Nostalgic Reminiscences

Abstract

The theme of the past and the present, or the now and then -- however we may like to re-phrase it -- is a dominant motif in Leopold Sedar Senghor's poetic art. Often and then in our life, we have moments of reflections or nostalgic reminiscences in which we compare and contrast in our mind situations or circumstances by looking into the past against a backdrop of our present life. Unfortunately, this theme of nostalgic reminiscences has not received adequate attention by the critics of African poetry. It is this subject matter that this essay discusses. We shall illustrate our discussion with pertinent examples.