THE AESTHETICS OF SELF-EXPRESSION IN A.N AKWANYA’S VISITANT ON TIPTOE AND OTHER POEMS

Abstract

The ideological and aesthetic representation of varied experiences with a vague vision of haven is recorded in Akwanya’s collection of poems, Visitant on Tiptoe and Other Poems. The poems inherent in the poet’s collection are wrapped with an undercurrent of dread resulting from harsh facts or irrational human actions that were looming. Akwanya’s ideology as perceived in the poems creates an impression which smells of logical and philosophical pessimism—a feeling carved out of a sense of helplessness and sad exploitation. Though the subjects of the poems are carefully chosen to create satiric-comic effects, they in turn give a sustained attention to reflect on the ubiquitous wickedness in human actions and thoughts. This study postulates, that the title of the collection Visitant on Tiptoe… is captured as a metaphor of self-expression—that which projects a dreadful symbolic vibrating leitmotif in all the poems of the collection.