# Gabriel Okara # Poems # African Literature

1. ● Presented By:- Aditi Vala
● MA Sem:- 04
● Paper no. :- 206: The African Literature
● Topic :- Gabriel Okara: Collected Poems
● Roll no. :- 01
● Submitted By:- S.B.Gardi Department of
English , MKBU

2. Collected Poems
Gabriel Okara:

3. Table of contents
● Gabriel Okara
● Themes
● Awards and Honours
● About The Collected Poems
● Brenda Marie Osbey
● Introduction by Brenda Marie Osbey
● Part I: The Early Lyrics
● Part II: The Fisherman’s Invocation
● Part III: War Poems
● Part V: The Dreamer, His Vision
● Part VI: Prayers and Tributes
● Famous Poem
● Work Cited

4. : Gabriel Okara :
❏ Born : April 21, 1921 Bomoundi, Niger
Delta, Nigeria
❏ Died : March 25, 2019 (aged 97) Yenagoa,
Bayelsa State, Nigeria
❏ Full Name: Gabriel Imomotimi Gbaingbain
Okara
B
❏ Nationality : Nigerian
❏ Occupation : Novelist, poet
❏ Notable work : The Voice

5. ● Nigerian poet and novelist whose verse had been translated into
several languages by the early 1960s.
● Some of his poems were published in the influential periodical
Black Orpheus, and by 1960 he was recognized as an
accomplished literary craftsman.
● His later work includes a collection of poems, The Fisherman’s
Invocation (1978), and two books for children, Little Snake and
Little Frog (1981) and An Adventure to Juju Island (1992).
● Okara incorporated African thought, religion, folklore, and
imagery into both his verse and prose.

6. ● Gabriel Okara, the first Modernist poet of anglophone Africa, recently passed on
at the age of 97. His best known works are the poetry collections;
● The Fisherman’s Invocation (1978)
● The Dreamer, His Vision (2005)
● The experimental novel The Voice (1964).
● His last published book, Gabriel Okara: Collected Poems (April 2016), is
available on the website of its publishers, the University of Nebraska Press, as
part of its African Poetry Book Series, which has Kwame Dawes as series editor.
● The book, edited and with an introduction by Brenda Marie Osbey, is 168 pages
long.

7. : Themes :
● Colonialism
● Racism
● Life and Death
● Cultural Crisis
● Nature

8. : Awards and Honours :
1953
Best All-Round Entry
In Poetry at the
Nigerian Festival of
Arts, for "The Call of
the River Nun"
1979
Commonwealth
Poetry Prize, for
The Fisherman's
Invocation.
2005
NLNG Prize, for
The Dreamer, His
Vision
2009
Pan African Writers'
Association Honorary
Membership Award.
1 2 3 4

9. About The Collected Poems
● Gabriel Okara: Collected Poems includes the poet’s
earliest lyric verse along with poems written in response
to Nigeria’s war years; literary tributes and elegies to
fellow poets, activists, and loved ones long dead; and
recent dramatic and narrative poems.
● The introduction by Brenda Marie Osbey contextualizes
Okara’s work in the history of Nigerian, African, and
English language literatures.
● Gabriel Okara: Collected Poems is at once a treasure for
those long in search of a single authoritative edition and
a revelation and timely introduction for readers new to
the work of one of Africa’s most revered poets.

10. : Brenda Marie Osbey :
● Brenda Marie Osbey is a poet and essayist. Her
most recent volumes are History and Other Poems
and All Souls: Essential Poems.
● A native of New Orleans, she is poet laureate
emerita of Louisiana and distinguished visiting
professor of Africana Studies at Brown University.

11. Introduction by Brenda Marie Osbey
➢Part I: The Early Lyrics
➢Part II: The Fisherman’s Invocation
➢Part III: War Poems
➢Part V: The Dreamer, His Vision
➢Part VI: Prayers and Tributes

12. ● The Call of the River Nun
● Once Upon a Time
● Piano and Drums
● Were I to Choose
● Spirit of the Wind
● New Year's Eve Midnight
● You Laughed and Laughed and Laughed
● The Mystic Drum
● One Night at Victoria Beach
● The Snowflakes Sail Gently Down
● Adhiambo
● To Paveba
● “Franvenkirche”
● Fantasy
● The Passing of a Year
● The Gambler
Part I: The Early Lyrics

13. Part II: The Fisherman’s Invocation
● 1: Introit
● 2: The Invocation
● 3: The Child-Front
● 4: Birth Dance of the Child-
Front
● 5: The End

14. Part III: War Poems
● Moods from Songs without
Words
● Leave Us Alone
● I Am Only a Name
● The Silent Voice
● Suddenly the Air Cracks
● Metaphor of a War
● Cancerous Growth
● Freedom Day
● Moon in the Bucket
● Flying over the Sahara
● Kindly Sprite
● Rural Path
● Lady and Her Wig
● Silent Girl
● Cross on the Moon
● Rain Lullaby
● Come, Come and Listen
● Sunday
● Dispensing Morning Balm
● To a Star
● Celestial Song
● The Glowering Rat
● The Dead a Spirit Demands
● Christmas 1971
● Welcome Home
● Waiting for Her Son
● Part IV: Revolt of the Gods
● Argument I

15. Part V: The Dreamer, His Vision
● The Dreamer
● Bent Double with Weight
● Darkness
● The Precipice
● Moon Massaged Me to Sleep
● Adieu!
● Anthem of Silence
● Complex Matter
● Dispensing Morning Balm
● Setting Sun
● Beauty beyond Words
● Taps Are Dry
● Self Preservation
● The Little Bird
● Morbidity
● Smiling Morning
● River Nun—2
● We Live to Kill and Kill to Live
● The Land at Christmas ’93
● Ovation Seeker
● Mass Transit Buses
● Contractors
● Civil Servants
● Smokers’ Wish

16. Part VI: Prayers and Tributes
● Give Us Good Leaders
● Talking Nonsense
● Rural Dweller
● Lone Mourner
● Apartheid
● Spark in the Sky
● A Prayer
● From Ken to Mike
● Rise and Shine
● Requiem
● Man Polygamous
● Mammy-Water & Me
● Wedding Bells
● To the Lady of the House
● For Ada Udechukwu
● A Boy’s Dream
● Queen
● Letter to My Grandson
● Babydom Wisdom
● Waiting for a Coming
● Snow over Home of the Newly Wed
● Before I Say Good-Bye (India)
● Moon over Heidelberg
● Salt of the Earth
● Eagle in the Sun
● The Aruzzo Farm House
● We Shared

17. Famous Poem
● Once Upon a Time
● You Laughed and Laughed and Laughed"
● Piano and Drums
● The Snowflakes Sail Gently Down

18. Work Cited
● Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Gabriel Okara".
Encyclopedia Britannica, 17 Apr. 2021,
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gabriel-Okara. Accessed 1
March 2022.
● Echeruo, Michael J. C. “Gabriel Okara: A Poet and His Seasons.” World
Literature Today, vol. 66, no. 3, Board of Regents of the University of
Oklahoma, 1992, pp. 454–56, https://doi.org/10.2307/40148369.
● https://brittlepaper.com/2019/04/gabriel-okaras-collected-poems-is-
available-from-african-poetry-book-
series/#:~:text=Gabriel%20Okara%2C%20the%20first%20Modernist,
novel%20The%20Voice%20(1964)
● Okara, Gabriel, and Brenda M. Osbey. Gabriel Okara: Collected Poems.
, 2016.

19. CREDITS: This presentation template was
created by Slidesgo, including icons by Flaticon,
and infographics & images by Freepik
youremail@freepik.com
+91 620 421 838
yourcompany.com
Thanks!
Please keep this slide for attribution