Procession 1- A Hanging Day
Wole Soyinka
The poem titled Procession 1- A Hanging Day" reflects the struggle of the poet to recover from twenty-two months of solitary confinement. After being thrown in prison with no exact charges against him, Soyinka faced the ordeal of the loss of contact with society for almost two years. The poem explores the roots of colonialism and its disastrous effects upon Nigerians. According to Leslie Paik (Contemporary Literary Criticism, Yearbook 1986, p. 277).The poem is pessimistic. This pessimism results from Soyinka's struggle to expose the flaws in Nigerian society. Soyinka intends to use this pessimism for a purpose -- to convey fundamental beliefs about the role of an artist in society. He feels a responsibility to the Nigerian people to expose injustice. Like Wordsworth, who educates his sister in "Tintern Abbey," Soyinka regards artists as people who "cannot be withdrawn or isolated -- he is part of his society and may have to try to change it, but never easily, never without a deep and possibly self-protective skepticism."
Procession I – Hanging Day is the first part of a two-part poem written during Wole Soyinka’s solitary confinement. It records the restlessness and torment of an extremely sensitive mind in solitary confinement. The poem concerns the fate of a group of eleven fellow prisoners of whom five were hanged on the morning of the third day. "A hollow earth echoes footsteps of the grave procession" which informs the other inmates of the gruesome drama that is going to take place that day.
The Europeans with "eye patch lushly blue” came to Africa behind the "wall of prayer," deceiving the Africans about their true intentions. They offered Christianity but they also imposed Western culture upon the Nigerians by seizing their government and changing their economy, and standards of living in the process. When they encountered the natives, they realized how different the two cultures were and "glances that would sometimes conjure up a drawbridge raised but never lowered between their gathering and my sway . The Europeans, who refused to respect different culture, felt superior to the Nigerian people, who then became involuntary Chimes of Silence -- the inferior race in their own country.
Soyinka belittles the missionaries' success in the fifth and sixth stanzas. He expresses his own role in welcoming them innocently. Like excited sea gulls they had reeled and wheeled welcome to them never suspecting their treachery. He clearly disapproves of their supposed welcome entry into Nigeria. His forceful poetry urges all his readers to reanalyze the situation in Nigeria and to realize exactly how they have been victimized by these seemingly innocuous people.
The second poem accomplishes Soyinka's goal of revealing the disastrous effects of colonialism. His tone becomes even more bitter. In the first poem, the earth was just hollow and weak to combat the imperialistic goals of Europe. When they resisted they were imprisoned.
The poem implicitly builds up the horror and terror that passes through the mind of a fellow prisoner as he watches his prison mates being taken for hanging in the wee hours of the morning. The procession is made up of five prisoners and the prison authorities. The speaker is in his cell and he feels helpless as he stands watching unseen “one-legged on the untrodden / Verge – lest I should not return.” He has nothing to reveal about them, as he himself is one among them waiting for his turn of punishment
These political prisoners who had fought for the basic rights of the people are misrepresented by the world. They lead a withdrawn life far away from the living world. Their minds are filled with the fearsome echo of footsteps they hear of men taken to be hanged “Tread. Drop. Dread Drop. Dead. ’The speaker expresses his helplessness to speak of them or how he felt about them.
From the very first stanza the poem fills the readers with trepidation experienced by the speaker a fellow prisoner who hears the echo of the marching procession of prisoners. He remembers the day he too like the sea gulls in exhilaration had reeled and wheeled welcome to the Europeans never dreaming this would be their fate. But now that exhilaration has given way to pain and agony as he watches his fellow prisoners march to their death, ordered by hands of oppressors contaminated with the blood of the innocent people who struggle against oppression
Through a few deft strokes he powerfully delineates the prison with its huge walls that shut out sunlight, making it a grim unhappy place, occasionally lit by the sunspots that make their way into the prison. The speaker succeeds in drawing the painful situation of the prisoners whose hearts are away from home and are empty of emotions and feelings.
Answer each of the following in a sentence or two:
1. What is the ‘wall of prayer’ in ‘Procession I’?
It refers to the Eurpoean missionaries who went to Africa hiding their true intention of colonization behind a wall of prayer. They offered Christianity with sincere intentions of spreading their faith, but they imposed Western culture upon the Nigerians by seizing their government, economy, and standards of living in the process.
2. Why did the poet peer unseen at the procession of the prisoners?
The poet peered unseen because he was in his own cell and there was very little light inside the prison in the early hours of the morning to see clearly the procession that was taking five men to be hanged..
3. What tells you that the prison cells were in darkness?
The speaker refers to the prison walls lit by occasional sunspots where the shadows lean and how sunlight squeezed in through the crevices of the huge wall trying to lift the siege laid by darkness etc. All these hints suggests that the prison cells were in darkness.Or Lines like Walls in sunspots; Lean to shadows of the shortening morn; From watchtowers on stunted walls,/Raised to stay a siege of darkness evoke an atmosphere which is dark and grim in the prison cell.
Answer each of the following in about 100 words:
1. Describe the prison of Soyinka.?
Soyinka describes the prison as a dark place with huge walls that hid the sun from the prisoners. A place of no escape. During daytime it is lighted by sunspots that creep into its interior. Otherwise it is totally grey and dark. The poet hears more than sees what is happening from his cell. He listens to the dreadful echo of footsteps of the prisoners and the prison authorities and assumes that they are being taken for hanging. He could guess at their agony which is similar to his own,interred in a single cell, separated from all social contacts. Soyinka’s prison is indeed a horrible place where darkness has laid siege not only on the premises but also in the
psyche of its inmates making their confinement totally depressing.
2. What is the injustice Soyinka speaks of?
The poet speaks of the injustices meted out to the political prisoners who are unlawfully detained inspite of their innocence. These political prisoners who fight against oppression of all kinds like dictatorship, the venal politicians and the uncommitted, corrupt traditional rulers are often misrepresented by their fellow men whose hands are contaminated by their blood when they allow them to be hanged by the oppressors under the least pretexts without solid reasons. It is this injustice that the poet is speaking about in the poem.
Wole Soyinka
The poem titled Procession 1- A Hanging Day" reflects the struggle of the poet to recover from twenty-two months of solitary confinement. After being thrown in prison with no exact charges against him, Soyinka faced the ordeal of the loss of contact with society for almost two years. The poem explores the roots of colonialism and its disastrous effects upon Nigerians. According to Leslie Paik (Contemporary Literary Criticism, Yearbook 1986, p. 277).The poem is pessimistic. This pessimism results from Soyinka's struggle to expose the flaws in Nigerian society. Soyinka intends to use this pessimism for a purpose -- to convey fundamental beliefs about the role of an artist in society. He feels a responsibility to the Nigerian people to expose injustice. Like Wordsworth, who educates his sister in "Tintern Abbey," Soyinka regards artists as people who "cannot be withdrawn or isolated -- he is part of his society and may have to try to change it, but never easily, never without a deep and possibly self-protective skepticism."
Procession I – Hanging Day is the first part of a two-part poem written during Wole Soyinka’s solitary confinement. It records the restlessness and torment of an extremely sensitive mind in solitary confinement. The poem concerns the fate of a group of eleven fellow prisoners of whom five were hanged on the morning of the third day. "A hollow earth echoes footsteps of the grave procession" which informs the other inmates of the gruesome drama that is going to take place that day.
The Europeans with "eye patch lushly blue” came to Africa behind the "wall of prayer," deceiving the Africans about their true intentions. They offered Christianity but they also imposed Western culture upon the Nigerians by seizing their government and changing their economy, and standards of living in the process. When they encountered the natives, they realized how different the two cultures were and "glances that would sometimes conjure up a drawbridge raised but never lowered between their gathering and my sway . The Europeans, who refused to respect different culture, felt superior to the Nigerian people, who then became involuntary Chimes of Silence -- the inferior race in their own country.
Soyinka belittles the missionaries' success in the fifth and sixth stanzas. He expresses his own role in welcoming them innocently. Like excited sea gulls they had reeled and wheeled welcome to them never suspecting their treachery. He clearly disapproves of their supposed welcome entry into Nigeria. His forceful poetry urges all his readers to reanalyze the situation in Nigeria and to realize exactly how they have been victimized by these seemingly innocuous people.
The second poem accomplishes Soyinka's goal of revealing the disastrous effects of colonialism. His tone becomes even more bitter. In the first poem, the earth was just hollow and weak to combat the imperialistic goals of Europe. When they resisted they were imprisoned.
The poem implicitly builds up the horror and terror that passes through the mind of a fellow prisoner as he watches his prison mates being taken for hanging in the wee hours of the morning. The procession is made up of five prisoners and the prison authorities. The speaker is in his cell and he feels helpless as he stands watching unseen “one-legged on the untrodden / Verge – lest I should not return.” He has nothing to reveal about them, as he himself is one among them waiting for his turn of punishment
These political prisoners who had fought for the basic rights of the people are misrepresented by the world. They lead a withdrawn life far away from the living world. Their minds are filled with the fearsome echo of footsteps they hear of men taken to be hanged “Tread. Drop. Dread Drop. Dead. ’The speaker expresses his helplessness to speak of them or how he felt about them.
From the very first stanza the poem fills the readers with trepidation experienced by the speaker a fellow prisoner who hears the echo of the marching procession of prisoners. He remembers the day he too like the sea gulls in exhilaration had reeled and wheeled welcome to the Europeans never dreaming this would be their fate. But now that exhilaration has given way to pain and agony as he watches his fellow prisoners march to their death, ordered by hands of oppressors contaminated with the blood of the innocent people who struggle against oppression
Through a few deft strokes he powerfully delineates the prison with its huge walls that shut out sunlight, making it a grim unhappy place, occasionally lit by the sunspots that make their way into the prison. The speaker succeeds in drawing the painful situation of the prisoners whose hearts are away from home and are empty of emotions and feelings.
Answer each of the following in a sentence or two:
1. What is the ‘wall of prayer’ in ‘Procession I’?
It refers to the Eurpoean missionaries who went to Africa hiding their true intention of colonization behind a wall of prayer. They offered Christianity with sincere intentions of spreading their faith, but they imposed Western culture upon the Nigerians by seizing their government, economy, and standards of living in the process.
2. Why did the poet peer unseen at the procession of the prisoners?
The poet peered unseen because he was in his own cell and there was very little light inside the prison in the early hours of the morning to see clearly the procession that was taking five men to be hanged..
3. What tells you that the prison cells were in darkness?
The speaker refers to the prison walls lit by occasional sunspots where the shadows lean and how sunlight squeezed in through the crevices of the huge wall trying to lift the siege laid by darkness etc. All these hints suggests that the prison cells were in darkness.Or Lines like Walls in sunspots; Lean to shadows of the shortening morn; From watchtowers on stunted walls,/Raised to stay a siege of darkness evoke an atmosphere which is dark and grim in the prison cell.
Answer each of the following in about 100 words:
1. Describe the prison of Soyinka.?
Soyinka describes the prison as a dark place with huge walls that hid the sun from the prisoners. A place of no escape. During daytime it is lighted by sunspots that creep into its interior. Otherwise it is totally grey and dark. The poet hears more than sees what is happening from his cell. He listens to the dreadful echo of footsteps of the prisoners and the prison authorities and assumes that they are being taken for hanging. He could guess at their agony which is similar to his own,interred in a single cell, separated from all social contacts. Soyinka’s prison is indeed a horrible place where darkness has laid siege not only on the premises but also in the
psyche of its inmates making their confinement totally depressing.
2. What is the injustice Soyinka speaks of?
The poet speaks of the injustices meted out to the political prisoners who are unlawfully detained inspite of their innocence. These political prisoners who fight against oppression of all kinds like dictatorship, the venal politicians and the uncommitted, corrupt traditional rulers are often misrepresented by their fellow men whose hands are contaminated by their blood when they allow them to be hanged by the oppressors under the least pretexts without solid reasons. It is this injustice that the poet is speaking about in the poem.