17 pages • 34 minutes read

Beware Soul Brother

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1972

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and Meter

This poem is written in free verse; there is no set meter or specific syllabic line count. While the poem does have a good balance of iambs (a metrical foot with one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable) and anapests (a metrical foot with two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable), it does not follow a specific metrical pattern. Instead, the poem focuses on alliteration and diction to achieve its poetic qualities. Achebe often repeats the same sound twice in a row to give lines and phrases rhythmic qualities. This is apparent in descriptions like “tooth / and talon” (Lines 20-21) and “hard-headed / men of departed dance” (Lines 27-28). This pattern repeats in many other places of the poem, especially when Achebe is using detailed images.

The use of elevated diction is also of note. Achebe uses unique words like “surfeit” (Line 6), “dirge” (Line 10), “ascension” (Line 12), “soporific” (Line 13), “entrails” (Line 17), and “patrimony” (Line 37) for their rhythmic qualities within the lines and to add a layer of sophistication to the text itself, thus providing another way to tear down the traditional notion that the colonized person is “uncivilized.”

Metaphor and Simile

The entire poem centers around the dance of the soul brothers. This dance is a metaphorical representation of life and all that composes it, including the culture that makes up a massive portion of a person’s identity. Achebe uses this metaphor to make his point about life and death more powerful for his audience. By describing the struggle for validation, autonomy, freedom, and existence in terms of a traditional dance, Achebe dramatizes and makes concrete an inherently abstract concept: the purpose of life. The dance metaphor also ties the value of life to the practice of culture. Because the dance and the drums are part of the Igbo tradition, Achebe directly connects what he is trying to save with the people who must save it.

Later in the poem, Achebe also uses the simile of the hen. He compares a dancer who freezes in a dance with a “lame foot” (Line 35) to a hen that will not place its foot down in an “unfamiliar” (Line 36) place. The action of placing one’s foot onto the ground symbolizes staking a claim on a place, similar to how explorers would plant their flag on the ground when they reached a different country, thus claiming the country for their own. Achebe is saying that the dancers must claim their own land; they must not freeze in their dance, whether through cowardice or death. They must actively fight for what is theirs, but that fight must not involve dying. They must be alive to claim their piece of the world.

Juxtaposition

Juxtaposed with the lively, soulful, worldly, and spiritual dancers are the soulless, rhythmless, materialistic people who seek to take the world from the dancers. Achebe juxtaposes these two groups mainly through diction: Whereas the dancers are described through lively words like “soul” (Line 1), “song” (Line 2), and “passion” (Line 4), those who wish to end the dance are “leaden-footed, tone-deaf” (Line 16).

Achebe weaves these two groups together throughout the poem with no stanza breaks and often with enjambed lines, making clear that there is no separation in the physical world between these two groups. This signifies the inability to escape this new world where these two cultures intertwine. Achebe wishes for his soul brothers to embrace this connection and use it to strengthen themselves instead of isolating themselves in a futile attempt to fight what is inevitable, which is the modernization, merging, and assimilation of different cultural groups and practices. Achebe firmly believes this process can lead to more power for his people. He believes they must bring in new ideas while also holding true to tradition; therefore, the poem clearly separates descriptions of his people and the oppressors, but the structure of the poem connects them.