SELFLESS

 SELFLESS 

Like a Mosaic in the ceiling of a Roman dome

So beautiful, eye-catching,

Such is success!

I will again never compare its worth to failure’s.

It’s so expensive that every step counts.

And the most dangerous aspect of it is when it comes unaware.

If thus it comes, you go from grass to grace

And so like a thartch in haste burns

What a burden on hen’s back weighs ton that must soon its glory once!

And men shall feel so much the weight of failure than success

And it shall to you the beast of burden liken unto a nightmare.

If it meets you prepared, it gives you its principles:

Groom me, hug me, touch me, caress me.

Mind you! You need not miss any.

And if you do, the enemy that’s a friend alike

It tells you how success is inhumane 

How it can’t stay on its own

How it needs to be soft-touched.

All these are to the best of my knowledge, true.

But this enemy wants you to see where you are robbed

And robs you too.

It’s masterminding your fall.

“Kill the self in you, and be yourself.” Yes, "kill yourself and be yourself".

"No single man who works so much for night ever succeeds".

POETIC ANALYSIS

Everyone loves success or will do anything to be successful, but not everyone is ready to bear the pain that accompanies success. Success carries such an inflicting pain that requires one to kill self before one can stand and be called a successful man or woman. This poem addresses the concept of success—life before one becomes successful, when one is successful, and when one falls out of success. It goes as far as giving detailed principles of success that people may not have paid attention to.

Success, according to Merriam-Webster, is seen as the favorable or desired outcome. The attainment of wealth, favor, or eminence doesn’t just run to a man for courage. If it does, it will definitely go back the same way. And I know you wouldn’t want to be successful today and tomorrow be something else. Sit back and relax as we analyze this piece in detail as you aim the peak of success in your endeavours.

The concept of selflessness, as this piece is titled, implies the need for anyone who wants to be successful to think less about himself and think more about the goal ahead. A hunter who aims for the best game must not be afraid of journeying into the deep, dangerous forest, for there, in the thick, deep forest, lives the best of games. "The measure of a man's success depends largely on how he can take risks and nurture success itself".

The poem " Selfless", which has four irregular stanzas of free verse, begins with a comparison—comparing success to the mosaic in the ceiling of a Roman dome. "Like a mosaic in the ceiling of a Roman dome", you need to see the magnificent beauty of Roman architecture as rightly promoted by their wonderful edifice, "Dome". (Check: Walks inside Rome). Domes are so beautiful not just because of how they were built but also because of the eye-catching stones used in their design(the mosaic).

A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small, regular or irregular pieces of coloured stone, glass, or ceramic held in place by plaster or mortar and covering a surface. This is what the poet compares success to: so beautiful, so magnificent. The poet goes as far as saying that, its worth cannot be compared to failures, as every step towards success counts.

In the last line of the fifth stanza, the poet makes a very striking statement: that the most dangerous aspect of success is when it comes unaware or meets a man unprepared. In stanza two, he continues by saying that unexpected success can propel a man from grass to grace, but that in the same way, it will soon wear out and burn like a torch in the face of Harmattan 

We can see this in the lives of cybercriminals, scammers, yahoo boys, how they suddenly burst into wealth and success overnight, and how that wealth or success goes back the same way. And when it does, the weight of their past glory soon weighs them down like a feather would on a hen's back, and the shame of failure soon haunts them such that they become a mocking stock. The burden of how they fall from grace to grass becomes to them like a nightmare.

Note: while reading the above paragraph, it would be nice to replace the third-person pronoun 'Them' with the first-person pronoun 'I', because if you don’t prepare and expect success, especially financial success, it may come, but it may not stay. It may rubbish you, disgrace you, or even turn you into a laughingstock.

In stanza 3, the poet said, “If it meets you prepared, it gives you its principle.” That’s to say, success has principles. These principles are so important that you should not, for any reason, miss any one of them. The principle says: groom me, hug me, touch me, caress me.

Have you ever been in a house full of mosquitoes? Well, I’ve been there. And in such a situation, you would discover how important every part of your body is. Success is like that. You need to groom it, hug it, touch it, and even caress it. If you are successful and really want to remain at the apex of success, then you should not miss any of the above principles. They must become a routine. You must keep doing what took you there, hug it so tight that it never slips away, touch every area that needs your presence and attention, and never forget to expand your territory to remain there.

You do not quit because you’ve seen a reflection of success. If it were to be so, then what’s Elon Musk doing in Tesla? What’s Mark Zuckerberg doing at Facebook/Meta? What’s Jeff Bezos doing at Amazon? What’s Larry Ellison doing in Oracle, etc.? Sometimes you feel that the business is taking too much of your time, or is a waste of time. You underestimate the power of a little beginning. You no longer open the shop again because that little dirty penny has entered your account. That’s the enemy that has come with its deceptive knowledge. All its claims are true, but if you should put all that into consideration, you will fail.

In stanza 4, he concluded by saying that, "that enemy that is pointing only the dark side of success to you wants you to fall. And if you should follow it, it will one day ask you why you did not continue in your business. By then, you may have become a vegetable—so soft, with no financial strength of your own again.

In the last two lines of the last stanza, the poet advised us to kill the self in us and be our real selves. That’s to say, deal with those things in you that are making you bigger than the things(advice, consistency, principle, discipline) that should have made you grow. 

"No single man who works so much for night ever succeeds. If you must succeed, live above the fear of the night". Don’t chase risks away; embrace them.

THEME

From the poem above, the following themes have been extracted: (1) The beauty of success(Success). (2) The weight of failure(Failure)

FIGURES OF SPEECH

1. Simile: “Like a mosaic in the ceiling of a Roman dome” (line one, stanza one). “...like a thartch in haste burns” (stanza two, line two)

2. Metaphor: “...grass to grace” (line one, stanza two)

3. Paradox: “...kill yourself and be yourself”(line four, stanza four). This is a contradictory statement which, when investigated, may prove to be true.

4. Hyperbole: “...kill yourself”(line four, stanza four). This is an exaggeration used for dramatic or rhetorical effect to emphasize the intensity and difficulty of the required personal transformation.

5. Symbolism: "Mosaic", "Roman dome" symbolize beauty.

MORAL LESSONS

1. Success requires dedication and discipline, so work very hard and smart for it.

2. Don’t underestimate your little beginning. It might seem as though you are wasting your time, but provided it’s genuine, forge ahead and you will get there.

3. Never expect success when you aren’t prepared for it, because if it comes, you won’t be able to handle it.

4. The world’s wealthiest and most successful men are those who take risks. So if you must get there, you must not run away from risk.

5. Success is very expensive to manage; therefore you must groom it, hug it, touch it, and caress it.

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