E.K. Brathwaite's Poem Ogun

The room was damp and cold. In the corner, amidst a pile of wood shavings, sits an older man, worn and embittered by the world. He is a wood worker. He fashions pieces of wood into chairs, tables and sculptures. He is a handy man, willing to take on any task at anytime. He is the uncle of the narrator in the poem 'Ogun' by E.K. Brathwaite.

Ogun is the Yoruba and Afro-caribbean creator-god, and is the perfect title for this poem. In the poem, Brathwaite tells of a creator, a wood worker, who makes beautiful hand-crafted items. The narrator tells of the uncle's ability to take the toughest, knottiest piece of wood and fashion it into a work of art.

He does everything - fixes wagons, makes tables - yet inside of him is a bitter hatred towards the evolution of furniture. In lines 21 - 26, the narrator tells of the technology that has advanced furniture. Formica tables and hanging beds are what the world prefers now. No one wants the hand-crafted woodwork of the old man. The times are changing and so are the tastes of society. He sees the advancement as a threat, causing him to lose business. His only way to vent the frustration is to chisel a man out of wood. In this man, he puts the anger and pain he feels towards society, giving the man a stern, stoic look. The statute is a very cold, rigid looking man with heavy features and a heavy heart.

The anguish the man is feeling could almost be linked to any older person in society today. The older generation fears change because they have had the same routine for their entire life. The uncle feels the cold shoulder given by society. The old saying "out with the old, in with the new" supports the author's idea in the poem. The author basically says that here is this brilliant old man who can work magic with his hands, but since society wants change, he will be tossed aside until he is the new craze again.

The use of imagery in the poem gives one the warm feelings of being in the shop with the uncle, watching him whittle away at a piece of cedar, slowly creating a chair or table. The author describes the ma with every last detail, including his knock-kneed walk, but the author also tells that the uncle was almost always hungry and poor.

The feelings portrayed by the words jump off the page and force the reader to go through the uncle's trials. The first twenty lines give the reader a wonderful feeling of kindness and artistry. Then the author tells of the evolution, and the uncle's response to the new technology, while the reader stands by innocently watching the destruction of a man and his live of wood. The last lines allow the reader to see the other half of the uncle, the battered, torn man who carves his anger into the form of a wooden man with the features of a dry, scorned person.

All together, the poem tells how evolution changes people and how that process can make or break someone. In this case, it broke the man into a hatred of evolution, a social commentary on how the world can leave a person behind, as he is standing there, waiting to be heard.

Brathwaite, E.K. "Ogun"