David Rubadiri's 'An African Thunderstorm'

In David Rubadiri's poem 'An African Thunderstorm' the poet presents the effects of a thunderstorm and the different reactions of human society to its coming.

Setting: The events in the poem happen in a village in Africa.


Stanzas 1 and 2: These stanzas focus on providing details about how nature is transformed as a consequence of the thunderstorm. It is clearly quite powerful and the poet uses several images to convey this.

It is evident that the wind is forceful as it is described as moving the clouds wildly 'like a plague of locusts' and even moving things about 'like a madman chasing nothing'. Images likes these give a vivid idea about the uncontrollable or erratic nature of the storm.

Stanza 3: In this stanza, the reader sees that the children, in all their innocence, are unfazed by the storm. It leaves them feeling quite excited as seen in the line ' screams of delighted children'. It is something they look forward to experiencing, perhaps because they have never gone through the devastation that often results from the passage of a thunderstorm. They are happily shielded by their innocence and their 'screams of delight' in the face of the 'din of the whirling wind' is evidence of this.

The women, on the other hand, react quite differently. They are moving about frantically trying to safeguard themselves, others and their belongings.

Notice, too, that the wind is relentless and continues to assert its dominance. As it 'whistles by' the trees are no match to its power and have to bend so as to let it pass freely.

Stanza 4: This stanza sustains the powerful force of the storm that the poet seeks to convey. Everything that is in the direct pathway of the storm feels its power. Clothing is being blown up resulting in exposed breasts and lightning and thunder dominate the sky. All this reinforces the impact of the storm on the landscape and on the people.

LITERARY DEVICES

The poet uses several literary devices to capture the powerful nature of the storm. There is no ignoring that words and phrases have been strategically selected.

1. Simile: 'tossing up things on its tail/like a madman chasing nothing, 'gathering to perch/like sinister dark wings', clothes wave like tattered flags'

2. Personification: 'clouds come hurrying', 'the wind whistles by', pregnant clouds ride stately on its back'

3. Contrast: The children and the women have a different reaction to the storm. The children are delighted while the women's actions indicate that they are anxious and intent on protecting themselves and others.

4. Imagery:  The poem uses a lot imagery. A few examples are below.

                      Visual imagery: 'clothes wave like tattered flags', 'trees bend to let it pass',
                      clouds come hurrying with the wind'
                       Auditory Imagery: 'screams of delighted children', 'din of the whirling wind', 
                      'the wind whistles by', 'pelting march of the storm'
                       Olfactory Imagery:'amidst the smell of fired smoke' 
  
5. Alliteration: 'wind whistles', 'toss and turn'

6. Repetition: 'The wind whistles by...', 'trees bend to let it pass'


Form: Free verse

Themes: mother nature, man versus nature, innocence of children


Other Considerations

Lineation: Note the mixture of long and short lines in the poem. This done for the reader to get an idea of the erratic movement of the storm. For example, some lines have only one or two words while others have five and more.

Lack of punctuation: As the poem is read, the lack of punctuation in specific parts of the poem like the first stanza captures the storm's intensity and unpredictability.

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