‘But now they only laughwith their teeth’. The poem starts positive by starting the poem with ‘Once Upon aTime’ but in line 4 the mood changes. The reactions change form being genuine to insincere. The reader then feelssympathetic for the narrator as he goes to his son for help. Mood / Tone The poem is very serious and the narrator tells his story withoutusing humour to lighten the mood. Thismakes the poem seem more conversational.ħ. There is no rhyme scheme used in the poem. The reader expects it to be lighthearted with a positive story but the reader notices theopposite.The structure of the poem makes the reader feel that heis physically talking to his son. Structure By the title ‘Once Upon a Time’ the reader expects afairytale bedtime story. Effect: the effect on the reader, what dies the reader think about.Ħ.
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S M I L E Structure: length of the verse.Mood / Tone: the mood of the poem and emotions developed.Imagery / Ideas: similes, metaphors, personification, enjambment, pathetic fallacy.Language: rhythm / rhyme, repetition, rhetorical questions, alliteration, onomatopoeia, enjambment, oxymoron, cyclical. How children can change the way a person looks on life.ĥ. How parenthood, moving to another country and how people treat you can change a persons views. How adulthood can change a person and how quickly people adapt to changes. What is the poem about? How people change.How honest people used to be and how insincere they are now.How the author (Gabriel Okara) wishes he could be the way he used to be. I wantTo unlearn all these muting things.Most of all, I want to relearnHow to laugh, for my laugh in the mirrorShows only my teeth like a snake’s bareFangs!So show me, son,How to laugh show me howI used to laugh and smileOnce upon a time when I was like you.Gabriel OkaraĤ. And I have learned tooTo laugh with only my teethAnd shake hands without my heart.I have also learned to say, ‘goodbye’,When I mean ‘Good-riddance’:To say ‘Glad to meet you’,Without being glad and to say ‘It’s beenNice talking to you’, after being bored.But believe me, son.I want to be what I used to beWhen I was like you. Once Upon a Time Once upon a time, son, They used to laugh with their heartsAnd laugh with their eyes:But now they only laugh with their teeth,Search behind my shadow.There was a time indeedThey used to shake hands with their hearts:But that’s gone, son.Now they shake hands without heartsWhile they left hands searchMy empty pockets.‘Feel at home’! ‘Come again’:They say, and when I comeAgain and feelAt home, once, twice,There will be no thrice –For then I fond doors shut on me.So I have learned many things, son.I have learned to wear many facesLike dresses – homeface,Officeface, streetface, hostface,Cocktailface, with all their conforming smilesLike a fixed portrait smile. Many of his manuscripts were destroyed during the Nigerian Civil War.ģ.
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He is very concerned with what happens when the ancient culture of Africa is faced with modern Western culture, as in his poem ‘Once Upon a Time’. His most famous poem is ‘Piano and Drums’. In 1979, he was awarded the common wealth poetry prize. Gabriel Okara Gabriel Imomotimi Gbaingbain Okara was born on April 24th 1921 is a Nigerian poet and novelist who was born in Bomoundi in Bayelsa State, Nigeria.