Location via proxy:   [ UP ]  
[Report a bug]   [Manage cookies]                
Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 6 views

    Flying (1996)

    Uploaded by

    Sui Generis
    Interview about Biafra

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Flying (1996)

    Uploaded by

    Sui Generis
    6 views3 pages
    Interview about Biafra

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    Interview about Biafra

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    6 views3 pages

    Flying (1996)

    Uploaded by

    Sui Generis
    Interview about Biafra

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 3

    Agni

    Flying
    Author(s): CHINUA ACHEBE
    Source: Agni, No. 44 (1996), pp. 4-5
    Published by: Agni
    Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23007624 .
    Accessed: 17/06/2014 22:43

    Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
    http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

    .
    JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
    content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
    of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

    Agni is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Agni.

    http://www.jstor.org

    This content downloaded from 188.72.96.102 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 22:43:38 PM


    All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
    Flying

    Something in altitude kindles power-thirst.


    Mere horse-height suffices the emir
    Bestowing from rich folds of prodigious turban
    Upon crawling peasants in the dust
    Rare imperceptible nods enwrapped
    In princely boredom.

    I too have known

    A parching of that primordial palate,


    A quickening to manifest life
    Of a long recessive appetite.
    Though strapped and manacled
    That day I commanded from the pinnacle
    Of a three-tiered world a bridge befitting
    The proud deranged deity I had become.
    A magic rug of rushing clouds
    Billowed out its white softnesses
    Like practiced houri fingers on my soul
    And through filters of its gauzy fabric
    Revealed wonders of a metropolis
    Magic-struck to fairyland proportions.
    By different adjustments of vision
    I caused the clouds to float
    Over a stilled landscape, over towers
    And masts and smoke-plumed chimneys;
    Or turned the very earth, unleashed
    From itself, a roaming fugitive

    4 I AGNI

    This content downloaded from 188.72.96.102 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 22:43:38 PM


    All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
    Beneath a constant sky. Then came

    A sudden brightness over the world,


    A rare winter's smile it was, and printed
    On my cloud carpet a black cross
    Set in an orb of rainbows. To which
    Splendid nativity came—who else would come
    But grey unsporting Reason, faithless
    Pedant offering a bald refractory name?
    But oh what beauty! what speed!
    A phantom chariot in panic flight
    From Our Royal Proclamation of the rites
    Of day! And riding out our procession
    Of phantasy we slaked an ancient
    Vestigial greed shriveled by ages of dormancy
    Till the eyes exhausted by glorious pageantries
    Returned and rested on that puny

    Legend of the life-jacket stowed away


    Under my seat, of all places.

    Now I think I know why gods


    Are so partial to heights—to mountain
    Tops and spires, to proud iroko trees
    And thorn-guarded holy bombax;

    Why petty household divinities


    Will sooner perch on a rude board
    Strung precariously from brittle rafters
    Of a thatched roof than sit squarely
    On safe earth.

    CHINUA ACHEBE 5

    This content downloaded from 188.72.96.102 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 22:43:38 PM


    All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

    You might also like