Poems
This blog is the outcome of a thinking activity task assigned by Megha Ma’am, encouraging critical reflection and analysis.
Sixteen paces
By twenty-three (dimension of Soyinka’s prison).[YB2] They hold
Siege (Barrier) against humanity
And Truth
[YB3] Employing time to drill through to his sanity [YB4]
Schismatic (Controversial)
Lover of Antigone (Greek mythology) !
[YB5] You will? You will unearth
Corpses of yester-
Year? Expose manure (dung) of present birth?
Seal him live
In that same necropolis (cemetery).
May his ghost mistress
Point the classic
Route to Outsiders' Stygian [YB6] (gloomy and dark) Mysteries.
Bulletin[YB7] : (statements or news from the prison)
He sleeps well, eats
Well. His doctors note
No damage[YB8]
Our plastic (fake) surgeons tend his public image[YB9] .
Confession[YB10]
Fiction ? Is truth not essence
Of Art, and fiction Art? (Fiction is art – truth is part of art – fiction is truth)
Lest (in case) it rust (decay)
We kindly borrowed his poetic licence.[YB11]
Galileo[YB12]
We hoped he'd prove - age
Or genius may recant (reject/renounce/abandon) - our butchers (killers of these genius people)
Tired of waiting
Ordered (without proving anything with facts); take the scapegoat (innocents), drop the sage (learned).
Guara'l The lizard:
Every minute scrapes (fixes)
A concrete mixer throat (tobacco).[YB13]
The cola slime (spit)
Flies to blotch (stain) the walls in patterned grime (dirt)
The ghoul: (eats dead body/ghost)
Flushed (red-faced) from hanging, sniffles[YB14]
Snuff (consumes drug), to clear his head of
Sins -- the law
Declared -- that morning's gallows load (the man who was hanging) were dead of.
The voyeur: (Sadist)
Times his sly patrol (to take a round)
For the hour upon the throne (toilet seat[YB15] )
I think he thrills
To hear the Muse's[YB16] (Greek mythology) constipated groan
Question : What is the significance of the title “Live Burial”?
Answer :
About the Poet: Wole Soyinka
Wole Soyinka is a major African writer known for his fearless opposition to political tyranny and injustice. A Nobel Laureate, Soyinka has repeatedly used literature as a weapon against oppression. His own imprisonment during the Nigerian Civil War deeply shaped his prison writings. “Live Burial” emerges from this lived experience of incarceration, censorship, and psychological torture, making the poem both personal and political.
About the Poem
“Live Burial” is a prison poem that depicts the inhuman conditions faced by political prisoners and intellectual dissenters under authoritarian regimes. The poem does not merely describe physical confinement; it explores the systematic attempt to erase a person’s identity, sanity, creativity, and truth while they are still alive. Through fragmented images, mythological allusions, irony, and bitter satire, Soyinka exposes the moral corruption of the state and the cruelty of its agents.
Significance of the Title
The title “Live Burial” is profoundly symbolic and operates on multiple levels:
- Physical Confinement as Burial
The opening lines—“Sixteen paces / By twenty-three”—refer to the exact dimensions of Soyinka’s prison cell. The cell becomes a grave, enclosing the poet as though he were already dead. Being sealed inside a necropolis (cemetery) “alive” suggests punishment without execution—a death-in-life.
- Psychological and Intellectual Death
The phrase “Employing time to drill through to his sanity” shows how time itself is used as a weapon. Isolation, monotony, surveillance, and humiliation aim to destroy the prisoner’s mental stability. Thus, live burial signifies the slow erosion of reason, memory, and creativity.
- Silencing of Truth and Humanity
The prison is described as holding a “siege against humanity / And Truth.” This suggests that the real target is not merely the individual but truth itself. Burying the poet alive symbolizes the state’s attempt to suppress dissenting voices and uncomfortable truths.
- Moral Inversion and Irony
The mock “Bulletin” claims that the prisoner “sleeps well, eats well,” while “plastic surgeons” tend his public image. This bitter irony exposes the hypocrisy of authoritarian power, which pretends benevolence while practicing cruelty. The burial is disguised as care.
- Mythological and Historical Resonance
Soyinka invokes Antigone, a figure punished for obeying moral law over state law, reinforcing the idea of ethical resistance.
The reference to Galileo highlights how societies persecute thinkers and later expect them to recant. When they do not, the state resorts to violence—“take the scapegoat, drop the sage.” Thus, live burial becomes a historical pattern of silencing genius.
- Dehumanization of Authority Figures
Characters like “The ghoul,” “The voyeur,” and prison guards are portrayed grotesquely. Their moral decay contrasts with the prisoner’s intellectual integrity. This suggests that while the poet is buried alive, it is the oppressors who are spiritually dead.
Technique and Poetic Craft
- Fragmented Structure mirrors psychological disintegration and confinement.
- Satire and Irony expose political lies and propaganda.
- Myth and Allusion universalize the experience of oppression.
- Grotesque Imagery highlights moral corruption.
- Metapoetry (discussion of art, truth, and poetic license) asserts that even buried alive, art survives.
Conclusion
The title “Live Burial” powerfully encapsulates the poem’s central idea: the systematic attempt by authoritarian power to annihilate a human being without killing the body. It signifies physical imprisonment, mental torture, silencing of truth, and cultural suffocation. Yet, paradoxically, the poem itself proves that art resists burial. Though the poet may be sealed in a cell, his voice survives, indicting tyranny and affirming the enduring power of truth and imagination.
References :
Bhatt, Yesha. Live Burial - Wole Soyinka - Poem Explanation. 28 Nov. 2021, yeshab68.blogspot.com/2021/11/live-burial-wole-soyinka-poem.html.
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