English, asked by krubha184, 1 year ago

Once upon a time
Reflection on the poem on

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Answered by itsmeaysha
4
The poet of the poem “Once upon a time” is Gabriel Okara who is a Nigerian. He was born on 24th or 21st of April in the year 1921.In that year Nigeria got independence from Britain so at that time they were still influenced by the British culture. The background of the poem is that he is remembering the way people used to behave and interact with each other and he is comparing it with how people interact with others now. How the people used to do things with their hearts and with pleasure and happiness. It describes what happens when a traditional African culture and civilisation meets with the western culture. My personal opinion of the purpose of this poem is to outline the behaviour and personality people have at the moment and try and bring them back to the personality that people used to have, when they used to do things with emotion and with their heart
The poem is a conversation between a father and his son where the son does things with emotion and the father wants to forget his fake personality and re-learn and create real personalities from his son. And he is asking the son to show him how to express true love and show real personality to others.
It the first stanza the author mentions that people used to laugh with their heart they used to laugh with their emotions, when they would laugh they would do it wholeheartedly and with warmth and they used to laugh with their eyes and show pleasure with them. And know they do it with only their teeth not with their heart, meaning they do not really want to laugh but do it just to get closer to you and with their darky gloomy cold eyes they watch you and wait for you from the corner of their eyes waiting for you to leave “search behind my shadow”. In my opinion the words “they” refer to the white people who had invaded their country and influenced them with their culture. In this stanza the words “ice-block-cold eyes” is used these words emphasize the coldness and the inner hatred they have for you like they can freeze water with their gaze. These also make the poem feel a bit dark and cold and a slight bit sinister


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