Poetic Style and Social Commitment in Niyi Osundare’s Songs of the Marketplace

Abstract This essay studies some of the poetic devices employed by Osundare to project social commitment and vision in Songs of the Marketplace. It examines how the poet’s deployment of style makes his poetry more accessible to a larger audience than that of his predecessors. Like the oral traditional performance, his poetry employs rich Yoruba oral literary devices in a way that is unique and glaringly innovative. Osundare’s radical poetic style has a clearly defined concept and role. It is also central to the resolution of the polemics of governance and politics in society. The pervasive theme of the collections remains a serious concern for hope out of the decadent situation that has eaten deep into the fabric of our social existence.