Figures of Reality: Vision and Imagery in Niyi Osundare’s Poetry

The international stature and renown of Niyi Osundare as a poet is due in part to the fact that his restless creative impetus is engaged with the existential predicament of the common man, and partly also because of his reliance on imagery as a veritable artistic form for the definition and exploration of his themes. This paper examines Osundare’s poetic imagery from the standpoint of its imaginative and thematic values. It argues that Osundare’s imagery not only embodies the poet’s vision of his society, but is also central to his technique. The paper also examines the themes that have generally exercised Osundare’s image-making faculty, and how he uses imagery to amplify or illustrate those themes.