Browsing by Author "Melkie, Abraham"
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Item Thematic and Technical Analysis of Oral Poetry in and around Debre Tabor(Addis Ababa University, 2007-08) Melkie, Abraham; Matthews, Berhanu (Ph D)Oral poetry is a means of expressing ideas and recording history, culture and belief, especially in illiterate societies. It is also a means of teaching ethics in societies where there are no modern educational institutions. It is called oral poetry, because it’s mode of existence and transmissions oral. However, this valuable resource seems at dangerous state now, due to the expansion of modernization, which puts the oral artist to the backward position. Similarly the researcher found oral poetry in and around Debre Tabor at the verge of extinction. So, this paper aims as preserving some thematic and technical patterns for the coming generations. Six hundred oral poems are collected from oral artists and community elders of the area. From these, hundred poems are selected, based on thematic inclusiveness and recurrence, and classified under five thematic categories and six technical groups. Of these 36 poems are discussed thematically and 27 poems are analyzed technically to meet the purpose of the study in two separate chapters, and the others are appended to the paper, with their English translations. According to the discussions in the analytical chapters, hard work as a recommendable task, sexual love as a powerful agent in affecting people’s activities and feelings, heroism as a socially recommended value, death as a source of grief, and social comments as a means to teach moral lessons are the prominent thematic issues in oral poetry of Debre Tabor and its environs. And the prominent techniques are: indirect expression, direct expression, figurative expression, symbolism, pun, and analogy.