Once Upon A Time: Between The Lines
Once Upon A time by Gabriel Okara gives the idea of a grown man talking to a young boy about how he remembers growing up in society. He compares his childhood era to the present day.
He makes mention of the fact that people are no longer genuine with their greetings, approaches and thoughts. He says that society has now become fake and unreal. He gives the boy a word of caution by telling him to be aware of the
slyness of people.
I personally enjoyed the poem because it expresses a lot of fact with the right amount of opinion. We often hear about how times were different before; people we more affable and genuine with their intentions and they actually looked out for each other. Nowadays people only do or say certain things because it is what’s expected of them and not because they genuinely wish you well. as though they were following a script.
The first person narration of the story, can be seen as a technique to help the reader feel like as though they themself experienced society before today. The true kind.
The poem is a perfect example of a Comparison and a Contrast between two periods of time involving the same issue as examples of literary devices are used throughout the entire poem.
Overall, Gabriel did a Magnificent job and expressing his thoughts, capturing the differences between the generation and bringing his point across in under ten stanzas.