[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-42094-en":3,"doc-seo-42094-105":30,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":91},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":21,"is_downloadable":21,"audit_status":21,"page_count":22,"language":23,"language_code":24,"site_id":25,"html_lang":24,"table_of_contents":26,"faqs":27,"seo_title":13,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":28,"read_time":29},42094,962075114765,"Quinn","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_a8503ba1806abce46bf441b54a3ca4cd",2,"Literature","A Shuttle in the Crypt","A Shuttle in the Crypt collects Wole Soyinka’s poems written during his imprisonment in Nigeria for writings sympathetic to secessionist Biafra, first published after his release in 1969. The collection frames the solitary gaol experience as a “living crypt,” where the walls, peephole glimpses, and especially sounds reshape perception. Poetic images cast the caged shuttle/weaver-bird as a restless creative force, turning deprivation, surveillance, and confinement into a record of human contact lost and imagination kept alive.","Poems byWole Sovink  \n# A Shuttle in the Crypt\n\nPoems by WOLE SOYINKA  \nWole Soyinka,poet and playwright,one ofAfrica's leading writers,was imprisoned in1967 in his native Nigeria for writingssympathetic to secessionist Biafra.A Shut-tle in the Crypt,his first book of poems tobe published after his release from prisonin 1969,is,Soyinka writes,a \"record ofpoems written in gaol in spite of the dep-rivation of reading and writing materialin nearly two years of solitary confinement....The shuttle is a unique species of thecaged animal,a restless bolt of energy,atrapped weaver-bird....In motion or atrest it is a secretive seed,shrine,kernel,phallus,and well of creative mysteries.Self-identification with this essence of innaterepletion was a natural weapon to employagainst the dangers of an inhuman isola-tion.\"  \nMany of these poems,written down inthe dark or during a moment of slackenedsurveillance,on the inside of a cigarettepack or“equally precious scrap of salvage,”describe what Soyinka calls the \"landscapeof the loss of human contact\":the wallsdown to their mildew and cobwebs,theoccasional sights through the peephole inthe door,and,most of all,sounds,whichto the solitary prisoner are the only sign ofan outside world.\"Sounds acquire a fourthdimension in a living crypt.A clarity(continued on back flap)  \nBOSTON  \nPUBL1C  \nL1BRARY  \n区  \nDigitized by the Internet Archivein 2017 with funding fromKahle/Austin Foundation  \nhttps://archive.org/details/shuttleincrypt00wole  \n# A SHUTTLE IN THE CRYPT\n\nBy the same authorPLAYSA DANCE OF THE FORESTTHE LION AND THE JEWELTHE SWAMP DWELLERSTHE TRIALS OF BROTHER JEROTHE STRONG BREEDTHE ROADKONGI'S HARVESTNOVELTHE INTERPRETERSPOETRYIDANRE &OTHER POEMSPOEMS FROM PRISON  \nA SHUTTLEIN THECRYPTWOLESOYINKA  \npyright ◎1972 by Wole Soyinka  \nAll rights reserved  \nISBN (clothbound edition):0-8090-8667-0  \nISBN(paperback edition):0-8090-1364-9  \nLibrary of Congress Catalog Card Number:77-185430  \nFirst American edition 1972  \n12345678910  \nCONTENTS  \nPrefacepage viiPhases of PerilO Roots!  \n1  \nConversation at night with a cockroach5A cobweb's touch in the dark14When seasons change15To the madmen over the wall18I anoint my fiesh(Tenth day of fast)19  \nFour archetypes  \nJoseph(to Mrs Potiphar)21Hamlet22Gulliver23Ulysses(Notes from here to my Joyce class)27  \nChimes of Silence  \nBearings  \n34  \nI.Wailing Wall  \n35  \nI.Vall of Mists  \n37  \nII.Amber Wall  \n38  \nIV.Purgatory  \n39  \nV.Vault Centre  \n4147Last turning(The last among the five)49Recession(Mahapralaya)  \nProcession  \nHunt of the stone(Interlude for the meteor that plungedearthwards months later,and fell -within the hangingyard?)  \n51  \nSac54Seed  \n56  \nPrisonnettesLive burial  \n60  \n62  \nFlowers for my landAnimystic spells  \n66  \nBackground and friezesFuture plans  \n72  \n75  \nPoems of bread and earth  \nRelief(or Wedding in a minor key)Capital  \n77  \n79  \nUjamaa(for Julius Nyerere)Ever-ready bank accountsAprès la guerreJourney  \n80  \n81  \n84  \n85  \n# Epilogue\n\nAnd what of it if thus he died?87For Christopher Okigbo89","cbCaiamLebSzjxhY","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiamLebSzjxhY","pdf",3316032,6,1,112,"English","en",105,"# Preface\n# Phases of PerilO Roots!\n## Conversation at night with a cockroach\n## A cobweb's touch in the dark\n## When seasons change\n## To the madmen over the wall\n# Four archetypes\n## Joseph (to Mrs Potiphar)\n## Hamlet\n## Gulliver\n## Ulysses (Notes from here to my Joyce class)\n# Chimes of Silence\n## Wailing Wall\n## Vall of Mists\n## Amber Wall\n## Purgatory\n## Vault Centre\n# Prisonnettes\n## Live burial\n# Epilogue","[{\"question\":\"What circumstances produced the poems in A Shuttle in the Crypt?\",\"answer\":\"Wole Soyinka wrote the poems in gaol after being imprisoned in 1967, including during nearly two years of solitary confinement. The book emphasizes how writing and reading deprivation shaped the work.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the collection describe the prisoner’s perception of the outside world?\",\"answer\":\"The poems focus on the “landscape of the loss of human contact,” including walls, mildew, cobwebs, and occasional views through a door peephole. Sounds become the main sign of the outside world.\"},{\"question\":\"Why is the “shuttle” figure central to the book’s meaning?\",\"answer\":\"The “shuttle” is presented as a caged animal—an energy and weaving presence—used by Soyinka as a self-identification and creative weapon. It symbolizes motion, mystery, and the persistence of imagination under isolation.\"}]",1783347718,172,{"code":4,"msg":31,"data":32},"ok",{"site_id":25,"language":24,"slug":33,"title":13,"keywords":34,"description":14,"schema_data":35,"social_meta":86,"head_meta":88,"extra_data":90,"updated_unix":28},"a-shuttle-in-the-crypt","",{"@graph":36,"@context":85},[37,53,68],{"@type":38,"itemListElement":39},"BreadcrumbList",[40,44,47,50],{"item":41,"name":42,"@type":43,"position":21},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":45,"name":46,"@type":43,"position":11},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",{"item":48,"name":12,"@type":43,"position":49},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/literature/",3,{"item":51,"name":13,"@type":43,"position":52},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/a-shuttle-in-the-crypt/42094/",4,{"url":51,"name":13,"@type":54,"author":55,"headline":13,"publisher":57,"fileFormat":60,"inLanguage":24,"description":14,"dateModified":61,"datePublished":62,"encodingFormat":60,"isAccessibleForFree":63,"interactionStatistic":64},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":56},"Person",{"url":41,"name":58,"@type":59},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-07-19","2026-07-06",true,{"@type":65,"interactionType":66,"userInteractionCount":20},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":67},"ViewAction",{"@type":69,"mainEntity":70},"FAQPage",[71,77,81],{"name":72,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":74},"What circumstances produced the poems in A Shuttle in the Crypt?","Question",{"text":75,"@type":76},"Wole Soyinka wrote the poems in gaol after being imprisoned in 1967, including during nearly two years of solitary confinement. The book emphasizes how writing and reading deprivation shaped the work.","Answer",{"name":78,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":79},"How does the collection describe the prisoner’s perception of the outside world?",{"text":80,"@type":76},"The poems focus on the “landscape of the loss of human contact,” including walls, mildew, cobwebs, and occasional views through a door peephole. Sounds become the main sign of the outside world.",{"name":82,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":83},"Why is the “shuttle” figure central to the book’s meaning?",{"text":84,"@type":76},"The “shuttle” is presented as a caged animal—an energy and weaving presence—used by Soyinka as a self-identification and creative weapon. 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