like a babe experiencing life for the first time in the outside world). This is the sort of resurrection or revivification that poetry or art makes possible. Given a new lease of life under the power of the poet’s verse, the song now soars over lands little imagined by the lowly women. Ironically, though the women come from a dark place and live a life of deprivation, their sad song about their cursed world becomes a life-giving symbol that inspires, fuels or nourishes the verses of poets.
The song of the women has struck a chord in the heart of the poet. His pen hesitates to write about it:
The stuttering lips of my pen
And the screeching voice of my nib
Try to sing the song of the women of my land
In verses far from the theatre of toil
The personifications deployed in the first two lines of the above quotation subtly
suggest that men who had hitherto taken a hands-off stance regarding women’s issues will no longer stand as motionless as wallpaper when women are suffering around them. They will take action. We are aware though that this act of standing with the women does not come naturally to the persona. He hesitates to support the women or help create a space for them. However, the lips and nib of his pen seem to have a life of their own. They feel a certain connection with the women and stutter and screech in their attempt to sing the women’ song. This enables the persona to remember that his fate is inextricably linked to that of the women, his country women. Thus, instead of distancing himself from their suffering, he now endeavours to be more supportive of them – they too are a valuable part of God’s creations. Finally, he sings the sad song of these poor women who have toiled and suffered leaving a lifeless song- the dirge of their lives.
“Song of the Women of my Land” is a beautiful poem that breathes new life into the lifeless song of the unhappy women. At the end, though the women and their song are dead and gone, through poetry, Sesay has raised the song from the dead and scattered it to the four corners of the Earth. He has gathered the ashes of the dead song and transformed them into something immortal, so that long after the women’s song can no more be heard, this poem will live on to tell their tale. In writing this poem, Sesay has created a space for women, and helped to give voice to their plight. Alone, the women, poor victimised beings, could not have done it; their song could never have soared beyond their barren forlorn fields. But with the poet on their side, many men will now understand what women go through and hopefully stand by them.
Some might wonder why Sesay sings about these women. The poet sings about these ill-starred women because there is a need to show that the women have not died in vain. Had Sesay not captured their song in his lamentation, the world would never have known about their cuffed souls, decapitated lives and collective pain. Sesay sings the song of these downtrodden women to let the men change their attitude and treat women right. Women should be allowed to breathe. They too are a valuable part of God’s creation.
It is very disturbing to note that throughout the poem, no mention is made of the women turning to men to inspire or support them. It shows that women do not seem to hope in men. They perceive the opposite sex not as their partners or protectors, but as their oppressors. Therefore, they turn to their song to let the world know about them.
The particular women who inspire this poem are no longer here, but Sesay and other poets are here. They will continue to sing the song of the victimised women of the poet’s land until all men – fathers, husbands, sons, bosses, landlords change their attitude to women, not only in the poet’s land Sierra Leone, but in all other lands where women are made to suffer in silence. The suffering of women is no longer a secret and can no longer be ignored. Sesay has raised the alarm.
What is held up in this poem is the virtue of men reaching out to women, supporting them, sharing their pain, singing their songs and creating a space for them. Men are encouraged to remember that women are created by God and are also a part of them, therefore they should be treated with love and dignity.
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Let me end by saying a few words on the deployment of the key figures of speech or figurative language in “The Song of the Women of my Land”. Sesay’s genius as a poet of a very high order echelon is laid bare in his powerful deployment of imagery in this poem. Personification, metaphor, repetition, and simile are the dominant figures of speech employed by the poet in this poem to add depth, raise the poem to a certain level and express himself in an ingenious and fascinating way.
He also deploys an amazing array of devices such as alliteration, assonance and consonance to enhance the meaning, music and magic of his remarkable poem.
The key figures employed in this melancholic poem further lay bare the fact that the poet is a very conscious artist who deploys his skill to serve his poem in the most palatable way possible.
Simile
- The powerful opening simile: “Like a sculptor chipping away at bits of wood, /time chisels away at bits of their memory” in which the poet compares time to a sculptor chippingg away at bits of wood emphasizes /evokes the destructiveness of time. Just as a sculptor methodically destroys wood by chipping away at it, so does time chisel away at memory until people forget what they used to know.
- “The tune roams the forlorn fields/ Like their souls looking for lyrics” – These lines are a blend of personification (which will be discussed later) and simile. In this simile the roaming tune is compared to the women’s souls looking for lyrics. The women’s souls and the tune have a couple of things in common; they are miserable wanderers and both are looking for lyrics that will enrich their lives. This simile further creates an atmosphere of bleakness and subtly indicts time and society for making the tune and souls become wanderers.
- “A song … stripped of lyrics like a scorned ghost”—this figure of speech compares what is left of the women’s song when the lyrics are lost to a rejected ghost, thus emphasizing the feeling of neglect and exploitation experienced by the women before their death.
Personification
- “Time chisels away bits of their memory”- This is a powerful personification that presents time as a cruel human being (or a sculptor) that chisels away at memories thereby destroying them or making them less wholesome. Time destroys first the memories of the women themselves, next the lyrics of the song, until only the fading tune is left.
- “The tune roams the forlorn fields” – Time is here given the human attribute of roaming. This is very effective. We almost see the tune moving aimlessly from one location to another in search of a place where it will be grounded or have a more meaningful life.
- “Forlorn fields” is a very effective personification in which the human quality of being forlorn- (reserved for human beings) is now used to describe the fields. This suggests that the women are so forlorn that their sadness is reflected in their natural habitat. This figure of speech further helps to build the atmosphere of gloom that saturates the poem.
- “A song beheld their lives” is a personification that I find a bit disconcerting. The human attribute of beholding or seeing is here given to a lifeless song. Perhaps this is the poet’s way of saying that the women are so marginalised or abused that only a song looks at them and treats them with the respect they deserve.
- “When servitude cuffed the ankles of their soul” is a blend of personification and synecdoche. Servitude cuffed is a very powerful personification that shows the master-slave relationship that the women have with the men and society and demonstrates how enslaved and victimised they are. The imagery of servitude cuffing (arresting/imprisoning) the ankles of their soul- (synechdoche), suggests that Sesay’s women are caught in a snare that they cannot escape from. To be sure, not only their bodies but also their souls are shackled. It is almost as if they are wedded to servitude with no hope of a divorce.
- “Dereliction decapitated the epic of their lives” – Is a personification that presents dereliction (an abstract noun) as being imbued with life and capable of decapitating (beheading or killing) the women. This personification demonstrates the utter hopelessness of the women’s situation and suggests that the very conditions under which the women live make doom inescapable.
- “The tyranny of time” – This is a very appropriate personification that emphasizes the cruelty and oppressiveness of time. Here, time is regarded as a despot or a tyrant that destroys everything in its way. We see how it mercilessly destroys the women’s song and the women themselves – no one is safe from its tyranny.
- “Time strips the lyrics and scars the tune”- The cruelty of time is further emphasized in this line. The imagery of time stripping the lyrics and scarring the tune is very powerful. When we strip our clothes, we are left naked. Thus, when time strips the lyrics and scars (mutilates/ disfigures) the tune, not only are the words of the song lost, but even the tune undergoes a drastic change. The tune loses its flawlessness – it is now mutilated, imperfect, scarred. This personification evokes not only the merciless nature of the unrelenting time, but further accentuates the powerlessness of the lyrics, the tune and the song against its onslaught.
- “Dying song” – This personification evokes an atmosphere of despondency and doom. The song, hitherto oppressed by cruel time, and stripped of its lyrics is on the verge of death. This personification is carried into the next line where the song, actually dies- “Dead” (See also the eighth and ninth stanzas.)
- “The memory of the wind “ – This is a beautiful personification. The wind is described as being infused with life. it seems here that the wind has caught the song and keeps it safe in its memory until the right person comes along who will benefit from it.
- “Wriggling in rhythms and melodies”– A sense of vivaciousness or exuberance is suggested in this lively personification where the song is personified as ‘wriggling”. It evokes the idea of movement and suggest that the song may have bounced back to life. Thus, the song, endowed with a new lease of life is now captured/ reflected in rhythms and melodies.
- “Hollering”- This personification powerfully demonstrates once and for all that the song is no longer a dead or dying song. It is so full of life, that it shouts, almost like a new born babe experiencing life for the first time outside the womb. This personification, like the previous one, emphasizes the new life that the song now enjoys.
- “The stuttering lips of my pen” – Lips of my pen is a personification in which the lips of a human being are compared to that of a pen. Just as human beings use their mouths / lips to talk and express themselves, so are the tips of pens used to write about our experiences. “This figure of speech reveals how the pen hesitates to write about the women’s song. Perhaps the poet has not yet learnt how to sing it, or perhaps because he has not yet learnt to stand with women and for women.
- “Screeching voice of my nib”– This personification like the previous one gives the human attribute of a voice to the nib of a pen. Here the nib screeches in eagerness to write, to sing, to stand with women and give voice to their plight. All hesitancy is gone.
Metaphor
- “They ploughed the terrain of their mindscape/ for a song” – This metaphor describes their minds as a garden or farmland that is ploughed in preparation for the sowing of seeds. This figure of speech suggests how they thought very seriously about the most appropriate song that can capture or describe their pathetic situation.
- “They sponged off their anguish.” -This is a very powerful metaphor that compares the way people mop floors or swab wounds to the way the women use their song to ease their anguish. This is almost therapeutic. This metaphor conveys not only what the women have in their lives (they do have a song) but more importantly, what they do not have in their lives – men. That is, they lack men who can champion their cause, or heal their pain and they now use their song as a balm for their agony.
- “Now feeding the verses of poets.” – In this imagery, the song is regarded as a life-giving element that inspires or nurtures the verses of poets. It is really inspiring to see that the song that captures all the pain and dereliction of the women can now bear good fruit. It conveys the idea that without the agony or suffering of these traumatized women, this poem and poems of this nature, will never be written.
- “Theatre of toil.” – This metaphor aptly compares the land where the women toil and suffer to a theatre or stage where the drama of their lives is enacted.
Zeugma
- Who ploughed their soil and soul – The deployment of this very creative and economical literary device is quite skilful. In this figure of speech, a word is used to join or modify two or more words. Usually, the literal word is placed close to the word that joins the two words, and the word intended to be understood figuratively is placed last. The zeugma in this poem implies that the women not only plough their soil but also their soul for a song to give meaning to their lives. Literally, they plough the soil to live but figuratively the song that they plough from the depth of their soul is what gives meaning to their lives.
Repetition
This is the most dominant figure of speech deployed by the poet and is one of his favourite devices (metaphor, alliteration, personification are also amongst his preferred devices).
The series of repetitions in the lines below underpin the view that Sesay wishes to drill the song of the women into our hearts because he does not want us to forget about the women, or their song, or their pain, or their way of life a. Not ever! The repetitions in the poem make it melodic, melancholic, draw attention to the plight of the women and keep us focused on their predicament and help to unify the poem. They also conspire with other devices to create the atmosphere of sadness and doom that pervades the poem. At the same time, the repetitions enable us to keep hearing the song of the women of the poet’s land long after we read the last line of the poem. The repetitions are captured below thus:
- The song of the women of my land (L3,30,39,44)
- Forlorn fields(L 5,24,35,)
- A song … repeated in almost all the stanzas of the poem
- Dying (L20,45)
- Died (L 22,36,45)
- Servitude 10,
- Ploughed (L7/28)
- Their lives (L9,11,15,23,29,36)
“The Song of the Women of my Land“ is brimming with other devices that the careful reader can easily identify, especially devices such as alliteration (eg. The f sound in/ forlorn fields; the t sound in/tune tuning tenor; tyranny time; the l sound in lyrics lost; like looking; laboured living lives ; the s sound in souls, lyrics, soil, soul, song, sing, story, lives ; the d sound in died, dying, dirge, etc. ); assonance (eg. note the vowel sounds in the following lines: leaving only a fading tune echoing; how they ploughed; left in the memory; wriggling in rhythms; died leaving a dying song; dirge of their lives); and consonance (eg. forlorn fields; dereliction decapitated; like their souls looking for lyrics; soul and soul/for a song to sing the story of their lives; far afield from the forlorn fields; the tune tuning the tenor, etc.).
There is so much to say about this beautiful poem. We read the last line of the poem fascinated by the mastery of the poet and his love for the women whose song and plight he has brought to our attention. His exploitation of the figures of speech and other devices enhances the meaning of the poem and empowers him to produce a unified, satisfying and enchanting poem that will stand the test of time.
Elizabeth L.A. Kamara
Department of Language Studies
Fourah Bay College, The University of Sierra Leone
Author of To Cross for a Daughter and Other poems