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My son needs to find out the year this poem was written..can't find it anywhere, i'm beaten and so is he! If anyone can provide a link to the answer, I'll be really grateful. TIA
“The Sea Eats the Land at Home” by Kofi Awoonor
“The Sea Eats the Land at Home” by Kofi Awoonor
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https://glasgowmango.wordpress.com/2014/06/25/the-sea-eats-the-land-at-home-by-kofi-awoonor/
this link says it was in a book called modern poems of Africa 1963 |
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That was the best I could find as well, but doesn't necessarily answer when the poem was written
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Awoonor was born in 1935 and became known for his poetry, early collections of which were heavily inspired by the dirge singing and oral poetry of his native Ewe tribe. He published his first collection, Rediscovery and Other Poems, in 1964.
Awoonor gained a masters degree in literature at University College London in 1970. His second collection, Night of My Blood, was released in 1971 and was a series of poems that explore Awoonor’s roots and the impact of colonialism and foreign rule in Africa. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/kenya/10326144/Kofi-Awoonor-Ghanaian-poet-killed-in-Westgate-Attack.html Still not conclusive. |
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Cheers guys..maybe his teacher can enlighten us!
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I think the actual answer is 1964 - it's a poem in a collection of work by him called Rediscovery and Other Poems (1964)
follow this link and scroll down a bit, it lists all the poems in that collection https://bit.ly/33TDjmB You can also see the list of poems in that book in this link https://www.worldcat.org/title/promise-of-hope-new-and-selected-poems-1964-2013/oclc/857754047 if you scroll down it reads From Rediscovery and Other Poems (1964) -- My God of Songs Was Ill -- The Sea Eats the Land at Home -- The Cathedral -- What Song Shall We Sing -- We Have Found a New Land -- The Anvil and the Hammer -- Rediscovery -- The Weaver Bird -- The Purification -- The Gone Locusts -- Songs of Sorrow -- |
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The second reply has the poem in a Penguin book published in 1963. You can flip through the book at this link and see both the 1963 copyright (on the book) and the poem.
https://archive.org/details/modernpoetryfrommoor/page/80 Now, if it is in a collection published in 1963, the obvious suspicion is it was written even earlier. |
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Never let's you down,this place
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We're on a gambling website, attempting to solve puzzles is in our blood
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About Kofi Awoonor......
Kofi Awoonor was born in Ghana with the original name of George Awoonor-Williams. He studied at the University College of Ghana gaining a BA, then moved to University College, London to get his MA, and then a PhD in comparative literature from SUNY Stony Brook. Awoonor had a turbulent life, amongst being poet, and professor, as well as an ambassador for Ghana, he also served time in prison under suspicion of involvement in a coup. While in jail, he detailed his experience in The House by the Sea. Eventually his sentence was remitted and he resumed teaching. It was after this that his ambassadorial duties began and he served as Ghanian ambassador to Brazil and Cuba as well as ambassador to the UN from 1990-1994. Throughout his life he authored novels such as, Comes the Voyager at Last: A Tale of Return to Africa and This Earth, My Brother. He died in 2013 in a Kenya after a shopping mall attack. |
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house by the sea was 1971
'Rediscovery and other poems' which was published in 1964, was written whilst he was at University according to his wiki page, and he graduated in 1960, meaning it would have been written somewhere between 1956-1960, I think this means it's highly unlikely to know/find the exact date, so I'd go by the first publishing date, or just say 'written between 1956-1960, as it may of course not have all been written in the same year anyway. |
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https://kinnareads.com/2010/11/18/on-keta-and-the-atlantic-ocean-poems-37-and-38/
I cannot confirm this, but I think the second poem, The Sea Eats the Land at Home, was written some years after the first poem. |
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don't think you're following the thread at all tictac
The poem was posted was first published in 1963 and then 1964 in his collection of poems entitled Rediscovery and other poems - and that book of poems states on his wiki page was written at Uni - he graduated in 1960, hence must have been written circa 1956-1960. Kewsi Brew incidentally hadn't had published works prior to 1968. |
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I am going to print these answers and give them to my son to hand in. A** pleasae sir! Thanks chaps..
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You are building in the assumption that he actually did write it. It could be someone else's work that he copied, or he could have paid someone to write it for him (a bit like degree students do with their essays these days).
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I need to go back to skool....
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All sounds very 'woke'.
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oh yes this fits the agenda perfectly for the 'schooling' of children
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Checking the Penguin 1963 book again
https://archive.org/details/modernpoetryfrommoor/page/174 Page 175 gives the source for the Awonoor poems as Okyeame, 1 (1961) so the poem was written in or before 1961. We are getting closer to his college years as suggested by darren_discombobulates_sports at 18:37. Okyeame was a Ghanaian magazine whose first editor was Awonoor. Now, its Wikipedia page has the first issue published in 1960, not 1961. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okyeame So the poem in question was published in 1960. It might have been written before then. |