Deictic Centre And Pragmatic Implications In Remi Raji-Oyelade’s Poetry

Deixis is essentially core to pragmatics and it is deployed in poetry to achieve various ends. This study investigated deictic centres and pragmatic implications in Remi Raji-Oyelade’s poetry. Working within the traditional classification of deixis, that is, person, time, and place deixis, and context in pragmatics, ten poems, five from each, were purposively selected from Remi Raji-Oyelade’s first two anthologies of poems – A Harvest of Laughters (1997) and Webs of Remembrance (2015) – because of their thematic relevance and deployment of deictic tokens. It was found out that: the poet chronicled his personal involvement in the political, social and economic happenings in his country. He also projected himself, through the use of deixis, into experiencing his friends’ dehumanisation in the hand of the military rulers. More so, it was revealed that the poet conflated his identity with that of the leadership in order to lampoon and expose the inhumane treatments of the citizenry by the corrupt political/military and religious leaders. Deploying inclusive plural pronouns, the poet encouraged the citizens to be critical and tactful in choosing competent hands to man their destiny and resources of the country