The narrator is speaking in second person so interpreted Rita Dove’s poem, Heroes, as Hades talking to himself and going over an account of what has just transpired in an effort to collect himself. He sees Persephone (the poppy) in a harsh environment, or a suffocating relationship with her mother (the weedy field). He pities the girl and wishes to remove her from the weeds because she is wilting. By doing so, and being with her, her life is draining faster as he rushes to get her a glass of water. In the third stanza the woman screams at Hades because he has taken her daughter away from her. Persephone is symbolic for the maternal relationship Demeter has with the Earth, nurturing it and giving it life. Also of how strenuous that relationship is for her, although it gives her purpose. In the third stanza Dove writes,” In her miserable garden, the one that gave her strength in the morning to rise!” She uses juxtaposition to show that a proud mother and an effete mother exist simultaneously as one. Dove also uses quick simple sentences with a quickening cadence to show the urgency and desperation, almost as if Hades is overcome with anxiety and confused by his sympathetic emotions. Lastly, the ninth stanza slows down, to set a conclusive mood. The last line is also visually slower because it stands alone as one line at the end. “And you knew
it was going to die”
Hades pauses in his panic to find that the reason why he did what he did is because he is the god of the underworld, and it is his duty to take the dying over the other side. He ridicules Persephone “why did you pick that idiot flower?” the profane diction used to insult Persephone sets a new, harder tone, as if Hades is forming a scab over his emotional wound and moving on.
I like how you mentioned the use of second person in the poem, because it stood out to me as well. I agree that Hades is talking to himself about what has happened with him and Persephone, and I noticed some other parallels between the poem and their story as well. It seems like the person who picked the flower had good intentions when picking it (because it was starting to wilt). However, in the end, that person ended up having to kill a woman because of that action, which I think illustrates the idea that good intentions sometimes lead to poor results. This can also be seen in Hades' case; his intentions may have been good in the beginning when taking Persephone, but because of his poor judgement, the outcome of his action ended up being negative.
In Rita Dove’s poem “Breakfast of Champions,” Demeter is walking through her grief. Her daughter, Persephone has just been taken by Hades down to the underworld and Demeter’s world falls. She says, “Finally overcast skies. I’ve crossed a hemisphere, worked my way through petals and sunlight to find a place fit for morning.” As she grieves, summer disappears and the world becomes dark. It almost seems as if the beautiful nature and warmth of summer described through imagery reminds her too much of her daughter. Persephone’s love is Demeter’s warmth, and so with the absence of her daughter, Demeter heart becomes cold. At the end of the first stanza, Dove uses animal imagery to portray Demeter’s sadness. Demeter says,”here’s weather to match my condition: the first pair of Canada geese.” When the first Goose comes flying down, there is no doubt that winter has arrived and for most, it dampens their mood. This helps the reader truly feel Demeter’s emotions of sadness and loss. In the second stanza, Demeter shows an attempt to recover as she, “rummage through the pantry’s stock for raisins and cereal.” She is the goddess of the harvest, and as she attempts to recover, the world starts to grow again as she reaches for the grain in the back of the pantry. She sits down for breakfast and says,”Arise, it’s a brand new morning! Though I pour myself the recommended bowlful, stones are what I sprinkle among the chaff.” As most do when going through grief, she attempts to go on with her everyday life. However this is not quite enough and she still feels weighed down by the “stones”. This sonnet shows the transition from winter to spring as demeter works through her motherly grief.
I really like how you analyzed animal imagery in it's relationship to the season and mood, I didn't catch that while reading through. The changing of seasons has strong emotional connotation that allows us to empathize with Demeter's sadness and emptiness, (although we haven't had a child be abducted).
Demeter, Waiting After Persephone returns to the underworld, Demeter is disgusted with herself for letting her daughter leave. This poem explains why we have winter, since Demeter refuses to allow harvests. The dictions like “ashen Christian”, and in “meteor flash and finicky butterflies! I will wail and thrash until the whole goddamned golden panorama freezes over.” all give a cold hateful tone. Demeter wants the people to suffer like she’s suffering while she waits for her daughter. Persephone is described as a warbound solder to emphasize how patriotic she is and what big sacrifice she is making. Everything is Demeter's fault for allowing this to happen and poor, innocent Persephone is stuck in the middle. The poem is a single sonnet and is split at the sixth line to differentiate the ideas and tones. The top grouping is a regretful throne while the bottoms paragraph has a hateful, satiric tone. The meadow trying to “recycle itself into hope” is naive and useless because Demeter controls the harvest and she can do whatever she wants. Mother love is a grouping of poems looking at the Demeter and Persephone myth in different ways, Towards the end of the the groups, where this poem is, the tone of the poems becomes low and regretful once the effects of Persephone mistake are understood and mourned. This poem is written in first person from Demetres point of view to illustrate her motherly emotions. Prior to this one, the poems show resentment towards motherly figures, in this case Demeter. This is the only poem that supports Demeter and shows how she is affected.
I like how you analyzed the use of separating the two groupings when it is split at the sixth line. However I do not agree with the statement that this is the only poem that supports Demeter and shows the effect the events had on her as the poem "Persephone, Falling" is told from the perspective of Demeter and how she mourns the fact that her daughter hadn't listened to her advice however I think this poem shows a different side of her emotions concerning the event where she engages in more self pity and blame as well as she is lashing out against the world to show her pain.
Wiederkehr (Return) This poem by Rita Dove parallels with Persephone’s time shortly after her kidnapping by Hades. Some of the obvious parallels are contained within the lines “He only wanted me for happiness” at the beginning, then “He never asked if I would stay. Which is why, when the choice appeared, I reached for it.” This pretty obviously represents Hades’ motives behind the kidnapping, as well as Persephone’s choice when presented with a chance to escape. However, these are easy conclusions to come to-- there are many more things hidden in the short poem. With 14 lines, this poem is a sonnet, but it’s not a traditional one. While Italian sonnets are divided into two parts and Elizabethan sonnets into four, this one is a single stanza. Also, it does not rhyme in a recognizable pattern and flows from one line to the next. This could represent Persephone’s desperate desire to leave the prison of the Underworld, as supported by the line “and though he saw how still I sat to hold the rain untouched within me”. This shows how Persephone holds a relic of the world above, the rains (or her emotions) deep within herself away from her kidnapper. The line “He merely hoped, in darkness, to smell rain;” also backs this idea up. Not much about Demeter or her persona is mentioned in this poem, possibly to further emphasize Persephone’s isolation with Hades. In all, this poem tells the tale of Persephone, trapped in the dark prison of the Underworld, looking for a way out.
I like how you pointed out the parallel, it is very distinct. While it is true that Hades never asked Persephone to stay, he did trick her into eating a pomegranate seed, or six depending on which version of the myth you look like. I agree with the fact that Persephone will never truly let go of the world above, Hades steals some of her life force. The lines 8-12 "He merely hoped in darkness, to smell rain; and though he saw how still I sat to hold the rain untouched inside me, he never asked if I would stay." Hades wanted to experience the light from above, and he got that in stealing Persephone, He succeeds in someways because she stays loyal to him during the part of the year she has to stay with him, and makes sure he does the same. I do however think Demeter is mentioned often times in spirit, in the back of Persephone's mind. She misses her mother, who brings rain, goodness, and harvest. It is the only thing that keeps her going.
In the poem “The Bistro Styx”, Rita Dove uses the symbol of a dinner date to symbolize a meeting between the Goddess Demeter and her daughter Persephone. This meeting is one of Persephone’s many returns from the Underworld, but despite this, Demeter feels distanced from her daughter, barely recognizing her from her appearance when they meet, noticing that, “She was thinner, with a mannered gauntness as she paused just inside the double glass doors to survey the room, silvery cape billowing dramatically behind her” (Dove, “The Bistro Styx”). The visual imagery of the daughter’s gauntness is used by Dove to symbolize that because Persephone spends so much time living amongst the land of the dead, the healthy life from her body is slowly dwindling away with each passing year. When mother and daughter meet, the mother notices that her daughter is, “…[D]ressed all in gray” (Dove, “The Bistro Styx”). The use of visual imagery in this passage is another symbol of Persephone’s time in the land of death because the colour gray is typically associated with sorrow or the loss of human life. Despite the discomfort of seeing her daughter like this, Demeter still tries to converse with Persephone, but Persephone has now begun to speak more formally and less sympathetically with her mother because of how distanced they were before. Persephone has lost interest in her mother and has begun to live a life of luxury, as Demeter sees that, “Wine, a bloody Pinot Noir, brought colour to her cheeks” (Dove, “The Bistro Styx”). Dove once again uses visual imagery to show the reader that the colour the wine is bringing is because Persephone is more into her seemingly fabulous new lifestyle than she is about reuniting with her mother. Later into the conversation, the mother realizes that her daughter has been, “…[C]onvinced to…pose nude for his appalling canvases…” by her successful artist of a lover, symbolizing Hades making Persephone fall in love with him with the more time they spend together. This symbolizes that the daughter now has put the love of her boyfriend before the love of her mother because she is enticed by all of the wealth he can bring her, which makes her blind to the genuine maternal love that awaits her every time she returns to her mother. However, as the dinner proceeds, the mother realizes, “I’ve lost her…and called for the bill” (Dove, “The Bistro Styx”). Dove uses pathos to arouse a feeling of sadness from the reader by writing about how a daughter strays from a mother’s love when a life of glamor, offered by a rich boyfriend, awaits her. This poem is written to show Demeter’s sorrow upon having to witness her daughter being married to Hades.
In the poem, “The Narcissus Flower”, Dove uses the literary terms analogy, antagonist, pathos, persona, and allegory to tell the tale of Persephone’s descent into becoming the queen of the underworld. Once human beings are exposed to extreme amounts of something, such as verbal or physical abuse, they adapt into that surrounding, they become one with it. Persephone does this when she is taken into the underworld by Hades to become his bride. Taken away from her mother for a long amount of time, Persephone is constantly exposed to nothing but evil, which eventually, deflowers the innocent daughter of Demeter she used to be. Because of this constant exposure to evil, Persephone starts her journey to truly becoming queen of the underworld. The first way the journey is shown to begin is when Dove uses analogy to show Persephone’s old self shattering. Lines two through four state, “but the way I could see my own fingers and hear myself scream as the blossom incinerated.” The blossom represents Persephone, since she has been away from her mom and the world above for so long, a small sliver of maliciousness has managed to find it’s way into her heart. This is because of constant coaxing by Hades, eventually her walls just broke down. Hades is the one who turned Persephone into queen of the underworld, making her for the most part unmerciful and malicious. Hades is the second way Dove portrays the tale of Persephone falling away from her once innocent self and into the hard queen of the underworld. Hades is constantly working against Persephone, as shown in lines five through seven. Dove writes, “And though nothing could chasten the plunge, this man adamant as a knife easing into this humblest crevice…”. As the antagonist of the myth, it is Hades job to make sure Persephone gives in, to make her crumble beneath him, to accept her fate. Although it took a long time, he got her to crumble, and to accept the situation she was in, and that the queen of the underworld was who she was now. He turned the most innocent of maiden’s into a cold queen. The third way Dove tells the story of Persephone turning cold is through pathos. While pathos is greek for suffering, there is a point in the poem where Persephone truly numbs out, and becomes one with the horrible environment she has been submitted to. Dove writes, “...I found myself at the center of a calm so pure, it was hate,” (Dove 8-9). This is the point in the poem where Persephone is suffering to the point of hatred, hatred for the environment she is in, and hatred for herself. This is one of the last steps that drove her into willingly taking on the full role of Hades wife. The second to last way Dove shows Persephone’s complete deflowering, is through persona. Dove writes, “The mystery is, you can eat fear before fear eats you, you can live beyond dying, and become a queen whom nothing surprises,” (Dove 10-14). Taking on the role of Persephone speaking directly to the audience, Dove explains how Persephone coped with everything that has happened to her. This is the final step in how Persephone fully loses herself, without hope of going completely back to normal. By telling the audience, or rather telling herself, it’s the finalization of everything, her true surrender. She was so tired of fighting back without any hope that she became the very thing she thought she wouldn’t. The final lit term Dove uses, is allegory. She uses allegory to sum up the entire poem, to teach her readers a lesson about Persephone. And that is, without light, darkness can sneak in and take over.
When I first read the poem “Primer,” I read the title with a long “i” sound, because that’s the only way I’ve ever heard the word used. However, when I looked up what the word means, I found that “primer” with a short “i” sound has a different definition. When pronounced differently, it can also mean an elementary book that is used to introduce students to a particular subject. The poem itself, in this case, acts as an introduction to the issue of bullying. The speaker is writing about her experience with bullying when she was younger, and in this way the poem is relatable for many people. The line where the speaker says, “Nothing could get me in the car” has a lot of emphasis on it, mainly because the entire sonnet consists of enjambments from line to line, except for on that line, which is its own sentence. This places importance on the statement and emphasizes that the speaker is angry when her mother has to come to her rescue. The entire poem elicits a tone of anger and embarrassment, which is found in words like “hissing,” “retort,” “survived,” and “swore.” The speaker feels resentment towards the bullies and even those trying to help her, which makes the poem relatable for people who have been in the same situation before. While the poem does bring bullying into question, another key point of it is the relationship that the speaker has with her mother. When the mother drives up to help her with the bullies, the speaker appears to not want her help at all. She states in the last line “I’ll show them” which could mean both the bullies or her mother, or both. It seems like the speaker is striving to be independent, and her mother, while nurturing, is trying her best to help her deal with the bullies while letting her fight for herself as well. Another thing that I noticed when reading was the sense of rhythm that the poem has, especially through the use of assonance. When talking about the bullies, the author uses words like “skinny,” “sisters,” and “hissing,” all with short “i” sounds (like the title of the book). These words are all sharp and concise and helped convey the speaker’s feeling of distress towards bullying. There is also rhyme in the words “heel” and “deal,” along with “who” and “knew” in the following lines. This rhythmic tone also conveys the speaker’s anger towards bullying, because it emphasizes the terrible experience she and many others had.
I really like your connection between the meaning of the word “primer” to the purpose of Dove’s poem. I thought it was clever to look up the multiple definitions of the word, something I might not have thought to do. I agree with your thoughts on the fact that this poem is very relatable to its readers. In lines 13-14, Dove writes “...swore I’d show them all: I would grow up.” I think that in almost everyone’s childhood there is a point in which we want to be able to handle situations by ourselves. We rebel against the help of our parents because there is an excitement of simply growing up, as well as a need for more freedom. There is a struggle to find the balance between wanting to deal with issues on our own and needing assistance from parents. This poem makes me notice that finding this balance can also be a struggle for parents as well. Parents need to be able to let their kids fly, but also lend a hand when the child is stumbling. Nevertheless in this situation, the child starts to realize how powerless they are is in this stage of childhood. This is shown when the narrator writes “Besides, I knew they’d beat me up.” At this point, a parent to step into the situation in order for it to be resolved. Yet the child continues to rebel against the fact that they can’t fight back and in return seems to want to escape from both the bullies and his parents, indicated in the phrase “I took the long way home,”.
I agree that this poem sets up the relationship of Demeter and Persephone for the reader. It is definitely about a mother wanting to protect her daughter and her daughter not wanting to accept the help. When I read the poem, I thought it was Demeter reflecting back on her own past in attempt to find some understanding of her daughter. When she looks back, she realizes she was also not welcoming of her mother and realizes that daughters need independence to grow and learn on their own. Even though Demeter has some understanding, she is still bitter to the fact that Persephone wont accept her help. It sets up Demeter and Persephone's relationship for the rest of the poems.
In the poem "Persephone, Falling" by Rita Dove the author demonstrates caesura many times in order to separate ideas in the poem and add a meaning that otherwise would not have been in the piece without punctuation. The author uses caesura throughout the piece on many different occasions even during the title adding a comma between the two words establishing the perspective from which the story is being told. If the author had left out the comma then the title would have just been "Persephone Falling" which simply implies that someone who knows of Persephone's story is telling it and is simply relaying information, but when the comma is added between the words it adds a pause which when read gives a mourning or sad tone to the title establishing that the story is being told from the perspective of Demeter, Persephone's mother, a piece of information that the audience is given just by the use of one comma and this information completely changes the mood, tone, and message of the poem. It would also change how the poem is being delivered if being read aloud as punctuation changes the delivery in Shakespeare as well, who also used to caesura to establish messages in the text that were not said with words but punctuation. The use of caesura separating trains of thought in the poem also helps keep the poem in sonnet form. Since the thoughts are being separated punctuation the author doesn't have to create a new line or section for every group of thought that she has or part of the story she is trying to convey enabling the poem to be fourteen lines making it a sonnet.
In the poem “Heros” by Rita Dove, it can be seen that the narrator is speaking about a break in the relationship between a mother and a daughter. As a daughter is maturing, she is bound to reach an obstacle where she needs her mother’s help, but often times more than not, this can make a daughter feel very ashamed or embarrassed. She may feel a desperation to escape from the guilt, almost as if she’s living in a bad dream. In the first stanza, Dove writes “A flower in a weedy field: make it a poppy. You pick it.” Similarly, there are many choices a daughter can make in her growing up period and while most of them lead to positivity, there are always those few that get caught in the one-in-a-million choices which lead to suffering. It is the alternative which she has learned about growing up, but never thought she would have to deal with its outcome during her lifetime. The daughter wonders: why her? This is just like the poppy which is picked in Dove’s poem. Dove writes “You run to the nearest house to ask for a jar of water.” In parallel, the daughter realizes she is now in trouble and desperately needs her mother, one who has lived through this all before. Maybe her mother can provide her the wisdom to solve this crisis, just like water can supply a poppy flower life. The poem says “Screaming: You’ve plucked the last poppy in her miserable garden…” As soon as the daughter reaches her mother’s house, the closest of them all, her mother reacts with terror after she hears about her daughter’s conundrum. This problem is so colossal, it’s a mother’s worst nightmare. So severe, her mother has nothing to say. Because her daughter has had issues before, the mother has already used all of her wisdom to assist her daughter. She has no more life force in her to help. In connection, the daughter daughter has picked the last poppy, turning her mother’s garden miserable. At this time “It’s too late for apologies…” and her mother will die over this. “So you strike her, she hits her head on a white boulder,” This is a metaphor for the death that occurs inside a mother when her daughter's complication is so immense that even she doesn’t know how to solve it. She wonders what she did wrong during her daughter’s childhood. She asks if she could have done anything different in the past to stop this outcome from happening. Dove writes “...You have to take along, because you're a fugitive now...” The mother is dead inside and has lost all hope, so the daughter has nothing to do but to flee. She doesn't know what to do, and she is starting to lose hope in her own self. As she sits down to cry, she wonders to herself why she even “picked that idiot flower” in the first place? This daughter has learned her lesson, but in the price of her relationship with her mother. Though this does not commonly happen, Dove writes the ultimate bad dream in which this is can be the reality between some mothers and daughters.
The poem “Catherine of Alexandria” by Rita Dove is a third person narrative describing Catherine in the past. She is also known as Saint Catherine of the Wheel who was a Christian saint and a virgin. She converted many people to Christianity and was named a saint by St. Joan of Arc. Her feast day is still celebrated in churches today along with the Catherine wheel, a torture device she was martyred with. This poem is a quatern poem with 16 lines that are divided up into 4 quatrains. It recognises the sacrifice she made for her religion. “His breath of a lily. His spiraling pain.” (Dove) Lilies are associated with love and innocence and his pain is the sacrifice she is making for her religion along with the consequences she faces because of it. Dove questions Catherine’s becoming a saint when she says “Deprived of learning and the chance to travel, no wonder sainthood came as a voice”. She ends the poem with “a kept promise, a ring of milk” which questions her virginity. The ultimate question is was she infact a virgin or did she have someone she slept with forcing her to become a saint whether it’s directly or indirectly.
I really like how you point out that Catherine's becoming a saint could be linked to the lack of options and experiences she had in her life, not just to how devout of a practitioner of her religion she was, and how becoming a saint could have also been forced on her from someone else, who she could have possibly had an illicit relationship with. Do you think that when Dove writes "...[I]n your bed- and what went on each night was fit for nobody's ears but Jesus'. His breath of lily. His spiraling pain..."(Dove), it's possible that she is hinting that Jesus is disappointed in Catherine for being intimate with another man despite pledging to be a virgin and devoting her life to Him?
Do you think that Catherine of Alexandria is disappointed with herself to an extent, and perhaps chose a life focused on religion to punish herself? Would you relate Catherine of Alexandria's death as a martyr to her possible lack of purity and lack of virginity, almost as a way to reclaim any lost honor?
In the poem “Tou Wan Speaks to Her Husband, Liu Sheng”, Rita Dove writes about the lifelong devotion of Princess Tou Wan to her husband, Prince Liu Sheng of Zhongshan. Tou Wan’s devotion to her husband can be identified in the opening lines of the poem, “I will build you a house of limited chambers but it shall last forever: four rooms hewn in the side of stone for you, my only conqueror” (Dove, “Tou Wan Speaks to Her Husband, Liu Sheng”). Dove uses the epithet “her only conqueror” to describe Tou Wan’s endless love for her husband, while also revealing that Tou Wan is a strong woman if only one man has ever won her heart. Another symbol of unconditional love that Tou Wan has is the fact that she is personally attending to the building of her husband’s burial tomb, which she writes “…[W]ill last forever.” Dove uses irony in this line, as the Tomb of Liu Sheng was unearthed in 1968, but despite this, the line could also mean that the tomb is a symbol of love, and that the thought behind the constructing of it will last forever. However, despite her love for her husband, Tou Wan also acknowledges that her husband had many faults. Dove writes, “For those times in your niche when darkness oppresses, I will set you a lamp. (And a statue of the palace girl you most frequently coveted.)” (Dove, “Tou Wan Speaks to Her Husband, Liu Sheng”). Here, she alludes to Liu Sheng’s reputation for indulging in the company of many women, possibly having a total of about 120 sons. Yet, despite knowing this, Tou Wan chooses to allow him to indulge in this behavior after death in order to put his spirit to rest by allowing him to have what he loves most, but also due to the patriarchy of the time, where a woman didn’t have very much of a say in her husbands affairs, and therefore couldn’t do much about it. Lastly, Dove rights that Tou Wan has her husband’s body put in a casket of, “…[T]wo thousand jade wafers with gold thread puzzled to a brilliant envelope, a suit to keep the shape of your death…” (Dove, “Tou Wan Speaks to Her Husband, Liu Sheng”). Dove uses visual imagery to enhance the beauty of Liu Sheng’s casket. This alludes to the burial tradition of Ancient China, where the material of a person’s casket reflected their social status, and in this case, Liu Sheng is buried in gold and jade because he is a prince, and therefore buried in the finest material possible. However, the use of jade is also important because it has a significance in Chinese culture, usually associated with good luck, which hints Tou Wan’s intention to see her husband, “…[W]hen you are long light and clouds, over the earth, just as the legends prophesy” (Dove, “Tou Wan Speaks to Her Husband, Liu Sheng”). Dove uses the description of the light above to allude to Heaven, where Tou Wan hopes her husband goes. This confirms her devotion to him, for despite his infidelity to her, she still hopes he reaches eternal paradise. The overall message of the poem is Tou Wan bidding farewell to her husband, hoping that he rests in peace.
I really like how you connected the jade in the casket to good luck on his journey after life. Without considering the time, do personally you think she should have honored her husband the way she did, regardless of knowing about his affairs?
I liked how you used outside knowledge such as the possibility of Liu Sheng having up to 120 sons to justify the line that shows he had other affairs. But do you think that Dove was saying that Tou Wan's devotion is something to be admired or that she is using her as an example of what not to be because she exemplifies female dependency and being so devoted that they ignore rather serious faults?
I really liked how you used outside knowledge to support your claims in your post. But do you think that Tou Wan's affection could be her way of getting revenge? That by being a constant force of love and affection, she was acting defiantly towards he husband, showing him that he could not destroy her no matter how much wrong he did?
In her poem "Catherine of Siena", Rita Dove explores the theme of faith and how it is comforting. The theme of faith is introduced in the third and fourth lines when Dove writes, "You struck the boulder at the roadside since fate has doors everywhere". This creates a feeling of strength and opportunism. Dove introduces Catherine of Sienna's determination and perseverance in the first couple of lines "You walked the length of Italy to find someone to talk to". The willingness to explore an entire country shows how Catherine of Siena was very motivated to explore her religion and connects to how she persuaded the Pope to return to Rome from Avignon in 1377. In Dove's poem on Catherine of Alexandria, it is hinted that Catherine of Alexandria took sainthood as a last resort. Comparatively, Dove writes of a strong, determined women when she writes of Catherine of Sienna. Dove writes that, "Under the star-washed dome of heaven, warm and dark as the woolens stacked on ceder shelves back home in your father's shop, you prayed until tears streaked the sky". Catherine of Sienna's father was a wool dyer, and as such would have many woolens in his shop. Dove writes of how the sky had many stars and how it was warm and dark to create a tone of comfort and peace. This tone is continued with the comparison to Catherine of Siena's home and father's shop because people are ordinarily comforted by their childhood home and at their parent's work. Dove gives a feeling of finality to the feelings, a confirmation of them, when she writes that "No one stumbled across your path. No one unpried your fists as you slept". Dove's use of anaphora gives the impression that like the start of the final lines of her poem, the feelings of comfort repeat. Throughout the poem, Dove writes in second person, relating the reader choosing his or her own path to the self led path of Catherine of Siena, which helps relate the comforting aspect of faith to the reader.
I agree that the tone of the poem was comforting when addressing the topic of religion, but I saw it in possibly another way as well. In your first line, you said that the theme of faith was entirely comforting throughout the poem, but in the line "Under the star-washed dome of heaven," could it also be interpreted as a way to keep people in and perhaps trap them underneath this "dome"? I agree with you in saying that within the context of the poem, it symbolizes comfort and even protection, but that could also be another way of looking at it.
I think your interpretation is very valid and I agree with it completely. However, I interpreted the poem differently. When Dove writes "You walked to length of Italy to find someone to talk to", I saw this as Catherine of Alexandria being very lonely. The boulder in line three can be seen as a symbol of her loneliness. In the last stanza it says "no one stumbled across your path", which could mean that nothing changes at all in the course of her life and she will die with a sense of isolation. I thought this poem had a tone of sadness. This could connect back to the theme of loneliness and a lack of "spunk" in her life which could also be seen as a reason to why the poem is so simplistic.
I didn't think of the dome in that way as trapping.. I think part of the sadness with it could also be being trapped in the dome and not being able to find anyone similar to her, so despite her comfort in faith, she would also like to have comfort in someone being as passionate about it as herself.
In the poem “Tou Wan Speaks to Her Husband, Liu Sheng,” Rita Dove illustrates the complex relationship that Tou Wan had with her husband; although the poem first comes across as an expression of her love for him, Tou Wan also possesses feelings of contempt that are hidden within the poem. The poem starts out by talking about the house that Tou Wan is going to build for her husband. The tone is romantic and gives the impression that she cares deeply for him. With phrases like “four rooms hewn in the side of stone” and “two bronze jugs, worth more than a family pays in taxes,” it appears that Tou Wan will withhold no expense in order to please her husband. However, in the fourth stanza, the tone changes dramatically. The line starts off with “but you’re bored,” and a sense of detest and loathing begin to surface. The line “leading to you, my constant emperor” leads the reader to believe that Tou Wan is angry with her relationship and feels obligated to keep her husband happy. In the sixth stanza, Dove writes, “For those times in your niche when darkness oppresses, I will set you a lamp. (And a statue of the palace girl you most frequently coveted.)” The tone is sarcastic and it appears that Tou Wan is making harsh remarks at her husband, and yet she still feels obligated to provide for him despite his obvious affairs. However, in the time period where their relationship took place, the husband held certain authority in the relationship and directly disobeying or speaking out against him would cause her to be castigated. Dove is directly addressing this issue in the poem; her persona allows her to illustrate how women couldn’t challenge their husbands on anything and were essentially slaves that existed merely to please them. Her use of shifting tone and sarcasm throughout the poem depicts her interpretation of the relationship between husband and wife during the time period as being oppressive and unfair to women.
In the poem "Canary", Rita Dove illustrates Billy Holiday's stance on women's rights and how she went about fighting for women's rights and resisting social norms. First Dove establishes a mysterious tone with use of imagery to describe Billy Holiday's voice. This is interesting because Dove uses visual imagery in order to describe an auditory sense saying "Billy Holiday's burned voice". While using visual imagery in order to make the reader use an auditory sense may be unusual by saying "burned voice" the author makes the reader think of a cabaret style voice which often comes with the connotation of mystery. This tone is then used to connect to the last 3 lines which is, "Fact is, the invention of women under siege has been to sharpen love in the service of myth. If you can't be free, be a mystery", in the first half of those lines the author makes it clear they are discussing women's rights when she says "women under siege" and then she shows Holiday's stance on it and how she fought against the siege against women by saying " if you can't be free, be a mystery". This line specifically connects to the tone of the first stanza by using the word mystery in saying that is the way to fight for women's rights in a non confrontational way which then makes the reader think of the first stanza and the word mystery makes the reader think of the tone in the first stanza. This connection that the reader makes then shows them that this is how Billy Holiday fought for women's rights with the use of her voice and Dove is praising her for that.
In the poem “Canary”, by Rita Dove, Dove uses persona illustrate how Billie Holiday’s past with her mother, substance abuse, and men can completely damage a person, and that the relationships people have with their parents affects everything they do in life. Holiday has been under attack her whole entire life, she’s had a horrible relationship with her mother, and has had to stay in a group home for a while, where she had supposedly been sexually assaulted. In the line “Fact is, the invention of women under siege has been to sharpen love in the service of myth.” Rita Dove reveals that women who have gone through horrible things are expected to recover, and not be affected at all. Holiday is bitter towards the fact that every single one of her relationships has gone to turmoil, and how a lot of her relationships have been centered around her fame. To be successful in life and to have meaningful relationships, a person needs shelter, love and affection. Without it, their entire life will fall apart.
In the “Canary” by Rita Dove, I interpreted this poem in two ways. The first time I read this poem, I saw it as a combination of Billie Holiday’s past and present, filled with drugs and abuse, which was written together to show both her struggles and successes within her life span. In the first line Dove writes “Billie Holiday’s burned voice”, which could imply the literal meaning that her voice came out in a harsh tone, most likely due to her use of drugs. This line could also have a deeper meaning to which Holiday’s “burned voice” represented how she had suffered or been burned during her life, possibly through abuse. Line two says that Holiday “had as many shadows as lights” which illustrates the celebrity’s past of hurt and pain before she entered the world of fame. In the second stanza Dove writes “magic spoon, magic needle” which is an obvious representation of the celebrity’s drug use that continues to worsen throughout her career. Rita Dove especially emphasizes the celebrity’s suffering throughout the whole poem to show that even though she had great success in music, much of her difficult past spilled into her present, such as her drug habit. This shows the readers that fame may bring success materialistically, but not always mentally which is in charge of creating a healthy mind and lifestyle. Many people were unaware of her background and her need for help which can be seen in the last line when Dove writes “If you can’t be free, be a mystery”. After reading it again, I noticed another interpretation of the poem, which was Rita Dove trying to connect back to Billie Holiday’s time to show the lack of freedom and rights women had. This is especially seen in stanza three which says “the intervention of women under siege”. Women are attempting to fight for their rights. Holiday’s “burned voice” can also mean the pain she has undergone from a lack of rights. With both interpretations in mind, this poem has a very pronounced negative tone, as if telling the audience that Holiday’s life went bad in multiple ways.
In her poem, “Rosa”, Rita Dove emphasises how it is important for even the least important seeming people to stand up for themselves and others. The title,”Rosa”, implies that Dove is talking about how the humble Rosa Parks made a huge impact with such a simple act. The first stanza portrays Parks as a strong, powerful being. The first line, “How she sat there” shows that even though her action was minimal, it was still very important. The second and third lines, “the time right inside a place-so wrong it was ready,” says that there was a need for opposition and a need to stand up for her rights. In the second stanza, Dove portrays Parks as a humble person. She says, “That trim name-with its dream of a bench-to rest on. Her sensible coat.” Dove uses personification when she says her name had a dream. Dove conveys humbleness when she says her dream is nothing more than to be able to rest on a bench in peace. She dreams of equality. By using words like “trim” and “sensible”, Dove portrays Parks as a very simple woman which emphasises the necessity that everyone should stand up for what is right. The third stanza talks about how such a simple action made a huge impact. Dove says,”doing nothing was the doing” which shows how people don’t have to do something extraordinary to make a difference. The last stanza conveys how Parks stood up for her rights. The poem reads,”How she stood up,” it is opposite of the first line ,”How she sat there,” which shows again how even a simple act can have a huge effect
I really like how you connected the first and last line. Do you think the first stanza might actually portray her as seemingly weak and average instead of powerful to emphasize anybody can make a change?
“The situation is intolerable” by Rita Dove is a twenty one line poem that is divided into three stanzas with seven lines each that end with punctuation marks. The form of the poem gives order and neatness to a chaotic world the speaker is in. The narration is done in first person but the word I is never used. The use of we is for the audience and to ask a rhetorical question of “Arnt we civilized too?” (Dove). During a time where African-Americans faced discrimination and segregation, the civil rights movement was starting to arise. This poem gives a African-AMerican perspective on the rise of the movement and is a plea to other African-Americans to join the movement and stick up for their rights as well. The title refers to African-Americans standing up for their rights, the previous and following poem are about Rosa Parks so I’m assuming this one is too. The quotations in the title show it is said by someone else, probably a white person which gives the phrase an even more demeaning tone as the that person can only be quotes in the title and not even in the poem. The first stanza is about the being civilized and like white people yet still facing struggles like “ a righteous sword advancing onto the field of battle in the name of the Lord..”. No matter what they do, they will still face discrimination so they must get through it with their faith. The second stanza describes the world around them and their journey as hell with the words “ all around us dark and the perimeter in flames,” but heaven always being there with “tiny, missionary stars- on high, serene, studding the inky brow of heaven.” Although it may not be easy to keep faith, heaven is always there and they always have a reason to keep going. The third stanza is about the disadvantages that come with being an African-American and the lack of of options they have to help themselves. The only way they can help themselves is intolerable but it must be done otherwise there will be no change. “O mercy on our souls.” Although society may not understand, god will.
I like how you analyzed the structure of the poem as well as the contents(I always forget to do that..). Would you say that the poem has a tone of hope for the time when the fight will be more past or a tone of discomfort because the fight isn't clean or nice?
In her poem "Lady Freedom Among Us", Rita Dove uses anaphora, visual imagery, and determined diction to create a tone of hope and encourage the reader to take a stand for freedom.
Rita Dove begins the first two stanzas with the word "don't", and utilizes it as the start of the lines in the 5th stanza and at the start of two lines in the 8th stanza. The term "don't" is utilized to emphasize the lack of conformity that is necessary for change. Dove writes "don't lower your eyes // or stare straight ahead to where // you think you ought to be going". The reader is encouraged to not lower their eyes nor blindly stare straight ahead because in doing so, a person would miss anything going on beside them. It is important to acknowledge what one sees. At the start of the second stanza, Dove writes, "don't mutter oh no // not another one". The use of italics highlights the fatigue with which social issues are sometimes seen. The anaphora of don't combined with the italics gives a feeling of nuisance. Later, Dove writes "don't cross to the other side of the square. // don't think another item to fit on a tourist's agenda". In this stanza, the term "don't" is utilized to emphasize that justice should not be pushed aside or neglected. Dove uses italics to express a tone of annoyance and fatigue that some might express towards the issue of freedom because the fight will never be over and it can be a nagging issue. The anaphora of "don't" accentuates the importance of paying attention and not dismissing issues. In the eighth stanza, Dove writes, "don't think you can ever forget her // don't even try". The use of anaphora in the eighth stanza focuses on the never ending aspect of the battle for freedom and gives a tone of hope because of the confidence that the fight will continue.
Throughout the poem, visual imagery of an ordinary woman is utilized to express that anybody can be a "Lady Freedom".Dove writes, "its gritted exhaust its sunscorch and blear". Dove uses visual imagery again to express how timeless the fight for rights is. Later, Dove writes, "with her oldfashioned sandals" and "she has fitted her hair under a hand-me-down-cap" to express how the fight for freedom isn't a new thing. Dove's use of visual imagery creates a tone of hope because it could be anyone and it doesn't matter what the person looks like.
Finally, Dove uses determined diction to create a tone of hope. Dove writes that Lady Freedom has risen in, "blunt reproach". Blunt reproach is used to describe Lady Freedom because it goes against the cultural norm to brazenly fight for rights. Even if it is accepted to an extent, there will always be those against certain aspects of progress. Later, Dove writes that Lady Freedom, "will not retire politely", is, "resolute", and, "not going to budge". The use of determined diction creates a tone of hope that progress will be achieved in the end because the supporters of it will never stop.
Throughout her poem "Lady Freedom Among Us", Dove expresses how the battle for freedom and rights will never end and cannot be denied. She creates a tone of hope and makes the fight relevant to her audience in order to encourage them to take a stand when she ends the poem writing, "for she is one of the many // and she is each of us".
I like how you talked about anaphora; I also saw it used when describing "Lady Freedom" in the second stanza and connected it to the idea that it is emphasizing how anyone can take that persona. Along with a tone of hope, I saw it as motivational and trying to bring out the fight and rebellious nature within people during the time. Within the lines "don't think you can ever forget her // don't even try," it seems like Dove is trying to push people towards standing up for what they believe in and not ignoring what is going on around them.
I like how you pointed out Dove's use of italics throughout the poem and her purpose for using them. As a thought to the poem's subject, why do you think Dove chooses to emphasize the personification of freedom as a lady? Do you think that it is possible she is alluding to the Statue of Liberty as an American symbol, or perhaps that she wants to emphasize the strength of women that is often hidden away because of the dominance that men thrust upon society? What is your interpretation on these thoughts?
Firstly, I really like how detailed you made this analysis. I completely agree with your interpretation on the poem, though I had another interpretation of this poem. My first thoughts were similar to yours, that this poem is trying to encourage people they are free and to stand up for freedom. However, as I continued reading it, I had a realization that this poem could also be talking about the Statue of Liberty. This is especially represented in the title "Lady Freedom Among Us". In the sixth stanza, it reads "she who has brought freedom back into the streets". This shows the symbolism of The Statue of Liberty. It represents a right to freedom, especially being very pivotal considering American history, once being owned by England.
I think that Rita Dove used a woman as her symbol to emphasize that going against certain stereotypes is completely acceptable, such as when she writes that Lady Freedom won't retire politely. Historically, that was a very large expectation for women and I think in her poem she is encouraging new growth from old stereotypes and growth towards more freedom because it is a new, modern era and although much has changed, there is still so much more. I think the Statue of Liberty connects to this well because it is historically a symbol of coming to a land of opportunity when immigrants came in by boat, and it is used here it is a symbol of freedom and it is still relevant.
The poem “Rosa” stood out to me while reading through the packet, especially because of the story that it tells and how Rita Dove structures it to illustrate her idea. In the first stanza, Dove writes, “How she sat there, the time right inside a place so wrong it was ready.” “She” is referring to Rosa Parks, the famous African-American woman who refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus in the mid-1950s. Across the United States during this time period (although most prevalently in the South), tensions between races were an everyday occurrence that left African Americans at the bottom of the social hierarchy. When Dove writes, “That trim name with its dream of a bench to rest on,” she is referring to Parks’ refusal to relinquish her seat on the bus to a white man. “Her trim name” and “her sensible coat” describe how Rosa Parks wasn’t a glamorous or extravagant woman; she wasn’t one to be violently outspoken or cause uproar. However, the line “Doing nothing was the doing” proves that even by simply remaining seated instead of doing what was asked of her, Parks was making a monumental impact on the issue of civil rights. This line in particular stood out to me; the repetition of “doing” at the start and end of the line was almost a play on words that makes the reader stop and read it again. It is emphasized to illustrate the importance that not everyone who makes a difference does in in a loud and conspicuous way. In the next line, Dove writes about the “clean flame of her gaze,” depicting how although she appears to be quiet and calm on the outside, she is driven and bold and willing to fight for what she believes in. The final stanza starts with “How she stood up.” Going back to the beginning of the poem, it started with “How she sat there.” This repetition but also contradiction shows how Parks sat and stood the same way; she refused to stand when ordered by a white man and when she did during her arrest, it was with grace and courtesy. The whole poem gives off a sense of admiration for Rosa Parks. She was able to make a change silently and without violence, and her actions on the bus that day forever impacted the rest of history.
In the poem “Claudette Colvin Goes to Work”, Rita Dove uses the story of Claudette Colvin to illustrate what a woman of colour was forced to endure every day during the Civil Rights Movement. In this four-stanza poem, each stanza depicts a different hardship of everyday life for an African-American woman, whether it was in her own home, out in public, or internally. In the first stanza, Dove uses reminiscence to write about the home lives of housewives of the time, when their husbands would come home from work, describing, “[L]ightbulbs coming on in each narrow residence, the golden wattage of bleak interiors announcing Anyone home? or I’m beat, bring me a beer” (Dove, “Claudette Colvin Goes to Work”). In this stanza, Dove writes about oppression wives experienced solely because they are women by showing the husbands’ expectations of a wife waiting at the door to greet her husband after coming home from work and the husbands’ expectations of their wives bringing them a beer because they are tired after a long day, completely disregarding the wives’ work to maintain a house all day. In the beginning of the third stanza, Dove describes what the female narrator, meant to be Colvin herself, faces when she is going out to work, when she is walking, “Along the Avenue, the cabs start up, heading toward midtown; neon stutters into ecstasy as the male integers light up their and let loose a stream of brave talk: “Hey Mama” souring quickly to “Your Mama” when there’s no answer…” (Dove, “Claudette Colvin Goes to Work”). Dove uses local colour of the urban setting to describe what women of colour had to endure while walking alone and being spotted by, presumably, white men, who are racially stereotyping the woman by talking like their stereotypical perception of African-Americans. As the woman walks past them, she hears them commenting that they think she is, “So ugly, so fat, so dumb, so greasy…” (Dove, “Claudette Colvin Goes to Work”). At this point in the poem, Dove acknowledges that the woman knows she is being called all of this because she is an African-American woman, and therefore society doesn’t acknowledge her as anything but that, causing her to have an internal conflict, thinking, “What do we have to do to make God love us? Mama was a maid; my daddy mowed lawns like a boy, and I’m the crazy girl off the bus, the one who wrote in class she was going to be President” (Dove, “Claudette Colvin Goes to Work”). Dove uses a more sad tone at this point to emphasize that as an African-American, who is also female, Colvin doesn’t feel that life is kind to her and that she feels ridiculous for having had such big aspirations as a child, despite her family background. Overall, Rita Dove’s purpose for writing this poem is too put the reader into the mindset of a woman who is held back in life because of the unjust norms that society has set up for her because of who she is.
In the poem “Freedom Ride,” Rita Dove compares the Civil Rights movement to more relatable aspects of urban and suburban life and the opposition to a fire. In the first stanza, she describes something along the lines of driving around on city streets, maybe in a bus: “As if, after High Street and the left turn onto Exchange…” She then follows this up with the lines, “The view would veer onto someplace fresh… But there’s just more cloud cover, and germy air condensing on the tinted glass.” This could represent Rita Dove’s opinions on the early civil right’s movement-- disorganized, without a leader or direction, perhaps entirely lost. It’s opposition is seen as a raging wildfire, consuming any attempt to put it out. Rita Dove backs this up with several lines from the poem. “And the little houses with their fearful patches of yard rushing into the flames.” This line refers to the suburban neighborhoods of the 50’s which were extensively inhabited by whites, suggesting they feared the uprising and retreated “into the flames.” She also describes the “Scorched brick, darkened windows,” after waiting too long to act, after “waking in the stale darkness of a cinema.” In the last stanza, Rita Dove delivers a final warning-- “There’s fire back where you came from, too.” This obviously details how you can’t revert to the racism of the past in order to progress. It continues: “You can ride into the afternoon singing with strangers,” (Standing with others to protest while sacrificing your own good) “or rush home to the scotch you’ve been pouring all day--” (Enjoying the fruits of your own labor with no concern for those suffering around you). She ends with, “But where you sit is where you’ll be when the fire hits,” describing that when the inevitable opposition to civil rights appears, you must be ready to protect what you value.
In the poem “Rosa”, Rita Dove takes the readers back in time to December 1, 1955 when on this day Rosa Parks decides to go against the orders of her bus driver and refuses to give up her seat for a white person. She was then arrested later that day in Montgomery, Alabama. After this bold move, Rosa Parks became a world famous symbol for resistance of racial segregation. The first stanza reads “How she sat there, the time was right inside a place so wrong it was ready.” I thought this stanza represented her internal struggle, as if she was deciding if she should follow the bus driver’s orders to move to a different seat or stand up for her beliefs. In the last line of this stanza “so wrong it was ready” is a paradox used to show that Parks had made up her mind. Even though it would be a wrong doing in her time and she would get arrested, Rosa Parks was ready for a change; to stand up for what she believed in. In the last line of the third stanza it says “carved by a camera flash”. In my understanding, Dove is trying to portray either one of two things. First, it could be Park’s mug shot when she was escorted to jail because the line above this one reads “the clean flame of her gaze” which then continue to “carved by a camera flash”. In curiosity, I looked up her 1955 mug shot and it entirely fit Dove’s description. Parks was gazing right into the camera with a sense of intensity and power in her eyes so strong that it could never be broken out of her. In the last stanza, it reads “how she stood up when they bent down to retrieve her purse. That courtesy”. I thought that this was an extremely clever line from Dove which was difficult for me to understand at first. After reading it a couple times, I came to the conclusion that Dove is speaking about Rosa Park’s bravery to stand up for her rights. She finally caused a ripple in the water, and the whites didn’t like it, yet they couldn’t stop her from doing it. It was almost as if in that very moment that she stood up, she was superior to the whites on that bus which Dove rights about when she says “when they bent down to receive her purse”. This poem portrayed passion and strength to go against societal norms which is seen through the tone Dove creates.
In Rita's Dove's poem, "The situation is intolerable", it talks about the segregation of slaves. The title itself is intriguing, since there are quotation marks, this reflects that Dove is passionate about Civil Rights, and how all should be treated the same. Back then, Blacks and White's were seperated. It didn't matter if a Black person was as rich as a White one, it all came down to skin color. Her poem is from the view of a Black person, or many Black people, asking why they aren't treated with the same equality as everyone else. Dove writes, "Aren't we civilized too? Shoes shined, each starched cuff unyielding, each dovegray trouser leg a righteous sword advancing onto the field of battle in the name of the Lord..." Dove is expressing the fact that while people of different skin color are the same as everyone else, they get treated differently. I think she is expressing her anger towards Jim Crow laws, and how Black people were supposedly treated the same as White people, only they remained separated. The Jim Crow laws had no effect, the phrase "Equal but segregated", is horrible and offensive. The poem talked about how different colored skin people are not different from Whites, and that back then everyone was blinded by Jim Crow laws.
Parsley by Rita Dove and the Farming of Bones by Edwidge Dancticat are about the suffering of Haitians during the Parsley Massacre. This was a genocidal massacre by the Dominican Republic’s president against the Haitian people. People were asked to pronounce parsley to see if they had a french accent, to determine if they were Haitian or Dominican. If they were Haitian, they would then be executed so the word parsley and the idea of parsley brought fear among the haitian people. The Excerpt is from the the point of the point of view of a Haitian who is being abused after saying the word parsley. The first part of the excerpt is in a first person point of view while the bottom part is in a third person point of view. The first part of the poem, “The Cane Fields” is also in first person and the second part, “The Palace” is in third person. The article only mentions the negative effects of his massacre. The narrator in the first part of the article is so confused as to why this happening and how it involves parsley. They try to get themselves through the situation hoping it will get better. ‘At least they were not beating us, I thought.” This is before they get hit with rocks and the situation gets worse. The General is just a dark hearted man who wants to kill. They don't understand why he is doing this but he is awful and the Haitian people will just push through the situation. “You ask for perejil, I give you more.” The first part of the poem is similar to this, The General is awful for what he is doing to the Haitian people. The parrot is described as “parsley green” which is ironic because parsley is what they are getting tortured for. “Out of the swamp, the cane appears.” (Dove) The parrot is the the wealth the Dominican Republic has and the sugar canes are like the lower class workers in Haiti. The only thing bright and live in the palace is the parrot. “Like a parrot imitating spring”. The General is dark and evil in the eyes of the Haitian people. The second part of the poem is more about The General himself and the reason he chose the word parsley. This part of the poem has a much more empathetic and sorrowful tone. “When thoughts turn to love and death; the general thinks of his mother, how she died in fall.” This man who i sso evil, is capable of love. He is heartbroken over the death of his mother. The bird is there to remind The General of his mother and his need for her to come back. “coy as a widow, practicing spring.” He wishes she could come back although he knows she cannot. The reason for the massacre against the Haitians is because they can roll their R’s like his mother can while he himself cannot. “He will order many, this time, to be killed for a single, beautiful word. The General hates the Haitians because they are more like his mother than he is and he is so heartbroken that he will take his anger out on anything. This is a very interesting point of view because there aren't many pieces of writing from The General’s point of view. It doesn't justify his horrible actions against the Haitians but it gives his point of view.
I like how you pointed out the position of the General in the story, about how he doesn't know why he is murdering so many people, but he continues to just because he wants to in order to put his mind at ease because of the loss of his mother. Despite the horrible way he treats the Haitians, do you think that the General has some humanity in him, that his emotional distress deludes his mind, and that he is abusing the Haitians to cope with his emotional distress? However, considering that the treatment of the Haitians in still wrong, regardless of the emotional distress behind why he is doing it, do you think that there is a better way for him to cope with his emotions without harming other people and abusing his authority to justify his actions? Another thing that I noticed you pointed out was that the General can only hear the R's being rolled by the Haitians the way his mother did. What is your standing on the grounds that the General has fallen into a state of poor mental health and that the reason he hears the Haitians rolling their R's is symbolizing that no matter where he goes, all he sees and hears is his mother's voice?
Yes, I think the whole reason Dove included his perspective was to show the humanity in him. His actions are justified to him self however they are not justified to me.
In real life, Trujillo justified his actions by claiming that many Dominicans felt the land was being encroached upon by Haitians. How do you think this relates to the parrot symbol? The parrot was described as parsley green, as though the perceived problem was ubiquitous throughout his country. However, he was still willing to feed the parrot the sweets he himself wouldn't eat.. Do you think that the parrot represents a characteristic of Trujillo or an actual person or group?
Rita Dove's poem "Parsley" is a telling of the Parsley Massacre, when President Trujillo of the Dominican Republic attempted to kill Haitians in his country. As a method of differentiating Haitians from Dominicans, troops listened to how people said the Spanish word "perejil" for parsley. Theoretically, Haitians, with Creole ties, did not emphasize the R in the same way.
In her poem "Parsley", Rita Dove uses determined diction, anaphora, and repetition to create a somber, fearful tone to portray how Trujillo used the Haitians as a scapegoat and consciously triggered ethnic cleansing.
Throughout the poem, Dove repeats the defining characteristic in the massacre that Haitians did not pronounce Rs as much. She writes, "We cannot speak an R... and then in the mountain we call in whispers Katalina. The children gnaw their teeth to arrowheads". Dove writes from the perspective of Haitians who have a different accent and speak certain words in the mountains only for fear of being heard and killed for being a different ethnicity. In Dove's poem, Trujillo is a mama's boy and delights over how his mother is able to roll her R's beautifully, but is stricken with grief when she dies. Later, Dove writes that Trujillo is reminded of his dead mother and, "... sees his mother's smile, the teeth gnawed to arrowheads. He hears the Haitians sing without R's". Dove uses anaphora when she writes of the teeth gnawed to arrowheads to compare the Haitians to Trujillo's mother. The reflection regarding Trujillo's mother creates a somber, melancholy tone when read simply as a man grieving over his mother. Trujillo does not want to be reminded of his mother. For him, the Haitians both remind him of his mother and are the absolute opposite of the rolled R's he loved, so he blames them for troubles in the country. When read in the context of the massacre, Trujillo's extreme sadness creates a tone of fear because here is this dictator killing others over his mother's death. Dove writes that, "the general remembers the tiny green sprigs men of his village wore in their capes to honor the birth of a son. He will order many, this time, to be killed". Dove repeats how Trujillo is going to kill many to portray how Trujillo has truly gone mad with grief, as everything reminds him of his mother. Trujillo remembers that parsley celebrates the birth of a son and to an extent, that is a celebration of a mother and out of this arbitrary connection, he decides that parsley will decide people's fates. Trujillo sees his mother everywhere, especially in the singing of the Haitians as they work. "Katalina, they sing, Katalina, mi madle, mi amol en muelte". To Trujillo, this is a gross misrepresentation of his love for his mother because the pronunciation botches one of the things he loves most about her. Trujillo's extreme reaction to the singing also shows how is reminded by everything of his mother and is almost driven mad by it. Furthermore, Dove utilizes determined diction to show how Trujillo was determined to find a facet for his grief. Dove writes of how Trujillo "stomps", "paces", and "will order". The use of determined diction creates a tone of fear from how bent upon killing General Trujillo is, and how consciously he is ordering it.
I like how you noticed that the Haitians who couldn't pronounce the "R" reminded him of his dead mother. I never thought of it that way. I just thought he was in grief and wanted to find some way to entertain himself. Your interpretation makes more sense as to why he chose to take out revenge on the Haitians.
I really like how you included the Katalina aspect into this because I myself was confused about it. Do you think it actually maybe be hatred that drives Trujillo instead of grief?
I think that to an extent, Trujillo was looking for an excuse to order the massacre. Perhaps it was the grief of his mother's death that pushed him over the edge and was the last straw. I think this is supported when Dove writes, "El General searches for a word...", as if the word is the final excuse or part of the plan.
In Rita Dove’s poem “Parsley”, she alludes to a tragic event in history when a Dominican Republic dictator, General Rafael Trujillo, murders thousands of Haitian workers. In her poem, soldiers kill the workers because they can’t pronounce the “r” in in perejil, or parsley. The first section is written from the point of view of one of the workers. Dove uses anaphora throughout the section to show the false hope that the dictator offers. The line ,”there is a parrot imitating spring,” is repeated throughout the poem. “Spring” has positive connotations which shows a hope for survival, but the parrot is almost mocking because the “spring” or chance of survival isn’t really there. The first two lines of the first stanza show that the happenings are the evils of a dictator. The lines,”there is a parrot imitating spring in the palace, its feathers parsley green,” convey the idea that it is the rulers idea sitting high in his palace to kill these people for mere entertainment. The third stanza shows the brutality of the act. The second line reads,”The children gnaw their teeth to arrowheads.” This shows that however hard the people attempt to produce the impossible word, they have no hope. This brings attention to the brutality and unfair acts of rulers across the world. The second part shows that the king kills all these people out of cruel amusement. He is angry about the death of his mother and as he goes to feel the parrot he wonders, “Who can I kill today.” The ruler wants to seek revenge for the death of his mother and upon seeing the parrot’s “parsley green” feathers, he decides on the workers fate. This brings attention to how power can affect a person to the point that they no longer recognize lives of others. In the poem, the dictator comes up with the most ridiculous, unjustified reason for a mass murder and send his soldiers out. It leads the reader to question political systems and their own rights. Rita Dove’s allusion to the mass murder of Haitian workers brings attention to abuses of power that occur everyday worldwide.
I think it's interesting how you said he killed Haitians to seek revenge for his mother's death, but I wonder if revenge is truly his motive for the genocide.
I thought your interpretation was very valid, as it was similar to mine. I noticed that we both saw significance in the metaphor in the first stanza. Your interpretation was slightly different than mine, but after reading it, I almost saw more validity in your interpretation of it than my own. However, I had a different interpretation when you said the dictator killed the workers out mere entertainment. I thought it was out of revenge and hatred because of his mothers death, as she could pronounce the "r" in parsley and the workers couldn't. I interpreted the dictator as thinking his family (parrot and mother) were better than the workers, yet his mother was the one who died. Therefore, his thought to kill these workers out of anger of his mother's death emerged.
In the poem “Parsley” and the excerpt from The Farming of Bones, both Rita Dove and Edwidge Danticat write about events from the Parsley Massacre, a genocide that took place from October 2, 1937 to October 8, 1937 in the Dominican Republic, ordered by President Rafael Trujillo to massacre all of the Haitians living in the Dominican Republic. In the first part of the poem, The Cane Fields, Dove describes the abuse that the Haitians experience at the hands of the General, describing every blow they feel when, “The cane appears in our dreams, lashed by the wind and streaming. And we lie down…Out of the swamp the cane appears” The General’s motivation for abusing the Haitians is revealed in the second part of the poem, The Palace, in which Dove writes that the General lost his mother, and that the Haitians can all roll their R’s when they speak the way she did, and unlike him. A seemingly emotionally distressful motivation, the General is actually a sadist who looks for people to kill, as revealed when Dove writes, “As he paces he wonders who can I kill today” (Dove, The Palace). This implies that although the General is genuinely sad about the death of his mother, he is using this reason as an excuse to justify the committing of a mass murder because he dislikes Haitians, but there is an implication that the General’s mother could have been a Haitian by writing about how an entire ethnic group can do something that his mother could, but that he can’t, implying that the General himself is half-Haitian and half-Dominican, which in this time would have put the General at a lower social standing because he has the blood of people considered “beneath” the majority population of the country running through his veins, and therefore he would have tried to conceal this fact as much as possible. This leads to the possibility that even though his mother is dead, hearing the way his mother speaks through the voices of the Haitians implies that he is depressed to the point of mental instability because he cannot go anywhere without seeing or hearing his mother in some form or another. This shows the reader that the General, despite his cruelty and sadistic personality, has some ability to love. Dove uses the General as a way of showing the emotional consequences of losing a loved one.
In the poem “Parsley,” Rita Dove takes two perspectives when describing the Parsley massacre in 1937; the first part of the poem is from the point of view of the sugarcane workers and the second is a third person view on Rafael Trujillo’s life and reasoning behind ordering the massacre of thousands of people. Both sections are connected, specifically using repetition of words and phrases throughout each. For example, one line that is repeated often is “There is a parrot imitating spring.” This line pops up in nearly every stanza in the first part; it almost gives a sense of peace and serenity, which are often associated with spring and nature. The line almost offsets the tone of violence and oppression that is present throughout the poem. In the second part, the parrot is mentioned in association with wealth and riches. Dove writes, “a parrot in a brass ring” and “The parrot, who has traveled // all the way from Australia in an ivory cage,” which makes the parrot seem like a symbol for wealth and power. Combined with the contradiction to tone it creates in the first part, the parrot acts as an interpretation of the imbalance between the powerful oppressors and the weak, poor workers who are being murdered. In the first part of the poem, Dove writes, “The cane appears in our dreams, lashed by wind and screaming.” When reading the word “lashed,” the first thing that came to mind for me was a whip, which led me to the idea of slavery. When a similar line was repeated in the second part, “Now the general sees the fields of sugar cane, lashed by rain and streaming” it strengthened the idea that Trujillo’s actions were a lot like those of a master to his slaves. The cruelty and oppression that occurred that year are being compared to slavery earlier in history. Another thing I found interesting was how Dove placed emphasis on Trujillo’s relationship with his mother. She made it seem like his mother’s death was the reason that Trujillo decided to order the massacre of thousands of people. In the line “As he paces he wonders // Who can I kill today. And for a moment the little knot of screams is still,” Trujillo is in his mothers room alone. It appears that thinking about killing others makes him feel better about himself and the death of his mother, revealing the true horror of the situation and how terrible it was.
In the last section of the passage from The Farming of Bones by Edwidge Danticant, the use of repetition and provocative diction creates a tone of annoyance and anger. “not the tears and supplications he would have expected, no shriek from unbound fear, but a provocation, a challenge, a dare. To the devil with your world”. The provocative diction in this part of the passage creates a very challenging and defiant tone. The narrator illustrates how fragile Trujillo’s control is and how easily that power is reclaimed, even by the dying. Elemental imagery and repetition is also used to create a tone of annoyance and mockery. “To the devil with your world, your grass, your wind, your water, your air, your words”. The narrator is using repetitive elemental imagery to show the insignificance of the world Trujillo is trying to manufacture as a means of control over his emotions and environment. It mocks the idea that he somehow has the authority to dictate the parameters in which something can exist and how it can be expressed.
In the poem “Parsley”, Rita Dove takes her audience back to a genocidal massacre in the fall of 1937 when the president of Dominican Republic, Rafael Trujillo, directly ordered a genocide against any Haitians who lived on the border of the Dominican Republic. Out of the many stanzas in this poem, the first line in stanza one stood out to me most. This line reads “There is a parrot imitating spring in the palace, its feathers parsley green”. In this line alone a metaphor, symbolism, and foreshadowing can be seen . My interpretation of this metaphor had especially to do with the season of spring. Spring often has a good connotation because of its closeness to summer, but it can also be known for its rain too. Similarly, as seen throughout this poem, the parrot seems to bring “El General”, the president, a sense of companionship and happiness after his mother’s death (we learn later in the poem). But this line also describes the parrot as being parsley green indicating that this bird is not all goodness, after all it is the pet of a sick dictator. In the same way the parrot can be seen as a symbol. Because it is parsley green and is mentioned throughout the entire poem, it can be seen as a symbol for not only genocide, but the cause of it. At the end of the poem, the writer says “Even a parrot can roll an R!” It is almost as if the parrot is giving the dictator another reason to carry on with the genocide. Lastly, foreshadowing can be seen in this line through the color description of the bird. By writing that the parrot is “parsley green” it gives a hint of the mass killing that is going to happen due to the correlation of parsley and genocide throughout the poem. After just reading the first stanza of this poem, I was able to already pick up that this poem was giving off an intense tone. I thought that it was interesting that though this poem was about a genocide, meaning lots of violence and horror, the writer seemed to only hint at violence. It is almost as if there was a sense of innocence, especially through the parrot. I thought that this was to prevent any offense towards political justice. After reading this poem and glancing back at poem’s title, the correlation between the two is obvious.
I like your interpretation of the symbolism of the parrot; I thought that it had the same effect. I also think it adds a contradicting tone to the poem, because it is so dark and oppressive and the parrot and spring give a sense of peace and tranquility.
On the surface, the poem “Quick” seems to tell of the sighting of two deer who quickly run off, presumably into the woods. However, Dove uses it as a metaphor for the lifestyle a person can choose. In her poem “Quick”, Rita Dove uses contrasting diction, fast diction, symbolism to give a feeling of the world fleeting past much like chances and opportunities in life.
In the first stanza, Dove writes of a baby deer that is a, “wink of fuzz in the headlights, and gray at that”. The fuzz doubles as the fur of the baby and the lack of clarity in childhood that is innocence. Later, Dove writes of the mother deer that is seen as, “... the fabled silhouette, sleek curve plumpening into a tail waving its flamboyant afterthought, she disappears: red swish or gray, too quick to tell”. The mother deer is seen, in contrast to the fuzz of the baby, as a clear silhouette. Dove’s contrasting diction of maturity for the mother deer and youthful innocence for the baby deer emphasize how life passes by quickly. The use of contrasting diction begins the feeling of the world fleeting past.
Later, Dove writes, “... like that, no grief nor thought of love-pure purpose poured into flight”. The flight mentioned in the poem is a symbol for movement throughout life. Dove uses this metaphor because it is simple and, often, people forget to find peace in the midst of the modern world. Dove uses color diction to emphasize the importance of doing certain things without thinking. The young, immature deer is described as gray and the mother is described as red or grey. In contrast to some who have direct thoughts of love, the mother deer simply loves in her caring for young, which is shown in the symbolic color of red. There is no worry of showing caring for the mother deer, and anybody can see the red. Dove uses color symbolism to show the importance of taking chances and opportunities rather than just living a gray life. The young deer isn’t making the wrong choice. The young deer just simply hasn’t gotten to that part of its life yet.
I think it refers more to the lifestyle of deer and how they are constantly moving rather than living in one place more than the fight or flight instinct because fight or flight is a reaction to stress and the poem refers to a lifestyle.
“American Smooth” by Rita Dove is what she titled the collection this poem is from. It has 31 lines and no rhyme scheme. There no breaks in the poem. This poem is about ballroom dancing and the thoughts of a dancer while she’s doing the dance.There are only two periods in the poem which allows it to flow together smoothly. The narrator doesn't think about about the dance as art, she describes it as very mechanical. “two chests heaving above a seven-league stride” (Dove) SHe is very distracted throughout the whole dance and this also emphasized by Dove’s use of parentheticals. She is thinking to herself in the parentheticals while the rest of the poem is her thinking openly. She talks about “achieving flight”. This is a lift or jump in the dance where she feels like she is taken out of the world. Being mid air is the only time she feels serene and she hates every time she comes back to the ground. “before the earth remembered who we were and brought us down”. Dance, and these lifts are the only things that allow the narrator to free her mind. This relates to Dove’s own personal life because she played cello in her childhood and has always had a strong love for music. The poem is about the ability to find serenity through music.
I like how you pointed out how the narrator thinks of the dance as mechanical. But do you think that she wants everything to run smooth? That she wants have fluidity in her movements and in her life, but she is stuck? And that her partner is the only one who can travel with her into clouds and free her mind for a while?
Relating back to Bella's comment, do you think the dancer's inevitable return to the ground emphasizes the magical feeling of flying and makes it more valued?
The poem “Ta Ta Cha Cha” Rita Dove uses enjambment and the maxim “flight is freedom” to create a sense of rise and fall in contrast to the actual structure of the cha cha. Although the cha cha is a flowing dance, it is very controlled, Dove illustrates the structure of the dance by using enjambment and three 12 line stanzas. The enjambment creates a smoother rhythm. The use of three different stanzas breaks up the build up, flight, and fall, if you will. The first stanza, hints at bird motif/animal imagery. The second stanza uses more bird motif to compare the motion of the dancer’s feet to the free movement of a bird. “the bold shoe continues conversation (one two) with its mate, and the nearest scavenger skips three times to the side, bobs to pluck his crackerjack prize, a child’s dropped gelato cone”. ” This creates a tone of freedom of movement and indulgence. The third stanza uses more land mammal imagery of walking or being grounded to describe a third person,”Teach me this dance you make, snatching a sweet from the path of a man who, because he knows where he’s headed, walks without seeing”. This passage explains the narrators discontent and regret for blindly going through life by keeping their eye on one goal without enjoying everything around them.
I completely agree with your interpretation of this poem. I really like how mentioned different types of animal imagery (e.g. mammal imagery). I definitely did not notice this, even after reading the poem multiple times. Similar to what you said in your interpretation, I noticed a sense of lyricism and rhythm present in the poem, for instance in the first line when Dove writes "One, two--no, five doves,". However, when Dove writes "Who, you? No. But here, lost from a wing," I get the sense that there is a feeling of unsureness coming from the speaker. This is very interesting because, as you said, the cha cha is a very controlled and planned out dance. This makes me come to a realization about life, that no matter how organized and planned out you are, there are going to be times when issues come up which may cause unsureness and doubt.
The poem "Fox", by Rita Dove is made up of a sestet, quatrain, couplet, and an octave. It is not a sonnet, and has no specific rhyming pattern. The poem is broken up, choppy, with lots of commas, which causes the reader to pause and think over what they have read. The word "imagine" is used frequently through out the poem, setting the stage for a confident individual. As confident individuals go, a fox is one of them. Foxes are very beautiful creatures, quick, fast and mystifying. Dove uses the literary terms allusion and allegory to signify the protagonist's view about herself, and how people should feel about their own lives. The entire poem is alluding to the protagonist being a fox, as stated before, foxes are very proud noble creatures. The protagonist is very knowledgeable about herself. As supported in lines one through six. Dove writes, "She new what she was and so was capable of anything anyone could imagine," (Dove). The main character knows her innermost self, and is there for able to do whatever she could imagine. She is free of doubts, and knows that she can do anything she sets her mind to, so she is free. This is one of the allegories through out the poem. Dove wants the reader to feel that if they can understand themselves, rid their bodies of worry and doubt, there will be nothing that can stand in their way. By using such a confident character in her poem, Dove is telling people about what happens when they love themselves. As supported in the following lines. Dove writes, "She loved what she was, there for the taking, imagine,"(Dove 7-10). Since the protagonist loves and accepts herself completely, she is prepared for an adventure, to see what she can do with her mind, what paths she can follow. This is another allegory in the poem, an allegory for life. The entire poem gives advice that all people should follow, that people need to let go of their worry and let life happen.
I really like how you point out that the fox is supposed to symbolize the narrator, and with that, the fact that the narrator is female. When Dove writes this poem, she is clearly writes about how people must find their innermost strength in order to embrace who they are, just like you pointed out. What are your thoughts that this poem is a symbol that Dove is embracing her life as both a woman and a person of colour, and that she is not going to let any man control her life for being born the way she is? Would you say that this poem is more about her dealing with being a woman, a person of colour, or both?
In the poem “Fox,” Rita Dove uses tone, anaphora, and structure to illustrate the idea that women can be independent and do not need a man to be happy or successful. The entire poem is 20 lines, which usually would be a fairly long piece of work. However, Dove compresses the poem to have between one and four words per line, which creates a sense of structure and consistency. The speaker of the poem, a woman who is expressing her independence, also gives off a sense of structure along with confidence in herself and her intentions. Enjambment is used to create a rhythm and to emphasize each and every point that the speaker is making. Throughout the poem, Dove uses repetition in phrases like “she knew,” “she imagined,” and “she loved” in order to depict the importance of independence in every woman’s life. The woman in the poem is expressing her thoughts, her dreams, and everything that she has felt or experienced on her own, without the assistance from anyone else. The lines “than what she had // which was enough” stand out because they are the longest lines of the poem and sort of stick out from the side, drawing attention to them. Dove does this to emphasize the importance of loving oneself and not needing to rely on anyone else’s opinions. The poem ends with “which was more // than any man // could handle.” This gives a sense of finality; the poem as whole has a rhythm to it that comes to a close by restating the point that nobody—especially a man—should be the reason for a woman deciding what to do with her life. Being content in one’s own life is necessary without seeking the approval of others.
In the poem “American Smooth”, Rita Dove describes a party scene, where a dance is taking place. In the opening lines of the poem, Dove writes with the female narrator describing that she and her partner, “…[W]ere dancing-it must have been a foxtrot or a waltz, something romantic but requiring restraint, rise and fall…” (Dove, “American Smooth). Dove uses visual and kinesthetic imagery to describe the way the narrator feels during the dance. The visual imagery makes the narrator like the scene of the party, but the kinesthetic imagery reveals that the narrator feels uncomfortable dancing because she feels restrained and unable to move on her own because her male partner is leading her, and therefore she must follow what he decides. Dove uses symbolism at this point to show the oppression of women, who must always follow the will of a man because he is in charge, and how because the narrator is a woman, she, “…[L]earns to smile through, ecstatic mimicry being the sine qua non of American Smooth” (Dove, “American Smooth). This line symbolizes how women are forced to smile and accept the leadership of a man to be able to go about their daily lives just because it is the social protocol of the time. However, just because the social convention dictates that this is the correct way of living, that doesn’t mean that the narrator likes it, for Dove writes that she, “…[W]as distracted by the effort of keeping my frame (the leftward lean, head turned just enough to gaze out past your ear and always smiling, smiling)…” (Dove, “American Smooth”). Dove writes about the narrator’s internal conflict, with herself and society, because she does not like having to act like the proper, perfect lady that society expects her to be, that maintains poise, grace, and composure at all times, to be able to fit well into her society. Despite thinking that her situation is hard, however, the narrator also notices about her male dance partner, “…[H]ow still you’d become until we had done it (for two measures? four?)-achieved flight, that swift and serene magnificence, before the earth remembered who we were and brought us down to earth” (Dove, “American Smooth”). Dove’s repetition of kinesthetic energy reveals that not only is the narrator uncomfortable with the societal norms being forced on her, but also her male dance partner feels uncomfortable with the pressure of his forced norms, which shows the amount of tension there is between the two dancers. When the narrator realizes this, she speaks about the metaphor of achieving flight and flying away before returning to reality. Dove uses this metaphor to show that the narrator and her dance partner both understand each other now, and that they feel that they can truly be free to be themselves now that they feel the same thing, but then the narrator describes that they remember who they are and are brought back down to the ballroom, symbolizing that while they both know how the other one feels and feel that they can be themselves in each other’s company, they must still act within the norms that society has imposed on them. Dove uses excessive imagery, mainly kinesthetic, and symbolism to show how people who are forced to behave a certain way can feel oppressed, although they can meet people who feel the same way as they do, in the end, they still must follow the established norm.
Within the packet of “American Smooth” poems, Rita Dove’s poem “Fox” stood out the most to me. Dove uses the repetition of “she”, enjambment, and a metaphorical connection from the poem to its title to create a tone of empowerment, which conveys the theme of femininity and self confidence. After reading this poem, it was quite obvious that the speaker seemed to have a deep connection with herself and an awareness of her own consciousness, that not many girls have reached. This made me think realistically about the speaker, that maybe she too went through a time where she lacked confidence before she could reach a place where she was fully comfortable with her own existence. This can be seen through Dove’s repetition of “she” throughout the poem, for instance, “she knew”, “she was”, and “she loved”. This repetition is proof that the speaker has reached a time in her life where she feels fully empowered, but at the same time, it shows that it might be her first time with such confidence because Dove is emphasizing this pronoun to such an extreme. In the first stanza Dove writes “She knew what she was and so was capable of anything anyone could imagine,”. There seems to be a sense of relief in the speaker’s tone that she can finally wake up comfortable in her own skin and not worry what others think about her. Being in the midst of high school, I feel deeply for her accomplishment. Dove also uses enjambment to emphasize this new sense of empowerment. While reading, I noticed that this poem had a high ratio of enjambment to end stops. I also noticed that almost all of Dove’s repetition of “she” are on the lines that have enjambment. The fact that most of her lines are punctuation-less and begin with “she” adds to the theme of self liberation because it shows that the speaker won’t tolerate being stopped from her own self doubt anymore. She has finally set herself free and the enjambments give evidence to this. Lastly, I saw a metaphorical connection between the speaker and a fox, the title of the poem. At the end of stanza two, Dove writes “which was more than any man could handle,”. Dove is writing about the speaker simply being good enough, so much that she doesn’t need a man in her life, again reinforcing the theme of femininity. This line especially relates the speaker to a fox because of her individualistic outlook that she can happily take care of herself without a man in her life to catch her. Similarly, a fox is very independent. It takes responsibility for its own survival and well being. After researching the characteristics of a fox as a spirit animal, the fox is said to be known for its increased awareness and ability to move quickly through obstacles and resistance. This relates to speaker’s increased awareness of her own consciousness, as well as her enlarged confidence to get through life’s obstacles. Though this poem is shorter, the meaning that I got from it was much greater than its size.
In Rita Dove’s ,”Ta Ta Cha Cha” she uses animal imagery to help illustrate a man and a woman at a dance. In the first stanza, The woman’s dancing feet remind the reader of a hopping bird. At the end of the stanza, a man “bobs to pluck his crackerjack prize” meaning he sees the woman and his opportunity arises. The man is also compared to a bird because a prize to a bird is food and grain. The last line ,”a child’s dropped gelato cone” creates a sad mood, opposite what one would feel from a crackerjack prize. The first line of the second stanza, “Tip tap: early warning code” sets a dangerous feeling in the reader. In the stanza, the man is described as overly confident or expecting. The last few lines, “who because he knows where he’s headed, walks without seeing, face hidden by a dirty wingspan of the daily news,” convey the man as “dirty” and overly confident in what he thinks should be.
In her poem, “The Abduction”, Rita Dove writes of how Solomon Northrup, a free man in the time of slavery, is tricked into becoming a slave. Dove uses enjambment, stanza length, and identifying diction to create a tone of hope and beginning in the world that changes into a tone of confusion, to a tone of helplessness and finality.
In the opening stanza, Dove uses enjambment and identifying diction to create a tone of hope and opportunity. Enjambment is used for most of the first stanza because it is more free than repeated endstops that create a tone of finality. The use of enjambment is also important to introduce its meaning early because it is later used to highlight the opposite. Dove writes of Soloman Northrup being, “...among them...” and having others by his side to create a sense of belonging. This creates a false sense of opportunity in the first stanza because those who Soloman thinks to be his friends are frankly the opposite.
In the fourth stanza, Dove uses oxymoron and enjambment to create a bleary sense of confusion that reflects Northrup’s state of mind after being drugged. Dove wrote, “... water I could not drink. Though the pillow was stone...” Normally, water can be drunk and pillows are soft. However, Northrup was drugged in order to ease his kidnapping and his mind is not as clear as normal. In addition, Dove utilized enjambment to portray how, like the lines in the first stanza, Solomon was free. Unfortunately, there is only one other enjambed line in the poem, and that is during the period that addresses Northrup’s bleary confusion after being drugged while kidnapped.
Throughout the poem, Dove slowly decreases the number of lines in each stanza, from five in the first to one in the fifth, to symbolize how Solomon Northrup’s freedom slowly dwindles away. Furthermore, Dove begins with five lines in the first stanza and one line in the fifth stanza to show how Northrup’s life reversed completely.
I really like how you pointed out that Dove uses less lines throughout the poem to symbolize the freedom of Solomon Northrup deteriorating slowly. Why do you think Rita Dove chose to end the poem with Solomon Northrup waking up on the boat instead of his experience of being a slave in early America? Do you think that his freedom dwindling away is also symbolizing that he doesn't even get to think about freedom anymore, that his experience of being a slave has mentally scarred him so much that he can only reflect up to that point in his life?
In Rita Dove’s poem, “The House Slave,” Dove writes an account of what a house slave sees each morning in the crop field to create a sad tone in order to help draw attention to the unfairness and cruelty that took place on slave plantations. The very first line, “The first horn lifts its arm over the dew-lit grass,” suggests that it is morning on the plantation and sets the scene for the poem. The personification of the horn when it “lifts its arm” creates a feeling that there is a higher, abusive power controlling the slaves from the moment they wake. The last line of the first stanza, “children are bundled into aprons,” creates a feeling of disgust in the reader as Dove alludes to the horrors of child labor. In the second stanza, Dove uses a simile to convey the unfair hierarchy systems and ways of thinking that took place in slavery’s time. The second and third line of the stanza, “I watch them driven into the vague before-dawn- while their mistress sleeps like an ivory toothpick,” illustrates how the white people of the house enjoy delicate leisure while the slaves are forced out of their bed before the sun wakes. By placing slave activities and white activites on separate lines, Dove creates a more separated feeling. The third stanza conveys the horrific ways which the slaves were treated and bring sympathy to the reader’s heart. The second and third line of the third stanza, “I cannot fall asleep again. At the second horn, the whip curls across the backs of the laggards,” shows the nervousness of the house slave and in turn creates a saddened tone for the reader. It also illustrates the horrid way the slaves were treated. The line, “sometimes my sister’s voice, unmistaken among them” causes the reader to feel sympathy for the slave and brings them thoughts of their own family. The last stanza, “and as the fields unfold to whiteness, and they spill like bees among the fat flowers, I weep. It is not yet daylight,” allows the cruelty of the slave system sink in. “ as the fields unfold to whiteness” conveys the supreme rule of the white masters over the slaves and the work. Dove uses a simile to compare the slaves to bees to show how hard they are forced to work to harvest the crop day after day. The last line, “I weep. It is not yet daylight,” creates a horribly sad tone for the reader as the reality sets in. The reader weeps along side the house slave. The story of what the house slave sees on a daily basis creates a sad tone for the reader and unveils the cruelty of plantation systems.
In the poem “The House Slave” Rita Dove uses dark visual imagery and metaphors to illustrate the isolation the person feels through being an observer of the others outside, and the emotional distress from being sexually assaulted. In the first and second triplet, Dove writes,
“The first horn lifts its arm over the dew-lit grass and in the slave quarters there is a rustling— children are bundled into aprons, cornbread
and water gourds grabbed, a salt pork breakfast taken. I watch them driven into vague before-dawn”
The narrator romantically describes the scene of the slave quarters with the metaphor of the horn lifting its arm over dew-lit grass, as if the horn is a calming and beautiful thing for the other people. But in the sense that she wishes she were with the other people. Her longing is expressed with how the narrator refers to the other people with a removed tone by saying “I watch them driven into the vague before-dawn while their mistress sleeps…” or in the fourth triplet, “sometimes my sister’s voice, unmistaken, among them”. to illustrate an almost secretive and forbidden act of trying to observe life outside of the house. She has to sneak when the mistress is asleep and listen to what happens in the field.
In the third triplet Dove writes,”and Massa dreams of asses, rum and slave-funk. I cannot fall asleep again.” Dove’s metaphors illustrates the fact that the slave master is allowed to his fantasies of black women and terrorize them (his dream) but also gets to wake up and have his normal life. Whereas the woman isn’t able to dream, or escape her reality. While she is also quite literally not able to go to sleep again because she is in danger of being assaulted and lives in constant fear of that. Again in the fourth triplet the narrator says,” I lie on my cot, shivering in the early heat,” to convey the feeling of terror and bareness she feels.
In the last triplet Dove uses metaphors to compare the field labor to the sexual assault the narrator endures. “and as the fields unfold to whiteness, and they spill like bees among the flowers, I weep. It is not yet daylight”. The fields unfolding to whiteness illustrate the way she is taken advantage of and is treated like a piece of property, an object instead of a human. The second line has a romantic metaphor, comparing the act, to the bees she imagines spilling amount flowers as if to remove herself mentally from the situation and imagine the field where she wish she was. It closes with, I weep. It is not yet daylight”, with the punctuation it gives a feeling of finality and sadness. It congrats to what is expected, a light at the end of the tunnel, but shows that this is only the beginning, her day has yet to start yet she has already been through too much.
In “The House Slave,” Rita Dove writes from the perspective of a house slave observing other slaves working in the field. Her writing creates a tone of sorrow in the reader and evokes emotion through dialogue, enjambment, and word choice. In the second stanza, the speaker states, “I watched them driven…” and it makes the reader wonder why the slave who is speaking is not working in the fields with them. As the poem progresses, Dove gives hints to the fact that the speaker may be a slave who works in the house and is used by her master for sex. She writes, “Those days I lie on my cot, shivering in the early heat.” The phrase “shivering in the early heat” is a juxtaposition to emphasize how the speaker feels scared and nervous in the situation that she is in. The entire poem seems to focus on the idea of night versus morning and sleeping versus watching the slaves in the field. The woman who is speaking dreads the night, as seen in the line “I weep. It is not yet daylight.” However, she also must watch as her family and other slaves are tortured in the fields all day; the lines “’Oh! pray,’ she cries. ‘Oh! pray!’” evoke a sense of sadness and despair from the reader. The cry for help from her sister almost seems to be extended to the speaker as well. The poem shows the two sides of a slave’s life and the horrors that come with each; the day brings suffering in the fields and the night brings suffering for the house slaves (like the speaker) who are abused by their masters and dread having each day come to an end.
I definitely agree with your interpretation. I like how you pointed out the phrase of juxtaposition in poem,something that I missed when I read it the first couple of times. However, when Dove writes "while their mistress sleeps like an ivory toothpick", (6) I saw this as being very important to the meaning of the poem. My interpretation was her ignorance of the injustices that the slaves on her land were being put through. Just like so many, she knew what was happening, but didn't do anything to fix it. This phrase is also a simile to show that she is in fact a white woman because she is being compared to ivory.
In the poem “Belinda’s Petition”, Rita Dove assumes the persona of a slave named Belinda, a slave who was famous for writing a petition to fight for the rights of her and her daughter. Throughout the poem, Dove constantly uses enjambment to emphasize the speech that this woman is giving to the United States government in order to show the reader what an African-American woman was forced to endure in the early days of colonial America. In the first stanza of the poem, Dove makes it clear that Belinda is speaking to the government strictly just to get what she asked for, and rightfully deserves, when she says, “…I am Belinda, an African, since the age of twelve a Slave. I will not take too much of your Time, but to plead and place my pitiable Life unto the Fathers of this Nation” (Dove, “Belinda’s Petition”). Dove uses enjambment here to show that although she has gone through so much oppression as a slave, Belinda is still a no-nonsense woman who is set on what she wants and will make it very clear that she must have it, getting straight to the point when finally getting to communicate with the most important people in charge. Dove also uses metaphors to illustrate Belinda’s plight, acknowledging that, “Lately your Countrymen have severed the Binds of Tyranny. I would hope you would consider the Same for me, pure Air being the sole Advantage of which I can boast in my present Condition” (Dove, “Belinda’s Petition”). Dove uses metaphors excessively in this passage to show how simply the government could have set the slaves free before, and to show how simple Belinda’s plight is. This passage shows to the reader that Belinda is a strong woman who will go to great lengths to get justice for herself, and that pure air will be her advantage because once she is set free, she will be able to breathe freely again, a metaphor for how she lives a limited existence, confined to the house where she works as a slave. Dove also writes about Belinda reminiscing about her past to the government as evidence to prove that what she is asking for isn’t too much to ask for, as expressed in the third stanza, when she writes, “As to the Accusation that I am Ignorant…All my Childhood I expected nothing, if that be Ignorance” (Dove, “Belinda’s Petition”). Dove wrote this passage to show that she came from a humble background, that she doesn’t expect to get special privileges, and that she still does not expect that, she only wants what she rightfully deserves. Belinda knows about the stigma that will follow because she reached out to the government, a white, male government, as a woman of colour. However, Belinda is ready to accept whatever consequences come her way, as long as it gets her what she is fighting for. Another detail that Dove uses to write this poem is the use of capitalized letters thrown around randomly in the poem. However, this repetition is actually showing the reader what key words they must know to truly feel what the slaves felt in their conditions in early America. Despite the simplicity of the writing, this poem has deeper meaning that goes beyond the text that Dove tries to make feel like an experience of an earlier era.
Rita Dove’s poem “David Walker” stood out to me most after reading her compilation of poems in the “Slavery” unit. My first impression told me that this poem was about a man, David Walker, who was a free African-American speaking his thoughts on slavery. I proceeded to look his name up and found an abundance of information that gave me better background on the poem. I found out that David Walker was in fact an African-American abolitionist and anti-slavery activist. In 1829, he published An Appeal on the Coloured Citizens of the World, which was written to promote black unity, as well as a fight against oppression and injustice. Since Walker was an abolitionist, writing was most likely of high importance to him, and therefore I came to the realization that Dove’s poem was reflecting his own thoughts on injustice. As I read through the poem, I found it interesting that in every stanza there was at least one italicized phrase. For instance, Dove writes “They strip and beat and drag us about like rattlesnakes,” (2-3). By italicizing certain phrases, I think Dove is using it as a technique to creating more emotion within the readers. She seems to have italicized the phrases that especially provide the imagery of mistreatment, which can then be seen in the readers minds. This is a way of giving the audience more insight on the pain and unfairness African-American’s dealt with. This phrase is also a simile where the slaves are being compared to being dragged around like rattlesnakes. Rattlesnakes, often seen as pests, have a bad connotation. They are poisonous, and almost always get beaten down or taken away because of this. Similarly, slaves could be seen as poisonous to society, or so white men thought, if they were given rights. Instead they were beaten, sometimes seen as annoyances, and were forced lived a life of injustice and oppression. Just like rattlesnakes, slaves were not liked. This can also be seen when Dove writes “We are the most wretched, degraded and object set of beings that ever lived since the world began,” (16-17). My interpretation, that this poem is written from Walker’s point of view, is reinforced by the first person narration used in this phrase. It was very evident that this poem had a harsh tone which made me feel resentment, as a reader, for all the injustices in history that went on not long ago.
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ReplyDeleteThe narrator is speaking in second person so interpreted Rita Dove’s poem, Heroes, as Hades talking to himself and going over an account of what has just transpired in an effort to collect himself. He sees Persephone (the poppy) in a harsh environment, or a suffocating relationship with her mother (the weedy field). He pities the girl and wishes to remove her from the weeds because she is wilting. By doing so, and being with her, her life is draining faster as he rushes to get her a glass of water. In the third stanza the woman screams at Hades because he has taken her daughter away from her. Persephone is symbolic for the maternal relationship Demeter has with the Earth, nurturing it and giving it life. Also of how strenuous that relationship is for her, although it gives her purpose. In the third stanza Dove writes,” In her miserable garden, the one that gave her strength in the morning to rise!” She uses juxtaposition to show that a proud mother and an effete mother exist simultaneously as one. Dove also uses quick simple sentences with a quickening cadence to show the urgency and desperation, almost as if Hades is overcome with anxiety and confused by his sympathetic emotions. Lastly, the ninth stanza slows down, to set a conclusive mood. The last line is also visually slower because it stands alone as one line at the end.
ReplyDelete“And you knew
it was going to die”
Hades pauses in his panic to find that the reason why he did what he did is because he is the god of the underworld, and it is his duty to take the dying over the other side. He ridicules Persephone “why did you pick that idiot flower?” the profane diction used to insult Persephone sets a new, harder tone, as if Hades is forming a scab over his emotional wound and moving on.
I like how you mentioned the use of second person in the poem, because it stood out to me as well. I agree that Hades is talking to himself about what has happened with him and Persephone, and I noticed some other parallels between the poem and their story as well. It seems like the person who picked the flower had good intentions when picking it (because it was starting to wilt). However, in the end, that person ended up having to kill a woman because of that action, which I think illustrates the idea that good intentions sometimes lead to poor results. This can also be seen in Hades' case; his intentions may have been good in the beginning when taking Persephone, but because of his poor judgement, the outcome of his action ended up being negative.
DeleteIn Rita Dove’s poem “Breakfast of Champions,” Demeter is walking through her grief. Her daughter, Persephone has just been taken by Hades down to the underworld and Demeter’s world falls. She says, “Finally overcast skies. I’ve crossed a hemisphere, worked my way through petals and sunlight to find a place fit for morning.” As she grieves, summer disappears and the world becomes dark. It almost seems as if the beautiful nature and warmth of summer described through imagery reminds her too much of her daughter. Persephone’s love is Demeter’s warmth, and so with the absence of her daughter, Demeter heart becomes cold. At the end of the first stanza, Dove uses animal imagery to portray Demeter’s sadness. Demeter says,”here’s weather to match my condition: the first pair of Canada geese.” When the first Goose comes flying down, there is no doubt that winter has arrived and for most, it dampens their mood. This helps the reader truly feel Demeter’s emotions of sadness and loss. In the second stanza, Demeter shows an attempt to recover as she, “rummage through the pantry’s stock for raisins and cereal.” She is the goddess of the harvest, and as she attempts to recover, the world starts to grow again as she reaches for the grain in the back of the pantry. She sits down for breakfast and says,”Arise, it’s a brand new morning! Though I pour myself the recommended bowlful, stones are what I sprinkle among the chaff.” As most do when going through grief, she attempts to go on with her everyday life. However this is not quite enough and she still feels weighed down by the “stones”. This sonnet shows the transition from winter to spring as demeter works through her motherly grief.
ReplyDeleteI really like how you analyzed animal imagery in it's relationship to the season and mood, I didn't catch that while reading through. The changing of seasons has strong emotional connotation that allows us to empathize with Demeter's sadness and emptiness, (although we haven't had a child be abducted).
DeleteDemeter, Waiting
ReplyDeleteAfter Persephone returns to the underworld, Demeter is disgusted with herself for letting her daughter leave. This poem explains why we have winter, since Demeter refuses to allow harvests. The dictions like “ashen Christian”, and in “meteor flash and finicky butterflies! I will wail and thrash until the whole goddamned golden panorama freezes over.” all give a cold hateful tone. Demeter wants the people to suffer like she’s suffering while she waits for her daughter. Persephone is described as a warbound solder to emphasize how patriotic she is and what big sacrifice she is making. Everything is Demeter's fault for allowing this to happen and poor, innocent Persephone is stuck in the middle. The poem is a single sonnet and is split at the sixth line to differentiate the ideas and tones. The top grouping is a regretful throne while the bottoms paragraph has a hateful, satiric tone. The meadow trying to “recycle itself into hope” is naive and useless because Demeter controls the harvest and she can do whatever she wants. Mother love is a grouping of poems looking at the Demeter and Persephone myth in different ways, Towards the end of the the groups, where this poem is, the tone of the poems becomes low and regretful once the effects of Persephone mistake are understood and mourned. This poem is written in first person from Demetres point of view to illustrate her motherly emotions. Prior to this one, the poems show resentment towards motherly figures, in this case Demeter. This is the only poem that supports Demeter and shows how she is affected.
I like how you analyzed the use of separating the two groupings when it is split at the sixth line. However I do not agree with the statement that this is the only poem that supports Demeter and shows the effect the events had on her as the poem "Persephone, Falling" is told from the perspective of Demeter and how she mourns the fact that her daughter hadn't listened to her advice however I think this poem shows a different side of her emotions concerning the event where she engages in more self pity and blame as well as she is lashing out against the world to show her pain.
DeleteWiederkehr (Return)
ReplyDeleteThis poem by Rita Dove parallels with Persephone’s time shortly after her kidnapping by Hades. Some of the obvious parallels are contained within the lines “He only wanted me for happiness” at the beginning, then “He never asked if I would stay. Which is why, when the choice appeared, I reached for it.” This pretty obviously represents Hades’ motives behind the kidnapping, as well as Persephone’s choice when presented with a chance to escape. However, these are easy conclusions to come to-- there are many more things hidden in the short poem.
With 14 lines, this poem is a sonnet, but it’s not a traditional one. While Italian sonnets are divided into two parts and Elizabethan sonnets into four, this one is a single stanza. Also, it does not rhyme in a recognizable pattern and flows from one line to the next. This could represent Persephone’s desperate desire to leave the prison of the Underworld, as supported by the line “and though he saw how still I sat to hold the rain untouched within me”. This shows how Persephone holds a relic of the world above, the rains (or her emotions) deep within herself away from her kidnapper. The line “He merely hoped, in darkness, to smell rain;” also backs this idea up. Not much about Demeter or her persona is mentioned in this poem, possibly to further emphasize Persephone’s isolation with Hades. In all, this poem tells the tale of Persephone, trapped in the dark prison of the Underworld, looking for a way out.
I like how you pointed out the parallel, it is very distinct. While it is true that Hades never asked Persephone to stay, he did trick her into eating a pomegranate seed, or six depending on which version of the myth you look like. I agree with the fact that Persephone will never truly let go of the world above, Hades steals some of her life force. The lines 8-12 "He merely hoped in darkness, to smell rain; and though he saw how still I sat to hold the rain untouched inside me, he never asked if I would stay." Hades wanted to experience the light from above, and he got that in stealing Persephone, He succeeds in someways because she stays loyal to him during the part of the year she has to stay with him, and makes sure he does the same. I do however think Demeter is mentioned often times in spirit, in the back of Persephone's mind. She misses her mother, who brings rain, goodness, and harvest. It is the only thing that keeps her going.
DeleteIn the poem “The Bistro Styx”, Rita Dove uses the symbol of a dinner date to symbolize a meeting between the Goddess Demeter and her daughter Persephone. This meeting is one of Persephone’s many returns from the Underworld, but despite this, Demeter feels distanced from her daughter, barely recognizing her from her appearance when they meet, noticing that, “She was thinner, with a mannered gauntness as she paused just inside the double glass doors to survey the room, silvery cape billowing dramatically behind her” (Dove, “The Bistro Styx”). The visual imagery of the daughter’s gauntness is used by Dove to symbolize that because Persephone spends so much time living amongst the land of the dead, the healthy life from her body is slowly dwindling away with each passing year. When mother and daughter meet, the mother notices that her daughter is, “…[D]ressed all in gray” (Dove, “The Bistro Styx”). The use of visual imagery in this passage is another symbol of Persephone’s time in the land of death because the colour gray is typically associated with sorrow or the loss of human life. Despite the discomfort of seeing her daughter like this, Demeter still tries to converse with Persephone, but Persephone has now begun to speak more formally and less sympathetically with her mother because of how distanced they were before. Persephone has lost interest in her mother and has begun to live a life of luxury, as Demeter sees that, “Wine, a bloody Pinot Noir, brought colour to her cheeks” (Dove, “The Bistro Styx”). Dove once again uses visual imagery to show the reader that the colour the wine is bringing is because Persephone is more into her seemingly fabulous new lifestyle than she is about reuniting with her mother. Later into the conversation, the mother realizes that her daughter has been, “…[C]onvinced to…pose nude for his appalling canvases…” by her successful artist of a lover, symbolizing Hades making Persephone fall in love with him with the more time they spend together. This symbolizes that the daughter now has put the love of her boyfriend before the love of her mother because she is enticed by all of the wealth he can bring her, which makes her blind to the genuine maternal love that awaits her every time she returns to her mother. However, as the dinner proceeds, the mother realizes, “I’ve lost her…and called for the bill” (Dove, “The Bistro Styx”). Dove uses pathos to arouse a feeling of sadness from the reader by writing about how a daughter strays from a mother’s love when a life of glamor, offered by a rich boyfriend, awaits her. This poem is written to show Demeter’s sorrow upon having to witness her daughter being married to Hades.
ReplyDeleteI like how you explain Dove's use of visual imagery. Would you connect this detachment between parent and child to Siddhartha?
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ReplyDeleteIn the poem, “The Narcissus Flower”, Dove uses the literary terms analogy, antagonist, pathos, persona, and allegory to tell the tale of Persephone’s descent into becoming the queen of the underworld. Once human beings are exposed to extreme amounts of something, such as verbal or physical abuse, they adapt into that surrounding, they become one with it. Persephone does this when she is taken into the underworld by Hades to become his bride. Taken away from her mother for a long amount of time, Persephone is constantly exposed to nothing but evil, which eventually, deflowers the innocent daughter of Demeter she used to be. Because of this constant exposure to evil, Persephone starts her journey to truly becoming queen of the underworld. The first way the journey is shown to begin is when Dove uses analogy to show Persephone’s old self shattering. Lines two through four state, “but the way I could see my own fingers and hear myself scream as the blossom incinerated.” The blossom represents Persephone, since she has been away from her mom and the world above for so long, a small sliver of maliciousness has managed to find it’s way into her heart. This is because of constant coaxing by Hades, eventually her walls just broke down. Hades is the one who turned Persephone into queen of the underworld, making her for the most part unmerciful and malicious. Hades is the second way Dove portrays the tale of Persephone falling away from her once innocent self and into the hard queen of the underworld. Hades is constantly working against Persephone, as shown in lines five through seven. Dove writes, “And though nothing could chasten the plunge, this man adamant as a knife easing into this humblest crevice…”. As the antagonist of the myth, it is Hades job to make sure Persephone gives in, to make her crumble beneath him, to accept her fate. Although it took a long time, he got her to crumble, and to accept the situation she was in, and that the queen of the underworld was who she was now. He turned the most innocent of maiden’s into a cold queen. The third way Dove tells the story of Persephone turning cold is through pathos. While pathos is greek for suffering, there is a point in the poem where Persephone truly numbs out, and becomes one with the horrible environment she has been submitted to. Dove writes, “...I found myself at the center of a calm so pure, it was hate,” (Dove 8-9). This is the point in the poem where Persephone is suffering to the point of hatred, hatred for the environment she is in, and hatred for herself. This is one of the last steps that drove her into willingly taking on the full role of Hades wife. The second to last way Dove shows Persephone’s complete deflowering, is through persona. Dove writes, “The mystery is, you can eat fear before fear eats you, you can live beyond dying, and become a queen whom nothing surprises,” (Dove 10-14). Taking on the role of Persephone speaking directly to the audience, Dove explains how Persephone coped with everything that has happened to her. This is the final step in how Persephone fully loses herself, without hope of going completely back to normal. By telling the audience, or rather telling herself, it’s the finalization of everything, her true surrender. She was so tired of fighting back without any hope that she became the very thing she thought she wouldn’t. The final lit term Dove uses, is allegory. She uses allegory to sum up the entire poem, to teach her readers a lesson about Persephone. And that is, without light, darkness can sneak in and take over.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first read the poem “Primer,” I read the title with a long “i” sound, because that’s the only way I’ve ever heard the word used. However, when I looked up what the word means, I found that “primer” with a short “i” sound has a different definition. When pronounced differently, it can also mean an elementary book that is used to introduce students to a particular subject. The poem itself, in this case, acts as an introduction to the issue of bullying. The speaker is writing about her experience with bullying when she was younger, and in this way the poem is relatable for many people. The line where the speaker says, “Nothing could get me in the car” has a lot of emphasis on it, mainly because the entire sonnet consists of enjambments from line to line, except for on that line, which is its own sentence. This places importance on the statement and emphasizes that the speaker is angry when her mother has to come to her rescue. The entire poem elicits a tone of anger and embarrassment, which is found in words like “hissing,” “retort,” “survived,” and “swore.” The speaker feels resentment towards the bullies and even those trying to help her, which makes the poem relatable for people who have been in the same situation before. While the poem does bring bullying into question, another key point of it is the relationship that the speaker has with her mother. When the mother drives up to help her with the bullies, the speaker appears to not want her help at all. She states in the last line “I’ll show them” which could mean both the bullies or her mother, or both. It seems like the speaker is striving to be independent, and her mother, while nurturing, is trying her best to help her deal with the bullies while letting her fight for herself as well.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing that I noticed when reading was the sense of rhythm that the poem has, especially through the use of assonance. When talking about the bullies, the author uses words like “skinny,” “sisters,” and “hissing,” all with short “i” sounds (like the title of the book). These words are all sharp and concise and helped convey the speaker’s feeling of distress towards bullying. There is also rhyme in the words “heel” and “deal,” along with “who” and “knew” in the following lines. This rhythmic tone also conveys the speaker’s anger towards bullying, because it emphasizes the terrible experience she and many others had.
I really like your connection between the meaning of the word “primer” to the purpose of Dove’s poem. I thought it was clever to look up the multiple definitions of the word, something I might not have thought to do. I agree with your thoughts on the fact that this poem is very relatable to its readers. In lines 13-14, Dove writes “...swore I’d show them all: I would grow up.” I think that in almost everyone’s childhood there is a point in which we want to be able to handle situations by ourselves. We rebel against the help of our parents because there is an excitement of simply growing up, as well as a need for more freedom. There is a struggle to find the balance between wanting to deal with issues on our own and needing assistance from parents. This poem makes me notice that finding this balance can also be a struggle for parents as well. Parents need to be able to let their kids fly, but also lend a hand when the child is stumbling. Nevertheless in this situation, the child starts to realize how powerless they are is in this stage of childhood. This is shown when the narrator writes “Besides, I knew they’d beat me up.” At this point, a parent to step into the situation in order for it to be resolved. Yet the child continues to rebel against the fact that they can’t fight back and in return seems to want to escape from both the bullies and his parents, indicated in the phrase “I took the long way home,”.
DeleteI agree that this poem sets up the relationship of Demeter and Persephone for the reader. It is definitely about a mother wanting to protect her daughter and her daughter not wanting to accept the help. When I read the poem, I thought it was Demeter reflecting back on her own past in attempt to find some understanding of her daughter. When she looks back, she realizes she was also not welcoming of her mother and realizes that daughters need independence to grow and learn on their own. Even though Demeter has some understanding, she is still bitter to the fact that Persephone wont accept her help. It sets up Demeter and Persephone's relationship for the rest of the poems.
DeleteIn the poem "Persephone, Falling" by Rita Dove the author demonstrates caesura many times in order to separate ideas in the poem and add a meaning that otherwise would not have been in the piece without punctuation. The author uses caesura throughout the piece on many different occasions even during the title adding a comma between the two words establishing the perspective from which the story is being told. If the author had left out the comma then the title would have just been "Persephone Falling" which simply implies that someone who knows of Persephone's story is telling it and is simply relaying information, but when the comma is added between the words it adds a pause which when read gives a mourning or sad tone to the title establishing that the story is being told from the perspective of Demeter, Persephone's mother, a piece of information that the audience is given just by the use of one comma and this information completely changes the mood, tone, and message of the poem. It would also change how the poem is being delivered if being read aloud as punctuation changes the delivery in Shakespeare as well, who also used to caesura to establish messages in the text that were not said with words but punctuation. The use of caesura separating trains of thought in the poem also helps keep the poem in sonnet form. Since the thoughts are being separated punctuation the author doesn't have to create a new line or section for every group of thought that she has or part of the story she is trying to convey enabling the poem to be fourteen lines making it a sonnet.
ReplyDeleteIn the poem “Heros” by Rita Dove, it can be seen that the narrator is speaking about a break in the relationship between a mother and a daughter. As a daughter is maturing, she is bound to reach an obstacle where she needs her mother’s help, but often times more than not, this can make a daughter feel very ashamed or embarrassed. She may feel a desperation to escape from the guilt, almost as if she’s living in a bad dream. In the first stanza, Dove writes “A flower in a weedy field: make it a poppy. You pick it.” Similarly, there are many choices a daughter can make in her growing up period and while most of them lead to positivity, there are always those few that get caught in the one-in-a-million choices which lead to suffering. It is the alternative which she has learned about growing up, but never thought she would have to deal with its outcome during her lifetime. The daughter wonders: why her? This is just like the poppy which is picked in Dove’s poem. Dove writes “You run to the nearest house to ask for a jar of water.” In parallel, the daughter realizes she is now in trouble and desperately needs her mother, one who has lived through this all before. Maybe her mother can provide her the wisdom to solve this crisis, just like water can supply a poppy flower life. The poem says “Screaming: You’ve plucked the last poppy in her miserable garden…” As soon as the daughter reaches her mother’s house, the closest of them all, her mother reacts with terror after she hears about her daughter’s conundrum. This problem is so colossal, it’s a mother’s worst nightmare. So severe, her mother has nothing to say. Because her daughter has had issues before, the mother has already used all of her wisdom to assist her daughter. She has no more life force in her to help. In connection, the daughter daughter has picked the last poppy, turning her mother’s garden miserable. At this time “It’s too late for apologies…” and her mother will die over this. “So you strike her, she hits her head on a white boulder,” This is a metaphor for the death that occurs inside a mother when her daughter's complication is so immense that even she doesn’t know how to solve it. She wonders what she did wrong during her daughter’s childhood. She asks if she could have done anything different in the past to stop this outcome from happening. Dove writes “...You have to take along, because you're a fugitive now...” The mother is dead inside and has lost all hope, so the daughter has nothing to do but to flee. She doesn't know what to do, and she is starting to lose hope in her own self. As she sits down to cry, she wonders to herself why she even “picked that idiot flower” in the first place? This daughter has learned her lesson, but in the price of her relationship with her mother. Though this does not commonly happen, Dove writes the ultimate bad dream in which this is can be the reality between some mothers and daughters.
ReplyDeleteThe poem “Catherine of Alexandria” by Rita Dove is a third person narrative describing Catherine in the past. She is also known as Saint Catherine of the Wheel who was a Christian saint and a virgin. She converted many people to Christianity and was named a saint by St. Joan of Arc. Her feast day is still celebrated in churches today along with the Catherine wheel, a torture device she was martyred with. This poem is a quatern poem with 16 lines that are divided up into 4 quatrains. It recognises the sacrifice she made for her religion. “His breath of a lily. His spiraling pain.” (Dove) Lilies are associated with love and innocence and his pain is the sacrifice she is making for her religion along with the consequences she faces because of it. Dove questions Catherine’s becoming a saint when she says “Deprived of learning and the chance to travel, no wonder sainthood came as a voice”. She ends the poem with “a kept promise, a ring of milk” which questions her virginity. The ultimate question is was she infact a virgin or did she have someone she slept with forcing her to become a saint whether it’s directly or indirectly.
ReplyDeleteI really like how you point out that Catherine's becoming a saint could be linked to the lack of options and experiences she had in her life, not just to how devout of a practitioner of her religion she was, and how becoming a saint could have also been forced on her from someone else, who she could have possibly had an illicit relationship with. Do you think that when Dove writes "...[I]n your bed- and what went on each night was fit for nobody's ears but Jesus'. His breath of lily. His spiraling pain..."(Dove), it's possible that she is hinting that Jesus is disappointed in Catherine for being intimate with another man despite pledging to be a virgin and devoting her life to Him?
DeleteI hadn't thought about it that way but I agree. I don't think it was Jesus that was disappointed but Dove pointing it out.
DeleteDo you think that Catherine of Alexandria is disappointed with herself to an extent, and perhaps chose a life focused on religion to punish herself? Would you relate Catherine of Alexandria's death as a martyr to her possible lack of purity and lack of virginity, almost as a way to reclaim any lost honor?
DeleteIn the poem “Tou Wan Speaks to Her Husband, Liu Sheng”, Rita Dove writes about the lifelong devotion of Princess Tou Wan to her husband, Prince Liu Sheng of Zhongshan. Tou Wan’s devotion to her husband can be identified in the opening lines of the poem, “I will build you a house of limited chambers but it shall last forever: four rooms hewn in the side of stone for you, my only conqueror” (Dove, “Tou Wan Speaks to Her Husband, Liu Sheng”). Dove uses the epithet “her only conqueror” to describe Tou Wan’s endless love for her husband, while also revealing that Tou Wan is a strong woman if only one man has ever won her heart. Another symbol of unconditional love that Tou Wan has is the fact that she is personally attending to the building of her husband’s burial tomb, which she writes “…[W]ill last forever.” Dove uses irony in this line, as the Tomb of Liu Sheng was unearthed in 1968, but despite this, the line could also mean that the tomb is a symbol of love, and that the thought behind the constructing of it will last forever. However, despite her love for her husband, Tou Wan also acknowledges that her husband had many faults. Dove writes, “For those times in your niche when darkness oppresses, I will set you a lamp. (And a statue of the palace girl you most frequently coveted.)” (Dove, “Tou Wan Speaks to Her Husband, Liu Sheng”). Here, she alludes to Liu Sheng’s reputation for indulging in the company of many women, possibly having a total of about 120 sons. Yet, despite knowing this, Tou Wan chooses to allow him to indulge in this behavior after death in order to put his spirit to rest by allowing him to have what he loves most, but also due to the patriarchy of the time, where a woman didn’t have very much of a say in her husbands affairs, and therefore couldn’t do much about it. Lastly, Dove rights that Tou Wan has her husband’s body put in a casket of, “…[T]wo thousand jade wafers with gold thread puzzled to a brilliant envelope, a suit to keep the shape of your death…” (Dove, “Tou Wan Speaks to Her Husband, Liu Sheng”). Dove uses visual imagery to enhance the beauty of Liu Sheng’s casket. This alludes to the burial tradition of Ancient China, where the material of a person’s casket reflected their social status, and in this case, Liu Sheng is buried in gold and jade because he is a prince, and therefore buried in the finest material possible. However, the use of jade is also important because it has a significance in Chinese culture, usually associated with good luck, which hints Tou Wan’s intention to see her husband, “…[W]hen you are long light and clouds, over the earth, just as the legends prophesy” (Dove, “Tou Wan Speaks to Her Husband, Liu Sheng”). Dove uses the description of the light above to allude to Heaven, where Tou Wan hopes her husband goes. This confirms her devotion to him, for despite his infidelity to her, she still hopes he reaches eternal paradise. The overall message of the poem is Tou Wan bidding farewell to her husband, hoping that he rests in peace.
ReplyDeleteI really like how you connected the jade in the casket to good luck on his journey after life. Without considering the time, do personally you think she should have honored her husband the way she did, regardless of knowing about his affairs?
DeleteI liked how you used outside knowledge such as the possibility of Liu Sheng having up to 120 sons to justify the line that shows he had other affairs. But do you think that Dove was saying that Tou Wan's devotion is something to be admired or that she is using her as an example of what not to be because she exemplifies female dependency and being so devoted that they ignore rather serious faults?
DeleteI really liked how you used outside knowledge to support your claims in your post. But do you think that Tou Wan's affection could be her way of getting revenge? That by being a constant force of love and affection, she was acting defiantly towards he husband, showing him that he could not destroy her no matter how much wrong he did?
DeleteIn her poem "Catherine of Siena", Rita Dove explores the theme of faith and how it is comforting. The theme of faith is introduced in the third and fourth lines when Dove writes, "You struck the boulder at the roadside since fate has doors everywhere". This creates a feeling of strength and opportunism. Dove introduces Catherine of Sienna's determination and perseverance in the first couple of lines "You walked the length of Italy to find someone to talk to". The willingness to explore an entire country shows how Catherine of Siena was very motivated to explore her religion and connects to how she persuaded the Pope to return to Rome from Avignon in 1377. In Dove's poem on Catherine of Alexandria, it is hinted that Catherine of Alexandria took sainthood as a last resort. Comparatively, Dove writes of a strong, determined women when she writes of Catherine of Sienna. Dove writes that, "Under the star-washed dome of heaven, warm and dark as the woolens stacked on ceder shelves back home in your father's shop, you prayed until tears streaked the sky". Catherine of Sienna's father was a wool dyer, and as such would have many woolens in his shop. Dove writes of how the sky had many stars and how it was warm and dark to create a tone of comfort and peace. This tone is continued with the comparison to Catherine of Siena's home and father's shop because people are ordinarily comforted by their childhood home and at their parent's work. Dove gives a feeling of finality to the feelings, a confirmation of them, when she writes that "No one stumbled across your path. No one unpried your fists as you slept". Dove's use of anaphora gives the impression that like the start of the final lines of her poem, the feelings of comfort repeat. Throughout the poem, Dove writes in second person, relating the reader choosing his or her own path to the self led path of Catherine of Siena, which helps relate the comforting aspect of faith to the reader.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the tone of the poem was comforting when addressing the topic of religion, but I saw it in possibly another way as well. In your first line, you said that the theme of faith was entirely comforting throughout the poem, but in the line "Under the star-washed dome of heaven," could it also be interpreted as a way to keep people in and perhaps trap them underneath this "dome"? I agree with you in saying that within the context of the poem, it symbolizes comfort and even protection, but that could also be another way of looking at it.
DeleteI think your interpretation is very valid and I agree with it completely. However, I interpreted the poem differently. When Dove writes "You walked to length of Italy to find someone to talk to", I saw this as Catherine of Alexandria being very lonely. The boulder in line three can be seen as a symbol of her loneliness. In the last stanza it says "no one stumbled across your path", which could mean that nothing changes at all in the course of her life and she will die with a sense of isolation. I thought this poem had a tone of sadness. This could connect back to the theme of loneliness and a lack of "spunk" in her life which could also be seen as a reason to why the poem is so simplistic.
DeleteI didn't think of the dome in that way as trapping.. I think part of the sadness with it could also be being trapped in the dome and not being able to find anyone similar to her, so despite her comfort in faith, she would also like to have comfort in someone being as passionate about it as herself.
DeleteIn the poem “Tou Wan Speaks to Her Husband, Liu Sheng,” Rita Dove illustrates the complex relationship that Tou Wan had with her husband; although the poem first comes across as an expression of her love for him, Tou Wan also possesses feelings of contempt that are hidden within the poem. The poem starts out by talking about the house that Tou Wan is going to build for her husband. The tone is romantic and gives the impression that she cares deeply for him. With phrases like “four rooms hewn in the side of stone” and “two bronze jugs, worth more than a family pays in taxes,” it appears that Tou Wan will withhold no expense in order to please her husband. However, in the fourth stanza, the tone changes dramatically. The line starts off with “but you’re bored,” and a sense of detest and loathing begin to surface. The line “leading to you, my constant emperor” leads the reader to believe that Tou Wan is angry with her relationship and feels obligated to keep her husband happy. In the sixth stanza, Dove writes, “For those times in your niche when darkness oppresses, I will set you a lamp. (And a statue of the palace girl you most frequently coveted.)” The tone is sarcastic and it appears that Tou Wan is making harsh remarks at her husband, and yet she still feels obligated to provide for him despite his obvious affairs. However, in the time period where their relationship took place, the husband held certain authority in the relationship and directly disobeying or speaking out against him would cause her to be castigated. Dove is directly addressing this issue in the poem; her persona allows her to illustrate how women couldn’t challenge their husbands on anything and were essentially slaves that existed merely to please them. Her use of shifting tone and sarcasm throughout the poem depicts her interpretation of the relationship between husband and wife during the time period as being oppressive and unfair to women.
ReplyDeleteIn the poem "Canary", Rita Dove illustrates Billy Holiday's stance on women's rights and how she went about fighting for women's rights and resisting social norms. First Dove establishes a mysterious tone with use of imagery to describe Billy Holiday's voice. This is interesting because Dove uses visual imagery in order to describe an auditory sense saying "Billy Holiday's burned voice". While using visual imagery in order to make the reader use an auditory sense may be unusual by saying "burned voice" the author makes the reader think of a cabaret style voice which often comes with the connotation of mystery. This tone is then used to connect to the last 3 lines which is, "Fact is, the invention of women under siege has been to sharpen love in the service of myth. If you can't be free, be a mystery", in the first half of those lines the author makes it clear they are discussing women's rights when she says "women under siege" and then she shows Holiday's stance on it and how she fought against the siege against women by saying " if you can't be free, be a mystery". This line specifically connects to the tone of the first stanza by using the word mystery in saying that is the way to fight for women's rights in a non confrontational way which then makes the reader think of the first stanza and the word mystery makes the reader think of the tone in the first stanza. This connection that the reader makes then shows them that this is how Billy Holiday fought for women's rights with the use of her voice and Dove is praising her for that.
ReplyDeleteIn the poem “Canary”, by Rita Dove, Dove uses persona illustrate how Billie Holiday’s past with her mother, substance abuse, and men can completely damage a person, and that the relationships people have with their parents affects everything they do in life. Holiday has been under attack her whole entire life, she’s had a horrible relationship with her mother, and has had to stay in a group home for a while, where she had supposedly been sexually assaulted. In the line “Fact is, the invention of women under siege has been to sharpen love in the service of myth.” Rita Dove reveals that women who have gone through horrible things are expected to recover, and not be affected at all. Holiday is bitter towards the fact that every single one of her relationships has gone to turmoil, and how a lot of her relationships have been centered around her fame. To be successful in life and to have meaningful relationships, a person needs shelter, love and affection. Without it, their entire life will fall apart.
ReplyDeleteIn the “Canary” by Rita Dove, I interpreted this poem in two ways. The first time I read this poem, I saw it as a combination of Billie Holiday’s past and present, filled with drugs and abuse, which was written together to show both her struggles and successes within her life span. In the first line Dove writes “Billie Holiday’s burned voice”, which could imply the literal meaning that her voice came out in a harsh tone, most likely due to her use of drugs. This line could also have a deeper meaning to which Holiday’s “burned voice” represented how she had suffered or been burned during her life, possibly through abuse. Line two says that Holiday “had as many shadows as lights” which illustrates the celebrity’s past of hurt and pain before she entered the world of fame. In the second stanza Dove writes “magic spoon, magic needle” which is an obvious representation of the celebrity’s drug use that continues to worsen throughout her career. Rita Dove especially emphasizes the celebrity’s suffering throughout the whole poem to show that even though she had great success in music, much of her difficult past spilled into her present, such as her drug habit. This shows the readers that fame may bring success materialistically, but not always mentally which is in charge of creating a healthy mind and lifestyle. Many people were unaware of her background and her need for help which can be seen in the last line when Dove writes “If you can’t be free, be a mystery”. After reading it again, I noticed another interpretation of the poem, which was Rita Dove trying to connect back to Billie Holiday’s time to show the lack of freedom and rights women had. This is especially seen in stanza three which says “the intervention of women under siege”. Women are attempting to fight for their rights. Holiday’s “burned voice” can also mean the pain she has undergone from a lack of rights. With both interpretations in mind, this poem has a very pronounced negative tone, as if telling the audience that Holiday’s life went bad in multiple ways.
ReplyDeleteIn her poem, “Rosa”, Rita Dove emphasises how it is important for even the least important seeming people to stand up for themselves and others. The title,”Rosa”, implies that Dove is talking about how the humble Rosa Parks made a huge impact with such a simple act. The first stanza portrays Parks as a strong, powerful being. The first line, “How she sat there” shows that even though her action was minimal, it was still very important. The second and third lines, “the time right inside a place-so wrong it was ready,” says that there was a need for opposition and a need to stand up for her rights. In the second stanza, Dove portrays Parks as a humble person. She says, “That trim name-with its dream of a bench-to rest on. Her sensible coat.” Dove uses personification when she says her name had a dream. Dove conveys humbleness when she says her dream is nothing more than to be able to rest on a bench in peace. She dreams of equality. By using words like “trim” and “sensible”, Dove portrays Parks as a very simple woman which emphasises the necessity that everyone should stand up for what is right. The third stanza talks about how such a simple action made a huge impact. Dove says,”doing nothing was the doing” which shows how people don’t have to do something extraordinary to make a difference. The last stanza conveys how Parks stood up for her rights. The poem reads,”How she stood up,” it is opposite of the first line ,”How she sat there,” which shows again how even a simple act can have a huge effect
ReplyDeleteI really like how you connected the first and last line. Do you think the first stanza might actually portray her as seemingly weak and average instead of powerful to emphasize anybody can make a change?
Delete“The situation is intolerable” by Rita Dove is a twenty one line poem that is divided into three stanzas with seven lines each that end with punctuation marks. The form of the poem gives order and neatness to a chaotic world the speaker is in. The narration is done in first person but the word I is never used. The use of we is for the audience and to ask a rhetorical question of “Arnt we civilized too?” (Dove). During a time where African-Americans faced discrimination and segregation, the civil rights movement was starting to arise. This poem gives a African-AMerican perspective on the rise of the movement and is a plea to other African-Americans to join the movement and stick up for their rights as well. The title refers to African-Americans standing up for their rights, the previous and following poem are about Rosa Parks so I’m assuming this one is too. The quotations in the title show it is said by someone else, probably a white person which gives the phrase an even more demeaning tone as the that person can only be quotes in the title and not even in the poem. The first stanza is about the being civilized and like white people yet still facing struggles like “ a righteous sword advancing onto the field of battle in the name of the Lord..”. No matter what they do, they will still face discrimination so they must get through it with their faith. The second stanza describes the world around them and their journey as hell with the words “ all around us dark and the perimeter in flames,” but heaven always being there with “tiny, missionary stars- on high, serene, studding the inky brow of heaven.” Although it may not be easy to keep faith, heaven is always there and they always have a reason to keep going. The third stanza is about the disadvantages that come with being an African-American and the lack of of options they have to help themselves. The only way they can help themselves is intolerable but it must be done otherwise there will be no change. “O mercy on our souls.” Although society may not understand, god will.
ReplyDeleteI like how you analyzed the structure of the poem as well as the contents(I always forget to do that..). Would you say that the poem has a tone of hope for the time when the fight will be more past or a tone of discomfort because the fight isn't clean or nice?
DeleteIn her poem "Lady Freedom Among Us", Rita Dove uses anaphora, visual imagery, and determined diction to create a tone of hope and encourage the reader to take a stand for freedom.
ReplyDeleteRita Dove begins the first two stanzas with the word "don't", and utilizes it as the start of the lines in the 5th stanza and at the start of two lines in the 8th stanza. The term "don't" is utilized to emphasize the lack of conformity that is necessary for change. Dove writes "don't lower your eyes // or stare straight ahead to where // you think you ought to be going". The reader is encouraged to not lower their eyes nor blindly stare straight ahead because in doing so, a person would miss anything going on beside them. It is important to acknowledge what one sees. At the start of the second stanza, Dove writes, "don't mutter oh no // not another one". The use of italics highlights the fatigue with which social issues are sometimes seen. The anaphora of don't combined with the italics gives a feeling of nuisance. Later, Dove writes "don't cross to the other side of the square. // don't think another item to fit on a tourist's agenda". In this stanza, the term "don't" is utilized to emphasize that justice should not be pushed aside or neglected. Dove uses italics to express a tone of annoyance and fatigue that some might express towards the issue of freedom because the fight will never be over and it can be a nagging issue. The anaphora of "don't" accentuates the importance of paying attention and not dismissing issues. In the eighth stanza, Dove writes, "don't think you can ever forget her // don't even try". The use of anaphora in the eighth stanza focuses on the never ending aspect of the battle for freedom and gives a tone of hope because of the confidence that the fight will continue.
Throughout the poem, visual imagery of an ordinary woman is utilized to express that anybody can be a "Lady Freedom".Dove writes, "its gritted exhaust its sunscorch and blear". Dove uses visual imagery again to express how timeless the fight for rights is. Later, Dove writes, "with her oldfashioned sandals" and "she has fitted her hair under a hand-me-down-cap" to express how the fight for freedom isn't a new thing. Dove's use of visual imagery creates a tone of hope because it could be anyone and it doesn't matter what the person looks like.
Finally, Dove uses determined diction to create a tone of hope. Dove writes that Lady Freedom has risen in, "blunt reproach". Blunt reproach is used to describe Lady Freedom because it goes against the cultural norm to brazenly fight for rights. Even if it is accepted to an extent, there will always be those against certain aspects of progress. Later, Dove writes that Lady Freedom, "will not retire politely", is, "resolute", and, "not going to budge". The use of determined diction creates a tone of hope that progress will be achieved in the end because the supporters of it will never stop.
Throughout her poem "Lady Freedom Among Us", Dove expresses how the battle for freedom and rights will never end and cannot be denied. She creates a tone of hope and makes the fight relevant to her audience in order to encourage them to take a stand when she ends the poem writing, "for she is one of the many // and she is each of us".
I like how you talked about anaphora; I also saw it used when describing "Lady Freedom" in the second stanza and connected it to the idea that it is emphasizing how anyone can take that persona. Along with a tone of hope, I saw it as motivational and trying to bring out the fight and rebellious nature within people during the time. Within the lines "don't think you can ever forget her // don't even try," it seems like Dove is trying to push people towards standing up for what they believe in and not ignoring what is going on around them.
DeleteI like how you pointed out Dove's use of italics throughout the poem and her purpose for using them. As a thought to the poem's subject, why do you think Dove chooses to emphasize the personification of freedom as a lady? Do you think that it is possible she is alluding to the Statue of Liberty as an American symbol, or perhaps that she wants to emphasize the strength of women that is often hidden away because of the dominance that men thrust upon society? What is your interpretation on these thoughts?
DeleteFirstly, I really like how detailed you made this analysis. I completely agree with your interpretation on the poem, though I had another interpretation of this poem. My first thoughts were similar to yours, that this poem is trying to encourage people they are free and to stand up for freedom. However, as I continued reading it, I had a realization that this poem could also be talking about the Statue of Liberty. This is especially represented in the title "Lady Freedom Among Us". In the sixth stanza, it reads "she who has brought freedom back into the streets". This shows the symbolism of The Statue of Liberty. It represents a right to freedom, especially being very pivotal considering American history, once being owned by England.
DeleteI think that Rita Dove used a woman as her symbol to emphasize that going against certain stereotypes is completely acceptable, such as when she writes that Lady Freedom won't retire politely. Historically, that was a very large expectation for women and I think in her poem she is encouraging new growth from old stereotypes and growth towards more freedom because it is a new, modern era and although much has changed, there is still so much more. I think the Statue of Liberty connects to this well because it is historically a symbol of coming to a land of opportunity when immigrants came in by boat, and it is used here it is a symbol of freedom and it is still relevant.
DeleteThe poem “Rosa” stood out to me while reading through the packet, especially because of the story that it tells and how Rita Dove structures it to illustrate her idea. In the first stanza, Dove writes, “How she sat there, the time right inside a place so wrong it was ready.” “She” is referring to Rosa Parks, the famous African-American woman who refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus in the mid-1950s. Across the United States during this time period (although most prevalently in the South), tensions between races were an everyday occurrence that left African Americans at the bottom of the social hierarchy. When Dove writes, “That trim name with its dream of a bench to rest on,” she is referring to Parks’ refusal to relinquish her seat on the bus to a white man. “Her trim name” and “her sensible coat” describe how Rosa Parks wasn’t a glamorous or extravagant woman; she wasn’t one to be violently outspoken or cause uproar. However, the line “Doing nothing was the doing” proves that even by simply remaining seated instead of doing what was asked of her, Parks was making a monumental impact on the issue of civil rights. This line in particular stood out to me; the repetition of “doing” at the start and end of the line was almost a play on words that makes the reader stop and read it again. It is emphasized to illustrate the importance that not everyone who makes a difference does in in a loud and conspicuous way. In the next line, Dove writes about the “clean flame of her gaze,” depicting how although she appears to be quiet and calm on the outside, she is driven and bold and willing to fight for what she believes in. The final stanza starts with “How she stood up.” Going back to the beginning of the poem, it started with “How she sat there.” This repetition but also contradiction shows how Parks sat and stood the same way; she refused to stand when ordered by a white man and when she did during her arrest, it was with grace and courtesy. The whole poem gives off a sense of admiration for Rosa Parks. She was able to make a change silently and without violence, and her actions on the bus that day forever impacted the rest of history.
ReplyDeleteIn the poem “Claudette Colvin Goes to Work”, Rita Dove uses the story of Claudette Colvin to illustrate what a woman of colour was forced to endure every day during the Civil Rights Movement. In this four-stanza poem, each stanza depicts a different hardship of everyday life for an African-American woman, whether it was in her own home, out in public, or internally. In the first stanza, Dove uses reminiscence to write about the home lives of housewives of the time, when their husbands would come home from work, describing, “[L]ightbulbs coming on in each narrow residence, the golden wattage of bleak interiors announcing Anyone home? or I’m beat, bring me a beer” (Dove, “Claudette Colvin Goes to Work”). In this stanza, Dove writes about oppression wives experienced solely because they are women by showing the husbands’ expectations of a wife waiting at the door to greet her husband after coming home from work and the husbands’ expectations of their wives bringing them a beer because they are tired after a long day, completely disregarding the wives’ work to maintain a house all day. In the beginning of the third stanza, Dove describes what the female narrator, meant to be Colvin herself, faces when she is going out to work, when she is walking, “Along the Avenue, the cabs start up, heading toward midtown; neon stutters into ecstasy as the male integers light up their and let loose a stream of brave talk: “Hey Mama” souring quickly to “Your Mama” when there’s no answer…” (Dove, “Claudette Colvin Goes to Work”). Dove uses local colour of the urban setting to describe what women of colour had to endure while walking alone and being spotted by, presumably, white men, who are racially stereotyping the woman by talking like their stereotypical perception of African-Americans. As the woman walks past them, she hears them commenting that they think she is, “So ugly, so fat, so dumb, so greasy…” (Dove, “Claudette Colvin Goes to Work”). At this point in the poem, Dove acknowledges that the woman knows she is being called all of this because she is an African-American woman, and therefore society doesn’t acknowledge her as anything but that, causing her to have an internal conflict, thinking, “What do we have to do to make God love us? Mama was a maid; my daddy mowed lawns like a boy, and I’m the crazy girl off the bus, the one who wrote in class she was going to be President” (Dove, “Claudette Colvin Goes to Work”). Dove uses a more sad tone at this point to emphasize that as an African-American, who is also female, Colvin doesn’t feel that life is kind to her and that she feels ridiculous for having had such big aspirations as a child, despite her family background. Overall, Rita Dove’s purpose for writing this poem is too put the reader into the mindset of a woman who is held back in life because of the unjust norms that society has set up for her because of who she is.
ReplyDeleteIn the poem “Freedom Ride,” Rita Dove compares the Civil Rights movement to more relatable aspects of urban and suburban life and the opposition to a fire. In the first stanza, she describes something along the lines of driving around on city streets, maybe in a bus: “As if, after High Street and the left turn onto Exchange…” She then follows this up with the lines, “The view would veer onto someplace fresh… But there’s just more cloud cover, and germy air condensing on the tinted glass.” This could represent Rita Dove’s opinions on the early civil right’s movement-- disorganized, without a leader or direction, perhaps entirely lost.
ReplyDeleteIt’s opposition is seen as a raging wildfire, consuming any attempt to put it out. Rita Dove backs this up with several lines from the poem. “And the little houses with their fearful patches of yard rushing into the flames.” This line refers to the suburban neighborhoods of the 50’s which were extensively inhabited by whites, suggesting they feared the uprising and retreated “into the flames.” She also describes the “Scorched brick, darkened windows,” after waiting too long to act, after “waking in the stale darkness of a cinema.”
In the last stanza, Rita Dove delivers a final warning-- “There’s fire back where you came from, too.” This obviously details how you can’t revert to the racism of the past in order to progress. It continues: “You can ride into the afternoon singing with strangers,” (Standing with others to protest while sacrificing your own good) “or rush home to the scotch you’ve been pouring all day--” (Enjoying the fruits of your own labor with no concern for those suffering around you). She ends with, “But where you sit is where you’ll be when the fire hits,” describing that when the inevitable opposition to civil rights appears, you must be ready to protect what you value.
In the poem “Rosa”, Rita Dove takes the readers back in time to December 1, 1955 when on this day Rosa Parks decides to go against the orders of her bus driver and refuses to give up her seat for a white person. She was then arrested later that day in Montgomery, Alabama. After this bold move, Rosa Parks became a world famous symbol for resistance of racial segregation.
ReplyDeleteThe first stanza reads “How she sat there, the time was right inside a place so wrong it was ready.” I thought this stanza represented her internal struggle, as if she was deciding if she should follow the bus driver’s orders to move to a different seat or stand up for her beliefs. In the last line of this stanza “so wrong it was ready” is a paradox used to show that Parks had made up her mind. Even though it would be a wrong doing in her time and she would get arrested, Rosa Parks was ready for a change; to stand up for what she believed in. In the last line of the third stanza it says “carved by a camera flash”. In my understanding, Dove is trying to portray either one of two things. First, it could be Park’s mug shot when she was escorted to jail because the line above this one reads “the clean flame of her gaze” which then continue to “carved by a camera flash”. In curiosity, I looked up her 1955 mug shot and it entirely fit Dove’s description. Parks was gazing right into the camera with a sense of intensity and power in her eyes so strong that it could never be broken out of her. In the last stanza, it reads “how she stood up when they bent down to retrieve her purse. That courtesy”. I thought that this was an extremely clever line from Dove which was difficult for me to understand at first. After reading it a couple times, I came to the conclusion that Dove is speaking about Rosa Park’s bravery to stand up for her rights. She finally caused a ripple in the water, and the whites didn’t like it, yet they couldn’t stop her from doing it. It was almost as if in that very moment that she stood up, she was superior to the whites on that bus which Dove rights about when she says “when they bent down to receive her purse”. This poem portrayed passion and strength to go against societal norms which is seen through the tone Dove creates.
I like your what you said about Rosa's bravery, very true. Amazing writing.
DeleteIn Rita's Dove's poem, "The situation is intolerable", it talks about the segregation of slaves. The title itself is intriguing, since there are quotation marks, this reflects that Dove is passionate about Civil Rights, and how all should be treated the same. Back then, Blacks and White's were seperated. It didn't matter if a Black person was as rich as a White one, it all came down to skin color. Her poem is from the view of a Black person, or many Black people, asking why they aren't treated with the same equality as everyone else. Dove writes, "Aren't we civilized too? Shoes shined, each starched cuff unyielding, each dovegray trouser leg a righteous sword advancing onto the field of battle in the name of the Lord..." Dove is expressing the fact that while people of different skin color are the same as everyone else, they get treated differently. I think she is expressing her anger towards Jim Crow laws, and how Black people were supposedly treated the same as White people, only they remained separated. The Jim Crow laws had no effect, the phrase "Equal but segregated", is horrible and offensive. The poem talked about how different colored skin people are not different from Whites, and that back then everyone was blinded by Jim Crow laws.
ReplyDeleteParsley by Rita Dove and the Farming of Bones by Edwidge Dancticat are about the suffering of Haitians during the Parsley Massacre. This was a genocidal massacre by the Dominican Republic’s president against the Haitian people. People were asked to pronounce parsley to see if they had a french accent, to determine if they were Haitian or Dominican. If they were Haitian, they would then be executed so the word parsley and the idea of parsley brought fear among the haitian people. The Excerpt is from the the point of the point of view of a Haitian who is being abused after saying the word parsley. The first part of the excerpt is in a first person point of view while the bottom part is in a third person point of view. The first part of the poem, “The Cane Fields” is also in first person and the second part, “The Palace” is in third person. The article only mentions the negative effects of his massacre. The narrator in the first part of the article is so confused as to why this happening and how it involves parsley. They try to get themselves through the situation hoping it will get better. ‘At least they were not beating us, I thought.” This is before they get hit with rocks and the situation gets worse. The General is just a dark hearted man who wants to kill. They don't understand why he is doing this but he is awful and the Haitian people will just push through the situation. “You ask for perejil, I give you more.”
ReplyDeleteThe first part of the poem is similar to this, The General is awful for what he is doing to the Haitian people. The parrot is described as “parsley green” which is ironic because parsley is what they are getting tortured for. “Out of the swamp, the cane appears.” (Dove) The parrot is the the wealth the Dominican Republic has and the sugar canes are like the lower class workers in Haiti. The only thing bright and live in the palace is the parrot. “Like a parrot imitating spring”. The General is dark and evil in the eyes of the Haitian people. The second part of the poem is more about The General himself and the reason he chose the word parsley. This part of the poem has a much more empathetic and sorrowful tone. “When thoughts turn to love and death; the general thinks of his mother, how she died in fall.” This man who i sso evil, is capable of love. He is heartbroken over the death of his mother. The bird is there to remind The General of his mother and his need for her to come back. “coy as a widow, practicing spring.” He wishes she could come back although he knows she cannot. The reason for the massacre against the Haitians is because they can roll their R’s like his mother can while he himself cannot. “He will order many, this time, to be killed for a single, beautiful word. The General hates the Haitians because they are more like his mother than he is and he is so heartbroken that he will take his anger out on anything. This is a very interesting point of view because there aren't many pieces of writing from The General’s point of view. It doesn't justify his horrible actions against the Haitians but it gives his point of view.
I like how you pointed out the position of the General in the story, about how he doesn't know why he is murdering so many people, but he continues to just because he wants to in order to put his mind at ease because of the loss of his mother. Despite the horrible way he treats the Haitians, do you think that the General has some humanity in him, that his emotional distress deludes his mind, and that he is abusing the Haitians to cope with his emotional distress? However, considering that the treatment of the Haitians in still wrong, regardless of the emotional distress behind why he is doing it, do you think that there is a better way for him to cope with his emotions without harming other people and abusing his authority to justify his actions? Another thing that I noticed you pointed out was that the General can only hear the R's being rolled by the Haitians the way his mother did. What is your standing on the grounds that the General has fallen into a state of poor mental health and that the reason he hears the Haitians rolling their R's is symbolizing that no matter where he goes, all he sees and hears is his mother's voice?
DeleteYes, I think the whole reason Dove included his perspective was to show the humanity in him. His actions are justified to him self however they are not justified to me.
DeleteIn real life, Trujillo justified his actions by claiming that many Dominicans felt the land was being encroached upon by Haitians. How do you think this relates to the parrot symbol? The parrot was described as parsley green, as though the perceived problem was ubiquitous throughout his country. However, he was still willing to feed the parrot the sweets he himself wouldn't eat.. Do you think that the parrot represents a characteristic of Trujillo or an actual person or group?
DeleteRita Dove's poem "Parsley" is a telling of the Parsley Massacre, when President Trujillo of the Dominican Republic attempted to kill Haitians in his country. As a method of differentiating Haitians from Dominicans, troops listened to how people said the Spanish word "perejil" for parsley. Theoretically, Haitians, with Creole ties, did not emphasize the R in the same way.
ReplyDeleteIn her poem "Parsley", Rita Dove uses determined diction, anaphora, and repetition to create a somber, fearful tone to portray how Trujillo used the Haitians as a scapegoat and consciously triggered ethnic cleansing.
Throughout the poem, Dove repeats the defining characteristic in the massacre that Haitians did not pronounce Rs as much. She writes, "We cannot speak an R... and then in the mountain we call in whispers Katalina. The children gnaw their teeth to arrowheads". Dove writes from the perspective of Haitians who have a different accent and speak certain words in the mountains only for fear of being heard and killed for being a different ethnicity. In Dove's poem, Trujillo is a mama's boy and delights over how his mother is able to roll her R's beautifully, but is stricken with grief when she dies. Later, Dove writes that Trujillo is reminded of his dead mother and, "... sees his mother's smile, the teeth gnawed to arrowheads. He hears the Haitians sing without R's". Dove uses anaphora when she writes of the teeth gnawed to arrowheads to compare the Haitians to Trujillo's mother. The reflection regarding Trujillo's mother creates a somber, melancholy tone when read simply as a man grieving over his mother. Trujillo does not want to be reminded of his mother. For him, the Haitians both remind him of his mother and are the absolute opposite of the rolled R's he loved, so he blames them for troubles in the country. When read in the context of the massacre, Trujillo's extreme sadness creates a tone of fear because here is this dictator killing others over his mother's death. Dove writes that, "the general remembers the tiny green sprigs men of his village wore in their capes to honor the birth of a son. He will order many, this time, to be killed". Dove repeats how Trujillo is going to kill many to portray how Trujillo has truly gone mad with grief, as everything reminds him of his mother. Trujillo remembers that parsley celebrates the birth of a son and to an extent, that is a celebration of a mother and out of this arbitrary connection, he decides that parsley will decide people's fates. Trujillo sees his mother everywhere, especially in the singing of the Haitians as they work. "Katalina, they sing, Katalina, mi madle, mi amol en muelte". To Trujillo, this is a gross misrepresentation of his love for his mother because the pronunciation botches one of the things he loves most about her. Trujillo's extreme reaction to the singing also shows how is reminded by everything of his mother and is almost driven mad by it. Furthermore, Dove utilizes determined diction to show how Trujillo was determined to find a facet for his grief. Dove writes of how Trujillo "stomps", "paces", and "will order". The use of determined diction creates a tone of fear from how bent upon killing General Trujillo is, and how consciously he is ordering it.
General Trujillo chose the Haitians because they were immigrants to his country and thus easier to blame..
DeleteAlternately.. Trujillo is sorta mad and thus not completely conscious of what he is ordering it because he is blind in is grief.
I like how you noticed that the Haitians who couldn't pronounce the "R" reminded him of his dead mother. I never thought of it that way. I just thought he was in grief and wanted to find some way to entertain himself. Your interpretation makes more sense as to why he chose to take out revenge on the Haitians.
DeleteI really like how you included the Katalina aspect into this because I myself was confused about it. Do you think it actually maybe be hatred that drives Trujillo instead of grief?
ReplyDeleteI think that to an extent, Trujillo was looking for an excuse to order the massacre. Perhaps it was the grief of his mother's death that pushed him over the edge and was the last straw. I think this is supported when Dove writes, "El General searches for a word...", as if the word is the final excuse or part of the plan.
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DeleteIn Rita Dove’s poem “Parsley”, she alludes to a tragic event in history when a Dominican Republic dictator, General Rafael Trujillo, murders thousands of Haitian workers. In her poem, soldiers kill the workers because they can’t pronounce the “r” in in perejil, or parsley. The first section is written from the point of view of one of the workers. Dove uses anaphora throughout the section to show the false hope that the dictator offers. The line ,”there is a parrot imitating spring,” is repeated throughout the poem. “Spring” has positive connotations which shows a hope for survival, but the parrot is almost mocking because the “spring” or chance of survival isn’t really there. The first two lines of the first stanza show that the happenings are the evils of a dictator. The lines,”there is a parrot imitating spring in the palace, its feathers parsley green,” convey the idea that it is the rulers idea sitting high in his palace to kill these people for mere entertainment. The third stanza shows the brutality of the act. The second line reads,”The children gnaw their teeth to arrowheads.” This shows that however hard the people attempt to produce the impossible word, they have no hope. This brings attention to the brutality and unfair acts of rulers across the world. The second part shows that the king kills all these people out of cruel amusement. He is angry about the death of his mother and as he goes to feel the parrot he wonders, “Who can I kill today.” The ruler wants to seek revenge for the death of his mother and upon seeing the parrot’s “parsley green” feathers, he decides on the workers fate. This brings attention to how power can affect a person to the point that they no longer recognize lives of others. In the poem, the dictator comes up with the most ridiculous, unjustified reason for a mass murder and send his soldiers out. It leads the reader to question political systems and their own rights. Rita Dove’s allusion to the mass murder of Haitian workers brings attention to abuses of power that occur everyday worldwide.
ReplyDeleteI think it's interesting how you said he killed Haitians to seek revenge for his mother's death, but I wonder if revenge is truly his motive for the genocide.
DeleteI thought your interpretation was very valid, as it was similar to mine. I noticed that we both saw significance in the metaphor in the first stanza. Your interpretation was slightly different than mine, but after reading it, I almost saw more validity in your interpretation of it than my own. However, I had a different interpretation when you said the dictator killed the workers out mere entertainment. I thought it was out of revenge and hatred because of his mothers death, as she could pronounce the "r" in parsley and the workers couldn't. I interpreted the dictator as thinking his family (parrot and mother) were better than the workers, yet his mother was the one who died. Therefore, his thought to kill these workers out of anger of his mother's death emerged.
DeleteIn the poem “Parsley” and the excerpt from The Farming of Bones, both Rita Dove and Edwidge Danticat write about events from the Parsley Massacre, a genocide that took place from October 2, 1937 to October 8, 1937 in the Dominican Republic, ordered by President Rafael Trujillo to massacre all of the Haitians living in the Dominican Republic. In the first part of the poem, The Cane Fields, Dove describes the abuse that the Haitians experience at the hands of the General, describing every blow they feel when, “The cane appears in our dreams, lashed by the wind and streaming. And we lie down…Out of the swamp the cane appears” The General’s motivation for abusing the Haitians is revealed in the second part of the poem, The Palace, in which Dove writes that the General lost his mother, and that the Haitians can all roll their R’s when they speak the way she did, and unlike him. A seemingly emotionally distressful motivation, the General is actually a sadist who looks for people to kill, as revealed when Dove writes, “As he paces he wonders who can I kill today” (Dove, The Palace). This implies that although the General is genuinely sad about the death of his mother, he is using this reason as an excuse to justify the committing of a mass murder because he dislikes Haitians, but there is an implication that the General’s mother could have been a Haitian by writing about how an entire ethnic group can do something that his mother could, but that he can’t, implying that the General himself is half-Haitian and half-Dominican, which in this time would have put the General at a lower social standing because he has the blood of people considered “beneath” the majority population of the country running through his veins, and therefore he would have tried to conceal this fact as much as possible. This leads to the possibility that even though his mother is dead, hearing the way his mother speaks through the voices of the Haitians implies that he is depressed to the point of mental instability because he cannot go anywhere without seeing or hearing his mother in some form or another. This shows the reader that the General, despite his cruelty and sadistic personality, has some ability to love. Dove uses the General as a way of showing the emotional consequences of losing a loved one.
ReplyDeleteIn the poem “Parsley,” Rita Dove takes two perspectives when describing the Parsley massacre in 1937; the first part of the poem is from the point of view of the sugarcane workers and the second is a third person view on Rafael Trujillo’s life and reasoning behind ordering the massacre of thousands of people. Both sections are connected, specifically using repetition of words and phrases throughout each. For example, one line that is repeated often is “There is a parrot imitating spring.” This line pops up in nearly every stanza in the first part; it almost gives a sense of peace and serenity, which are often associated with spring and nature. The line almost offsets the tone of violence and oppression that is present throughout the poem. In the second part, the parrot is mentioned in association with wealth and riches. Dove writes, “a parrot in a brass ring” and “The parrot, who has traveled // all the way from Australia in an ivory cage,” which makes the parrot seem like a symbol for wealth and power. Combined with the contradiction to tone it creates in the first part, the parrot acts as an interpretation of the imbalance between the powerful oppressors and the weak, poor workers who are being murdered. In the first part of the poem, Dove writes, “The cane appears in our dreams, lashed by wind and screaming.” When reading the word “lashed,” the first thing that came to mind for me was a whip, which led me to the idea of slavery. When a similar line was repeated in the second part, “Now the general sees the fields of sugar cane, lashed by rain and streaming” it strengthened the idea that Trujillo’s actions were a lot like those of a master to his slaves. The cruelty and oppression that occurred that year are being compared to slavery earlier in history. Another thing I found interesting was how Dove placed emphasis on Trujillo’s relationship with his mother. She made it seem like his mother’s death was the reason that Trujillo decided to order the massacre of thousands of people. In the line “As he paces he wonders // Who can I kill today. And for a moment the little knot of screams is still,” Trujillo is in his mothers room alone. It appears that thinking about killing others makes him feel better about himself and the death of his mother, revealing the true horror of the situation and how terrible it was.
ReplyDeleteIn the last section of the passage from The Farming of Bones by Edwidge Danticant, the use of repetition and provocative diction creates a tone of annoyance and anger. “not the tears and supplications he would have expected, no shriek from unbound fear, but a provocation, a challenge, a dare. To the devil with your world”. The provocative diction in this part of the passage creates a very challenging and defiant tone. The narrator illustrates how fragile Trujillo’s control is and how easily that power is reclaimed, even by the dying. Elemental imagery and repetition is also used to create a tone of annoyance and mockery. “To the devil with your world, your grass, your wind, your water, your air, your words”. The narrator is using repetitive elemental imagery to show the insignificance of the world Trujillo is trying to manufacture as a means of control over his emotions and environment. It mocks the idea that he somehow has the authority to dictate the parameters in which something can exist and how it can be expressed.
ReplyDeleteIn the poem “Parsley”, Rita Dove takes her audience back to a genocidal massacre in the fall of 1937 when the president of Dominican Republic, Rafael Trujillo, directly ordered a genocide against any Haitians who lived on the border of the Dominican Republic. Out of the many stanzas in this poem, the first line in stanza one stood out to me most. This line reads “There is a parrot imitating spring in the palace, its feathers parsley green”. In this line alone a metaphor, symbolism, and foreshadowing can be seen . My interpretation of this metaphor had especially to do with the season of spring. Spring often has a good connotation because of its closeness to summer, but it can also be known for its rain too. Similarly, as seen throughout this poem, the parrot seems to bring “El General”, the president, a sense of companionship and happiness after his mother’s death (we learn later in the poem). But this line also describes the parrot as being parsley green indicating that this bird is not all goodness, after all it is the pet of a sick dictator. In the same way the parrot can be seen as a symbol. Because it is parsley green and is mentioned throughout the entire poem, it can be seen as a symbol for not only genocide, but the cause of it. At the end of the poem, the writer says “Even a parrot can roll an R!” It is almost as if the parrot is giving the dictator another reason to carry on with the genocide. Lastly, foreshadowing can be seen in this line through the color description of the bird. By writing that the parrot is “parsley green” it gives a hint of the mass killing that is going to happen due to the correlation of parsley and genocide throughout the poem. After just reading the first stanza of this poem, I was able to already pick up that this poem was giving off an intense tone. I thought that it was interesting that though this poem was about a genocide, meaning lots of violence and horror, the writer seemed to only hint at violence. It is almost as if there was a sense of innocence, especially through the parrot. I thought that this was to prevent any offense towards political justice. After reading this poem and glancing back at poem’s title, the correlation between the two is obvious.
ReplyDeleteI like your interpretation of the symbolism of the parrot; I thought that it had the same effect. I also think it adds a contradicting tone to the poem, because it is so dark and oppressive and the parrot and spring give a sense of peace and tranquility.
ReplyDeleteOn the surface, the poem “Quick” seems to tell of the sighting of two deer who quickly run off, presumably into the woods. However, Dove uses it as a metaphor for the lifestyle a person can choose. In her poem “Quick”, Rita Dove uses contrasting diction, fast diction, symbolism to give a feeling of the world fleeting past much like chances and opportunities in life.
ReplyDeleteIn the first stanza, Dove writes of a baby deer that is a, “wink of fuzz in the headlights, and gray at that”. The fuzz doubles as the fur of the baby and the lack of clarity in childhood that is innocence. Later, Dove writes of the mother deer that is seen as, “... the fabled silhouette, sleek curve plumpening into a tail waving its flamboyant afterthought, she disappears: red swish or gray, too quick to tell”. The mother deer is seen, in contrast to the fuzz of the baby, as a clear silhouette. Dove’s contrasting diction of maturity for the mother deer and youthful innocence for the baby deer emphasize how life passes by quickly. The use of contrasting diction begins the feeling of the world fleeting past.
Later, Dove writes, “... like that, no grief nor thought of love-pure purpose poured into flight”. The flight mentioned in the poem is a symbol for movement throughout life. Dove uses this metaphor because it is simple and, often, people forget to find peace in the midst of the modern world. Dove uses color diction to emphasize the importance of doing certain things without thinking. The young, immature deer is described as gray and the mother is described as red or grey. In contrast to some who have direct thoughts of love, the mother deer simply loves in her caring for young, which is shown in the symbolic color of red. There is no worry of showing caring for the mother deer, and anybody can see the red. Dove uses color symbolism to show the importance of taking chances and opportunities rather than just living a gray life. The young deer isn’t making the wrong choice. The young deer just simply hasn’t gotten to that part of its life yet.
Do you think the flight mentioned in the poem refer to the fight or flight instinct as well as the movement through life?
DeleteI think it refers more to the lifestyle of deer and how they are constantly moving rather than living in one place more than the fight or flight instinct because fight or flight is a reaction to stress and the poem refers to a lifestyle.
Delete“American Smooth” by Rita Dove is what she titled the collection this poem is from. It has 31 lines
ReplyDeleteand no rhyme scheme. There no breaks in the poem. This poem is about ballroom dancing and the thoughts of a dancer while she’s doing the dance.There are only two periods in the poem which allows it to flow together smoothly. The narrator doesn't think about about the dance as art, she describes it as very mechanical. “two chests heaving above a seven-league stride” (Dove) SHe is very distracted throughout the whole dance and this also emphasized by Dove’s use of parentheticals. She is thinking to herself in the parentheticals while the rest of the poem is her thinking openly. She talks about “achieving flight”. This is a lift or jump in the dance where she feels like she is taken out of the world. Being mid air is the only time she feels serene and she hates every time she comes back to the ground. “before the earth remembered who we were and brought us down”. Dance, and these lifts are the only things that allow the narrator to free her mind. This relates to Dove’s own personal life because she played cello in her childhood and has always had a strong love for music. The poem is about the ability to find serenity through music.
I like how you pointed out how the narrator thinks of the dance as mechanical. But do you think that she wants everything to run smooth? That she wants have fluidity in her movements and in her life, but she is stuck? And that her partner is the only one who can travel with her into clouds and free her mind for a while?
DeleteRelating back to Bella's comment, do you think the dancer's inevitable return to the ground emphasizes the magical feeling of flying and makes it more valued?
DeleteThe poem “Ta Ta Cha Cha” Rita Dove uses enjambment and the maxim “flight is freedom” to create a sense of rise and fall in contrast to the actual structure of the cha cha. Although the cha cha is a flowing dance, it is very controlled, Dove illustrates the structure of the dance by using enjambment and three 12 line stanzas. The enjambment creates a smoother rhythm. The use of three different stanzas breaks up the build up, flight, and fall, if you will. The first stanza, hints at bird motif/animal imagery. The second stanza uses more bird motif to compare the motion of the dancer’s feet to the free movement of a bird. “the bold shoe continues conversation (one two) with its mate, and the nearest scavenger skips three times to the side, bobs to pluck his crackerjack prize, a child’s dropped gelato cone”. ” This creates a tone of freedom of movement and indulgence. The third stanza uses more land mammal imagery of walking or being grounded to describe a third person,”Teach me this dance you make, snatching a sweet from the path of a man who, because he knows where he’s headed, walks without seeing”. This passage explains the narrators discontent and regret for blindly going through life by keeping their eye on one goal without enjoying everything around them.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your interpretation of this poem. I really like how mentioned different types of animal imagery (e.g. mammal imagery). I definitely did not notice this, even after reading the poem multiple times. Similar to what you said in your interpretation, I noticed a sense of lyricism and rhythm present in the poem, for instance in the first line when Dove writes "One, two--no, five doves,". However, when Dove writes "Who, you? No. But here, lost from a wing," I get the sense that there is a feeling of unsureness coming from the speaker. This is very interesting because, as you said, the cha cha is a very controlled and planned out dance. This makes me come to a realization about life, that no matter how organized and planned out you are, there are going to be times when issues come up which may cause unsureness and doubt.
DeleteThe poem "Fox", by Rita Dove is made up of a sestet, quatrain, couplet, and an octave. It is not a sonnet, and has no specific rhyming pattern. The poem is broken up, choppy, with lots of commas, which causes the reader to pause and think over what they have read. The word "imagine" is used frequently through out the poem, setting the stage for a confident individual. As confident individuals go, a fox is one of them. Foxes are very beautiful creatures, quick, fast and mystifying. Dove uses the literary terms allusion and allegory to signify the protagonist's view about herself, and how people should feel about their own lives. The entire poem is alluding to the protagonist being a fox, as stated before, foxes are very proud noble creatures. The protagonist is very knowledgeable about herself. As supported in lines one through six. Dove writes, "She new what she was and so was capable of anything anyone could imagine," (Dove). The main character knows her innermost self, and is there for able to do whatever she could imagine. She is free of doubts, and knows that she can do anything she sets her mind to, so she is free. This is one of the allegories through out the poem. Dove wants the reader to feel that if they can understand themselves, rid their bodies of worry and doubt, there will be nothing that can stand in their way. By using such a confident character in her poem, Dove is telling people about what happens when they love themselves. As supported in the following lines. Dove writes, "She loved what she was, there for the taking, imagine,"(Dove 7-10). Since the protagonist loves and accepts herself completely, she is prepared for an adventure, to see what she can do with her mind, what paths she can follow. This is another allegory in the poem, an allegory for life. The entire poem gives advice that all people should follow, that people need to let go of their worry and let life happen.
ReplyDeleteI really like how you point out that the fox is supposed to symbolize the narrator, and with that, the fact that the narrator is female. When Dove writes this poem, she is clearly writes about how people must find their innermost strength in order to embrace who they are, just like you pointed out. What are your thoughts that this poem is a symbol that Dove is embracing her life as both a woman and a person of colour, and that she is not going to let any man control her life for being born the way she is? Would you say that this poem is more about her dealing with being a woman, a person of colour, or both?
DeleteIn the poem “Fox,” Rita Dove uses tone, anaphora, and structure to illustrate the idea that women can be independent and do not need a man to be happy or successful. The entire poem is 20 lines, which usually would be a fairly long piece of work. However, Dove compresses the poem to have between one and four words per line, which creates a sense of structure and consistency. The speaker of the poem, a woman who is expressing her independence, also gives off a sense of structure along with confidence in herself and her intentions. Enjambment is used to create a rhythm and to emphasize each and every point that the speaker is making. Throughout the poem, Dove uses repetition in phrases like “she knew,” “she imagined,” and “she loved” in order to depict the importance of independence in every woman’s life. The woman in the poem is expressing her thoughts, her dreams, and everything that she has felt or experienced on her own, without the assistance from anyone else. The lines “than what she had // which was enough” stand out because they are the longest lines of the poem and sort of stick out from the side, drawing attention to them. Dove does this to emphasize the importance of loving oneself and not needing to rely on anyone else’s opinions. The poem ends with “which was more // than any man // could handle.” This gives a sense of finality; the poem as whole has a rhythm to it that comes to a close by restating the point that nobody—especially a man—should be the reason for a woman deciding what to do with her life. Being content in one’s own life is necessary without seeking the approval of others.
ReplyDeleteIn the poem “American Smooth”, Rita Dove describes a party scene, where a dance is taking place. In the opening lines of the poem, Dove writes with the female narrator describing that she and her partner, “…[W]ere dancing-it must have been a foxtrot or a waltz, something romantic but requiring restraint, rise and fall…” (Dove, “American Smooth). Dove uses visual and kinesthetic imagery to describe the way the narrator feels during the dance. The visual imagery makes the narrator like the scene of the party, but the kinesthetic imagery reveals that the narrator feels uncomfortable dancing because she feels restrained and unable to move on her own because her male partner is leading her, and therefore she must follow what he decides. Dove uses symbolism at this point to show the oppression of women, who must always follow the will of a man because he is in charge, and how because the narrator is a woman, she, “…[L]earns to smile through, ecstatic mimicry being the sine qua non of American Smooth” (Dove, “American Smooth). This line symbolizes how women are forced to smile and accept the leadership of a man to be able to go about their daily lives just because it is the social protocol of the time. However, just because the social convention dictates that this is the correct way of living, that doesn’t mean that the narrator likes it, for Dove writes that she, “…[W]as distracted by the effort of keeping my frame (the leftward lean, head turned just enough to gaze out past your ear and always smiling, smiling)…” (Dove, “American Smooth”). Dove writes about the narrator’s internal conflict, with herself and society, because she does not like having to act like the proper, perfect lady that society expects her to be, that maintains poise, grace, and composure at all times, to be able to fit well into her society. Despite thinking that her situation is hard, however, the narrator also notices about her male dance partner, “…[H]ow still you’d become until we had done it (for two measures? four?)-achieved flight, that swift and serene magnificence, before the earth remembered who we were and brought us down to earth” (Dove, “American Smooth”). Dove’s repetition of kinesthetic energy reveals that not only is the narrator uncomfortable with the societal norms being forced on her, but also her male dance partner feels uncomfortable with the pressure of his forced norms, which shows the amount of tension there is between the two dancers. When the narrator realizes this, she speaks about the metaphor of achieving flight and flying away before returning to reality. Dove uses this metaphor to show that the narrator and her dance partner both understand each other now, and that they feel that they can truly be free to be themselves now that they feel the same thing, but then the narrator describes that they remember who they are and are brought back down to the ballroom, symbolizing that while they both know how the other one feels and feel that they can be themselves in each other’s company, they must still act within the norms that society has imposed on them. Dove uses excessive imagery, mainly kinesthetic, and symbolism to show how people who are forced to behave a certain way can feel oppressed, although they can meet people who feel the same way as they do, in the end, they still must follow the established norm.
ReplyDeleteWithin the packet of “American Smooth” poems, Rita Dove’s poem “Fox” stood out the most to me. Dove uses the repetition of “she”, enjambment, and a metaphorical connection from the poem to its title to create a tone of empowerment, which conveys the theme of femininity and self confidence. After reading this poem, it was quite obvious that the speaker seemed to have a deep connection with herself and an awareness of her own consciousness, that not many girls have reached. This made me think realistically about the speaker, that maybe she too went through a time where she lacked confidence before she could reach a place where she was fully comfortable with her own existence. This can be seen through Dove’s repetition of “she” throughout the poem, for instance, “she knew”, “she was”, and “she loved”. This repetition is proof that the speaker has reached a time in her life where she feels fully empowered, but at the same time, it shows that it might be her first time with such confidence because Dove is emphasizing this pronoun to such an extreme. In the first stanza Dove writes “She knew what she was and so was capable of anything anyone could imagine,”. There seems to be a sense of relief in the speaker’s tone that she can finally wake up comfortable in her own skin and not worry what others think about her. Being in the midst of high school, I feel deeply for her accomplishment. Dove also uses enjambment to emphasize this new sense of empowerment. While reading, I noticed that this poem had a high ratio of enjambment to end stops. I also noticed that almost all of Dove’s repetition of “she” are on the lines that have enjambment. The fact that most of her lines are punctuation-less and begin with “she” adds to the theme of self liberation because it shows that the speaker won’t tolerate being stopped from her own self doubt anymore. She has finally set herself free and the enjambments give evidence to this. Lastly, I saw a metaphorical connection between the speaker and a fox, the title of the poem. At the end of stanza two, Dove writes “which was more than any man could handle,”. Dove is writing about the speaker simply being good enough, so much that she doesn’t need a man in her life, again reinforcing the theme of femininity. This line especially relates the speaker to a fox because of her individualistic outlook that she can happily take care of herself without a man in her life to catch her. Similarly, a fox is very independent. It takes responsibility for its own survival and well being. After researching the characteristics of a fox as a spirit animal, the fox is said to be known for its increased awareness and ability to move quickly through obstacles and resistance. This relates to speaker’s increased awareness of her own consciousness, as well as her enlarged confidence to get through life’s obstacles. Though this poem is shorter, the meaning that I got from it was much greater than its size.
ReplyDeleteIn Rita Dove’s ,”Ta Ta Cha Cha” she uses animal imagery to help illustrate a man and a woman at a dance. In the first stanza, The woman’s dancing feet remind the reader of a hopping bird. At the end of the stanza, a man “bobs to pluck his crackerjack prize” meaning he sees the woman and his opportunity arises. The man is also compared to a bird because a prize to a bird is food and grain. The last line ,”a child’s dropped gelato cone” creates a sad mood, opposite what one would feel from a crackerjack prize. The first line of the second stanza, “Tip tap: early warning code” sets a dangerous feeling in the reader. In the stanza, the man is described as overly confident or expecting. The last few lines, “who because he knows where he’s headed, walks without seeing, face hidden by a dirty wingspan of the daily news,” convey the man as “dirty” and overly confident in what he thinks should be.
ReplyDeleteIn her poem, “The Abduction”, Rita Dove writes of how Solomon Northrup, a free man in the time of slavery, is tricked into becoming a slave. Dove uses enjambment, stanza length, and identifying diction to create a tone of hope and beginning in the world that changes into a tone of confusion, to a tone of helplessness and finality.
ReplyDeleteIn the opening stanza, Dove uses enjambment and identifying diction to create a tone of hope and opportunity. Enjambment is used for most of the first stanza because it is more free than repeated endstops that create a tone of finality. The use of enjambment is also important to introduce its meaning early because it is later used to highlight the opposite. Dove writes of Soloman Northrup being, “...among them...” and having others by his side to create a sense of belonging. This creates a false sense of opportunity in the first stanza because those who Soloman thinks to be his friends are frankly the opposite.
In the fourth stanza, Dove uses oxymoron and enjambment to create a bleary sense of confusion that reflects Northrup’s state of mind after being drugged. Dove wrote, “... water I could not drink. Though the pillow was stone...” Normally, water can be drunk and pillows are soft. However, Northrup was drugged in order to ease his kidnapping and his mind is not as clear as normal. In addition, Dove utilized enjambment to portray how, like the lines in the first stanza, Solomon was free. Unfortunately, there is only one other enjambed line in the poem, and that is during the period that addresses Northrup’s bleary confusion after being drugged while kidnapped.
Throughout the poem, Dove slowly decreases the number of lines in each stanza, from five in the first to one in the fifth, to symbolize how Solomon Northrup’s freedom slowly dwindles away. Furthermore, Dove begins with five lines in the first stanza and one line in the fifth stanza to show how Northrup’s life reversed completely.
I really like how you pointed out that Dove uses less lines throughout the poem to symbolize the freedom of Solomon Northrup deteriorating slowly. Why do you think Rita Dove chose to end the poem with Solomon Northrup waking up on the boat instead of his experience of being a slave in early America? Do you think that his freedom dwindling away is also symbolizing that he doesn't even get to think about freedom anymore, that his experience of being a slave has mentally scarred him so much that he can only reflect up to that point in his life?
DeleteIn Rita Dove’s poem, “The House Slave,” Dove writes an account of what a house slave sees each morning in the crop field to create a sad tone in order to help draw attention to the unfairness and cruelty that took place on slave plantations. The very first line, “The first horn lifts its arm over the dew-lit grass,” suggests that it is morning on the plantation and sets the scene for the poem. The personification of the horn when it “lifts its arm” creates a feeling that there is a higher, abusive power controlling the slaves from the moment they wake. The last line of the first stanza, “children are bundled into aprons,” creates a feeling of disgust in the reader as Dove alludes to the horrors of child labor. In the second stanza, Dove uses a simile to convey the unfair hierarchy systems and ways of thinking that took place in slavery’s time. The second and third line of the stanza, “I watch them driven into the vague before-dawn- while their mistress sleeps like an ivory toothpick,” illustrates how the white people of the house enjoy delicate leisure while the slaves are forced out of their bed before the sun wakes. By placing slave activities and white activites on separate lines, Dove creates a more separated feeling. The third stanza conveys the horrific ways which the slaves were treated and bring sympathy to the reader’s heart. The second and third line of the third stanza, “I cannot fall asleep again. At the second horn, the whip curls across the backs of the laggards,” shows the nervousness of the house slave and in turn creates a saddened tone for the reader. It also illustrates the horrid way the slaves were treated. The line, “sometimes my sister’s voice, unmistaken among them” causes the reader to feel sympathy for the slave and brings them thoughts of their own family. The last stanza, “and as the fields unfold to whiteness, and they spill like bees among the fat flowers, I weep. It is not yet daylight,” allows the cruelty of the slave system sink in. “ as the fields unfold to whiteness” conveys the supreme rule of the white masters over the slaves and the work. Dove uses a simile to compare the slaves to bees to show how hard they are forced to work to harvest the crop day after day. The last line, “I weep. It is not yet daylight,” creates a horribly sad tone for the reader as the reality sets in. The reader weeps along side the house slave. The story of what the house slave sees on a daily basis creates a sad tone for the reader and unveils the cruelty of plantation systems.
ReplyDeleteIn the poem “The House Slave” Rita Dove uses dark visual imagery and metaphors to illustrate the isolation the person feels through being an observer of the others outside, and the emotional distress from being sexually assaulted. In the first and second triplet, Dove writes,
ReplyDelete“The first horn lifts its arm over the dew-lit grass
and in the slave quarters there is a rustling—
children are bundled into aprons, cornbread
and water gourds grabbed, a salt pork breakfast taken.
I watch them driven into vague before-dawn”
The narrator romantically describes the scene of the slave quarters with the metaphor of the horn lifting its arm over dew-lit grass, as if the horn is a calming and beautiful thing for the other people. But in the sense that she wishes she were with the other people. Her longing is expressed with how the narrator refers to the other people with a removed tone by saying “I watch them driven into the vague before-dawn while their mistress sleeps…” or in the fourth triplet, “sometimes my sister’s voice, unmistaken, among them”. to illustrate an almost secretive and forbidden act of trying to observe life outside of the house. She has to sneak when the mistress is asleep and listen to what happens in the field.
In the third triplet Dove writes,”and Massa dreams of asses, rum and slave-funk.
I cannot fall asleep again.”
Dove’s metaphors illustrates the fact that the slave master is allowed to his fantasies of black women and terrorize them (his dream) but also gets to wake up and have his normal life. Whereas the woman isn’t able to dream, or escape her reality. While she is also quite literally not able to go to sleep again because she is in danger of being assaulted and lives in constant fear of that. Again in the fourth triplet the narrator says,” I lie on my cot, shivering in the early heat,” to convey the feeling of terror and bareness she feels.
In the last triplet Dove uses metaphors to compare the field labor to the sexual assault the narrator endures.
“and as the fields unfold to whiteness,
and they spill like bees among the flowers,
I weep. It is not yet daylight”.
The fields unfolding to whiteness illustrate the way she is taken advantage of and is treated like a piece of property, an object instead of a human. The second line has a romantic metaphor, comparing the act, to the bees she imagines spilling amount flowers as if to remove herself mentally from the situation and imagine the field where she wish she was. It closes with, I weep. It is not yet daylight”, with the punctuation it gives a feeling of finality and sadness. It congrats to what is expected, a light at the end of the tunnel, but shows that this is only the beginning, her day has yet to start yet she has already been through too much.
In “The House Slave,” Rita Dove writes from the perspective of a house slave observing other slaves working in the field. Her writing creates a tone of sorrow in the reader and evokes emotion through dialogue, enjambment, and word choice. In the second stanza, the speaker states, “I watched them driven…” and it makes the reader wonder why the slave who is speaking is not working in the fields with them. As the poem progresses, Dove gives hints to the fact that the speaker may be a slave who works in the house and is used by her master for sex. She writes, “Those days I lie on my cot, shivering in the early heat.” The phrase “shivering in the early heat” is a juxtaposition to emphasize how the speaker feels scared and nervous in the situation that she is in. The entire poem seems to focus on the idea of night versus morning and sleeping versus watching the slaves in the field. The woman who is speaking dreads the night, as seen in the line “I weep. It is not yet daylight.” However, she also must watch as her family and other slaves are tortured in the fields all day; the lines “’Oh! pray,’ she cries. ‘Oh! pray!’” evoke a sense of sadness and despair from the reader. The cry for help from her sister almost seems to be extended to the speaker as well. The poem shows the two sides of a slave’s life and the horrors that come with each; the day brings suffering in the fields and the night brings suffering for the house slaves (like the speaker) who are abused by their masters and dread having each day come to an end.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with your interpretation. I like how you pointed out the phrase of juxtaposition in poem,something that I missed when I read it the first couple of times. However, when Dove writes "while their mistress sleeps like an ivory toothpick", (6) I saw this as being very important to the meaning of the poem. My interpretation was her ignorance of the injustices that the slaves on her land were being put through. Just like so many, she knew what was happening, but didn't do anything to fix it. This phrase is also a simile to show that she is in fact a white woman because she is being compared to ivory.
DeleteIn the poem “Belinda’s Petition”, Rita Dove assumes the persona of a slave named Belinda, a slave who was famous for writing a petition to fight for the rights of her and her daughter. Throughout the poem, Dove constantly uses enjambment to emphasize the speech that this woman is giving to the United States government in order to show the reader what an African-American woman was forced to endure in the early days of colonial America. In the first stanza of the poem, Dove makes it clear that Belinda is speaking to the government strictly just to get what she asked for, and rightfully deserves, when she says, “…I am Belinda, an African, since the age of twelve a Slave. I will not take too much of your Time, but to plead and place my pitiable Life unto the Fathers of this Nation” (Dove, “Belinda’s Petition”). Dove uses enjambment here to show that although she has gone through so much oppression as a slave, Belinda is still a no-nonsense woman who is set on what she wants and will make it very clear that she must have it, getting straight to the point when finally getting to communicate with the most important people in charge. Dove also uses metaphors to illustrate Belinda’s plight, acknowledging that, “Lately your Countrymen have severed the Binds of Tyranny. I would hope you would consider the Same for me, pure Air being the sole Advantage of which I can boast in my present Condition” (Dove, “Belinda’s Petition”). Dove uses metaphors excessively in this passage to show how simply the government could have set the slaves free before, and to show how simple Belinda’s plight is. This passage shows to the reader that Belinda is a strong woman who will go to great lengths to get justice for herself, and that pure air will be her advantage because once she is set free, she will be able to breathe freely again, a metaphor for how she lives a limited existence, confined to the house where she works as a slave. Dove also writes about Belinda reminiscing about her past to the government as evidence to prove that what she is asking for isn’t too much to ask for, as expressed in the third stanza, when she writes, “As to the Accusation that I am Ignorant…All my Childhood I expected nothing, if that be Ignorance” (Dove, “Belinda’s Petition”). Dove wrote this passage to show that she came from a humble background, that she doesn’t expect to get special privileges, and that she still does not expect that, she only wants what she rightfully deserves. Belinda knows about the stigma that will follow because she reached out to the government, a white, male government, as a woman of colour. However, Belinda is ready to accept whatever consequences come her way, as long as it gets her what she is fighting for. Another detail that Dove uses to write this poem is the use of capitalized letters thrown around randomly in the poem. However, this repetition is actually showing the reader what key words they must know to truly feel what the slaves felt in their conditions in early America. Despite the simplicity of the writing, this poem has deeper meaning that goes beyond the text that Dove tries to make feel like an experience of an earlier era.
ReplyDeleteRita Dove’s poem “David Walker” stood out to me most after reading her compilation of poems in the “Slavery” unit. My first impression told me that this poem was about a man, David Walker, who was a free African-American speaking his thoughts on slavery. I proceeded to look his name up and found an abundance of information that gave me better background on the poem. I found out that David Walker was in fact an African-American abolitionist and anti-slavery activist. In 1829, he published An Appeal on the Coloured Citizens of the World, which was written to promote black unity, as well as a fight against oppression and injustice. Since Walker was an abolitionist, writing was most likely of high importance to him, and therefore I came to the realization that Dove’s poem was reflecting his own thoughts on injustice. As I read through the poem, I found it interesting that in every stanza there was at least one italicized phrase. For instance, Dove writes “They strip and beat and drag us about like rattlesnakes,” (2-3). By italicizing certain phrases, I think Dove is using it as a technique to creating more emotion within the readers. She seems to have italicized the phrases that especially provide the imagery of mistreatment, which can then be seen in the readers minds. This is a way of giving the audience more insight on the pain and unfairness African-American’s dealt with. This phrase is also a simile where the slaves are being compared to being dragged around like rattlesnakes. Rattlesnakes, often seen as pests, have a bad connotation. They are poisonous, and almost always get beaten down or taken away because of this. Similarly, slaves could be seen as poisonous to society, or so white men thought, if they were given rights. Instead they were beaten, sometimes seen as annoyances, and were forced lived a life of injustice and oppression. Just like rattlesnakes, slaves were not liked. This can also be seen when Dove writes “We are the most wretched, degraded and object set of beings that ever lived since the world began,” (16-17). My interpretation, that this poem is written from Walker’s point of view, is reinforced by the first person narration used in this phrase. It was very evident that this poem had a harsh tone which made me feel resentment, as a reader, for all the injustices in history that went on not long ago.
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