Songs of Myself: Quartet

by Tanure Ojaide

Songs of Myself: Quartet is deeply rooted in the indigenous African poetic tradition. The great udje poets first composed songs paying tribute to the god of songs, followed by songs of self-exhortation,and then songs mocking themselves before satirizing others. This collection incorporates some of these aspects of the oral poetic genre in its four-part structure. It deals with self-examination and the minstrel’s alter-ego as a way of attempting to know himself. So, there is self-mockery that justifies mocking others. The four parts of the collection are: “Pulling the Thread of the Loom,” “Songs of Myself,” “Songs of the Homeland Warrior,” and “Secret Love and Other Poems.”

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