Description
This collection comprises fifty poems, organized into ten distinct seasons. The poems are semiotic representations of thematic and discursive issues that are deeply rooted in contemporary society. They seek to teach, please, and evoke the emotions of readers. In terms of teaching, the focus is on themes germane to postcolonial and contemporary discourse, including governance, power, migration, identity, otherness, hybridity, gender relations, morality, spirituality, the environment, and the language question in literature. To achieve these objectives of teaching, pleasing, and stirring the emotions of readers, the poetry makes extensive use of linguistic codes and calligrams in order to reach a variety of readers. What is particularly noteworthy about this collection is the poet’s insightful use of animal and natural imagery to explore contemporary themes. His strong attachment to nature and environmental aesthetics sets him apart as a 21st-century African Romantic poet.
Praise
“Nol Alembong’s alluring art of storytelling, poetically, is stunning. His simplicity of style and aesthetic and rhythmic use of language, pregnant with literary ingredients, make his poetic knack unique. Concrete poetry, the prominent genre of poetry in this collection, in which form corroborates subject matter, engraves an indelible picture on the readers’ minds.”
—Dr Siefred Khan Nchifor, University of Buea, Cameroon
“Nol Alembong navigates through the iconic dimension of language to achieve verisimilitude. The similes and metaphors in his poetry vividly capture the present-day moral atrophy in our societies. This collection is a masterpiece of poetic ingenuity and imaginative fecundity.”
—Dr Thomas Njie Losenje, University of Buea, Cameroon
“An outstanding feature of Nol Alembong’s poetic craft is his ability to leave his readers serenaded by the use of euphony and a scintillating cum disarming display of poetic ingenuity. His poetry is replete with a conscious use of animal imagery conveyed through a plethora of similes, metaphors and innuendos to achieve verisimilitude.”
—Dr Festus Doh, University of Buea, Cameroon
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.