The Sea Eats the Land at Home
by Kofi Awoonor
At home the sea is in the town,
Running in and out of the cooking places,
Collecting the firewood from the hearths
And sending it back at night;
The sea eats the land at home.
It came one day at the dead of night,
Destroying the cement walls,
And carried away the fowls,
The cooking-pots and the ladles,
The sea eats the land at home;
It is a sad thing to hear the wails,
And the mourning shouts of the women,
Calling on all the gods they worship,
To protect them from the angry sea.
Aku stood outside where her cooking-pot stood,
With her two children shivering from the cold,
Her hands on her breasts,
Weeping mournfully.
Her ancestors have neglected her,
Her gods have deserted her,
It was a cold Sunday morning,
The storm was raging,
Goats and fowls were struggling in the water,
The angry water of the cruel sea;
The lap-lapping of the bark water at the shore,
And above the sobs and the deep and low moans,
Was the eternal hum of the living sea.
It has taken away their belongings
Adena has lost the trinkets which
Were her dowry and her joy,
In the sea that eats the land at home,
Eats the whole land at home.
The Sea Eats the Land at Home is a poem by Ghanaian poet
Kofi Awoonor. The poem is four stanzas long of varying
line length. The first three stanzas are similar, four to five
lines each. But the last stanza is eighteen lines long, a
drawn out conclusion to the poem. The poem has no
rhyme scheme but does utilize a good amount of
repetition and personification. The sea is the main
character in this piece and is described throughout as if it
is making considered choices.
Structure
- Mood is the sort of atmosphere that a poem conveys on
the reader, this can affect how they feel throughout
reading the poem.
-The mood throughout the poem begins by being calm
and later develops to being dark and devastating.
Literary devices and Imagery
Message
The poem relies heavily on using imagery and emotive
language as this is an event that actually happened. The
poem has a lot of imagery about the ocean, the village,
home (in a metaphorical way). The author also uses
emotive language when he describes the storm and the
way it affects the people
- The poem includes various kinds of themes, they all
surround the ocean, land, and disaster.
- The poem is about disaster (in this case a storm) that
strikes a small village, the people that live there lose all
their material possessions and believe the gods have
cursed them.
- The structure of the poem consists of four stanzas, all
different in length. The last stanza is the longest one,
which is eighteen lines long.
-The poems structure could also represent the waves of
the ocean, as they are all different lengths and flow like
the waves at the beach
- There is no clear message in the poem, Awoonor
concentrates on telling a story about a disaster that he
experienced when he was younger.
Summary of The Sea Eats the Land At Home
This poem is a story of a simple town through which
sweeps the anger of a personified sea. The sea eats up
the town and all the belongings of those that reside in it.
The poem focuses on the general loss of the town but
then zooms in on two women who have different
experiences with the loss they go through. One, Aku, has
lost everything and is left in the cold in what used to be
her her kitchen, and Adena, who has lost the trinkets that
were her dowry. The poem concludes by saying that the
sea that eats the land will eat anything, nothing is off
limits.
The Sea Eats the Land At Home Analysis
First Stanza
The Sea Eats the Land at Home begins with a line that is as
evocative as it’s title,
At home the sea is in the town,
Immediately this brings to the surface images of water
running down streets and flooding houses. Perhaps it has
gone even farther than that and the town is more sea than
streets and buildings. The reader is given more
information about the extent of the damage in the next
line. The sea is said to be,
…running in and out of the cooking places,
One can assume that this is a reference to interior
kitchens but also areas out of doors in which bonfires and
cooking fires are lit. This strange phrase, “cooking
places,” supports this conclusion, if the “places” were only
indoors they would be called kitchens.
The firewood from the hearths of the “cooking places” is
said to be collected up by the sea. It is at this point that
the personification begins. The sea does not sweep up,
or wash away the wood, it is said to pick it up. As if the
sea was in possession of arms and hands capable of this
motion. After collecting the wood the sea sends it back “at
night.” It has been washed away and then washes back
in with the tide. The sea, personified once more, “sends”
it back. This first stanza is concluded with a repetition of
the title line.
Second Stanza
The second stanza begins with the start of the story. How
the sea came “one day at the dead of night.” Awoonor
writes this line as if it was a conscious choice made by
the sea to come at night. The sea is given reasoning
abilities, it is portrayed as being sneaking, knowing when
the residents of the town will be more vulnerable.
The sea destroys the cement walls, proof of its immense
strength, and carries away the fowl. Their homes are
destroyed and their livestock is killed. The sea does not
stop there but as it washes into the cooking places it takes
the pots and ladles too. Once more the title line is
repeated at the conclusion of this stanza.
Third Stanza
The third stanza begins with a description of the emotion
that comes with this kind of loss. The speaker describes
the sadness of the wails, and how the “mourning shouts
“ of women can be heard. The speaker says these shouts
are to the gods to protect them,
…from the angry sea.
Again the sea is personified. It is given sentience and is
said to be “angry.” But just as the motives of the sea are
impossible to determine, so too is the response of the
gods. They do not come to the aid of this town, in fact,
their plight is only emphasized.
Fourth Stanza
The fourth and final stanza of this poem is more than
twice the length of the other three. In it, a specific woman
is named, Aku. The description of how she was
personally impacted by the “sea eat[ing] the land” forces
the reader to greater empathy with the town in general.
Until now the town was just unnamed, but now it has a
face.
Aku stood outside where her cooking-pot stood,
With her two children shivering from the cold,
She stands outside in the inclement weather, with no
where else to go. She is standing in what was probably
her kitchen, a place that used to be symbolic of warmth
and home, and is now part of the freezing sea. She is not
alone here though, she has the burden of two children to
care for. She weeps with her hands on her chest for her
home, and for the future of her family.
She does not understand why this has happened to her,
it seems to her that her,
…ancestors have neglected her,
They should be watching over her and her family but for
some reason have allowed the sea to destroy her home.
Her gods, too, have abandoned her. She is spiritually
alone.
The speaker then pans out from the situation and looks
over the whole town once more and the reader receives
some additional context.
Once more the day is said to be cold. But we know now
it is morning, perhaps only the morning right after the
storm, and it’s a Sunday.
The storm is described as “raging,” and the livestock is
placed by the speaker in the water, they are struggling to
swim against the sea.
Once again the sea is personified, described as being
angry, but now also cruel. As if it, on purpose, swept into
this town with the intention to destroy it.
The poem then turns to describing the water, how it is
lapping against the shore and how its interior hum, its life
force and power, is stronger and louder than the sobs,
and deep low moans of the townspeople.
The poem concludes with continued emphasis on what
physically as lost. Another woman is named, Adena. She
has lost her dowry, much of which were “trinkets.” These
trinkets are described as being her joy, turning the poem
to a rare glimpse of materialism. The last two lines
describes,
…the sea that eats the land at home,
as eating the “whole land at home.” Nothing and no one
is left untouched. Some lose trinkets, others lose entire
homes and lively hoods.
About Kofi Awoonor
Kofi Awoonor was born in Ghana with the original name
of George Awoonor-Williams. He studied at the University
College of Ghana gaining a BA, then moved to University
College, London to get his MA, and then a PhD in
comparative literature from SUNY Stony Brook. Awoonor
had a turbulent life, amongst being poet, and professor,
as well as an ambassador for Ghana, he also served time
in prison under suspicion of involvement in a coup. While
in jail, he detailed his experience in The House by the
Sea. Eventually his sentence was remitted and he
resumed teaching. It was after this that his ambassadorial
duties began and he served as Ghanian ambassador to
Brazil and Cuba as well as ambassador to the UN from
1990-1994. Throughout his life he authored novels such
as, Comes the Voyager at Last: A Tale of Return to
Africa and This Earth, My Brother. He died in 2013 in a
Kenya after a shopping mall attack.