THE ROAD TO VICTORY BY ANDREA B. MATAMBO
GENRE: POETRY
TITLE: THE ROAD TO VICTORY
WRITER: ANDREA B. MATAMBO, ZAMBIA
REVIEWER: BWESIGYE LAURENT, UGANDA
Isn't the blooming of a cactus the greatest form of victory in the desert? Amidst the searing sun and a thirsty ground the cactus flourishes to be thick, fleshy and succulent.
The road to victory is no less than a cactus growing in the desert, it's a road filled with many challenges and only those willing, resilient and brave enough withstand the conditions and become victors.
As I read through Andrea's poem I realize that this is what he hopes to communicate especially when he expresses in the last stanza "knew he well the path to glory is not always sunny and flowery."
In order to cement his idea of victory to his readers, Andrea takes on a narrative form in the third person where he tells of a great commander who dances zealously on a battlefield. A commander who's revered and feared, a commander who's very brave that not even the loss of an eye can stop him. "Threw he his remaining eye on his remaining soldiers and spoke so" the poet persona uses this image to convey the courage of the commander. The commander instead of mopping for his lost eye he takes a stance to win and therefore he has to come out and show his soldiers as a form of encouragement that even with an eye he will see the battlefield with an eagle's sight and therefore no one should fear and give up.
Andrea also uses sarcasm and rhetoric questions to further stress his idea of victory. "Yeah. 'It will be ease as a smile' -did you think?" "Walk in, grab it, return with glory in a wink?'" here all he's trying to show is that victory is not like taking candy from a child, you have to fight, you have to bleed and in the course of the war you might lose friends and family but that should not stop you from going ahead.
The battle to victory is not a journey for the frail, it requires the bravest of men to see the sun rise. So instead of crying and weeping we should remember what we lost "please borne their dreams and many memories in your hearts" and use it as an impetus to victory.
Although the poet persona conveys the idea of the poem quite well, I find that he also falls short in a few areas especially in the second stanza. The second stanza appears to be his weakest point because the similes he employs are weak. They do not paint a better picture "as ease as a Sunday" he has a setting of a war zone and I feel he can do better when it comes to his similes. But generally I thank him for writing this piece, it was thrilling, inspiring and educative to read.
He tackled the theme artistically and the poem had a smooth flow.