Night by Wole Soyinka

Your hand is heavy, Night, upon my brow.

I bear no heart mercuric like the clouds, to dare.

Exacerbation from your subtle plough.

Woman as a clam, on the sea's cresent.

I saw your jealous eye quench the sea's

Flouorescence, dance on the pulse incessant

Of the waves. And I stood, drained

Submitting like the sands, blood and brine

Coursing to the roots. Night, you rained

Serrated shadows through dank leaves

Till, bathed in warm suffusion of your dappled cells

  Sensations pained me, faceless, silent as night thieves.

Hide me now, when night children haunt the earth

I must hear none! These misted cells will yet

Undo me; naked, unbidden, at Night's muted birth.

Wole Soyinka is one the most honoured African poets. He is a playwright, poet, lecturer and an activist. He was awarded the Nobel prize in Literature in 1986 being the African to be so honoured. Wole Soyinka was born on 13 July, 1934.

Click for the full summary and analysis of the poem