The Nexus between Social Concerns and Style: A Study of Selected Poems in Unimna Angrey’s Drought (Ubuang)

Abstract

This paper seeks to analyse the nexus between the social concerns and the style in selected poems of Unimna Angrey’s collection entitled Drought (Ubuang). The social problems that provide the social situation upon which the poems are based and which undermine social stability include poverty in the midst of plenty and environmental degradation. Drought in this poetic idiom is the metaphor of the excruciating poverty, which the Nigerian people, represented by Kigbor Ukpe people, suffer in the midst of abundance. It is not just the period of dry season, but a period that rains were supposed to have set in. It is a period of shortage of resources in the midst of plenty. The desire to communicate these social concerns to a wider audience constrains his style of poetry to be pacy and accessible. The paper concludes that the social situation is the metaphor for the language and hence the style of the collection.