“Poems from Prison” is a 15 inch by 10 inch broadsheet, printed on parchment-like paper, folded into three columns. Two poems, “Live Burial” and “Flowers for my Land”, grace one side, with title page, publication information and a note on Soyinka’s release from prison on the other side. Both are reproduced in A Shuttle in the Crypt. In A Shuttle, “Live Burial” has some changes in punctuation and four additional stanzas on individual prison guards at Kaduna Prison. The original, shorter poem is the better for its conciseness and more general tone of condemnation. “Flowers for My Land” is also extended in Shuttle by four stanzas, with vocabulary and punctuation changes. The changes emphasize communal solidarity,

This article in full comprises 910 words but only the first 150 or so words are available to non-members.

All our articles have been written recently by experts in their field, more than 95% of them university professors. To read about membership, please click here.

Published 16 October 2003

Citation: McLuckie, Craig. "Poems from Prison". The Literary Encyclopedia. 16 October 2003.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=12834, accessed 9 February 2010.]