The Poetics of Rage: Wole Soyinka, Jean Toomer, and Claude McKay

In times of political or social uncertainties the poet usually takes on the mantle of prophet, priest, or seer. He becomes not just the custodian of justice, but also the symbolic voice of the unified society. It is these unique and peculiar roles that Wole Soyinka (Nigeria) Claude McKay (U.S.A) and Jean Toomer (U.S.A) used poetry as a medium to enunciate their anxieties, frustrations, doubts, hopes, and desires about the repressive systems in their respective countries.

Dr. Emmanuel E. Egar is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. He earned a Ph.D. (English) from University of Texas at Arlington, and a Ph.D. (Higher Education) from the University of Texas at Denton. Professor Egar is also author of Black Women Poets of Harlem Renaissance and The Rhetorical Implications of Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart both from University Press of America.