Analysis of SWANGE

Tile Tersoo 1991 (Zaki Biam)



The moon has groaned home;

And soon the shadow’s drum,

Resonates the rhythmic silhouette,

To the ferocious pains of the spine;

Hear the heavy throbs of the drum,

The panting steps of the trumpet,

And the singing sage of the flute.

See as she curved patiently

In the wind, and twist her shanks,

Directly towards the sun, this swange:

The great dance that has survived,

The war of nature, the drift of time,

And the shadows of silent wars.

As she sprint to no where, a darts,

Then bend to finish it all in a day,

With hands spread to the sun---

And legs resisting a visit of the moon.

Like a snake, she twist in trance,

The petroglyps of carribbean trace,

The black race’s paws of pride,

Now, history has danced to your tunes.

I can barely hear the movement

Of your soul in the heart of my soul

And as the trumpet rent the air;

Her moves changes, her eyes dimming.

Many passers-by left mouths wide,

To the ferocious shock of her dance

The dexterity of her posture, dangling,

When you think of her waist___

Then, the community of her back,

With ridges and robes of nature,

As I watch her in the craft, I sigh!

Silently in my noisy heart.

They sing and dance through,

Smiling blissfully as if her body

Is only made of tissues and no bones.

Where have you pressed your pressure?

She reminds me of my tradition,

That descendant’s meld of mild.

If home I reach, then shall I squeeze,

Myself in her fold like a wrinkled hag.

Oh Swange!, she revamps the dead

Spirit in the hallows of my being,

And now I’m whole in the hole of my life.

The syncopation and its vibration

That storm the Inertia, growing,

Soothingly, the goosebumps on my skin.

___This is the dance of the spirit;

With the doughty of your dancers,

And the lapidary of the drummers,

That has intoxicated the veins of my soul.

The bilious nature of your rhythm,

Has continued the confusion in my head,

And I stand to commend your craft and art,

To reward your efforts effortlessly,

As topping the chart of singers and dancers.

Swange is cruel, it has charmed my mind,

And enticed direction of my thoughts,

It is really gentle and fiercely rough.

You have encapsulated the catercorner,

The so soothing sobs of the bleeding heart,

And dragged me upon the pool of love,

Of chaste, and of peace, the hopes of Isle,

Leaving me in the state of shawl sallow,

I will caress your rapscallion, your thirst.

And many have fallen deeply into

The lycanthropy of the serendipity,

Scouring and hiding the rendition

Of your serene utopia, a threnody

To the snatches and the old dry bones.

Swange is fearless and swange is a dream,

It has defile the harmony of our insecurity,

And gave us peace with joy in obscurity,

With the most genteel empirical facts,

Swange is the nude African damsel,

Who has invited me to a silent dinner,

And I took the part of her seductive caress.

That snake like tribal dance of the Tiv’s,

Has raped out virtue and now I’m deflowered!

I have dug myself a shallow sepulchre,

For I have heard the cause of my doom,

This Swange has sweep away sense in my sight.


Scheme X A B X A C X D E X X X X X X F X G X H X X I J K H G K B X L X M N D O L F X X X P K X F K X C Q Q I A P M D Q X X X J M X X D X N D F B O X D D X X L X E B J X X
Poetic Form
Metre 01111 01011 1001001 100101101 10101101 01011010 00101101 1111100 0010101 010010111 0111101 011100111 0011101 11111101 1111011001 111101 01010010101 1011101 01111 0110111 110011111 11101010 111001111 01010101 01100110 10101111 100101101 001001010100 111101 100100101 11001110 111000111 10001101 11011 1010011010 110111011 1111110 101111010 1010111 11111111 100110101 1110101 1000101110 0111001111 010001010 11001010 10001111 11011010 10101110 001001010 11010001111 0100101110 10100010011 0111011101 1011101000 11001110010 111011111 001010111 1110100101 11010001 0110110101 011010111 110110111 101001111 11011111 0101101001 01100100 1000100010 1101010001 101000111 111001101 11101001100100 01111100100 101011001 110110010 110101101010 011011001001 111101101 111100111 11110101 111101111 1111011011
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 3,124
Words 708
Sentences 22
Stanzas 82
Stanza Lengths 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1
Lines Amount 82
Letters per line (avg) 29
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 29
Words per stanza (avg) 7

About this poem

'Swange' is a traditional and cultural panegyric poem that eulogies the beauty of Africa especially in her traditional music. Swange is a unique African dance that is found among the Tiv speakers of Benue state Nigeria. Here the dancers sing while they dance darting about madly and swaying like a serpent in accordance to the rhythm of the traditional drum. This is poem that seek to revamp relevance in traditional African culture.

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Written on February 07, 2022

Submitted by tersoo2016 on March 02, 2023

3:32 min read
0

Tile Tersoo

tersoo2016@gmail.com more…

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