Question

The poem 'Once Upon a Time is a satire on morden life .

Answer 1

ONCE UPON A TIME

Gabriel Okara (Nigeria)

Once upon a time, son

They used to laugh with their eyes:

But now they only laugh with their teeth,

While their ice-block-cold eyes

Search behind my shadow.

There was a time indeed

They used to shake hands with their hearts:

But that’s gone, son.

Now they shake hands without hearts:

While their left hands search

My empty pockets.

Feel at home!’ ‘Come again’:

They say, and when I come

Again and feel

At home, once, twice

There will be no thrice –

For then I find doors shut on me.

So I have learned many things, son.

I have learned to wear many faces

Like dresses – home face,

office face, street face, host face,

cocktail face, with all their conforming smiles

like a fixed portrait smile.

And I have learned too

To laugh with only my teeth

And shake hands without my heart.

I have also learned to say, ‘Goodbye’,

When I mean ‘Good-riddance’;

To say ‘Glad to meet you’,

Without being glad; and to say ‘It’s been

Nice talking to you’, after being bored.

But believe me, son.

I want to be what I used to be

When I was like you. I want

To unlearn all these muting things

Most of all, I want to relearn

How to laugh, for my laugh in the mirror

Shows only my teeth like a snake’s bare fangs!

So, show me, son,

How to laugh; show me how

I used to laugh and smile

Once upon a time when I was like you.

Answer 2

Answer:

‘Once Upon a Time,’ written by the Nigerian poet Gabriel Okara, is a satirical poem on the modern way of greeting someone. The lack of compassion, simplicity, and brotherhood is portrayed on this poem.

This poem begins with a series of three images: greeting someone, welcoming them to their house, and saying goodbye. The speaker of this poem tells his son how humans react in the ones given situations. Firstly, they greet their relatives or known ones with fake smiles. Verbally they welcome their closed ones, but mentally they keep their doors closed on them. Lastly, at the time of parting, they wear a fake smile again and bid each other hiding their selfish emotions. Thinking approximately such things, the speaker turns into so unhappy that he in some way desires to unlearn such void customs. He wants to be a child again like his son and relearn the art of innocence and pure happiness.

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