Oral Poetry

Exposition of Yoruba Lullabies

Abstract

The beauty of poetry is fully achieved when presented in the oral form. However, many poets nowadays seem to be engrossed in the written form only, giving little or no credence to the oral form –whose absence arguably invalidates poetic aesthetics as metre, tone, rhyme and rhythm, just to mention a few. Hence, this study captures selected lullabies in their oral art form through audio recording before transcribing and translating them to the written form in this paper. This study basically describes some Yoruba lullabies as a form of oral poetry and how they function in the Yoruba sociocultural structure. It adopts both quantitative and qualitative methods by using two field agents as active participants who interviewed and collected six lullabies from two aged Yoruba women (in Ibadan, Oyo state and Ikire, Osun state) as a representation of the Yoruba society; and consulting conceptual materials from books in libraries and on the cyberspace. Using the functionalist theory as hermeneutics, it assesses the contribution of lullabies to the maintenance of the Yoruba culture and social structure as it is today. This study aims to add to the existing knowledge in the lore of oral poetry in general, and translation of selected Yoruba lullabies precisely.