"Piano and Drums" by Gabriel Okara and "Rising five" by Norman Nicholson.

The two poems, "Rising five" by Norman Nicholson and "Piano and Drums" by Gabriel Okara share many of the same base themes through the use of language techniques. Both these poems are to do with life and yet both looked at different parts of it. They each used similar language techniques but for different reasons. They both use metaphors and imagery to emphasise their points

In both "Rising five" and "Piano and Drums" metaphors are used to link the surrounding with life itself. In the poem, "Rising five" metaphors were used to show the inevitability of death, for example in the lines "we look for the grave in the bed: not living rising dead", this indicates how that every single second they wake up they are closer to death and so a rising closer to it every time. Imagery plays a great part in the poems bond with life as we see in, "Cones of light".

Piano

Piano Bass Drums

Piano

At first we see that this is merely describing light, yet when we go deeper into the poem we find that the light is really the child's coming to truth or to a higher level of thinking.

In 'Piano and Drums' metaphors are used to show a contrast involved in the main idea of the play. In this poem the main idea is the knowledge of the conflict in mankind between childhood needs with adult attitudes and behaviour, the metaphor used in the poem is the line "And I lost in the morning mist of an age at riverside keep", the words morning mist indicates the autumn months and this when related back into age is in the later years of one life, this line was meant to signify how the persona has thought about this conflict of feelings and needs...