Behind the Curtains: An outpour of pain from a feminist’s mind

A review of Eyiwumi Bolutito Olayinka’s poetry collection, Behind the Curtains (A Collection of Feminist Poems and Others) by Deborah Omoare

Eyiwumi Bolatito Olayinka’s style of writing in her poetry collection, Behind the Curtains (A Collection of Feminist Poems and Others) basically appeases her audience.

With poems like “All she asks for,” “Whispers of Love,” among others, Olayinka opens up spaces by giving room for questioning on deep subjects about female oppression in the society, which has not been closely looked into, despite the outcry from the fourth estate of the realm.

The collection is a request, desire, outpouring of petitions that the heart could no longer hold onto.

Olayinka challenges the society about the agonies women endure, calling attention to the bondage and pains they bear in their souls in the marital world.

In one of the poems, Olayinka describes marriage as a bondage for the female folk

She writes:

“The worst thing that ever happened

“To her is marriage

“There, there is bondage,

“Frustration and oppression”

A stunning aspect of the poem is the proficiency of the poet’s description skill in painting and capturing the agony of a traumatised woman in the society.

The poet compels figures of speech, most especially simile, metaphor, personification, to pass her message clearly to the audience, thereby merging words effectively to communicate to her readers.

Some of the poems are painful to read. “Bread of Affliction” for instance, explores sorrows some women hold on to in their marriages, illustrating some men who do not reciprocate love to their wives at home.

At a point, the woman thinks of castration,

“Castrate! Castration!! Castrated!!!

“Can a woman be castrated?

“Tell me, my sister!

“Were it possible, she should be”

Behind the curtain makes the reader to be fully drenched in the poet’s words.

The collection of feminist poems is revealed to readers in straightforward and undiluted way, drawing the attention of the society to infliction of women and the essence of oneness in the martial world.

The poet further captures the vital need of every female in the society, with this lines:

“She’s not asking for much,

“All she asks for is love.”

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