"Ogun" is a compelling poem which studies the life and work of a carpenter who suppresses the true artist within himself to succeed in the world.
Whitney Broyles
October 9, 2002
Advanced Placement Literature
Third Period
Ogun
“Ogun” is a compelling poem which studies the life and work of a carpenter who suppresses the true artist within himself to succeed in the world. The theme, which Braithwaite delineates is understood when he exemplifies the carpenter’s shift from an apollonian designer to a more dionysian artist who does not work for “what the world preferred,” but for his own release of anger.
The carpenter’s very structured and routine occupation is presented to the reader in the first stanza as the speaker lists the tasks of his uncle’s carpentry: “My uncle made chairs, balanced doors on, dug out coffins, smoothing the white wood out.” From this nothing unusual or special is inferred or hinted at about the uncle or his work. The physical illustration of the uncle is connected to his work by the comparison of the smoothed white wood to the shine of “his short-sighted glasses,” thus the poem changes subjects without losing any of the poem’s consistency.