This poem is about the poet portraying his emotion in a depressing and melancholy manner as a result of the calamities that befalls him. One of the prevailing message in the poem is to be proud of ones country irrespective of her staus in the international scene.

Song of Sorrow by Kofi Awoonor

Dzogbese Lisa has treated me thusIt has led me among the sharps of the forestReturning is not possibleAnd going forward is a great difficultyThe affairs of this world are like the chameleon faecesInto which I have steppedWhen I clean it cannot go.I am on the world's extreme corner, I am not sitting in the row with the eminentBut those who are luckySit in the middle and forgetI am on the world's extreme cornerI can only go beyond and forget.My people, I have been somewhereIf I turn here, the rain beats meIf I turn there the sun burns meThe firewood of this worldIs for only those who can take heartThat is why not all can gather it.The world is not good for anybodyBut you are so happy with your fate; Alas! the travelers are backAll covered with debt.Something has happened to meThe things so great that I cannot weep; I have no sons to fire the gun when I dieAnd no daughter to wail when I close my mouthI have wandered on the wildernessThe great wilderness men call lifeThe rain has beaten me, And the sharp stumps cut as keen as knivesI shall go beyond and rest.I have no kin and no brother, Death has made war upon our house; And Kpeti's great household is no more, Only the broken fence stands; And those who dared not look in his faceHave come out as men.How well their pride is with them.Let those gone before take noteThey have treated their offspring badly.What is the wailing for? Somebody is dead. Agosu himselfAlas! a snake has bitten meMy right arm is broken, And the tree on which I lean is fallen.Agosi if you go tell them, Tell Nyidevu, Kpeti, and KoveThat they have done us evil; Tell them their house is fallingAnd the trees in the fenceHave been eaten by termites; That the martels curse them.Ask them why they idle thereWhile we suffer, and eat sand.And the crow and the vultureHover always above our broken fencesAnd strangers walk over our portion.