The poem"God’s Green Earth" by Benjamin Anabaraonye provides its readers with a
subtle call to climate change mitigation and adaptation for global sustainability. According to the
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) report states that education
is an essential and vital element of the global response to climate change. In
educating people, it helps them to understand the impact of global warming,
increases climate literacy amongst people, encourages changes in their
attitudes and behaviour, and helps them adapt to drifts in climate change. Thus,
through his poetry,Benjamin has in simple terms described the beauty of the
environment and why it should be preserved. Poetry is a way of life and it is a
basic tool for educating communities and institutions on the impacts of climate change.
Benjamin Anabaraonye's poem "God's Green Earth"provided us with
a unique and spiritual dimension to understanding our role and obligation in a
society created and controlled by a Creator. The biblical story of creation
tells us that God created the heaven and the earth and everything in it and saw
that it was good before forming man to enjoy the privileges and opportunities
available for his reproduction, multiplication and existence. The author also
used this spiritual inclination to make us agents and ambassadors of climate
change to help preserve the beautiful creation of God.He personalizes Nature’s
demand calling for stabilizing our environment against any form of depletion in
his first stanza and gave a utopian reason for climate change mitigation.
The author's prevailing theme focused on the
beauty of the environment and a call to maintain such beauty. He showcases to
us the beauty we are being surrounded with in our society and how well it will
be to keep making such beautiful creations to be clean and habitable.
Poetic Techniques in the work
1.
Theme
The
theme of the poem is “The gift of nature and its beauty to be preserved” as the
author simply coined "Gods Green Earth."
2.
Tone
The tone
of the poem is admiring, adoring, candid, approving and supporting.
3.
Mood
The mood
the poem present is peaceful, calm, thoughtful and serious
4.
Imagery
“the
smile of the rainbow pie ", “Stop and smell the fragrant flowers” and “The showers of
refreshing rain”
5. Techniques:
Onomathopia- “Hush as the gentle spring showers”
Personification- “Nature’s beauty calls for care”
Use
of conjunction- “Clean and green”
Repetition-
“On God’s clean and green earth”
The use of Hyperbole
-“Nature’s voice spurns a rebirth”
Simile- “Hush, as the gentle spring showers” the consistent use of
“as”
6.
Rhyme
The poem contains seven stanzas of four lines
each. The writer maintained a unique end rhyme scheme of AABB. Punctuations
used by the writer were coined to give a better understanding of the verse. The
writer was expository, yet persuasive in his choice of words.
The poem is simple and can easily be
understood by all and sundry. There is no community in the world that is untouched by
climate change, and there is need to offer a voice to it by using the instrumentality
of poetry as used by the author to convey such a message. Climate change is
real, but the original creation of this beautiful environment for mankind was
for it to be habitable and natural. We are all stakeholders in ensuring it is
clean and safe for today and tomorrow's society and that’s what the author has
offered in his poetic work.The author has
gladly supported the beauty of nature and desire of creation in his seventh
stanza thus;
We
live, laugh and love
As we enjoy precious gifts from above
It’s a beautiful world we live in
Our duty is to keep it clean and green
Climate change is real, poetry
as showcased by the author is the best approached to ensuring that its
mitigation and adaptation are greatly enhanced. The Sustainable
Development Goals is an urgent move towards this and the author is a partner in
ensuring the society is clean and good.
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