Mmenson -- Edward Kamau Braithwaite

(Poem #1178) Mmenson Summon now the kings of the forest, horn of the elephant, mournful call of the elephant; summon the emirs, kings of the desert, horses caparisoned, beaten gold bent, archers and criers, porcupine arrows, bows bent; recount now the gains and the losses: Agades, Sokoto, El Hassan dead in his tent, the silks and the brasses, the slow weary tent of our journeys down slopes, dry river courses, land of the lion, land of the leopard, elephant, country; tall grasses, thick prickly herbs. Blow elephant trumpet; summon the horses, dead horses, our losses: the bent slow bow of the Congo, the watering Niger... -- Edward Kamau Braithwaite

[Notes by the author]

Mmenson: an orchestra of elephant tusk horns, used on state occasions to
relate history.
Agades: a town in the western Sudan.
Sokoto: a town in what is now northern Nigeria.

[Commentary]

Today's poem reminds me of nothing so much as John Masefield's beautiful
"Cargoes" (Poem #74), and for obvious reasons. Both pieces intentionally
evoke the romance of days gone by, using old artefacts (quinquiremes and
moidores, caparisons and beaten gold) and place names (Nineveh and Ophir,
Agades and Sokoto) to excellent effect.

Notice the many repetitions (horses, elephant), internal rhymes
(horn/mournful, brasses/grasses, thick/prickly) and assonances (dead/tent)
in the poem. These combine to create an impression of slow and stately
progress that befits the elephant(-horn) theme. Indeed, there's a dignity to
the whole which ensures that it would not be out of place at a court recital
- the "mmenson" of the title. 'Majestic' is a strong word, but yes, this was
pretty impressively done.

thomas.

[Minstrels Links]

Poem #74, Cargoes  -- John Masefield
Poem #238, Romance  -- W. J. Turner
Poem #518, The Gates of Damascus  -- James Elroy Flecker