In the third stanza she describes the isolation of a woman “ who is not listening , not seeing , not feeling” and then in the fourth stanza Clarke introduces her main example of apearence and reality. “He has never spoken.” “A beautiful chesnut-haired boy listens entirely absorbed. A schizophrenic”
“He has never spoken.” This sentence bears such gravitas that we do not doubt the finality of that statement. It says to the reader; the subject has never spoken and never will speak. Clarke uses poetic devices to create an image of the man. “ A big, mild man is tenderly led.” . This use of contrasting language informs the reader that even though the man is large in size he has to be tenderly led like a child, continuing to imply to the reader that there is something wrong with him. This is confirmed in the forth verse where he is described as rocking, a common action by insane people as it comforts them.
“ I read to their presences and absences” the use of an oxymoron underlines their physical presence yet mental absence.
The 21st line is shocking. She uses aliteration to emphasise the change of mood as something is about to happen. Creates an anticipatory feel. She then likes his voice to
Slow movement of spring water or the first bird of the year. ( both referring to spring and new life ) this ties in with the poem “ Daffodils” that breaks his darkness. Just like Daffodils break the darkness of spring the poem has broken the darkness of his life.
She guesses that it must be atleast 40 years since he was at school where he would have learnt the poem by rote.The stanza is much more relaxed than the previous one which was about surprise and tension. The poet is more analytical now and talks about his dumbness of misery ,..meaning it could have been his misery that made him go dumb.
In the last verse she involves the surrounding as “applauding and “ daffodils are aflame” and “thrish is singing”. The Reference back to the daffodils draws a full circle.
St David is the patron saint of Wales and people pray to him for miracles. In this poen it is appropriate that on St David’s Day a dumb man speaks and recites “ The Dafodils” which are worn in wales on St david’s Day.
Miracle on St David’s Day shows how society has alienated this group of mentaly ill persons, whilst in many ways they are well capable of appreacting poetry and nature as much any other person.
Once Upon a Time: Appearance and Reality
Appearance and reality is a key theme in “Once Upon a Time”. Gabriel Okara uses it to demonstrate the contrast between the innocence of childhood and pretentiousness of adulthood. Okara points out the reality of society in various different situations in order to emphasise the innocence of childhood. and im
plies that once a person loses that innocense it is impossible to regain it. “ Once Upon a time” is remeniscent of a fairy tale.
In the first stanza Okara says that people no longer “laugh with their hearts” but they laugh with their teeth. Ie they just look like they are laughing but there is no joy from within. Likewise they used to “shake hands with their hearts…while their left hands search my empty pokets.” This shows that society is no longer trusting, perhaps a result of the façade that many people put on in society.
On “feel at home” Okara again shows the diffrence between appearance and reality, where people invite others to their houses but do not mean it. The invitation is just a formaility behind which there is no feeling. This leads onto her statemenet that people “wear many faces”. She shows that soceity has learnt to put on an appearance to show to the rest of society, but the reality is very different. She hints that it is the pressure of conforming to the rest of society which moulds a person. “We wear many smile like dresses” similarly people wear certain clothes , drive certain cars to portray an image of them selves which is not true of them
This conformity to society is emphasised in the fourth stanza : “conforming smiles”. Okara tries to show the reader that often we just do what is expected of us, without questioning it. She puts across the view that by doing this we are somehow lessening the value of our own word, we say “Goodbye, when we mean “Goodridence”
Both poems compare appearance and reality in different settings, but they are both about society and human behaviour. Miracle on St David’s Day shows how society has alenated this group of mentaly ill persons, whilst in many ways they are well capable of appreacting poetry and nature as much any other person. Once upon a time builds on the idea of conforming to societies view of ‘normal’ and the innocence of childhood.
