WAEC Poem: The Grieved Lands Of Africa

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The grieved lands of Africa
In the tearful woes of ancient and modern slave
In the degrading sweat of impure dance
Of other seas
Grieved

The grieved lands of Africa
In the infamous sensation
Of the stunning perfume of the Flower
Crushed in the forest
By the wickedness of iron and fire
The grieved lands

The grieved lands of Africa
In the dream soon undone in jinglings of jailer’s keys
And in the stifled laughter and victorious voice of laments
And in the unconscious brilliance of hidden sensations
Of the grieved lands of Africa

Alive
In themselves and with us alive
They bubble up in dreams
Decked with dances by baobabs over balances
By the antelope
In the perpetual alliance of everything that lives

They shout out the sound of life
Shout it
Even the corpses thrown up by the Atlantic
In putrid offering of incoherence
And death and in the clearness
Of rivers

They live
The grieved lands of Africa
In the harmonious sound of consciences
Contained in the honest blood of men
In the strong desire of men
In the sincerity
In the pure and simple rightness of the stars’
Existence

They live
The grieved lands of Africa
Because we are living
And are imperishable particles
Of the grieved lands of Africa.

— Agostinho Neto

Thanks for reading WAEC Poem: The Grieved Lands Of Africa

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SUMMARY OF THE POEM GRIEVED LANDS: WAEC, NECO, GCE POEM

In stanza two, the poet decries the elimination of the valuable culture, beauty, custom and land of Africa by the colonialism and westernization. He figuratively presents this through the symbol of “flower” and “forest”. This is seen in lines 7 – 10 “In the infamous sensation of the stunning perfume of the/Flower/ Crushed in the forest/ By the wickedness of iron and fire”… ‘Iron and Fire’ refers to the fierce way the colonialist and imperialist imposed themselves on Africa. These moves destroyed the beautiful flora and fauna of African land hence they grieve.

The Grieved Lands is a 42-line poem with seven uneven stanzas. It is written in free verse. The Grieved Lands highlights the uniqueness of the African-American race and their resistance to slavery and colonial rule. It is among the poems that promote the unique beauty of the Black race and the dominant strength of being Black.

The poet is inspired by Negritude’s realistic nature (a movement which celebrates and promotes the uniqueness and dominance of Black race to other races popularly propagated by Leopold Sedar Senghor).

Lines 40-41 of the poem The Grieved Lands present African race as an imperishable race and African land as a land that can withstand anything.

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