THE WEEPING BOOK
There is a weeping book in my flooded room
On a swollen carpet and dishevelled broom
Its voice is muffled, its spine is broken
For weeks and weeks it has never spoken
A prattling prince once, and very smart
It sparkled with science and golden words
That sang and surged like magic birds
My constant consort, my fairest friend
Beyond every fad and fickle trend
It stood sane, secure on my crowded shelf
A lively boost to my seeking self
Then came Katrina and its frantic flood
And its gang mess and mush and mud
Its sweeping plague and rampant rampage
Undid my treasure from page to page
A maddening mold has eaten the leaves
Which drop down dead in bales and sheaves
A sickening swamp in my house of mirth
The tomes are robbed of their lively girth
Gone are the pages with their dainty dots
My scrawled remarks and random thoughts
My ceaseless quarrel with friendly foes
Now submerged in Katrina woes
A dreadful absence, mournful miss
A grave bereavement it surely is
A whole life’s labour washed away
By the murderous madness of Katrina’s way.
“The weeping book” a piece by Niyi Osundare highlights what writers face in their artistic journey, when a writer faces writing block or any form of stop and is left with no choice than to mourn and long for the muse to come back. The poem is divided into seven stanzas, each stanza highlighting different messages but works as a whole.
The poet paints a personal who was good at writing, adores his writing skill and values his writing so much, so much that he sees his writing as his companion , but out of the blue a catastrophic agent came to destroy his life work. Probably natural catastrophe or writing block which does not allow the personal to be able to write any longer.
The personal therefore states the level at which the agent has destroyed his work, using different symbolisms such as Katrina, mold, swamp, to describe different things that has caused (and probably may cause to others) the stop of his work. The last two stanzas therefore mourns the departure of his life with his work.
Stanzaic analysis of the poem
Stanza 1
“There is a weeping book in my flooded room” this shows that there is a book in an empty room, empty because the room is flooded and the book is lonely and does not have the capacity to do anything to its situation, hence it weeps, because it has been emasculated and powerless by the flood “On a swollen carpet and dishevelled broom” the book is not the only one affected by the flood, the whole room is affected, the carpet is swollen by the effect of flood and even the broom that should put the room back into order is already dishevelled, no hope for orderliness that can make the book function and stop the weeping.
“Its voice is muffled, its spine is broken” to show the powerlessness of the book, the poet shows more about the condition of the book, it’s voice is muffled, even if the book wants to communicate to anyone it’s agony, it’s pain, it’s bad condition, no one can hear because it’s voice has been lessened due to the break of it’s spinal cord, this has made it impossible to speak or carry out any pragmatic function.
‘For weeks and weeks it has never spoken” because it does not have the capacity to speak again, left with no other choice than to weep, which is the only means of speaking out, since voice would not be possible, movement is obstructed, no other means than to remain in it’s sad situation weep and watch if someone can come to his aid and restore things back to place, put the room into order, make the voice to be audible again and help to shape the spinal cord back to shape.
Stanza 2
Stanza two and the next stanza travels back to when the book was in perfect shape and it normal condition, “A prattling prince once, and very smart” the book was once charming, full of vigour, authoritative as the prince, lovely to look at like the prince, beautifully and respectfully constructed that people will like to see and even at that, the book was smart, knows how to find it’s way in any situation, sensitive, skilful and capable of penetrating into any situation, an antidote for all problem, encouragement for the weak and rod of correction for those going astray.
The book is not one sided, it encompasses all spheres both in science and art (humanity) “ sparkled with science and golden words” which shows the universality of life, this means the book is a universal book that is needed at all ramification, it can be used to solve all problems, effective in science and it’s words are golden which seeks refuge in humanity.
And this words, the output of the book “sang and surged like magic birds” is always new and powerful just like the magic bird (probably phoenix which is highly regarded as the magic bird) whenever it surface it renews itself in a more agile, powerful and beautiful way, always new and powerful is it’s words whenever it is sang.
Stanza 3
Not only is the book beautiful, powerful and mighty, it is also the personal’s “constant consort, my fairest friend” this means, as the book passes message to others, it also speak incessantly to the personal. He consults it and is also a friend to the poet. This shows the level of their relationship, the relationship between the personal and the book, it is not an ordinary book to the personal but an important part of the personal that he cannot do away with.
“Beyond every fad and fickle trend” “It stood sane, secure on my crowded shelf” despite every tendency of changing, conforming with what is happening around, it stood firm unchanged, it’s principles stand firm and doesn’t waver, and is always arranged orderly on the shelf. And this serve as “A lively boost to my seeking self” to the personal seeing the book in his place, position and unflinching makes him happy and balanced.
Stanza 4
And then came the catalyst of destruction Katrina “ Then came Katrina and its frantic flood” a peaceful abode of the book is at threat by the wild flood Katrina (a symbolism for mass, wild furious destruction) which scattered and shattered the peace of the atmosphere.
Katrina does not come alone, it came with its gang “ And its gang mess and mush and mud” which came also with the same aim of destroying and put everything into disorder. “Its sweeping plague and rampant rampage” “Undid my treasure from page to page” and finally they bring disorder into the peaceful room of the book. Shattered the treasure of the personal from page to page, not only is the room affected, the book is greatly imprinted on by the destructive catalysts from page to page it is being torn apart.
Stanza 5
“A maddening mold has eaten the leaves” this introduces another destructive agent, molds, after the Katrina and her agent have done their destruction, molds also come in to perform their destructive duty, they eat the torn pages leaf by leaf until they drop dead in bales in their shelves “Which drop down dead in bales and sheaves” emasculating the book of its vigour and strength, brakes it’s spine and muffle it’s voice. “A sickening swamp in my house of mirth” “The tomes are robbed of their lively girth” now a room full of happiness (house if mirth) is no longer available, substituted with unhappiness (sickening swamp) and the liveliness of the house has been rubbed, leaving the house empty but with sorrow, sadness and disorderliness.
But gone, “Gone are the pages with their dainty dots” gone are the beautiful lines on each pages of the book, gone are the aesthetics, gone are the golden words, fine are the prince-like features, gone are the magic bird nature of the book, gone are the vigour, voice and strength of the book, fine are the might of the book. Gone are “My scrawled remarks and random thoughts” philosophical, educating entertaining encouraging, correcting and debatable and complimentary and advising thoughts are all gone, due to the destruction. Gone are the “ ceaseless quarrel with friendly foes” all are gone and buried because of Katrina “Now submerged in Katrina woes”.
All good and inspiring things are gone and replaced by sadness and emptiness “ dreadful absence, mournful miss” “A grave bereavement it surely is” the happiness and labour of the personal is washed ashore by Katrina, all taken away and leaving the personal empty “A whole life’s labour washed away”
“By the murderous madness of Katrina’s way.”
Tone and mood: The mood of the poem is melancholic, sad and depress, mourning what has been lost, the psychological and physical effect of the woe Katrina and the emptiness that remains, the personal mourns the lost of his life work, his effort and the redundancy of the book which is unpleasant and saddening.
The poem also is embedded with different symbolisms which include:
• Book: which can represent artistic works, fiction and non fiction, paints, prom, drama, prose etcetera and even thought which are encoded in arts.
• Katrina: this is an allusion to hurricane Katrina which happened in the United States of America in 2005. This symbolises mass and heavy destruction.
• Muffled voice, broken spine: symbolising loss of strength and vigour.
• Room; this symbolises the mind, heart and thought of the poet personal
• Magic birds: symbolising purity, transformation, renewal, beauty strength.
• Prince: symbolising royalty and power.
• Shelf: this can be a symbolism of mind or heart and it can carry it literal meaning of shelf where the personal keeps his book (library)
• Flood: massive destruction.
• Mold: Destructive agent.
• Leaves, page: art (poem, drama, prose, and other artistic works) fiction or non fiction.
• Carpet, broom etcetera
The poem has the following (but not limited) theme
• The theme of sadness. The tone defines the main theme of the poem, the poet cycles around sadness of loosing his work to Katrina and other destructive agents.
• Theme of destruction: Katrina and other destructive catalyst come to destroy the life work of the personal, leaving nothing but sorrow, sadness, emptiness, loss of voice, vigour and strength.
• Power of art: The second and third stanza of the poem shows the power that art has, it can correct, reproof, rebuke, encourage, strengthen, renew, reborn and unite the society. Starting from individual to general. This is obvious when the poet puts it that the book is his friend, constant consult and self seeking. This means as the book convey message to everyone on general, it speaks furiously to the poet personal also, therefore makes the book a general needed book, not to the public alone but also to the artist or writer. It also shows that art is powerful, it cuts across all field of life, science and art and has the power of renewing itself.
Niyi Osundare, has indeed dine a great work in seeing to the experience of writers, a situation whereby different factors can lead to the emasculation of writers and their works. Government sometimes can be the catalyst of destroying art works, by placing sanctions, bans, seizing and sometimes mutilating art works.
Sometimes, based on political antics, government go after the writer of a work in order to silence the winter and others that may want to follow suit, hence they are the Katrina who floods the writers, and this may cause depression, frustration, relenting and discouragement to writers and may cause writer block, fear and lack of interest for art.
Also, criticism and critics and also serve as the Katrina or molds that destroys art work due to their critique and criticism which is done in a destructive way.
Also, natural phenomenon can be a cause to loss of art, due to natural disaster such as, flood, fire outbreak, death, sickness, writer block etcetera.
©Joshua OLADEBO, 2022.
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