Abstract: | This essay explores the trend of poetry in the twenty years since Gabriel Okara's first poems appeared in the first issue of 'Black Orpheus' (1957). What have been considered the roles which poetry could play? How have the poets reacted to the various changes that have taken place in the sociopolitical context and what relationships have existed between the poetic period and the type of poetry that was written. Finally, the author hazards a proposition as to whether one could say now that poetry in foreign languages, particularly English, has developed into a domesticated tradition. Notes. |