Critical Analysis of The Dining Table by Gbanabam Hallowell

The Full Text   

Dinner tonight comes with

gun wounds. Our desert

tongues lick the vegetable

blood- the pepper

5 Strong enough to push scorpions

up our head. Guests

look into the ocean of bowls as vegetables die on their tongues

The table

10 that gather us in an island where guerrillas

walk the land while crocodiles

surf. Children from Alphabeta with empty palm dine

with us; switch blades in their eyes

silence in their voices. When the playground

15 is emptied of children's toys

who needs roadblocks? When the hour

to drink from the cup of life ticks ,

cholera breaks its spell on cracked lips

Under the split

20 milk of the moon, I promise

to be a revolutionary, bu my Nile, even

without tributaries come lazy

upon its own Nile.

On this night reserved for overs of fire, I'm

25 full with the catch of gun wounds, and my boots

have suddenly become too reluctant to walk me

 

 Background of the Poem

The Dining Table is a poem written by Elvis Gbanabom Hallowell, a Sierra Leonean poet and journalist. Gbanabom Hallowell studied Writing at Vermont College of Union & Institute University, USA and he is currently the Director-General of The Sierra Leone Broadcasting Service.

A prolific author and human rights activist, Gbanabom is the author of Drumbeats of War (poem) and My Immigrant Blood (poem). The background of the poem can be traced to the 11-year civil war of Sierra Leone (1991 - 2002). The war was very fierce that the poet scornfully refers to it as the gathering at the "dinning table" where compatriots literally feed on each other, rather than on food.

The poem is a celebration of violence which saw brother bent on decimating brother until the ECOWAS monitoring group called ECOMOG, led by Nigeria, put out the flames of self-destruction.

It should be noted that it is not only Sierra Leone that has experienced war in Africa: Nigeria, Angola, Algeria, Burundi, Congo DR, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Liberia, Somalia, Cote d'Ivoire, Sudan, etc,have had theirs in turn Thus, 'blood' has become an important image whenever Africa is mentioned in the comity of Nations. In the poem, 'blood' is in itself a trope (metaphor) as the poet speaks of "vegetable/blood" and "gun wounds" or what he calls "the split milk of the moon.The title of the poem suggests that the battle takes place in the East and Northeast area of Sierra Leone where there is a table-land (plateau) of between 1000ft - 2000ft high

 

 Summary of the Poem  The Dining Table by Gbanabam Hallowell 

In the very first two lines, the poet announces what is due to happen on the dining table. It is not about the usual meal we associate with the consumption of food and drinks. We are told that tonight's dinner “comes with gun wounds” (11. 1-2). The fighters may have gathered to give an account of the operation of war or to rest after a tiresome battle. However, they come with gun wounds and with blood all over them. The “desert tongues” could refer to the tongues of fire coming from weapons while the “vegetable/blood” is the blood of combatants. The “pepper” which is “strong enough to push scorpions/up our heads” (//. 4-6) is the bitterness o£jhe firing which had made the dining table a harvest of blood and gun wounds. It is the pain of gun battles. Dinner is thus no ordinary feast but a feast front gun wounds, associated with scorpions. This is a weird meal in which “desert” may well be a deliberate pun on “dessert” (fruit or drink taken after a meal) at which “vegetable blood” is served.

“The table” separates the combatants from their wicked leaders - guerrillas and crocodiles. We are 

informed that “guerrillas/walk the land while crocodiles/surf (//. 10-12), an indication of leisure and uncaringness. The “children" who come from “Alphabeta” do so “with empty palm" ’(/ 12), ‘switchblades in their eyes" (/. 13) and “silence in their voices" (/. 14). These children are child , soldiers "Alphabeta" suggests a school where the English alphabet is taught. “Switchblades" are a metaphor of anger buried in the eyes of a bitter person. The aridity of the desert visits the country in which "the playground'is emptied of children’s toys" (//. 14-15) which in turn necessitates dryness and calls for the  thirstiest to be satisfied since there are “cracked lips" (/. 18).

The last eight lines of the poem centre on the poet-speaker himself who swears “to be a revolutionary" (/. 21) but laziness and indecisiveness do not allow him. Probably because of his experience “on this night reserved for lovers of fire” (//. 23-24). At this night, the poet-persona is “full with the catch of gun wounds” (/. 25) as in hunting while his boots are too heavy on his feet.

 

Analysis the Poem  The Dining Table by Gbanabam Hallowell

The poem captures the gory and unpalatable experience of war in Sierra-Leone. “The Dining Table”, as metaphorically employed in the poem is a battle front, the hazardous joint where blood thirsty demons “The guerillas” and “crocodiles” feast on the sacred blood and flesh of human (on “vegetable blood). The dinner described in the poem is not the kind everybody looks forward to. It is the kind accompanied with “gun wounds”- physical, psychological and emotional injuries, death, pain, regrets, lamentation and agony. The dinners, the fighters are so unreasonable that yield to the urge driven by vengeance, and other circumstances of war described in the poem as “the pepper strong enough to push scorpions up our heads” to devour their fellow men and commit atrocities against humanity. One of these atrocities committed by the soldiers is their “their desert tongues lick the vegetable blood”. The vegetable whose blood is licked are the vulnerable ones and the weak like children and women who are incapacitated by war circumstance.

What makes things worst is that the children, fragile and innocent as they are, are not left out in this horrible dinning. “Children from the alphabeta” who ought to be in school learning, who are at the earliest stage of life are conscripted in to the army. These children “with empty palm dine with us” as they are not in possession of weapons, strength, maturity and knowledge to fight the war as the official and professional soldiers. Nonetheless, these children are despicably dangerous as they operate with “silence in their voices” and anger “switchblades in their eyes”. The fact that these children are forced out from their families and made to thread the path they are not made to thread made them ruthless. This is a reference to the cankerworm of child soldier that is typical of war and civil strife in African continent.

The little hope the victims of war could enjoy (when it is time to lick from th) is dashed by the outbreak of disease, another horrible accomplice of war. In this case, the disease is cholera which “breaks its spell on cracked lips”. Thus, those who did not die by “gun wounds”, by pain and mourning of loved ones are ultimately caught up in the web of despicable disease. This pictures war as a horrible phenomenon which inflicts man with pains and destruction of various dimensions

The last line is a call for peace and the resolution of the poet personae, who is himself a “revolutionary”. Despite the fact that the personae fight for a just course (the love for his country), despite the fact that he is determined to liberate his country from the shackle of mismanagement and from the grips of corruption (I promised to be a revolutionist), despite the fact that  his “Nile has no tributaries upon its own Nile” unlike other fighters whose course is driven by greed and thirst for blood, he has seen enough of the horrible face of the that he no longer consider fighting honorable and worthy. He is “full with the catch of gun wounds” and his “boots have become suddenly reluctant to walk me”

Line to Line Analysis the Poem  The Dining Table by Gbanabam Hallowell

Lines 1 - 6  Analysis

Tonight's dinner is not the usual feast to be looked up to. It is a dinner of "gun wounds", "vegetable blood", "pepper" and "scorpions". It is a landscape devastated by the carnage and despoliation brought about by war. The sombre portrait of a devastated land is reinforced by the fact that it is night, the time of evil, darkness and horror.

Lines 6 - 8 Analysis

The "guests" made reference to may have been partakers of the dinner or Sierra Leonean who came to observe this macabre dinner. As they "look into the ocean of bowls", the horror causes "vegetables die on their tongues". Hence, there are two types of "tongues" - "desert tongues" which could refer to tongues of gunfire and human tongues with which to taste the ghostly dinner.

Lines 9 - 16 Analysis

"The table" refers to either the land flattened by the power of gunfire or the table land (plateau) of the north eastern part of Sierra Leone. While the combatants and the wounded soldiers are on this table ruing their fate, the guerrillas and the crocodiles (the uncaring leaders) engage in their favourite pastimes. The child soldiers whom the poet describes as "children from Alphabeta"participate in the sombre meal.

Lines 9 - 16 Analysis

... They know not what the cadaverous get together is all about as they arrive "with empty palm". In their eyes is anger, while "their voices" are assailed by silence. The poet-speaker asks : "when the playground is emptied of children's toys who needs roadblocks?" This is both a rhetorical question and an aphorism. The fact is that the children had taken their toys inside, before they and all adult men went to do the fighting. Thus "road blocks" have suddenly become unnecessary.

Lines 16 - 18 Analysis

The land has become both sterile and arid occasioned by the destructiveness of war. The dryness steers the necessity for the throat to be assumed of its thirst. But the water has been polluted by "vegetable blood" and "gun wounds". Hence, the threat of "cholera on cracked lips" is real.

Lines 19 - 23 Analysis

 The poet, having tasted "the split/milk of the moon" which might as well be the blood of yellow youths, he promises "to be a revolutionary". However, his "Nile, even without tributaries comes lazy upon its own Nile". The revolutionary to - be has his own problems, namely laziness and indecisiveness. His "Nile ... upon its own Nile" is a pile of drawbacks, layers of in-capacities.

Lines 23 - 26 Analysis

The poet returns to what happens at "dinner tonight" (which) comes with gun wounds". It is a night meant for "lovers of fire". The poet persona is "full with the catch of gun wounds" which reminds one of hunting. The drawbacks, obstacles weigh heavily and probably soaking water on his boots such that they "have suddenly become too reluctant to walk me". Such is his weariness that the speaker expects the boots to "walk" him rather than the contrary.

 Themes of the Poem The Dining Table by Gbanabam Hallowell

War and destructiveness

Theme Analysis

The poem is the grim experience of death and pain out of gun battles. It is a feast in which the major meal n made tip of gun wounds, pepper and scorpions. War is a leveller; thus the dining table may be an arena for the wounded, created by the levelling effected by gun fire. Faced with sterility and aridity, war has created a desert out of a rainforest zone to which Sierra Leone's vegetation belongs. It is war that empties “the playground” of “children toys” and thus makes “roadblocks” unnecessary.

Suffering 

Theme Analysis

War brings suffering, and suffering breeds chaos. And chaos sows no seed but long-time enmity. Those who watch the scene of horror as in “the oceans of bowls” experience vegetables die on their tongues. The poet-persona who “promise to be a revolutionary” suddenly realizes he too is “full with the catch of gun wounds” so excruciating that he lamentably groans: “…my boots/have suddenly become too reluctant to walk me”.  

 Child soldiers 

Theme Analysis

The manner the poet brings in the fact that child soldiers are also part of the ‘diners' is to say, “children from Alphabets with empty palm dine/with us” (//. 12-13). “Alphabets,” probably a metaphor for primary schooling, is abandoned by children who proceed to the arena of the “dining.” However, they come with sparks of bitterness in their eyes and “silence in their voices” (/. 14). The playground has no “children’s toys” any longer since the children themselves have gone to war. The reference to “the spilt milk of the moon,” (it. 19-20) apart from recalling “blood,” may infer the shattering of youthfulness brought about by youngsters being pushed to the war front. This may have been responsible for the poet-speaker’s laziness and the reluctance of his boots “to walk” him. 

 Youthfulness and revolution 

Youths are known for harboring a revolutionary mind. They pull down imagined structures and think they can do better. The “spilt/milk of the moon” may be a reference to wounded and or slaughtered youths as they aspire to be revolutionary. Notice that earlier on, the poet-speaker had reminded us of bow “guerrillas walk the land while crocodiles/surf 10 13), This is a reference to the African leaders  known for poor leadership and instigation of war among those they rule. However the youth who are willing to offer themselves to purge the land of the ills of those leaders is not always to a position to do so particularly when "my Nile.. come lazy/upon its own Nile (l 21-23). The youthful revolutionary comes to the arena of governance with his own faults and pitfalls. He is not only "lazy", lie comes to the ground "full with the catch of gun wounds" and heavy, clogged books.

Violence 

Theme Analysis

 When there is war, everyone becomes a beast. Even the weakest of men find themselves wielding weapons of death such as guns and cutlasses just to eliminate the enemy. In war, if you do not kill someone, someone would kill you. So there is always killings and senseless bloodshed during war. It is indeed a time when the best of the heart is one who lives to tell the story. 

Setting the Poem  The Dining Table by Gbanabam Hallowell

The title of the poem suggests that there is a gathering of diners about to feast on a meal. However, this is a macabre meal, not the usual meal we know about. The poet mocks brothers who have gathered at a dining table to feast on each other after a bloody battle. As suggested above in ‘Background’, it may have been a gathering of wounded countrymen on the Sierra Leonian plateau in the eastern part of the country during the decade-long civil war. Even if the country is located in the tropical rainforest zone of Africa, the poet refers to “desert/tongues” (//. 2-3) brought about by years of gunfire exchange, aimed at exterminating one another. In other words, there has been the withering of the land leading to “vegetables (dying) on their tongues” (/. 9). Part of why we are assured that we are still in the rainforest belt is the availability of “guerrillas” which “walk the land while crocodiles/surf’ (//. 10-12). War has made the land a deserted one in which “the playground/is emptied of children's toys” (/. 15), whildthe available water has become polluted when “cholera breaks its spell on cracked lips” (/. 18). 

The Structure of the poem

The poem has three stanzas with 26 lines that don’t rhyme. The first stanza introduces the war, gives clue to the presence of war and confusion and gives insight in to the influences of war like child soldier, fear, disease bloodbath e.t.c. The final explains the stance of the poet which is equivocal call for peace regardless of what the cause of the war may be.

  Language and Style of the Poem

POETIC DEVICES USED IN THE POEM, THE DINING TABLE.

Metaphor 

 The entirety of the poem is metaphorical as well as symbolic. In lines 3 and 4, pepper which is a vegetable, is compared to blood due to its red color – an attribute it shares with the blood and the very fact that it creates pain, and that the flow of blood out of injury is accompanied with pain. The eating of dinner is also compared to the fighting of war, and the meal compared to gun wounds. The only element comparison here is that the two entails the gathering of people. War does not necessary happen in the night, but since night symbolizes darkness, dinner and war can be compared as they both happen in the dark times.

There is another metaphor to recognize in the poem; the word, vegetable in line 8, the last line of the first stanza is used to compare to human beings who are butchered like vegetables (as translated here, this is also a hyperbole). The word, “tongue” in the same line also refers to human eyes. To understand it more, let’s go back to lines 2 to 4: “our desert (dry)/ tongues (eyes), like the vegetable/blood – pepper”. Here, the poetic persona points out that their dry eyes is as red as pepper. Note that the word, vegetable, in that line just means vegetable. Hence, the redness of their eyes is compared to the redness of pepper. More so, in the poem, the two fighting opposition armies are compared to guerrillas and crocodiles. The rays of the moon are compared to spilt milk

 

Hyperbole 

 Exaggeration runs in the poem along the following lines: 

Lines 2 to 4, “the pepper strong enough to push scorpions up our heads.” This line heightens that the gun wounds causes a very terrible pain like that of a scorpion sting.Line 19, “cholera breaks its spell on cracked lips.” This line exaggerates the wide spread of cholera during the dark (war) time.Other phrases are, “oceans of bowls” “surfing (taking) children from alphabeta” just the way the crocodile move (surf) in the water

Antithesis 

of course, it antithetical to place dinner, which is a thing of joy, in opposite to gun wounds which is a thing of pain: Dinner tonight comes with gun wounds. Silence in their voices as seen in line 11 is also an antithesis. (Silent voices – oxymoron).

Bathos 

 there is also a movement from something interesting to something that is uninteresting in the line, dinner(interesting) tonight comes with gun wounds(not interesting).

Pun 

there is play on words in lines 22 to 24 in which the first “Nile” means the river Nile, while the second “Nile” refers to the function of the river or what the river is expected to do, which is to flow well.

Caesura

When a strong phrasal pause falls within a poetic line as in lines 2,4, 6, 12, 13, 14, 16 and 24. These internal pauses are used to ensure variety and emphasis as the poet wants them. It would seecn that the pauses found inside the lines emphasize disorder and crisis. 

Euphemism

A method by which the poet mocks his/her subject matter is the use of euphemism. Euphemism is the use of softer words or expression for a harsh condition or phenomenon. The expression “the dining I table” takes our minds to eating and enjoyment whereas the poem is not about dining or satiating one’s 1 hunger for food.

(a) “Dinner” (/. 1): a term for the gathering of the wounded in a battle.

(b) “Our desert tongues” (//. 2-3): gunfire.

(c) “Scorpions” (/. 5): refers to severe pain occasioning fright.

(d) “Guests" (/. 6): refers to the wounded who are gathered to rue their pain and bloody wounds. They are no ordinary guests.

(e) “Oceans of bowls” (/. 7): Bowls are used here as in bowls of food whereas it is “oceans of bowls” of blood, not ordinary soup.

(f) I “vegetables” (//. 3 and /. 18) refers to life or living as in breathing.

(g) “an island” (/. 10): a separated place as happens between where fighters stay away from where the non-fighters may remain and be safe. Here the battle field is referred to as “an island".

(b) “When the hour to drink from the cup of life” (//. 16-17): This is an euphemism for "when it is time to kill" or "when it is time to drink the blood of fellow men.”

(i) “Cracked lips” (/. 18): euphemism for the sick; one with cracked lips is likely to be ill.

(j) “milk of the moon” (/. 20): euphemism for youthfulness.

(k) “lovers of fire” (/. 24): euphemism for soldiers in battle.

4. Personification

Personification is the poet’s attempt to give human attributes to non-human objects so as to make them act or behave like humans.

(a) “Dinner tonight comes with/gun wounds” (//. 1-2): Dinner is given the attribute of a human ‘coming’or ‘visiting ’

(b) “Our desert tongues” (//. 2-3): which we have identified as gunshots capable of desertifying

where they are aimed at is said to “lick vegetable/blood” (//. 3-4) as in the licking of soup fey human beings. Moreover deserts have no tongues with which to lick anything, jpg) “vegetables die” (/. 8) rather than ‘wither’ which is normally associated with leaves and vegetables.

(d) “crocodiles surf’ (/, 11): Surfing is a sport carried out by human beings on the sea as a kind of entertainment using the surfboard.

(e) . but my Nile, even without tributaries comes lazy...” (//. 21 -22): The act of laziness is usually associated with human beings rather than with features and reliefs. Note the terms “comes with gun wounds” (//. 1-2) and “comes lazy” (/. 22).

(f) ”... my boots have suddenly become too reluctant to walk me” (//. 25-26): Boots are here given the attribute of human hesitation and of ‘walking’ its wearer instead of the other way round.

Alliteration

Alliteration, which is the repetition of the same consonant sounds very noticeable in the poem.

Lines 1-2: comes with gun wounds”

Lines 4 and 5: “pepper... push”

Line 5: “strong enough to push scorpions”

Line 10: “that gather us in an island where guerrillas Lines 10-11: where guerrillas/walk the land while crocodiles ...

Line 17: “cup of life ticks, / cholera breaks spell on cracked lips Line 20: “milk of the moon”

Lines 21-23: “my Nile ... upon its own Nile”

Line 24: “for lovers of fire” 

Lines 25-26: “and my boots have suddenly become...” 

Assonance

The poem bears assonated words which complement its alliterated terms.

Lines 1-2: “Dinner... desert Line 2: “gun wounds Lines 3: “tongues”/”blood”

Lines 3 and 4: “vegetable”/”pepper”

Line 6: “up our”. See on same line “heads”/”Guests”

Line 7: “look into the oceans of bowls”

Line 10: that gather us in an island where guerrillas”

Line 11: “walk the land while crocodiles”

Line 12: “Children from Alphabeta with empty palm dine/with us”

Line 13-14: “their eyes/silence in their voices”

Lines 14-15: “playground/is emptied of chi ldren’s toys”

Lines 16-17: “who needs roadblocks? When the hour/to drink ... ticks Line 18: “cholera breaks its spell on cracked lips”

Lines 19-20: “Under the spilt/milk of the moon, I promise Line 21: “my Nile”

Line 24: “nigLt reserved for lovers of fire”

Line 26: “have suddenly become too reluctant to walk me” 

Use of irony and mocker

The poem is founded in irony with a voice of mockery and satire One of (lie ways the poet achieves this is by placing contrasts within close quarters Witness the placing of “dinner' and "gun together such that it would appear as if they could function as ultimate registers " Tongues lick' but do hi they have to "tick the vegetable blood"? I he poet deploys close registers such as "dinner "lick’*, 'Vegetable,4' "pepper," "Guests," “bouts," "table", "dine." “to drink , "cup of life cracked", "milk", etc. The tone of mockery is heightened by the use of "guests for the victim of gunfire There are eating and drinking vocabulary yet ironically no eating or drinking is going on in a positive sense in which these two terms are known Instead, it is a mockery of foolhardiness, how the the land have turned the environment into one of violence, and a martial event. I he poet's the leaders is to he located m their descriptions as subhuman; “guerrillas" and “crocodiles". He negates  the atmosphere of feasting and dining with negative connotations such as "gun wounds, 'vegetable blood.'“scorpions,“ "vegetables die", “switchblades in the eyes, "playground/is emptied of toys," “cholera", "spilt milk." "catch of gun wounds," etc. Finally, the failed revolutionary trope in the last division of the poem completes the notion of mockery and irony. The “spilt milk of  the moon is the shattered youth   with his ambition which has gone awry. The youth's “Nile" lacking "t is ia/y just is "its ow n Nile." The use of "lovers of fire" is meant to “mock those who love wars and warmongering for their sake. Meanwhile, the failed revolutionary is soaked in his "Nile” such that "boots have suddenly become too reluctant to walk" him.   

 Diction and imagery

Images of war

The poet is able to present to us images of war and the horrifying effects of war through an appropriate choice of words.

The following are some examples of diction that create visual images of war and conflict in The Dining Table.

• gun wounds

• blood

• die

• guerrillas

• crocodiles

• roadblocks

• empty palms

• cholera

• cracked lips

• boots

• playground is emptied of children’s toys

Images of gloom and doom

The poet uses repetition to evoke the kind of gloomy atmosphere that characterizes a period of chaos in any society. This is a time of violence and darkness.

It is clear that the persona is terribly concerned about the dangers vulnerable groups like children are exposed to when civil conflict breaks out.

• tonight

• night

• desert

• gun wounds

• children

• tongues

Dietary imagery/Food imagery: 

 This is evoked in the following words.

• dinner

• table

• vegetable

• pepper

• guests

• dine

• bowls

• tongues

• drink

• cup

• milk

Examination questions on The Dining Table 

1 Discuss the theme of war in The Dining Table.

2 Comment on the changing mood of the poet in The Dining Table.

3 Comment on the use of three literary devices in The Dining Table.

4 Discuss the poet’s use of diction and imagery in The Dining Table.

5 Comment on the poet’s attitude to his country in Gbanabom Hallowell’s poem, The Dining Table. 

6 What obstacles lie in the way of social progress in the poem, The Dining Table?

7 What aspects of war are depicted in the poem, The Dining Table? 

8 Comment on the poet’s use of the element of shock in The Dining Table.

9 Examine the use of repetition in The Dining Table by Gbanabom Hallowell.

10 Consider the appropriateness of the title of the poem, The Dining Table.

11 To what extent does the diction portray the horrors of war in The Dining Table? 

12 Would you consider The Dining Table as a poem of doom and gloom?

13 Examine the importance of setting in the poem, The Dining Table

14 Discuss the theme of patriotism in Gbanabom Hallowell’s The Dining Table.

15 Examine the consequences of civil strife in the poem, The Dining Table.

16 What instances of irony are present in Gbanabom Hallowell’s poem, The Dining Table?

17 Discuss the persona’s view of government soldiers in The Dining Table.