A Poem on Hypocrisy: Fake Life by Deola Adelakun

Briefs of the Poem

‘Fake Life’ is another poem addressing hypocrisy. The poet reveals how many people live a fake life. He continues to expose the ways of life of African people as we bend low and inferior to other cultures and values.

The poet points to the people that always puff, jive and brag to be international, American, and Dangote’s son but they are not. They don’t want to be known as local, African, and poor/ordinary citizens. This is hypocrisy!

Many people like pretenses. They always hide their personality. Other people cannot say who they are. I think that is not a manifestation of integrity.

These pretenders claim to be good today but something else tomorrow. The hypocritical people will seem like a gorilla, doves givers, humans, and earthworms today, but the lion, parrot, snatcher, masquerade, and viper tomorrow. This is hypocrisy!

Many blacks are inferior in their ways of life. They think their culture is not a good one. These people eventually imbibe the foreign culture in terms of language, dressing, etc. Is it not hypocrisy!

Our people’s hypocrisy leads us to switch to the slang of ‘packaging’. The modern style is packaging and deceit are called packaging. This is also hypocrisy!

The poet advises that it will be best if people can stop pretending and deceiving people. Let people know you!

Practice Questions

Discuss the subject matter of the poem.
Explain the poetic devices of the poem.
Comment on the use of figurative expressions in the poem.
Say about the stanzas of the poem.

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Knowledge Needed for the Analysis of Poems

Poetry as a piece of literary work, whether spoken or written, expresses and communicates thoughts, ideas, experiences, feelings, and emotions beautifully using imagery, rhythm, and sound. It is usually written in verse with lyrical effects.

To achieve the effect, the poet, chooses words that convey meanings through their sounds and that also create images in the readers’ minds. Poetry has music, rhythm, and rhyme.

That is words in a poem are arranged in lines, usually with a repeated rhythm, and sometimes with a rhyme in the end. The ideas in a poem are arranged into lines and stanzas.

To analyse a poem, a reader needs to understand how the poet uses words and sound devices to create images and to bring out his meaning. Thus, the following elements which give poetry its uniqueness in language and meaning will be treated.

The following are major forms of poetry: narrative poetry, satirical poetry, dramatic poetry, and lyrical poetry.

Features of poetry

Poetry is written in verse, in the form of stanzas and lines.
Poetry is metrical in the arrangement.
It is usually lyrical.
It makes use of figurative language.
It expresses a thought, ideas, and experiences sometimes in a concise form.

Types of poetry

Ballad: the word ‘ballad’ is out of current use. The poem derives from the village festival and is not often written but handed down orally from generation to generation, e.g. Ekun iyawo, Ijala Ode, etc.
Epic: This poem narrates heroes and their deeds e, g Milton’s Paradise Lost, Soyinka’s guidance
Elegy/Dirge: The poem of lamentation and a song of mourning and a sorrowful event such as the death of a bosom friend, Thomas Gray’s Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
Lyric: A poem to be sung to the lyre. It is sung during the burial of the deadriage ceremonies, e.g. J. P. Clarks Streamside Exchange
Ode: An ode is a written or spoken poem addressing somebody or something to mark a special occasion.
Pastoral poem: this poem celebrates the lives of the country and people.
Narrative poem: This is a long poem that tells a story, e.g Samuel Coleridge’s The rhyme of the Ancient Mariner.
Panegyrics/Eulogy: It is a praise poem dedicated to the glorification (praising) of the attributes or qualities of a person, an animal, a place or event, and, a,n object.

Tools to consider in analyzing poems

Stanzas/Rhymes: This is the division in the formal pattern of a person. It could be two, three, or more lines. Rhyme is the exact correspondence in sound or word-ending, usually at the end of each poem. The arrangements of the stanzas should be considered. Learn how they are arranged below.

A two-line stanza is known as a couplet
A three-line stanza is known as a triplet
A four-line stanza is known as a quatrain
A five-line stanza is known as a quintet
A six-line stanza is known as a sestet
A seven-line stanza is known as a septet
An eight-line stanza is known as an octave

Rhythm: This is a metrical movement determined between sounds and events.
Tone/mood: These are feelings or state of mind of the poet. It is the frame of mind in which the poet was when composing his work.
Atmosphere: This is the prevalent mood, feelings, and thoughts or actions of people in a poem.
Enjambment: This is also known as (run-on-line). It occurs when the ideas in a line of verse move from one line to the join that follows it.
Imagery: It is the use of words to form mental pictures. A poet could use words to draw a picture of situations whose ordinary words cannot convey effectively.
Metre: This is the arrangement of the stressed and unstressed syllables in a poem to give a particular rhythmic effect.
The content of the poem: The content is the main body of the poem and you should understand the message and subject matter.
The structure of the poem: the structure of the poem is to be considered, such as stanzas, verses, and lines.
Language and style of the poem: The style, figures of speech, and theme are to be considered. The style is the way the language is structured. It is the manner the poem is done. The theme is the central idea and the dominating point of the poem. The figures of the speech are simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, irony, euphemism, etc.