This essay explores a number of poems about Destiny including:
- “Prayer before birth” by Louis MacNeice
- “Mother at a refugee camp” by Chinua Achebe
- “Telephone conversation” by Wole Soyinka
- “Do you ever wonder” by Linda Ori
- “Just beyond the sunset ” by David Harris
- “Destiny ” by Annabell Callest
We are all connected in this life through fate and destiny , the theory of chaos tells us that we are all connected in someway or the other , our actions affects the rest of the world in a way that we might not understand , it is bigger than us… it is the wisdom of creation. life will take us very far before it brings us close, destiny brings us surprises every day , it makes us meet new people and experiences things we never thought we could ever experience. if you end up one time in a place and then start to wonder how you got there , well the answer to that question is Destiny.
Destiny is what keeps life going , what gets every child born and what makes all of our ends mutual by death. “Prayer before birth” by Louis MacNeice is a poem narrated in the voice of an unborn child who talks about the misery of the life he is about to come to. “I am not yet born, console me.” “I fear that the human race may with tall walls wall me,with strong drugs dope me, with wise lies lure me,on black racks rack me, in blood-baths roll me” he is afraid of the reality of the life he is about to enter , he is afraid that people might be too cruel for him to handle , he is worried about the addictions of life “drugs” , he is also afraid he might get tricked by lies told by wise people. the poem continues on the same tone as he is expressing his fear. “I am not yet born; forgive me For the sins that in me the world shall commit” he is apologizing for the inevitable fact of making sins in life, I think the poet was trying to deliver a message that life is as inevitable as destiny because it is all facts and not opinions or thoughts. i think we should not be so afraid of the future , we should not be so afraid of destiny because if we spend our life in fear then we are wasting it.
Destiny can be unfair just like life is , that is a stone hard truth and fact of life , sometimes we are put through situations that brings out the best and the worst of us but sometimes these situations are too hard for us to handle. “Mother at a refugee camp” by Chinua Achebe is a poem about a mother watching her child die infront of her eyes while she stands helpless because there is nothing she could do to save him. ” The air was heavy with odors of diarrhea,Of unwashed children with washed-out ribs,And dried-up bottoms waddling in labored steps,Behind blown-empty bellies” the poet sends a strong picture full of sadness to the minds of the readers , making us imagine how cruel and hard the circumstances were to that mother and her child. hunger and disease was killing her young boy. ” she held a ghost-smile between her teeth, And in her eyes the memory Of a mother’s pride. . .” the poet identifies the strength of the mother through a metaphor as he tells us that she has a ” ghost ” smile on her mouth. she remembers the days she spent with her child when he was healthy and yet even so they’ve been through all of that. the mother still has hope in destiny , still has hope that life can be better again one day. i think we should never lose hope in destiny , we should never lose hope in the wisdom of creation because if we do then why are we living.
Destiny does not let you choose how your life goes , since your birth and until your death , you almost choose nothing , you don’t choose if you are short or tall , black or white , intelligent or not. Destiny shapes our lives. “Telephone conversation” by Wole Soyinka is about a phone call between a landlord who is a woman and a possible client , but when the possible tenant tells the landlord that he is of black color , all of a sudden her tone changes and she starts to reject him as a tenant. “The price seemed reasonable, location Indifferent. The landlady swore she lived Off premises. Nothing remained But self-confession. “Madam” , I warned,”I hate a wasted journey – I am African.” the poet says that the place was very convenient for the tenant , financially and considering the location. however he hates to make a journey without reason so he admitted the fact that he is ” african ” or in other words black , he admitted it like it was a crime. the landlord started asking absurd questions “HOW DARK?”…I had not misheard….”ARE YOU LIGHT OR VERY DARK?” showing how racist the woman really was , racism is one of the stupidest things ever in my opinion , the poem continues as the tenant proves himself to be more intelligent than the landlord “West African sepia” these were the words he replied with proving his superior intelligence to the landlord but yet she still talked to him with disdain as if he was an inferior class. The wisdom of this poem is to show us that how life treats us and what destiny is hiding for us is unknown and probably gonna be unfair so we should be tough and handle the hardships we face.
Some say that we all intersect at some point without even realizing that we do , maybe the intersection is birth and maybe it’s death , who knows… in the poem “Do you ever wonder” by “Linda Ori” discusses the point of intersection. ” Do you ever wonder….Why lives intersect, React to one another – What makes our hearts connect?” the poet asks the reader to question themselves , to question life so they would come to a full understanding of reality , “Some may call it destiny, Or mere coincidence, But I believe in miracles ,And that makes perfect sense” The poet explains the different views of the people in the world in the matter of the intersection of our lives , i believe that every small movement we do affects something somewhere sometime , so we should always matter our surroundings. the poem continues on the same questioning tone till the end… “Perhaps a random moment, A bolt out of the blue? Whatever caused our paths to cross” the poem ends with this line as the poet explains his feeling of pleasure that life treated him well , as he met the love of his life , so he thanks destiny for intersecting their paths… i believe the poet only wanted to send humanity a message which is to keep fath in destiny.
Everyone thinks that true love is just around the corner , waiting for them to reach it , people believe that destiny will make everyone find their true love at the right time but i personally disagree , however in the poem “Just beyond the sunset ” by David Harris the poet believes that his true love is just a few days away from him , “Just beyond the sunset,Someone waits for me, Just beyond the sunset,Lies my destiny,Where the purple mountains,Lie in deep tranquillity,There I’ll find the treasure ,Of love eternally ” the poet elaborates the value of the true love that destiny is keeping for him , how he will love forever the person destiny is soon to introduce. “Just beyond the sunset,Waits someone so fair,Just beyond the sunset,All alone they wait there,Their hair is golden,The colour of the sand,Their eyes sparkle in the night,Like diamonds in your hand” a variety of metaphors is used to introduce the beauty of true love in the poem , he thinks that the person he will meet will be some who is fair and beautiful , however in my opinion that is not true , because life does not treat us that good , actually life does not treat us good at all , life is as cruel as the real world is , so we should always be careful and never trust anyone too much.
I believe that there is only death at the end of all our destiny , it does not matter what we do in life or how long we live , in the end we all end up in the same place. “Destiny ” by Annabell Callest the poet explores the perspective of the people who live knowing that their end might be at anytime. “It was my destiny to die, and no matter how much you try, it is everyone’s destiny to die, no matter old or young” the poet discusses the only absolute fact and truth about life which is death , the inevitability of death is obvious but not all people can understand the depth of that truth.”death cares not that you’re in love,death will push you death will shove,till you’re life is on the edge,then death the sealer of you’re destiny, will steal you’re soul” The poet is trying to make us understand that destiny nor death would ever care about us , even if we are in love or there is people who care and love , their plan will be continued no matter what we do , it is inevitable that our souls will be stolen from the world , the cruelty of this world is un tolerable in my opinion , i think we should enjoy our lives as much as we can because we never know when the end truly is.
In conclusion , I believe we must all trust and accept the truth that destiny hides the best and the worst moments of our lives , we might not be able to expect what is going to happen but we must accept it and handle it , the strongest people are not the ones who spend their lives planning , but the ones who actually live it , who actually enjoy and feel the pleasure and the appreciation in every moment , those are the ones who truly enjoy live and actually give meaning to their lives…i think in the end we must all know that the past has already happened and we can not change it and the future is an unknown mystery to us but the present is a gift that we should all appreciate.
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