History
The Negritude movement is a literary and ideological movement, developed by francophone black intellectuals, writers, and politicians in France in the 1930s. Its founders included the futureSenegalese President Léopold Sédar Senghor, Martinican poet Aimé Césaire, and the Guianan Léon Damas. The Negritude literally means Negro-ness.The Négritude writers found solidarity in a common black identity as a rejection of perceived French colonial racism. They believed that the shared black heritage of members of theAfrican diaspora was the best tool in fighting against French political and intellectual hegemony and domination. They formed a realistic literary style and formulated their Marxist ideas as part of this movement.
Wole Soyinka- NightYour hand is heavy, Night, upon my brow.
I bear no heart mercuric like the clouds, to dare. Exacerbation from your subtle plough. Woman as a clam, on the sea's cresent. I saw your jealous eye quench the sea's Flouorescence, dance on the pulse incessant Of the waves. And I stood, drained Submitting like the sands, blood and brine Coursing to the roots. Night, you rained Serrated shadows through dank leaves Till, bathed in warm suffusion of your dappled cells Sensations pained me, faceless, silent as night thieves. Hide me now, when night children haunt the earth I must hear none! These misted cells will yet Undo me; naked, unbidden, at Night's muted birth. |
Poem AnalysisThe narrator is describing the birth of a night. It seems to have a sadness to it when it comes into view. It has its own way of being dark and gloomy. It makes you feel sad, as if you're missing something really important in life. Night seems evil to this poet.
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