subject: Lettered to the north [print this page] Lettered to the north Lettered to the north
LETTERED TO THE NORTH
By
AKINJOBI OLAMIDE SAMUEL
Doped and bogged
In fear
Of what life has hanged
As I onward move near.
The caliphate,
Your story in mileage unknown
Thy sweet sour gist
With a pinch of salt, forlorn.
Lettered to the north,
Eyes bade me farewell but hollow.
From nether west to furthest north,
Nestling-like bound for Sokoto.
Lettered in the name of fatherland
The twelve, shall I stay?
In fear of peace perchance forfeited
There, shall I lay?
Lettered though, there I got
The very antithesis
Blown in full blot
With no truist nemesis
The sweet smell of success -
There, the bride, now possess!
STANZA-BY-STANZA ANALYSIS
STANZA 1 - This talks about how the persona becomes fearful after he had received his call-up letter to go and observe his National Service in northern Nigeria. Due to all sort of ill comments he had got from all and sundry, he does not know what life has in stock for him there.
STANZA 2 - The place of his national assignment happens to be the caliphate. As a young man, he is unsure of the mileage to cover before getting there. In another sense, he does not know what gains are in stock for him.Therefore, he makes up his mind to take whatever ill comments he had got with a pinch of salt. Afterall, experience is the best teacher.
STANZA 3 - The persona expresses how his people saw him off, bidding him farewell. But he sees it on their faces a sign of sadness mixed with insincerity as they think it is done with him. He reminisces how he is sent from the nether west to a faraway north like a nestling - a very young bird who is not mature enough to leave his mother's nest.
STANZA 4 - The persona wonders if he is sent that far, will he spend a whole year (the twelve) there? This, if it happens, then it is all in the name of his fatherland. Due to all the bad impressions he had got from people especially that the north is a war-stricken place, he wonders if they be true and his peace becomes forfeited, then his soul will lay to rest there.
STANZA 5 - Here, the persona has become experienced finding all that people have told him to be different from the reality. The place that he was posted for his national assignment - Sokoto - happens to be a peaceful and lovely place. They are purely false all he had been told. There was no casualty of any sort either mass-imposed or individual-imposed. "No truist nemesis".
STANZA 6 - The persona now feels satisfied with all that happened and his achievements. A place that has been said to be a hell turned the very haven where he met the very lady who became his wife. Pure irony of life do I hear you call it?
