General Analysis
In the collection ‘The Eye of the Earth’ Osundare has the capacity to evoke a mood of romantic nostalgia and introspection. This very method affords the poet the opportunity to experiment with contrasting situations. Thus, whereas in the previous poem, the poet talks about drought, despoliation and famine, in the next poem he talks about bliss, peace and tranquility. Through these contrasts also, we are presented with good on one hand and evil on the other. The good and beauty in nature is seen through nature’s responses to the environment. Thus, when it rains there is joy and peace because the earth will send forth its fruits. When there is evil (consequent upon certain material forces in society) there is drought, pain and suffering. This contrast is amply, depicted in the poem ‘First Rain’ through stark lines like these:
a tingling tang awakes the nose when the first rain has just clipped the wing of the haughty dust cooling warmth embraces our searching soles as the land vapour rises like a bootless infantry and through her liberated poles our earth breathes again. (Osundare The Eye of the Earth 29).
The first rains bring hope and joy and with its arrival ‘our earth breathes again.’ The evil that is enacted in society by the despoilers has the capacity to affect mother-earth directly. But with the arrival of the rains a cooling warmth embraces/our searching soles. The power of the rain as both bringer of peace and relief is also the major theme of the next poem that follows.
‘Rain coming’ metaphorically refers to the time before the predatory capitalist plunder when earth was a friend to man and man earth’s friend. It is, therefore, a period of calm and bliss. With the arrival of the rains there is a greenish verdure in the land. There is happiness because the barns are brimming and there is plenty.
Slowly but Surely like liquid fingers on the aluminum drum of echoing roofs the rain unites the farmer’s tongue, bursting farming yawns into barns of lilting yams plums and pumpkins dense with drink and daring roll juicily from furrow to furrow (Osundare The Eye of the Earth 30). In this very poem, we see the power of rain. It is not just there to enable plants and the trees to bloom and flower. It is also has the capacity to bring about a union between man and nature. The pumpkins, plums and grasses all partake of this festive mood. But in spite the glee in nature and the apparent correspondences between man and his environment, Osundare laments the fact that in his land there is no rain. This lament, coming at the end of the poem, is meant to stress the fact that something is still rotten in society.
Slowly but Surely the early rains ring the bell but oh my land! so deep and dry still in the unnatural desert of barn-burners (Osundare The Eye of the Earth, 31).
The last stanza of the poem is obviously a comprehensive commentary on the despoliation of the earth by predators. This despoliation is equal to the destruction of the individual by material forces in society. There is an obvious parallel here with Wordsworth’s theory: love of nature leads to love of man and an awareness of God.
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