ADULTERERS

 

ADULTERERS

Thelma, you have been a Nightingale with paws.

How have you been able to purchase your customer's heart?

Indiscrimination has worn you,

Sneak has been your strategy

What have you done, oh fair Thelma?.

Over your head raised burden,

Rolled over and over again,

Lifted up and down.

David ignores Beersheba's nakedness this time.

It's enough-why to let him have Thelma all alone.

So far as he bid, and paid much more.

Allow him to end his joy

Weeks hath him to live, he smells sepulcher

Oracle said so

Engulf him so he lives to love eternity.

Do you give ear to the afterlife?

Or do you think there is love in thirst?

Neither are you the first nor the last, right?

Thelma, your way is cunning in sight.

Let's talk things out; have you ever seen the rich merry in serene?

Or the poor, the vision of food?

Verily unto you I say, dream merry are for the unable

Every dream delicacy hath been tasted by Barons

Inasmuch as he wasn't satisfied,

Thelma, he will come for you in a trance

This world is a woe, don't love it!

CONTENTS/POETIC ANALYSIS 

The poem "Adulterers", raises a concern over infidelity among women. The nature of creativity adopted in the verse-stanza(poetry) genre of storytelling puts the nail straight on the head as it presents the act, the implication, and the consequences of infidelity while still retaining the taste of entertainment for lovers of poetry.

Adulterers is a poem of nine irregular stanzas of free verse. In each stanza, every first letter beginning a line works together to form a word, which, when put together, forms the last line of the poem, which reads: This world is a woe, don't love it. A striking message by the poet.

What’s the beauty of poetry without figures of speech and poetic devices? The answer is "Reports". I don’t give you reports; I make you think like me, see things the way I see, and make you dive deeper into the literary world where every line is spiced for your intellectual and moral consumption. Truly, I have a handful of them blended into this piece.

Even though this piece is rooted in African tradition, as it uses the view of African culture to pass the message, the issue of infidelity is global. In fact, following the article published by The Nation Thailand on Tuesday, April 8, 2025, titled: Thailand tops list of most adulterous countries with 51% cheating rate. You can discover that no African nation falls within the first 10 countries mentioned in the list. Again, this has been proven by Insider Monkey. But because almost all countries of the world have some connection with infidelity, it is a global matter.

There are some beliefs held by certain African cultures pertaining to unfaithfulness to marital vows, one of which is the "Ekpo nka owo" of the Ibibio and Efik people. It is held that if any woman is involved in infidelity, the said person will be haunted by the spirits of Ekpo nka owo. You can read more about this here: Steemit. Another example of such a belief is that, it is held that if you are a woman who, while your husband was alive, used to deny him his conjugal rights(lovemaking) then when he dies, he will come for you, haunt you, and is likely to inflict you with pains or even kill you. The fact remains, not everyone believes these traditional religious yields, but that doesn’t change the fact that there are consequences for infidelity. I’m still not sure any religion smiles over it.

To analyze the content in detail, we see the poet comparing Thelma to a nightingale but with paws. Thelma, representing some women, shows how beautiful they are, the sweet sounds of the false songs they sing, most especially at night. “Paws” shows how two-sided they could be. That is to say, they look so beautiful in the day; you look at them and they appear responsible. But at night, they become a dog. This explains the concept of “paw” as mentioned in stanza 1, line 1. They sneak out of their husbands’ houses to sleep with other men outside.

The question is, how have they been able to do this so simply? Indeed, women are real masterminds. 

In stanza 2, the poet puts it straight that doing this means leveling a curse(burden) on yourself. At least, since he(your husband) has removed his eyes from the street(other women), he shouldn’t be denied his rights: “David ignores Beersheba’s nakedness this time, it’s enough-why to let him have Thelma all alone.”

The poet went as far as saying that some women will go the extra mile to see that their husbands die so they can do whatever they like. They go to native doctors to get charms to get rid of their husbands. But he advised women to love their husbands and do the right thing to avoid falling prey, of curse: “Engulf him so he lives to love eternity.”

Well, all this still boils back to belief. But what is right is worth doing right.

In stanza 7, the poet made a statement which is interpreted thus: your husband’s spirit can only haunt you if you did not satisfy him while alive: ...rich people don’t eat in dreams; ...dream-merry is for the unable.

The poet summarized by saying that since you’ve not done your part as a wife, you must pay for it, perhaps with what you believe in. I personally believe that the best way to deal with a man is to hand him over to religion.

The closing remark goes thus: This world is full of sorrow and unethical behavior. Don’t join its trend.

FIGURES OF SPEECH

Metaphor

This is a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea which is used in place of another to suggest likeness or comparison.

"...you have been a nightingale with paws". — Stanza 1, Line 1

" How have you been able to purchase your customer’s heart?"— Stanza 1, Line 2

" This world is a woe..." — The last line of the poem.

Personification

This happens when human nature is attributed to inanimate objects or ideas.

Example: Indiscrimination has worn you. — Stanza 1, Line 3

Allusion

When attention is drawn toward an incident or event in another work of art.

Example: "David ignores Beersheba’s nakedness this time".

This is drawn from the Bible: 2 Samuel 11, verse 2 to be specific.

"Oracle said so"is also an allusion to a prophetic declaration or a herbalist/native doctor’s opinion.

Hyperbole

This is an exaggeration used to measure the magnitude of something.

Example: Weeks hath him to live; he smells sepulcher. — Stanza 5, Line 1

THEME

Themes drawn from this poem include: (1) Infidelity and moral corruption. (2) Consequences of sin and moral judgments. (3) The vanity of the world.

TONE

The tone of this poem is Moralistic.

MOOD

The mood of this poem is Judgmental.

SETTING

Geographical Setting: This piece is geographically set in Africa, though the matter discussed is global.

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