Christopher Okigbo's poetry has often been compared to that of TS Eliot, partly because Okigbo uses Eliot's distinctive linguistic devices such as exploiting metaphor to create dimension densely symbolic in his poetry. Furthermore, he also sometimes seems to consciously invoke comparisons with Eliot through such means as similarity of titles, as in the correspondence between his Four Songs and Eliot's Four Quartets. Furthermore, like Eliot, Okigbo's poetry forces a critical evaluation that goes beyond the content of the works themselves to broaden discussion of broader topics such as the meaning of poetry and the poet's purpose in modern society. Christopher Okigbo's poetry reveals a man who was not only aware of Eliot's work, but who actually looked to him as a model for bringing a modernist perspective to African poetry. This may be partly because he saw Eliot's bifurcated identity as an American, better known as a British poet, as an accurate reflection of his own sense of himself as an outsider; an African poet who infuses his work with the sensibility of Anglo modernism. Finally, both Okigbo and Eliot have faced criticism because their poetry, for all its technical virtuosity, too often gives in to pessimism and thus deprives the reader of the joy that is assumed to be a vital component of all great poetry. We say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Of course, the most striking contrast between these two poets is that Eliot's name is known even by those unfamiliar with his work, while Okigbo remains a relatively obscure figure outside of African and poetry circles. TS Eliot deserves his esteemed position in 20th century literature as one of the century's greatest poets. Even those who do not place him at the top of the list recognize his enormous importance in revolutionizing poetry. Eliot was one of the most successful poetry experimenters of all time, always challenging the method by which readers should approach all aspects of a poem. Eliot's greatest achievement, perhaps, is that he forced later poets to intellectualize the traditional emotional and aesthetic elements of poetry. Eliot's ability to appeal to readers at various levels simultaneously clearly influenced Christopher Okigbo. Just as Eliot's poetry intellectualizes the emotional emptiness of a modern Western world confronted with the social and technological upheavals of the turn of the century, Okigbo sets out to intellectually address the emotional upheaval of colonialism on native Africans. The exploration of ritual can be found in both men's poets as they use symbolist techniques such as allusion to force understanding of how tradition guides contemporary thought and future destiny. Eliot engages ancient myth to highlight contemporary themes; Okigbo differentiates himself from previous African poets by introducing colonialist ideas in order to provide a thematic framework that reflects the fusion of Native and European cultures and values ​​to create the sense of confusion of identity that distinguishes African peoples. The fragmented identity for both Eliot and Okigbo contains a certain undeniable element of seeking spiritual satisfaction. At the heart of this concern for both is the image of the wasteland and the annihilation of tradition and universal truths that have been exposed as ill-equipped to handle the psychic needs of modern society. The underlying sense of pessimism that distresses some critics can therefore be seen from onealternative perspective as a necessary modernist presumption of no longer having the will to accept the falsity of disproven beliefs and faltering theoretical constructs of morality. In essence, the best poetry of both Eliot and Okigbo can easily be interpreted as a reaction to the recognition of the disconnection engendered by the wasteland and the subsequent purification ritual aimed at a kind of spiritual reconnection. Comparing Christopher Okigbo's poetry to that of T. S. Eliot is significant partly because of the thematic and linguistic similarities, but also because it is impossible to ignore Okigbo's abundance of direct and self-conscious evocation of Eliot. In “Tradition and Individual Talent,” T. S. Eliot urges 20th-century poets to compose with a sense of history and “with a sense that all European literature from Homer and within it all the literature of his country has a simultaneous existence ” (Brooker, 1994, p. 13). Okigbo succeeds, but seems to have mistaken Homer for Eliot as his point of reference. This is not to say that Okigbo copies or plagiarizes Eliot. Okigbo's invocation of specific elements of Eliot's poems is perhaps a little more obvious than Eliot's use of ancient precursors in his own poetry, but this can clearly be interpreted as an attempt on Okigbo's part to introduce into African literature a precursor that he believes to be as significant as Eliot finds Homer. Eliot's knowledge of literary history is indisputable and he brings the mythical qualities of that literature to revolutionary levels that actually succeeded in changing the very nature of poetry. Okigbo's response to this can be criticized for lacking the wealth of knowledge that Eliot possesses, or it can be praised for his intellectual choice to replace the arcane allusive quality that dominates Eliot's poetry with the more relevant insight into the historical fabric and social issues of colonial Africa. Eliot's poems are often striking in the way ancient myths are used to comment on the contemporary human condition. Okigbo addresses this challenge by forcing African tradition to confront the foreign intrusion of the colonizers. Once again the question of reconnecting a fragmented identity is introduced and in many poems by both the result is an equally fragmented language, containing multiple elements that inform Eliot's idea of ​​a simultaneous existence created by the whole history of the world and not just the poet's inner psychological architecture. Identity and society are seen not just as labyrinths, but as labyrinthine processes intended to permeate the very act of writing poetry. The criticism that a streak of pessimism permeates the work of both conveniently ignores the fact that the physical act of writing poetry is itself a denial of any nihilistic beliefs. Further underlining the illegitimacy of this criticism is the obvious intellectual effort required to produce poetry of this caliber. If there can be said to be a feeling of pessimism permeating all of Eliot and Okigbo's poetry, then it can be said to influence the possibility of a spiritual awakening in a world facing the devastation of ancient traditions as such traditions are reworked in a modern key. perspective.TS Eliot demonstrates that there is a complex relationship between language and spiritual deliberation. In his Four Quartets poem "Burnt Norton", Eliot addresses the restrictions and restrictions inherent in language in his attempt to adequately give meaning to spiritual perceptions. The opening verse of “Burnt Norton” dives directly into a common theme that exists between Eliot and Okigbo, that of the connection between the past and the future. The second room serves to illuminate anothersolid modernist technique shared by the two poets, that of experiments on voice and tone. Eliot's use of vibrant adjectival imagery stands in stark contrast to the abstractions outlined in the first stanza. The movement goes from a decidedly archaic quality to a more fluid contemporary quality; it is a concise example of the evolution of language. This evolution in the way words are used to describe abstract ideas gives rise to major thematic concerns of time and how it influences tradition and the future.clash of cultures. The cyclical nature of social progression is intimately intertwined with the inference that language also evolves over time. Eliot shows this relationship by juxtaposing the fragmentation that exists between the sacred and the secular. In “Burnt Norton” this fragmentation presents itself as an obstacle to understanding and reaching out towards greater spiritual awareness when he writes that language “will not stay in its place/It will not say again” ( V, l. 17). The agitation caused by language often unprepared to deal with the abstractions of contemporary life arises again when Eliot states that writing is always a process that begins anew every time the pen is placed on paper. Eliot's poetry in the first of the two quartets addresses the modernist question and presages postmodernist interpretive concerns. In these specific poems, Eliot addresses the question of how language often serves to create problems in the communication of ideas directly related to knowledge and spiritual matters. There is a convergence of ideas at work that underlines the unexpressed belief that transcendence can only be achieved through a dualistic process in which light and shadow coexist to form a synthesis. Eliot consistently provides insights into the evolution of words and meaning, implicitly associating that this dualistic relationship may hold the key to arriving at a deeper understanding of how cultural fragmentation works to build a synthesis. Any synthesis of ideas based on language is subject to certain limits of ambiguity, but this is all the more true if we accept that language is very often an obstacle to understanding even the intent of words, much less the meaning underlying the language . The criticism that Eliot allows pessimism to enter his poetry can be seen from the perspective of it actually being nothing darker than cynical skepticism, and this is illustrated here in the form of hesitation in "Burnt Norton", as when he writes "What might have been is an abstraction / Remains a perpetual possibility" (I, ll. 6-7). This weary caution towards denied possibilities can be interpreted as a statement about the dangers inherent in the ambiguity of language itself, as well as how language is used to communicate what may be considered incommunicable The poem raises serious questions about the elusive nature of the veracity of anything one can ever experience in life, as demonstrated in the sequence of the poem describing the actions that take place. in the garden. Within the poems contained in the first two quartets there are many allusions to myth which serve Eliot's intention to punctuate the realism of the events described with a more accentuated meaning in the experiential substance. This is accomplished, however, through what appear to be simple linguistic devices such as descriptive imagery heavy on the use of adjective descriptions. The difficulty of addressing the synthesis of the fragmentation that exists due to the ambiguous nature of language and the ephemeral quality of spirituality that makes definition so difficult rests on the horn of the inevitable dilemma that meaning cannot beseparated from the medium. In other words, language is an absolute necessity to both understand and then report the higher meanings that exist in the philosophical spheres that dominate the greatest poetry. In “Burnt Norton” Eliot writes that “Only through form, pattern,/ Can words or music achieve/ Stillness like a Chinese jar” (V, ll. 4-6). These lines suggest that context is inseparable from the process of fully understanding and appreciating the meaning of language, but context is almost always complicated by the introduction of interpretation. An example of this occurs in Okigbo's “The Passage,” in the section that tells the story of the bird who finds himself in a foreign land and is urged to straddle only one leg because he does not fully understand the traditions of the new culture . The incident reflects the contextual significance of understanding language, as well as the obstacles placed in the path of understanding. The bird is very much in line with the abstraction that allows the existence of the possible through the infinite. Okigbo is also interested in the importance of the form Eliot attributes to the prosaic message of understanding. Her poems address this theme through the literal translation of metaphors as in “Lament of the Lavender Mist” in which the natural purification symbol of water is personified in the female subject. Okigbo also follows Eliot's linguistic lead by engaging in the art of juxtaposition. Okigbo uses the technique of grouping together contextually unrelated images to materialize new meaning from disparity. The result may not be immediately logical, but it is creatively coherent. Discordant language and cacaphonous rhythms are used to learn the new sensation forged from the fragmented reality of the original meaning. Both Eliot and Okigbo use this type of juxtaposition and linguistic flourishing to highlight the fact that language can act as a vice on knowledge, while also possessing the capacity to force interpretation as an act of enlightenment. Eliot's intentional confusion of the seasonal "East Coker" images lays bare the mystifying disorder of contemporary society. His insistent desire to see to what extent he can alter the method by which language communicates ideas generates a further problem concerning the inherent deceptive qualities of how words can be used to convey thought. The restrictions of verbal communication serve as a metaphor for the development of language and society, illustrated by lines discussing how tradition is "removed, destroyed, restored or in their place/ It's an open field, or a factory, or a ring road " ("East Coker", I, ll. 3-4). Eliot also uses the idea of ​​the subtle betrayal of language in lines like "Our only health is sickness" as a way to understand the dual aspect of everything. Eliot's poetry revealed that it requires context to understand language and this is obviously compounded by the language being introduced to a foreign audience through immigration or emigration of communicable ideas and concepts. It is the emigration of communicable ideas that stifles indigenous cultural concepts that forms the basis of the colonial mentality in which Christopher Okigbo sets out to follow in the tradition of TS Eliot. Spiritual themes involving the fragmentation of tribal traditions, Christianity, and the struggle between the two dominate much of Okigbo's writing. The themes of religious suppression, anti-Christianity, religious revival and literary struggle predominate Okigbo's poetic attempt to reveal the fragmentary construction of communication that unites African traditions and the intrusion of Western academia. Mirroring theEliot's position as an American intruder into British society, Okigbo works from the perspective of an African writing in a quasi-postcolonial mindset rather than embracing a pure nativism. Okigbo's poetry ends up having a transformative effect that is entirely in line with Eliot's movement to establish the duality of language as a means of both illuminating and hindering the ability to communicate. Fusing together traditional African and postcolonial attributes, it concretizes a synthesis of European and African perspectives to create a new modernist approach that also inhabits the significantly different fields of literary pursuits that take into full consideration the spiritual rituals of indigenous polytheistic belief and Christianity . .Okigbo blends Christian and Igbo religious iconography to demonstrate the difficulties inherent in language, which Eliot had identified, while providing the promise of reconciliation. It also manages to circumvent the constraints of adhering to an outmoded tradition, as well as avoiding many issues of postcolonialist literature. “Before you, mother Idoto, / Naked I am” evokes the specter of the Igbo religious tradition also invoking the Christian imagination with the phrase "on the waters of genesis". What Okigbo is actually doing is synthesizing the symbolism of water that runs through all religions in a general sense, using the details to defragment the gulf that separates the details. This is an imaginative fusion that echoes much of Eliot's greatest work and, indeed, modernism as a movement. This use of African and colonial religious traditions was not intended to place them in total competition through juxtaposition, but to highlight them together to show evidence of a cooperative effect on language and communication. At the same time, Okigbo is also perfectly capable of using these divergent images as a collision force between two warring factions. This can be accomplished most effectively in Fragments poems that fully accept the promise of cult idols. “And his ornaments, / And the pearls around his tail; / And his carapace / And his shell, they divided” explicitly calls attention to the potential for division that exists in the comparison and competition of a duality that exists between two traditions. Heavensgate exists as a text whose mission is to defragment African and European modes of language and communication in an attempt to synthesize a new paradigmatic whole by connecting the oral history of Africa with the written tradition of the West. Dramatic evolution is at the heart of this poem, and throughout Okigbo is quite careful with his use of voice. Okigbo accomplishes much the same thing in Limits and regularly adds another poetic dimension to the work in terms of the mood and atmosphere that pervades each of the poems. There is the same reliance on fragmented images, but the overall emotional mood is a little darker and perhaps the target of the pessimistic criticism leveled against it. There is an intrusive feeling of isolation in these poems; the feeling of an isolated hero facing the wasteland. TS Eliot's poem “The Waste Land” describes a modern society overwhelmed by alienation and disorder, reeling from the inexorable tide of progress coming in at double speed. For Eliot, industrialization is the culprit; for Okigbo, the sinister agent that threatens to transform his society into a wasteland is colonialism, essentially synonymous with industrialization. In “The Waste Land” Eliot forcefully questions whether industrialization and the consequences of urbanization have had positive effects on culture and society. It uses the same modernist techniques as.