Aspects of Proverbial Hermeneutics in Niyi Osundare’s Poetry: Motivations, Patterns and Interpretation for Meaning Delivery

Abstract

Osundare says that “Sometimes a proverb breaks within my [Osundare’s] grasp like the chapter of an ill-remembered dream”. A cursory reading of Osundare’s poetry shows that the proverb is one of the major creative mantra of the poet’s creative imagination. Therefore, this paper investigates the proverb as a style of literary composition in Osundare’s poetry. We encounter a poet whose deployment of proverbs in poetry is as common as we have it in prose and drama genres of African Literature. For the reason that of all semiotic figuration of meaning in Osundare’s poetry, the proverb is the least critically visible and it remains under-investigated, consequently, this paper will analyze and index aspects of Osundare’s rhetorical use of proverbs as a means of meaning making.