POEMS OF SAME TITLE IN SELECTED ANTHOLOGIES OF IGBO POETRY: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THEMES AND STYLES

Abstract

This study was embarked on in order to carry out a comparative study of themes and styles in selected same title poems from selected Anthologies of Igbo poems. Same title poems from selected Anthologies of Igbo poems are two or more poems that have the same title and written by two or more poets, and are collected in the same or different work(s) edited by one or more poets. It also sought to find out how far a poet’s style and theme affect the quality of work he/she produces in relation to works done by other poets who wrote on the same title. The researcher used the Survey research method whereby relevant works done by different poets and scholars were used for data collection. Also a review of related literature of previous works done by earlier researchers was carried out. Out of twenty titles written by fifty-six poets selected from four different Anthologies of Igbo poems, the researcher employed a Simple Random Sampling method to select the poems that were used for this work. The Theories of Formalism, Feminism and Mythology were adopted for this work. This study x-rayed the selected poems along the lines of the themes and styles employed by the poets which proved that no two writers are ever the same. It is hoped that this work would inspire other researchers to carry out further research on same title poems, spreading to more poems done by many more poets or focusing on other factors apart from themes and styles.