Search results
Known for his deep reflections on African culture, identity, and history, Achebe's poetry often integrates universal themes. In 'Love Cycle,' Achebe uses nature as a metaphor for love, capturing the cyclical nature of emotion.
- Vultures by Chinua Achebe
Themes: Dark, Death, Love, Relationships, Spirituality....
- Vultures by Chinua Achebe
- Summary
- Structure
- Detailed Analysis
- About Chinua Achebe
- Similar Poetry
‘Vultures’ by Chinua Achebe describes the vultures in such a disparaging and grim fashion that could be construed as a metaphorfor the people responsible for the atrocities in Belsen and in particular the “Commandant”. The first stanza is the longest part of the poem and it is not a coincidence. It is a metaphor for the commandant’s predominant per...
The poem is written in four stanzas, in free verse with no rhyming pattern. There a few instances where the poet uses slant rhyme and perfect rhyming as well. Achebe mostly uses alliteration and consonance for creating internal rhymings. It contains lots of enjambed lines giving the poem a fast pace, but with a jarring rhythm that mirrors the dark ...
Stanza One
This first stanza of ‘Vultures’ begins with a relentlessly long sentence filled with dark, sullen descriptions. Achebe uses alliteration in the second and third lines: “and drizzle of one despondent/ dawn unstirred by harbingers.” But this is an enjambed line and so doesn’t give the ebb and flow usually associated with alliteration. This helps to emphasize the bleak toneAchebe is trying to achieve. He uses the description of the vulture’s seating position “perching high on broken/ bones of a...
Stanza Two
In this stanza, Achebe skillfully contrasts the “light” of love with the “dark” of death by mentioning that in this darkest of environments, the “charnel-house,” a storage place for corpses, there is the presence of love. He personifieslove itself. Achebe uses an exclamation point on the phrase “her face turned to the wall” because love can’t stand to look at the atrocities contained within. It may also be a reference to people being lined up against walls before being gunned down by firing s...
Stanza Three
The third stanza throws the poem ‘Vultures’on its head somewhat. It cleverly constructs the character of the “Commandant at Belsen”. His description is not particularly flattering. The commandant’s only physical description includes his “hairy nostrils” but his actions are kind and very human. He brings chocolate home for his child. A kind gesture and not actions one would probably associate with a war criminal. Achebe makes readers see that even this horrible man has a soft side and that is...
Chinua Achebe was a contemporary Nigerian poet who spent part of his life living in his native Africa and part of it in the United States. He was a highly educated man who is one of Africa’s most famous writers producing not just poetry but novels as well. Achebe dabbled in politics, but left that endeavor behind, allegedly due to frustration with ...
The following list contains a few poems that similarly showcase the themes and subject matter described in Chinua Achebe’s ironic poem ‘Vultures’. 1. ‘Death Fugue’ by Paul Celan – This poem presents the dying thoughts of a Jewish person who was confined in a concentration camp. Read more Paul Celan poems. 2. ‘Never Shall I Forget’ by Elie Wiesel – ...
- Male
- Poetry Analyst And Editor
In Chinua Achebe's "Vultures," a pair of grim birds nuzzling each other after devouring a rotting corpse become a metaphor for the uneasy fact that human beings are equally capable of love and evil.
Apr 14, 2022 · Chinua Achebe's 'A Mother in a Refugee Camp' focuses on the sad plight of a mother having to bury her son, carefully combing his hair before letting go of her loved one. Based on personal observations during the civil war between Biafra and Nigeria, the poem is a universal message to humanity.
Refugee Mother and Child. ‘Refugee Mother and Child’ depicts a mother’s love in a war-torn setting, contrasting life’s fragility with deep maternal bonds. Read Poem.
A Mother In A Refugee Camp. Chinua Achebe. The poem conveys in an understated but enormously effective way the tragedy of conflict and the effect on civilians, especially children. Yet, even in...
People also ask
Why did Chinua Achebe write refugee mother and child?
Is Chinua Achebe a poet?
What is a mother in a refugee camp by Chinua Achebe about?
Who is Chinua Achebe?
“Refugee Mother and Child” is a poem composed by Chinua Achebe depicting the destitution and starvation for displaced people. The poem is about a displaced person mother and her child who endure in the arms of neediness.
