The Poet as Town-Crier

Abstract

This essay proceeds from the consideration of literature as a medium of disseminating information to society at large, and argues that poetry, being a branch of literature, lends its resources and compact form to this function of information dissemination. It goes further to argue that Niyi Osundare in Village Voices, like the town-crier in our traditional societies, clearly brings to the attention of the leaders and the led important developments within society. However, he does not stop at informing society of those developments, especially the negative conduct of its leaders, but goes further to warn the latter of the consequences of persisting in their negative ways, and, addressing the mass of the people, calls for the necessary action that would extricate and free them from their bad leaders.