Poet as Philosopher, Philosopher as Poet: Yorùbá Examples

Abstract

Though, the present generation of poets is faced with many challenges, both on the choice of thematic contents, financial issues, poetic dictions, and modern-day poor reading habits among the youths; nevertheless, examples of philosophical poetry, writien by philosopher-poets abound. Much as such poetry are not common, they could evidently be found in the Yorùbá writien poetry and cultural milieu. Strictly speaking, however, the writers of philosophical poetry are relatively few in number as established in this paper. This paper focuses on a few examples of philosophical problems that were addressed accordingly; especially by some notable early Yorùbá written poets. We are making use of the poems of three selected poets' works, out of some prominent Yorùbá poets: Akínwùmí
Ìsọ̀ ̣lá (1981), “Àfàìmọ̀ àti àwọn àròmọ̀ mìíràn” and Oḷátúndé Oḷátúnjí, (1982) “Ewì Adébáyọ̀ Fáléti, Apá Kínní).” To a large extent, it is adequate we could consider the likes of Olabimtan (1978), in Aadota Arofo, Lánrewájú Adépọ̀jù (1972), Ìrònú Akéwì, among others when Yorùbá philosophers-poets. As stated, we are making use of Ìṣọ̀lá and Fáléti's poems titled “Mo Ju Ayé lo”̣ and “Dídákẹ́ Akéwì” and Alaba (1999), “Àgbàjù àdúrà: Òkùnfà Ìfàséyìn” as our data and case studies using Heidegger's existentialism approach explained by Unah (1996) for our analysis. The three poets are classical authors, playwrights, and poets of Yorùbá literature and have inspired other Yorùbá authors and poets as well in the art of creative writing. The unique ways of engaging in philosophical reasoning are
significantly foregrounded in the three poems under study. It is obvious that, beyond the aesthe????cs of their language usage, the poems of the three poets we examined are veritable resource material for tackling societal problems with logical solutions.