Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- No Wings
- Preface to Second Edition
- Foreword to Second Edition
- Introduction to Second Edition
- A Note of History
- Should I Ever…
- THE COUNTRYSIDE
- AKAN
- EWE
- GA-ADANGME
- DAGOMBA
- HAUSA
- THE TOWN
- Tumble-Down Woods
- Tough Guy in Town
- In the Streets of Accra
- Snuff and the Ashes
- Radio Dance Hour
- This is Experience Speaking
- Palm Leaves of Childhood
- Hot Day
- The Literary Society
- It's Ritual Murder
- The Wrong Packing Case
- Lines on Korle Bu
- Pay Day
- The Walk of Life (Agbezoli)
- Peace
- Heaven is a Fine Place
- Ata
- Complaint
- To My Mother
- Oh! My Brother
- The Homeless Boy
- The Lone Horse
- The Perfect Understander
- The Woods Decay
- On Parting
- To the Night Insects
- The Blind Man from the North
- A Second Birthday
- In God's Tired Face
- The Executioner's Dream
- Had I Known
- Re-incarnation
- Ancestral Faces
- ‘O Forest, Dear Forest’
- My Sea Adventure
- The Passing of The King
- Patriotism
- African Heaven
- The Ghosts
- The Herdsman from Wa
- Pa Grant Due
- The Mosquito and the Young Ghanaian
- Unity in Diversity
- The Journey to Independence
- Ode to the Hon. Dr. Kwame Nkrumah
- The Dawn of the New Era
- The Meaning of Independence
- National Anthem
- The Contributors
- Index
Ode to the Hon. Dr. Kwame Nkrumah
from THE TOWN
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 August 2019
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- No Wings
- Preface to Second Edition
- Foreword to Second Edition
- Introduction to Second Edition
- A Note of History
- Should I Ever…
- THE COUNTRYSIDE
- AKAN
- EWE
- GA-ADANGME
- DAGOMBA
- HAUSA
- THE TOWN
- Tumble-Down Woods
- Tough Guy in Town
- In the Streets of Accra
- Snuff and the Ashes
- Radio Dance Hour
- This is Experience Speaking
- Palm Leaves of Childhood
- Hot Day
- The Literary Society
- It's Ritual Murder
- The Wrong Packing Case
- Lines on Korle Bu
- Pay Day
- The Walk of Life (Agbezoli)
- Peace
- Heaven is a Fine Place
- Ata
- Complaint
- To My Mother
- Oh! My Brother
- The Homeless Boy
- The Lone Horse
- The Perfect Understander
- The Woods Decay
- On Parting
- To the Night Insects
- The Blind Man from the North
- A Second Birthday
- In God's Tired Face
- The Executioner's Dream
- Had I Known
- Re-incarnation
- Ancestral Faces
- ‘O Forest, Dear Forest’
- My Sea Adventure
- The Passing of The King
- Patriotism
- African Heaven
- The Ghosts
- The Herdsman from Wa
- Pa Grant Due
- The Mosquito and the Young Ghanaian
- Unity in Diversity
- The Journey to Independence
- Ode to the Hon. Dr. Kwame Nkrumah
- The Dawn of the New Era
- The Meaning of Independence
- National Anthem
- The Contributors
- Index
Summary
Lone figure on the stage,
With lonely vision wild,
Changing the annals of our age
All in thy simple mien so mild.
And myriads in thy train,
Whose hearts are all aglow,
Declare that never stress nor strain
Can steal their love's perpetual flow!
Where'er thy pathway bends,
Thick crowds like flowers strewn
Devoutly on thy sway attend,
Such as world emperors great were shewn!
Encircled everywhere
With wreaths of heartfelt cheers,
Fresher than those the Caesars wear
In all their triumphs fraught with fears!
Pent in thy bosom now,
And undelivered yet,
A New Covenant to endow
The human race with dreams unmet.
Nursed in thy bosom-base
And unabated too,
The anguish of thy suffering Race
That sharpened thee to give the clue!
Stately and all alone,
With lonely vision wild,
That opens breach in bordered zone
To preach—‘No Race shall be reviled!’
Thy suave and silent power,
Fenceless of armoury,
Hath taken citadel and tower
More than old days of archery.
Futile before such power,
Stands modern craft of War;
And man-made thunderclap must cower
Before the Art men's hearts adore!
No General, lost so few
In warfare great as thine,
Where arms and squadrons come to rue
Like helpless craft on ruthless brine!
Self-disciplined, austere,
A Creed unto thy soul,
Hath preached a Kingdom far secure
That eddies in the bosom whole!
The Nation's need art thou,
As dew to the rainless field;
Their brimful knowledge hacks them now,
They dread the curbless Force they wield!
Unfathomed Messenger!
Thy Mission half-confessed
Augurs New Day (whose Harbinger
Thou art) when all has been addressed!
Like phantom visitant,
From some aerial realm,
Released in clay though hesitant,
To take our glorious Ghana's helm!
Like lingering Meteor bright,
Flaring our Nation's shy,
Presaging omens good in sight,
And prosperous days unnumbered nigh!
Mortal, and not like one,
Thrust on our age as such
By some propitious Chance or Throne
To change affairs and values much!
Unpleasant thou must be,
Upsetting bowels and brow
Of rash regimes that disagree—
Old systems new ones must allow!
Few Victors ever lived
To see their conquests thrive;
Thee Destiny has deftly hived
To rear, and reap thy mighty drive!
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Voices of GhanaLiterary Contributions to the Ghana Broadcasting System 1955–57, pp. 249 - 251Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2018