Once Upon A Time (Poem)

Unit 1: Poem – Once Upon a Time

Gabriel Okara

Warm Up

a. Guess what friendly words these two gentlemen exchange when shaking hands.

b. The children in the picture are watching an exciting sporting event, where their school team is winning. Suggest suitable utterances reflecting their feelings:

c. Given a chance, any adult would wish to become a child again for many reasons. Fill the boxes with some of what you imagine could be the reasons.
- I need not worry about project deadlines.
- I can wear my pajamas the whole day.
- I can sleep as long as I like.

Children acquire important life skills and values by observing and imitating grown-ups like parents or teachers. Can it be the other way round? Now, you are going to listen to the poem ‘Once Upon a Time’, where a parent wants to learn something from the son. Let’s find out how.

Poem: Once Upon a Time

Once upon a time, son,
They used to laugh with their hearts
And laugh with their eyes:
But now they only laugh with their teeth
While their ice-block-cold eyes
Search behind my shadow.

There was a time indeed
They used to shake hands with their hearts
But that’s gone, son.
Now they shake hands without hearts
While their left hands search
My empty pockets.

“Feel at home!”, “Come again”:
They say, and when I come
Again and feel
At home, once, twice,
There will be no thrice –
For then I find doors shut on me.

So I have learnt many things, son.
I have learned to wear many faces
Like dresses – home face,
Office face, street face, host face,
Cocktail face, with all their conforming smiles
Like a fixed portrait smile.

And I have learned too
To say “Goodbye”
When I mean “Good-riddance”:
To say “Glad to meet you”
Without being glad; and to say “It’s been
Nice talking to you”, after being bored.

But believe me, son,
I want to be what I used to be
When I was like you. I want
To unlearn all these muting things.
Most of all, I want to relearn
How to laugh, for my laugh in the mirror
Shows only my teeth like a snake’s bare fangs!

So show me, son,
How to laugh; show me how
I used to laugh and smile
Once upon a time when I was like you.

About the Author

Gabriel Okara (born 1921) is a Nigerian poet and novelist. His verse has been translated into several languages. His poem The Call of the River Nun won the best award for Literature at the Nigerian Festival of Arts in 1953. Some of his poems were published in the influential periodical Black Orpheus, and by 1960 he established himself as an accomplished writer. He was honoured with the Commonwealth Poetry Award. Okara’s typical poem transits from everyday reality to moments of delight and moves back to reality, making a complete circle. Okara infused African thought, folklore, and imagery into both his verse and prose. His first novel, The Voice, is an outstanding linguistic experiment. His later works include a collection of poems The Fisherman’s Invocation (1978) and two books for children, Little Snake and Little Frog (1981) and An Adventure to Juju Island (1992).

Glossary

• cocktail face: face showing mixed emotions
• laugh with their teeth: to fake a laugh, laugh without associated emotions
• conforming smiles like a fixed portrait smile: wearing a standard deceitful artificial smile on all occasions
• ice-block-cold eyes: eyes lacking a feeling of warmth or endearing expression
• good-riddance: expression of relief at being free of an unwanted person
• search behind my shadow: people are hypocritical and they don’t mean what they say
• fangs: teeth of a venomous snake, used to inject poison
• While their left hands search my empty pockets: evaluating the narrator’s worth and calculating how he could be exploited

Comprehension

1. Based on your understanding of the poem answer the following questions in one or two sentences each:

a. What do you associate with the title of the poem?
b. What is the relationship between the narrator and the listener?
c. What happens to the poet when he visits someone for the third time?
d. Pick out the expressions that indicate conflicting ideas.
e. How does the poet compare his face with dresses?
f. What does the poet mean when he says ‘good bye’?
g. What pleasantries does the poet use to fake cordiality?
h. What does he desire to unlearn and relearn?
i. How is the poet’s laugh reflected in the mirror?
j. What does the poet long for?
k. Mention the qualities the child in the poem symbolises.

2. Fill in the blanks choosing the words from the box given and complete the summary of the poem:

(Words: relearn, adults, facial, personal, fangs, child, fakes, superficially, duplicity, genuine, unlearn, falsity, masks, mirror, pleasantries)

The poet Okara in this narrative monologue painfully condemns the (a) duplicity displayed by adults, both in their words and actions. Here, a father laments to his son about the negative changes that creep into the attitude and behaviour of humans, when they grow into (b) adults. He says that people used to be (c) genuine when they laugh and the honesty would be reflected in their eyes. But, people of modern times laugh (d) superficially. Their handshakes used to be warm and happy conveying a sense of togetherness, but nowadays the handshakes have become a mere (e) falsity. He warns his son that people are not trust-worthy and have become so selfish that they are concerned only about their own (f) personal benefits.

People utter words of welcome and exchange (g) pleasantries, but those words come only from the tip of their tongues and not from the depth of their hearts. Humans have learnt the art of changing their (h) facial expressions according to situations merely to ensure social acceptance. They wear (i) masks and exhibit multiple faces. The narrator admits that he has also changed into a hypocrite. However, he tells his son that though he (j) fakes his expressions, he does all these against his will. He says he wants to become a (k) child again and laugh genuinely. He wants to (l) unlearn the unreal things and (m) relearn how to laugh as he had done once upon a time. When he laughs before the (n) mirror, he sees no expression. His teeth are bare like that of the (o) fangs of a snake. So, he asks his son to show him how to laugh the way he used to laugh, when he was a kid like him.

3. A. Interpret each of the following expressions used in the poem, in one or two lines.

i. laugh with their eyes
ii. shake hands without hearts
iii. like a fixed portrait smile
iv. hands search my empty pockets
v. to unlearn all these muting things

B. Read the lines given below and answer the questions that follow.

i. ‘But now they only laugh with their teeth,
While their ice-block-cold eyes…’

a) Who are ‘they’?
b) Explain: ice-block-cold eyes
c) Identify the figure of speech used here.

ii. ‘Most of all, I want to relearn
How to laugh, for my laugh in the mirror
Shows only my teeth like a snake’s bare fangs!’

a) Why does the poet want to relearn how to laugh?
b) Whom does the poet want to relearn from?
c) Mention the figure of speech used here.

C. Explain the following lines with reference to the context.

i. Once upon a time, son,
They used to laugh with their hearts:
ii. There will be no thrice.
iii. I have learned to wear my faces
Like dresses …
iv. I want to be what I used to be.

4. Answer the following questions in about 100–150 words each.

i. Explain the things the poet has learnt when he grew into an adult.
ii. This poem is nothing but a criticism of modern life. Justify this statement.
iii. ‘Face is the index of the mind.’ Does this adage concur with the views of the poet?

5. Listening Activity

First read the questions given below. Next, listen to an excerpt from a poem read out by your teacher or played on a recorder. Note how a child admires and praises the abilities of his/her father. Then tick the right answers from the options given.

i) When the ___ needs to be repaired, they have to hire a man.
a) heater b) furnace c) stove d) oven

ii) Father knows no word like ___.
a) fail b) frail c) jail d) snail

iii) It is certain that the father would restore the _ of the family members.
a) glory b) prosperity c) confidence d) happiness

iv) The father will not be able to mend a broken __.
a) table b) bench c) chair d) stool

v) The children expect their ___ to guide them in action.
a) mother b) father c) teacher d) guardian

6. Parallel Reading

In the poem Once Upon a Time, a parent wishes to shed falsehood and regain true ways as a child. Here is a poem where a woman longs to become a child once again to enjoy the comfort, warmth and love she received as a child from her mother, once upon a time.

Rock Me to Sleep

Elizabeth Akers Allen

Backward, turn backward, O Time, in your flight,
Make me a child again just for tonight!
Mother, come back from the echoless shore,
Take me again to your heart as of yore;
Kiss from my forehead the furrows of care,
Smooth the few silver threads out of my hair;
Over my slumbers your loving watch keep;
Rock me to sleep, mother, – rock me to sleep!

Backward, flow backward, O tide of the years!
I am so weary of toil and of tears,
Toil without recompense, tears all in vain,
Take them, and give me my childhood again!
I have grown weary of dust and decay,
Weary of flinging my soul-wealth away;
Weary of sowing for others to reap;
Rock me to sleep, mother – rock me to sleep!

Tired of the hollow, the base, the untrue,
Mother, O mother, my heart calls for you!
Many a summer the grass has grown green,
Blossomed and faded, our faces between:
Yet, with strong yearning and passionate pain,
Long I tonight for your presence again.
Come from the silence so long and so deep;
Rock me to sleep, mother, – rock me to sleep!

Over my heart, in the days that are flown,
No love like mother-love ever has shone;
No other worship abides and endures,
Faithful, unselfish, and patient like yours:
None like a mother can charm away pain
From the sick soul and the world-weary brain.
Slumber’s soft calms o’er my heavy lids creep;
Rock me to sleep, mother, – rock me to sleep!

Come, let your brown hair, just lighted with gold,
Fall on your shoulders again as of old;
Let it drop over my forehead tonight,
Shading my faint eyes away from the light;
For with its sunny-edged shadows once more
Haply will throng the sweet visions of yore;
Lovingly, softly, its bright billows sweep;
Rock me to sleep, mother, – rock me to sleep!

Mother, dear mother, the years have been long
Since I last listened your lullaby song:
Sing, then, and unto my soul it shall seem
Womanhood’s years have been only a dream.
Clasped to your heart in a loving embrace,
With your light lashes just sweeping my face,
Never hereafter to wake or to weep;
Rock me to sleep, mother, – rock me to sleep!