Valediction, Social Currents and Interventions in John Pepper Clark’s Remains of a Tide (2018)

Abstract

Any valid catalogue of the evolution of modern African poetry in Nigeria will always give recognition, perhaps due diligence, to the pioneer efforts of Christopher Okigbo, Wole Soyinka and John Pepper Clark. Although initial critical responses to their works have identified homogeneities in terms of style and form, succeeding years have revealed peculiarities that distinguish compositions by these poets. This study, which is contextualized within the postcolonial discussion of modern poetry in Nigeria, takes a critical look at J. P. Clark’s valedictory poetry collection, Remains of a Tide (2018). The paper distils the recurring philosophies and impetus which have motivated Clark’s poetry career that lasted more than five decades. While sparsely making references to Clark’s poems in earlier collections in related contexts, the paper unravels how Clark’s fidelity to his riverine homeland and landscape, has motivated his morals and musings about nature, life and death, family ties and friendship, social reconstruction among others. The conclusion of the paper draws out the uniqueness that demarcates Clark from his peers—Christopher Okigbo and Wole Soyinka—who are poet activists by asserting that the social impetus of Clark’s poems does possess revolutionary depths which are often dimmed by his commitment, mostly, to his calling as a poet.