Christopher Okigbo's poetry has often been compared to that of TS Eliot, partly because Okigbo uses Eliot's characteristic linguistic devices such as exploitation metaphor to create a densely symbolic dimension to his poetry. Furthermore, he sometimes seems to consciously invoke comparisons with Eliot through means such as similarity of titles, as in the correspondence between his own Four Canzones and Eliot's Four Quartets. Much like Eliot, Okigbo's poetry demands a critical assessment that goes beyond the content of the works themselves to broaden the discussion on broader topics such as the meaning of poetry and the poet's purpose in modern society . Christopher Okigbo's poetry reveals a man who not only was aware of Eliot's work, but who actually looked to him as a model to bring a modernist perspective to African poetry. This may be partly because he saw Eliot's divided identity as an American, best known as a British poet, as an accurate reflection of his own sense of himself as an outsider; an African poet who infuses his work with the sensibilities of Anglo-Saxon modernism. Finally, Okigbo and Eliot have each suffered criticism that their poetry, for all its technical virtuosity, too often gives in to pessimism and thus deprives the reader of the joy that is supposed to be a vital component of all great verse. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”? Get an original essay Of course, the most striking contrast between these two poets is that Eliot's name is known even to those who do not know his work, while Okigbo remains a relatively obscure figure outside African and poetic circles. TS Eliot deserves his esteemed position in 20th century literature as one of the century's greatest poets. Even those who do not place him at the top recognize his immense importance in the poetry revolution. Eliot was one of the most successful experimenters in poetry of all time, constantly questioning the method by which readers should approach all aspects of a poem. Perhaps Eliot's greatest achievement is that he forced later poets to intellectualize the traditional emotional and aesthetic elements of poetry. Eliot's ability to simultaneously appeal to readers at different levels clearly influenced Christopher Okigbo. Just as Eliot's poetry intellectualizes the emotional emptiness of a modern Western world confronted with the social and technological upheavals of the turn of the century, Okigbo sets out to intellectually address the emotional upheaval of colonialism on indigenous Africans. The exploration of ritual is found in the poets of both men, who use symbolist techniques such as allusion to force an understanding of how tradition guides contemporary thought and future destiny. Eliot engages with ancient myths to highlight contemporary themes; Okigbo differentiates himself from previous African poets by introducing colonialist ideas in order to provide a thematic framework that reflects the amalgamation of indigenous and European cultures and values ​​to create the sense of identity confusion that characterizes African people. Eliot and Okigbo's fragmented identity contains a certain undeniable element of seeking spiritual satisfaction. At the heart of this concern is the image of the desert and the annihilation of tradition and universal truths which have been revealed as ill-equipped to meet the psychic needs of modern society. The feeling of pessimismThe underlying underlying problem that afflicts some critics can therefore be seen, from another point of view, as a necessary modernist conceit, consisting of no longer having the will to accept the falsity of refuted beliefs and fragile theoretical constructions of morality. In essence, the best poetry of Eliot and Okigbo can easily be interpreted as the reaction to the recognition of the disconnection engendered by the desert and the subsequent purification ritual aimed at a kind of spiritual reconnection. Comparing Christopher Okigbo's poetry to that of TS Eliot is significant partly because of thematic and linguistic similarities, but also because it is impossible to ignore Okigbo's abundance of direct and conscious evocation of Eliot. In “Tradition and Individual Talent,” TS Eliot urged 20th-century poets to come to terms with a sense of history and “the feeling that all European literature since Homer and, within it, all the literature of one's own country has a simultaneous existence” (Brooker, 1994, p. 13). Okigbo succeeds, but seems to have exchanged Homer for Eliot as guide. This is not to say that Okigbo copies or plagiarizes Eliot. Okigbo's invocation of specific elements from Eliot's poems is perhaps a little more obvious than Eliot's use of ancient precursors in his own poetry, but this can clearly be interpreted as Okigbo's attempt to introduce into African literature a precursor that he finds as important as Eliot finds Homer. Eliot's knowledge of literary history cannot be disputed and he engages the mythic qualities of this literature at revolutionary levels that have effectively succeeded in changing the very nature of poetry. Okigbo's answer to this question can be criticized for lacking the rich insights that Eliot possesses, or it can be praised for his intellectual choice to replace the obscure allusive quality that dominates Eliot's poetry with more insight. relevant to the historical and social fabric of colonial Africa. Eliot's poems are often striking for the way in which ancient myths are used to comment on the contemporary human condition. Okigbo takes up this challenge by forcing African tradition to face the foreign intrusion of colonizers. Once again the question of reconnecting a splintered identity is introduced and in many of both men's poems the result is an equally fragmented language, containing multiple elements that inform Eliot's idea of ​​a simultaneous existence created by the whole history of the world and not just the poet's own inner psychological architecture. Identity and society are seen not only as labyrinths, but also as labyrinthine processes intended to permeate the very act of writing poetry. The criticism that a certain amount of pessimism permeates the work of both authors conveniently ignores the fact that the physical act of writing poetry is itself a denial of any nihilistic convictions. What further underlines the illegitimacy of this criticism is the obvious intellectual effort required to produce poetry of this caliber. If there is a sense of pessimism running through the poetry of Eliot and Okigbo, then it can be said to illuminate the possibility of a spiritual awakening in a world facing the devastation of ancient traditions as those traditions are reworked in a modern world. perspective.TS Eliot demonstrates that there is a complex relationship between language and spiritual deliberation. In his Four Quartets poem “Burnt Norton,” Eliot confronts the restrictions and constraints inherent in language in his attempt to make adequate sense of spiritual perceptions. The opening stanza of “Burnt Norton” dives straight into a thematic commonality thatexists between Eliot and Okigbo, that of the link between the past and the future. The second stanza serves to illuminate another solid modernist technique shared by both poets, that of experiments with voice and tone. Eliot's use of vibrant adjectival imagery contrasts sharply with the abstractions described in the first stanza. The movement ranges from a decidedly archaic quality to a more fluid contemporary quality; this is a succinct example of language evolution. This shift in the way words are used to describe abstract ideas gives rise to larger thematic concerns related to time and how it affects tradition and the world's culture clash. The cyclical nature of societal progression is intimately linked to the inference that language also evolves over time. Eliot exposes this relationship by juxtaposing the fragmentation that exists between the sacred and the profane. In “Burnt Norton,” this fragmentation appears as an obstacle to understanding and achieving greater spiritual awareness when he writes that language “will not stand still/speak yet” ( V, l 17). The turmoil caused by the fact that language is often ill-equipped to deal with the abstractions of contemporary life arises again when Eliot asserts that writing is always a process that begins anew every time pen is placed on paper. paper. Eliot's poetry in the first of the two quartets addresses the modernist question and foreshadows postmodernist concerns with interpretation. In these specific poems, Eliot addresses the question of how language often serves to create problems in communicating ideas directly related to knowledge and spiritual matters. There is a convergence of ideas at work that highlights the unspoken belief that transcendence can only be achieved through a dualistic process in which light and shadow coexist to form a synthesis. Eliot constantly alludes to the evolution of words and meaning, implicitly implying that this dualistic relationship may hold the key to arriving at a deeper understanding of how cultural fragmentation works to construct a synthesis. Any synthesis of ideas based on language is subject to certain limits of ambiguity, but this is all the more true if we admit that language very often constitutes an obstacle to even understanding the intention of the word, and even less of the meaning hidden behind the language. The criticism that Eliot allows pessimism to enter his poetry can be seen from the perspective of actually being nothing darker than cynical skepticism, and this is illustrated here in the form of hesitation in "Burnt Norton ", as when he writes "What could have been" is an abstraction/remaining a perpetual possibility" (I, ll. 6-7). This weary wariness in the face of denied possibility can be read as a statement about the dangers inherent in the ambiguity of language itself, as well as the ways in which language is used to communicate that which may be considered incommunicable. The poem raises serious questions about the elusive nature of the truth of everything one can experience in life, as demonstrated by the sequence of the poem describing the actions taking place in the garden. The poems contained in the first two quartets contain numerous allusions to myth which serve Eliot's intention of punctuating the realism of the events described with a more heightened meaning in experiential substance. This is, however, accomplished through what appear to be simple linguistic devices such as descriptive imagery which makes extensive use of adjectival description. The difficult situationfacing the synthesis of the fragmentation that exists due to the ambiguous nature of language and the ephemeral quality of spirituality that makes its definition so difficult rests on the inescapable dilemma that meaning cannot be dissociated from the medium. In other words, language is an absolute necessity for understanding and then relating the higher meanings that exist in the philosophical spheres that dominate greater poetry. In “Burnt Norton,” Eliot writes that “Only by form, pattern,/ Can words or music attain/ Stillness like a Chinese jar” (V, ll. 4-6). These lines suggest that context is inseparable from the process of fully understanding and appreciating the meaning of language, but that context is almost always complicated by the introduction of interpretation. An example of this occurs in Okigbo's "The Passage", in the section which tells the story of the bird finding itself in a foreign land and pushing itself to stand astride one leg because it does not does not fully understand the traditions of the new culture. The incident reflects the contextual importance of understanding language, as well as the obstacles placed in the path to understanding. The bird fits well into the abstraction which allows the existence of the possible through infinity. Okigbo is also interested in the importance of form in Eliot for the prosaic message of understanding. Her poems confront this question through the literal translation of metaphors as in "Lament of the Lavender Mist" in which the natural symbol of water purification is personified in the female subject. Okigbo also follows Eliot's linguistic example by engaging in the art of juxtaposition. Okigbo uses the technique of grouping images without contextual relation to realize new meaning from disparity. The result may not immediately make sense, but it makes creative sense. Discordant language and cacaphonous rhythms are used to comprehend the new sensation forged from the fragmented reality of the original meaning. Both Eliot and Okigbo use this type of juxtaposition and linguistic flourish to emphasize the fact that language can act as a hold on knowledge, while also possessing the capacity to force interpretation as an act of illumination. Eliot's deliberate confusion in "East Coker" seasonal imagery exposes the mystifying disorder of contemporary society. His insistent desire to see how far he can change the method by which language communicates ideas raises another question regarding the deceptive qualities inherent in the way words can be used to convey thought. Restrictions on verbal communication serve as a metaphor for the development of language and society, illustrated by the lines explaining how tradition is "removed, destroyed, restored, or in its place." Is an open field, or a factory, or a bypass" ("East Coker," I, ll. 3-4). Eliot also addresses the idea of ​​the subtle betrayal of language in lines such as " Our only health is sickness” as a way of understanding the dual aspect of all things Eliot's poetry revealed that it requires context to understand language and this is obviously compounded by the language being presented to a foreign audience. either through immigration or emigration of communicable ideas and concepts It is the emigration of communicable ideas that stifles indigenous cultural concepts that forms the basis of the colonial mentality in which Christopher Okigbo set out to explore. follow in the tradition of TS Eliot Spiritual themes involving the fragmentation of tribal traditions, the.Christianity and the struggle between the two dominate much of Okigbo's writing. The themes of religious suppression, anti-Christianity, religious revival and literary struggle predominate in Okigbo's poetic attempt at revelation. the fragmentary construction of communication combines African traditions and the intrusion of the Western academic world. Reflecting Eliot's position as an American interloper in British society, Okigbo works from the perspective of African writing in an almost postcolonial frame of mind rather than pure nativism. Okigbo's poetry ends up having a transformative effect that is entirely in keeping with Eliot's approach to establishing the duality of language as a means of both illuminating and hindering the ability to communicate. By merging traditional African and postcolonial attributes, it concretizes a synthesis of European and African perspectives to create a new modernist approach that also inhabits the very diverse fields of literary endeavors that take full consideration of the spiritual rituals of indigenous polytheistic belief and of Christianity. .Okigbo merges Christian and Igbo religious iconography to highlight the difficulties inherent in the language, which Eliot had identified, while offering the promise of reconciliation. It also manages to circumvent the constraints of adhering to an outdated tradition and to circumvent many of the problems of postcolonialist literature. “Before you, Mother Idoto, / Naked I stand” evokes the specter of Igbo religious tradition while invoking Christian imagery with the phrase “on the waters of genesis.” What Okigbo does is synthesize the symbolism of water that runs through all religions in a general sense using the details to defragment the chasm that separates the details. It is an imagist amalgam that echoes much of Eliot's greatest works and, indeed, modernism as a movement. This use of African and colonial religious traditions was not intended to place them in total competition by juxtaposition, but to highlight them together to show evidence of a cooperative effect on language and communication. At the same time, Okigbo is also quite capable of using these divergent images as a collision force between two warring factions. This can be accomplished most effectively in the Fragments poems which fully take the promise of the idols of worship. “And his ornaments, / And the pearls around his tail; / And its shell / And its shell, they divided themselves” explicitly draws attention to the potential for division that exists in the confrontation and competition of a duality that exists between two traditions. Heavensgate exists as a text whose mission is to defragment African and European modes of language and communication with the aim of synthesizing a new paradigmatic whole by linking the oral history of Africa to the written tradition of the West. Dramatic development is central to this poetry, and throughout Okigbo is very careful with the use of voice. Okigbo accomplishes much the same thing in Limits and regularly adds another poetic dimension to the work in terms of the mood and ambiance that permeates each of the poems. The same reliance on fragmented images exists, but the overall emotional mood is a little darker and perhaps the target of the criticisms of pessimism leveled against it. In these poems there is a pervasive sense of isolation; the feeling of an isolated hero facing the desert. TS Eliot's poem "The Waste Land" describes a modern society overwhelmed by alienation and disorder, overwhelmed by the inexorable tide of progress arriving at.