Abiku - Again?

I know you guys might be wondering, why Abiku again? Your last post was Abiku and now another Abiku? Eh! Just relax, I can explain. Well you see, there are two poems with the tittle, Abiku. One was written by Wole Soyinka and the other one by John Pepper Clark. Although the two poems may have the same title and themes, however, if we study with concentrated attention and careful juxtaposition, we will understand the striking features that differentiates them. Below is J.P. Clark's Abiku.

John Pepper Clark

Abiku (J.P. Clark)

Coming and going these several season,
Do stay on the baobab tree,
Follow where you please your kindred spirits
If indoors is not enough for you.
True, it leaks through the thatch 
When flood brim the banks,
And the bats and the owls
Often tear in at night through the eaves,
And at harmattan, the bamboo walls
Are ready tinder for the fire 
That dries the fresh fish up in the rack.
Still, it's been the healthy stock
To several fingers, to many more will be 
Who reach to the sun.
No longer then bestride the threshold
But step in and stay 
For good. We know the knife-scars
Serrating down your back and front 
Like the beak of the swordfish.
And both your ears,notched
As a bondsman to his house,
Are all relics of your first comings
Then step in,step in and stay
For her body is tired,
Tired, her milk going sour 
Where many more mouth gladden the heart.

Note: Some Africans believe that Abiku is an evil child that torment the parents with 

perpetual birth and death,and it always rejoices at the effectual outcome of the anguish.

Analysis

If we read through the two poems aloud, we will understand the differences in the tone and the attitude of the poems. While they share the same themes like the torments of Abiku and the bitter experience to the parents, the first poem (Soyinka's) is presented in the First Person, the abiku, making statements about itself. While Pepper Clark presented his as an observer. Soyinka's Abiku is boastful and happy to see the anguish of its parents, while Clark's is a plea to the child to stay. The subjects and the tones, apart from the title and parallel themes, are obviously different.