Gabriel Okara was a Nigerian poet and novelist born in 1921 who drew on African themes in his work. The poem "Once Upon a Time" is a first-person narrative written in free verse that focuses on a father's perspective of cultural changes in Nigeria with the influence of Western culture. It explores themes of dishonesty, innocence, societal shifts, and cultural influences as the speaker laments how society has become complicated and false compared to the past.

1. Once Upon a Time
by
Gabriel Okara
Presented by
Avni Dave

2. Gabriel Okara
Gabriel Okara was a Nigerian
Poet and Novelist. Who was
born (24 April 1921 to 25
March 2019) in Bumoundi in
Nigeria.
In both his poems and his
prose, Okara drew on African
thought, religion, folklore and
imagery, and he has been
called "the Nigerian
Negritudist".

3. Once Upon A Time
> written in free verse
poem
> first-person narrative
> unpoetic
> dialogue
> present poem focuses on
a father's attitude to cultural
change and times past
before the incoming
Western culture affected the
native African way of life

4. • What it’s about?
 How do attitude and people change?
 How adults can learn from innocent
children-role reversal?
 How honest people used to be and how
deceitful they are how?
 How adulthood can change you and how
quickly people adapt to the change?
 How parenthood can change your views of
the world?

5. •Themes
 Dishonest/hiding true intention
 Innocence and childhood
 Society changes
 Cultural shift
 Capitalism
 Racism
 Western influences
 Being ‘Fake’

6. • Symbolism and Imagery
1. Metaphor
2. Repetition
3. Direct speech
4. Simile
5. Ice-block

7. • Form and structure
 1st person
Free verse – irregular stanzas and lack of rhyme
could mimic – the speaker’s distress and
struggle.
 Unpoetic seems natural and conversational.
 The structure of the poem makes it seem like
he’s actually talking to his child.
 Throughout the poem the speaker laments
about how complicated and false society has
become, In the final stanza he is painfully
honest.

8.  The western culture, language and way of
life made a huge impact on the people of
Africa.
 Their self proclaimed superiority left the
British colonizer feeling that they were
better than everybody was, and all the
other cultures were lower to their own.

9. • Mood and tone
 Nostalgic way & perhaps tone is ironic
 Seriousness throughout the poem
 End stanza shows hope
 This is an emotional poem with a strong moral
message about how people change over the
years and become false and untrustworthy.
 About the influence of the white western world
on Africa nations – how countries like Nigeria
were more honest before being developed by
the west.

10. Thank you.

11.  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_O
kara
 https://owlcation.com/humanities/Analysis
-of-Poem-Once-Upon-A-Time-by-Gabriel-
Okara