Among the poems that make up Rita Dove’s Mother Love, the poem titled “Party Dress for a First Born” stood out to me. The poem stood out to me because of the somewhat ambiguous point of view that the poem is written from. The poem could easily be interpreted from the point of view of either Demeter or Persephone. To me, the poem seems to be written from the perspective of Persephone as she addresses a party dress laying on a bed that she plans to wear at a party. Interpreting the poem from this point of view explains the meaning of the line “Headless girl so ill at ease on the bed.” In this interpretation, the “headless girl” the narrator refers to is the dress. The narrator continues the poem by painting a picture of a childhood where mother was always there; “When I ran to my mother, waiting / radiant as a cornstalk at the edge of the field, / nothing else mattered….” Persephone sees this world of the past as a good thing, something she wishes she could go back to. This idea is juxtaposed with Persephone’s negative interpretation of the party described in the second stanza. No longer is Persephone living in a world where she can run to her mother. Instead, she is transitioning into a more mature world; one full of men and “petals waiting to loosen.” Persephone’s outlook on this transition is an extremely negative one. Phrases like “elegant scissors” and “wishing them dead” describe the scene of a party in a very harsh light. This idea ties back to the first words of the poem, “Headless girl so ill at ease on the bed.” For Persephone, to be in bed with a man is to be beheaded, and to be something for somebody else to wear, just like her dress. The ultimate effect of directly talking to the dress is to point out the loneliness that Persephone feels in her transition into womanhood. Being a firstborn, as pointed out in the title, she has no older siblings to turn to that have already experienced this transition. She also feels she can’t speak to her mother, as she wants to keep it as “our little secret.” In the end, she has nobody to turn, nobody but the dress that is “ill at ease on the bed.”
The poem “Exit” piqued my interest due to its title. Since Rita Dove wrote only one word, it makes me question the mitigating circumstances surrounding the title. And after reading through the poem, I noticed that Rita Dove meant exiting from the protective world which your mom constructed for you and becoming independent and leaving. Dove writes,” a reprieve is granted.” The word reprieve means “the cancellation or postponement of punishment” according to google. Reprieve in this case would point towards to a parental figure, specifically a mother in this case, because the theme is a Mother’s love, and mothers typically expresses their love when they punish their child for committing a wrong act. When a child is granted cancellation or postponement from this punishment, it means that the parental figure is no longer there to punish. In this specific poem it means that the child is leaving the mother because later in the poem it states, “the door to the taxicab waits. This suitcase, the saddest object in the world.” A door usually connotes to a transition or passageway to another world. Here, the child is leaving the protective world to an independent one. A suitcase means someone is leaving. Dove describes it as “the saddest object in the world” because it is sad both for the mother and child when they have to leave each other after bonding for so many years. The word exit makes a reader feel “sad and lonely” and Rita Dove expresses this feeling throughout the poem as the child is becoming independent and leaving the mother.
I agree with your interpretation of the poem, however, the word reprieve generally is taken and used in a sense of a postponement of consequences. I think, it is possible that Rita Dove used that word to give the reader a sense that while one may exit the protective world of your parents, eventually, that protective world will come right back. Maybe in the sense of old age, where one has trouble taking care of themselves, or maybe in the sense of government, society, or work that take the place of parental supervision, but some way or another, it is only a reprieve from this lack of independence.
While reading Rita Dove's Mother Love poems, the poem "Heroes," caught my attention in particular. The title "Heroes," suggestions something good or heroic, it has the connotations of happy ending, and a story of helping others. However, in this poem, the opposite of which occurs. The subject of the poem (the reader, in fact) plucks a poppy flower, but the last poppy flower of a garden. The reader then kills the woman over the flower and becomes a fugitive. In my mind, the fact that the story is titled "Heroes" is quite ironic. The action of picking the flower to save its life, results in the death of a human being. To me, this felt like Rita Dove was making a commentary on the modern idea of super heroes, how they always save the day, but in the process they always end up destroying much more than they help. Just like for this flower, the subject of the poem attempts to save the flower’s life, because it is wilting, but in the end, causes more death and destruction just to save a simple flower. Rita Dove is communicating to the reader that sometimes, those hailed as heroes, or those attempting heroic acts, end up having more negative impacts than positive ones.
I found your take on this poem very interesting and insightful. I found your idea about the negative effects of heroism novel because nearly all media and popular entertainment always promote heroism as extremely positive; heroes are usually viewed favorably and their final actions often overshadow any past transgressions they may have committed. I think that Dove purposely uses heroic diction to demonstrate the dogma that heroes are always great and then describes the actions of the hero to systematically show that this principle is not true. For example, a white boulder is used to kill the woman; White symbolisms light, goodness and safety, a stark contradiction to what the boulder does in the poem. Good stuff.
I agree with you on the theme of Heroes, to an extent. To contribute to the discussion, I think that the heavy use of the second person adds to the accusatory tone of the poem—you did this, you are responsible. At the same time, it could be emphasizing the fact that this is not just one small tale, but that it could happen to anybody. Trying to be a “hero” but ultimately destroying more beauty than you save is not unique to superheroes, as you mentioned, but is something that all of us can unintentionally do. I think that this adds to the tragic nature of the story of the flower, as the character in the poem never meant to hurt anyone, but did in the end—this is not a case of hubris, but that of loss. In fact, the reader can tell when in the fourth stanza, Dove writes, “It’s too late for apologies” that the flower-picker is not a bad person at heart. The intimate use of the second person starts to leave a bad taste in my mouth in the fifth stanza, when the character strikes the woman. I think that Dove is saying that anybody can commit terrible crimes in moments of panic. We feel as if we have no option, as if “there’s nothing to be done”, but of course this is not the case—it is only that we can not recognize that fact. Dove is conveying the theme not only that heroes can end up harming when they try to save, but that heroes and criminals, for the most part, are at heart the same types of people, and only circumstance dictates which we become (which is a scary thought for me).
“Used”, a poem by Rita Dove, is about the senselessness of values and desires promoted by society. This sonnet has an indefinable type and is divided into three stanzas, each focusing on a different aspect of society. Rita Dove rhymes throughout the poem to develop a sense of continuity in the sonnet. “Size threes” are rhymed with “twinkling knees” to establish her opinion on the frivolous nature of wanting to improve one’s own beauty and look. The verb “ballooning” used to describe the clothes mocks the want of many to buy new garments. Dove trivializes a female’s desire for a new skirt as only a means to satisfy the dreams of “man-child(ren).” Keeping in tune with the rhyming trend, “grief” and “brief” are rhymed to contrast the brief periods of elation in motherhood to the more persistent feeling of grief. The sentence “We have been used” supports the idea that bearing children and motherhood are more often societal pressures or expectations than things innately desired. In the third stanza, consonance and rhyming work together to establish the tone of society’s emphasis on insignificant ideas and desires. The consonance in the line “persuaded by postnatal dread” of “P” and “D”, both hard sounds, reinforces the demanding nature of conformity by describing the need of one to hide one’s own body after pregnancy as dictated by society. Finally, Dove rhymes “zip” with “slipped” to associate the extra nature of silk sheets as pointless and “quilts” with “guilt” to show how the unnecessary silk sheets interfered with the actual garment, the quilt, that keeps one warm.
This is really good analysis! I’m starting to wonder if these themes, similar to those in Siddhartha, are common in Rita Dove’s poems. Her allusions to the Greek hunter, Narcissus, certainly have a statement about excessive pride, and the poem “Primer” hints at the idea of not wanting help. Similar to how Siddhartha abandoned his teachers to seek enlightenment, the daughter abandoned her mother (momentarily, albeit) to be strong. I hadn’t really thought about the ties between Siddhartha and Mother Love, but I’m starting think there are lots.
Throughout The Bistro Styx, Dove explores the doleful mood of a mother letting her daughter go to the “dark side”. In Greek mythology, the river Styx separates Earth from the Underworld. In terms of the myth of Persephone’s abduction, the Earth represents her mother’s world while the Underworld represents that of Hades. Thus, the title signifies a crossroads or a threshold for Persephone—she must choose between coming back to her mother Demeter or staying in the Underworld with Hades. While Demeter hopes that her daughter will come back, she later learns that Persephone has already lost herself to the void with Hades, contributing to the tone of loss. In fact, Dove indicates several times that Persephone has strayed in her path. When she first arrives, Dove uses visual imagery almost blatantly. Persephone arrives “dressed all in gray, / from a kittenish cashmere skirt and cowl down to the graphite signature of her shoes.” Dove creates a dark tone by choosing the color gray, which can be associated with darkness and the Underworld. However, Dove intentionally chooses gray, not black, because Persephone is still somewhat new to life in the underworld. Like a little child possessed by the devil, Persephone is Hades’ apprentice of sorts. She even dons a cowl (loose hood), adding to her dark appearance. Yet, at the same time, she wears a playful skirt, a callback to her innocent roots. Within her, there exists a dichotomy of childishness and darkness, combining to create a feeling of tainted beauty. Demeter recognizes this within her child, describing her as “my blighted child,” wondering what her once radiant daughter has become. There was a whole lot that I didn’t get to cover (I only got to the third stanza!), like the food symbolism or the eerie diction in the fourteenth stanza, but this post is getting a little long so I’ll have to cut it off here.
I totally agree with opinion on how the description of the clothing symbolizes Persephone's deviation from her past. Good work! I would like to add a supporting point to your argument. During the first few stanzas which you analyzed, the cape, was also included as a piece of clothing to describe Persephone. The cape usually is worn by those of the upper class. And since Persephone is Hades’s apprentice, she exults some sort of an “aristocratic” aura. (Stanza 4) In addition, Dove chooses the color “silvery” to describe the cape which is also associated with riches and nobility. Perhaps these changes also further prove that Persephone is drifting from her original path and is swayed by Hades. Just a thought.
In Rita Dove’s Mother Love Poems, one poem particularly caught my attention - “Breakfast of Champions.” The poem is relatively short, and is an Indefinable Sonnet. It has the form of a Petrarchan Sonnet by having an octave followed by a sestet, however doesn’t follow a rhyme scheme of any kind. The poem has a sad and depressing tone, using a lot of sad symbolism and imagery to further portray this theme. The first sentence alone gives the reader a melancholic feel: “Finally, overcast skies.” In the third line of the poem, “a little dust on the laurel branch,” you can find more symbolism, this time with dust on the laurel branch. A laurel branch is the stereotypical greek prize or award to make one feel proud and happy. The dust symbolizes how this is an old feeling for the narrator, and she no longer feels pride or happiness. There are many other symbols and uses of imagery in this poem, all pertaining to the gloomy mood, but the most important one is the whole idea of a breakfast of champions, which is also the title of the poem. She follows up on this idea in the fourth line of the poem: “I’ll dive into a grateful martini tonight.” A breakfast of champions is having alcohol or a cigarette for breakfast as an example when you’re feeling good and happy. Rita Dove uses this idea in irony, as the narrator is obviously not happy and is in a sad mood throughout the poem. The Poem relates to the myth of Persephone, who got taken by Hades to the Underworld while walking around by herself. Demeter, Persephone’s mother, feels responsible for not raising her properly and allowing her to wander off by herself. The sorrow and grief of this poem represents how Demeter feels after having lost her daughter. “Arise, it’s a new morning! Though I pour myself the recommended bowlful, stones are what I sprinkle among the chaff.” These are the final three lines of the poem. The spring theme in these final lines through terms such as new morning and chaff are a representation of how Persephone will return in the spring. Demeter telling herself to arise shows how she feels she should be happy about the return of her daughter, but she still feels sorrow and grief as represented through the last line by her stoning the chaffs.
I like how you talk about the overarching mood of gloominess. I agree that it is a very relevant part of the poem. I also like how you mentioned Greek mythology with Persephone returning after the winter. However, I think that you should've mentioned her leaving for winter as it talks about the weather and makes references to winter.
The poem Primer by Rita Dove interested me. I found it interesting because it can be related to the modern day instead of to Greek mythology. I especially found it interesting how Rita Dove chose to use Caddie as the car the mother drove up in. It is interesting because it could be a reference to a golf caddie. In golf, a caddie gives the golfer advice about what they should do. The caddie also give the clubs to the golfer. This is related to how a mother gives advice to her child based on her experiences and what she thinks is best. A mother will also give her child the tools they need to succeed in life. Another interesting section of the indefinable poem is when Rita Dove writes, “my five-foot-zero mother drove up in her Caddie to shake them down to size.” It seems like the daughter is making fun of her mother. The part that makes it appear this way is the word “zero”. Most people just say five feet, but in this poem, Rita Dove writes “five-foot-zero”. This adds extra emphasis to the fact that her mother is short and adds a new element of mockery to the sentence. The final thing that I found to be very interesting about this poem is that it says the girl, “took the long way home.” This is foreshadowing, assuming this poem is about Persephone, that she will be going home from the underworld after each winter. This way home from the underworld is considered to be the long way home instead of having her mother come and rescue her.
I found your point about “Caddie” being a reference to a golf caddie to be an interesting one, but it is certainly not how I interpreted it. When talking about cars, “Caddie” refers to a Cadillac, America’s quintessential luxury car brand. I do think this is what Rita Dove was referring to when she said “Caddie.” However, it is very possible that Rita Dove specifically chose to use the word “Caddie” because of its other meaning, as you pointed out. Also, I agree with your point that saying “five-foot-zero” does sound more insulting than just saying “five feet,” but why do you think the Persephone character would want be mocking her mom? What point is she trying to prove about herself?
We talked a lot about Demeter and Persephone in class, as they were essential to the poems. However, Narcissus, another Greek deity, plays a role as well. In the poems “The Narcissus Flower” and “Persephone, Falling”, Persephone is symbolized as a narcissus flower. I dug into the plant a little bit, and came upon some interesting facts. Initially, I had assumed that there was some connection between the word narcissistic and the flower, and I turned out to be right. The Greek hunter Narcissus was excessively proud, looked down on all those who loved him, and eventually fell in love with his own reflection. Persephone is likewise foolish and proud. She did not listen to her mother, and instead assumed that she knew what she was doing. Both characters disrespect those who care about them. When Narcissus falls in love with his own reflection, he loses his will to live, and dies there, staring into the water. Persephone did not pay the price of death, but she instead faces marriage to Hades. Another interesting thing that I found is that the Narcissus flower is poisonous, containing lycorine. It may be beautiful above the earth, but beneath it contains a bitter and poisonous bulb. In “Persephone, Falling”, Dove wrote that “She pulled, stooped to pull harder— when, sprung out of the earth on his glittering terrible carriage”. Now, it is obviously a reference to Hades, but it could also be referencing the sinister bulb beneath the beautiful flower, much like the sinister fate of the beautiful girl. Now, I’m not entirely sure what Rita Dove meant by it, but she certainly picked an interesting flower to symbolize the daughter throughout Mother Love.
“The House Slave” by Rita Dove caught my attention in particular. When reading the poem, it becomes apparent that the poem is coming from the perspective of a house slave. This poem in particular emphasizes the pain the house slave faces, not necessarily physically, but rather emotionally and empathetically. The house slave faces pain as he/she watches his/her people be oppressed in slavery. “At the second horn, the whip curls across the backs of the laggards… I weep. It is not yet daylight,” these lines in particular express the house slave’s pain in watching the enslavement of his/her people. For Rita Dove to take the position of a house slave instead of a field slave is intriguing. It provides an outside perspective to the harshest conditions of slavery, but a perspective that is not unaware of slavery, and one that knows the evils of it. This perspective allows for the reader to actually better empathize with slave life. Not only is the reader now able to be aware of physical oppression occurring, but also the emotional damage and affect on other slaves and people. The house slave’s deep sadness stirs pain in the reader’s heart as the house slave hears their own sister being whipped and knows that they can do nothing about it. Sometimes it is more emotionally impactful not to have physical abuse happen to the main character/point of view, but rather for it to happen to someone they deeply care about.
I agree with your idea that having the poem be written through the eyes of a house slave helps to drive the emotion of the poem. It emphasizes that even for those slaves who may not have been treated horribly physically, the emotional damage that occurs to them is still completely crushing. Seeing a family member you love and care about being tormented on a regular basis is something that would haunt almost anybody. However, something that stood out to me about this poem was the structure of it. It is broken up into five stanzas, each containing three lines. I'm wondering how you think this structure might contribute to its meaning?
In “Sonnet in Primary Colors”, Rita Dove employs symbolism and pain imagery to describe the life and experiences of Frida Kahlo, the famous Mexican painter. Dove describes Frida Kahlo as “the woman with one black wing perched over her eyes” (1-2), a reference to Kahlo’s famous unibrow. At the end of the poem, her brow is mentioned again as immutable, a reference this time to Kahlo’s strong personality and mental strength in times of hardship. The symbolism of the “plaster corset her spine resides in” (5) is about an accident during Kahlo’s childhood that injured her permanently. The plaster and corset symbolize the physical imprisonment she suffered because corsets are very restricting and plaster is often used to solidify stationary objects. “Lenin and Marx and Stalin arrayed at the footstead…” (9) symbolizes Kahlo’s connection with the Mexican Revolution and her support for their communist rhetoric. “Diego’s love a skull…” (12) is a reference to her tumultuous relationship with painter Diego Rivera. Rita Dove uses the word skull to symbolize the death of the love between Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. Throughout the poem, Rita Dove uses pain imagery to show the pain of Frida Kahlo’s life. “Each night she lay down in pain…” (7) is about Frida Kahlo’s physical suffering from injuries and emotional pain from relationships with Diego Rivera. Dove describes the dead as beloved to Frida, implying Frida Kahlo’s close relationship with pain and suffering. Finally, the title of the poem is a symbol of the effect of Frida Kahlo’s painful experiences on her life. A sonnet is usually fourteen lines long but this poem is only thirteen. Thus, the title of the poem is somewhat ironic because the “Primary Colors” implies Kahlo had a full and complete life, but the missing line in the poem contradicts the “Sonnet” and symbolizes how pain hindered part of her life.
The poem Sonnet in Primary Colors by Rita Dove is about the artist Frida Kahlo. The line, “one black wing perched over her eyes.” is a reference to the fact that she had a unibrow and she embraced it. The poem also mentions a mirror and a circular window. This is probably a reference to the fact that she embraced duality in her art. The mirror represents what she feels inside versus what she looks like on the outside. Whenever there is a mirror in movies, it is usually circular. This circular window could be meaning a mirror. However, it could also represent her day to day life seeming bland as a child because of her multiple accidents. The poem also says, “Erect among parrots, in the stern petticoats of the peasant.” The mention of “erect among parrots” is an allusion to the fact that she was brought up as a child while raising parrots. The fact that the petticoat is stern emphasizes the fact that she didn’t have a lot of money growing up. The quote, “Each night she lay down in pain and rose to her celluloid butterflies of her Beloved Dead, Lenin and Marx and Stalin arrayed at the footstead.” is full of references. The celluloid butterflies could represent the butterfly effect of how the things that Lenin, Marx, and Stalin did effected her life. The mention of Lenin, Marx, and Stalin represent how Frida Kahlo was heavily influenced by Communism. Those three names are mentioned because they are the first people that are thought of when Communism is mentioned. The footstead is likely a reference to how heavily Communism influenced her. Those two words mean that Communism is the base of her political beliefs.
Jordan Barr I agree with your interpretation of this poem for the most part, but your explanation of the phrase “erect among parrots” seems odd to me. While you say it reference’s Kahlo's childhood, I agree more with Eleanor that it references one of her interesting paintings titled “Yo y mis pericos.” One of the interesting features about this painting is the title, which would have made sense to be called “Self-Portrait with Parrots” since she was going through a phase in which she included “Self-Portrait” in the titles of her art pieces. I also thoroughly agree with your interpretation of the mirror as a symbol of the dualist phase Kahlo went through. The contrast between the positivity in the first half of the poem and the harshness in the other helps emphasize this feature in some of Kahlo’s art.
The poem “Canary” by Rita Dove stood out to me after my first readthrough. Dove carefully crafts imagery into her poem to paint a picture of a glamorous, yet tragic figure: Billie Holiday. In the first line, Dove describes her voice as being “burned.” In the context of Billie Holiday's life, the word “burned” signifies that Holiday has lived a rough life, and that pain and hardship can be heard when she sings. It also means that her voice was literally damaged by years of alcohol and substance abuse. Dove then goes on to describe Holiday’s voice as having “as many shadows as lights.” Once again, Dove is using imagery to describe Holiday’s voice, which at the same time is a metaphor for her life. Holiday did not have an easy life, and despite her fame, there was still a very dark side to her. Dove explores this idea in the second stanza. The second stanza describes Holiday’s frequent drug abuse through lines like “magic spoon, magic needle” and “ with your mirror and your bracelet of song.” These lines allude to both heroin and cocaine use, something for which Holiday struggled with, and was arrested for. After painting a picture of a famous singer whose life was characterized by hardship, Dove uses the last three lines to make a broader statement about the entertainment industry and famous women. The lines “Fact is, the invention of women under siege / has been to sharpen love in the service of myth,” seem to describe a damsel in distress type figure. As if the entertainment industry preys on women in trouble and takes advantage of their situation. In the final line of the poem, Dove writes, “If you can't be free, be a mystery.” This means that famous people can keep themselves and their story from being invented by others by keeping their life and their thoughts hidden. From these lines, I also made a connection to the song “Candle in the Wind” by Elton John. The song is about Marilyn Monroe, another famous woman who died young due to drugs and hardship. In both their cases, they kept who they really were a mystery, and only let the public see the side that they wanted them to see. However, the constant pressure from the media, the world, and their pasts proved too much for them and they turned to drugs to ease their pain. As a result, their candles burned out long before their legends ever will.
Nice insights. I wonder if there was a reason that Rita Dove wrote about Billie Holiday aside from her tragic life—namely, her song, “Strange Fruit,” after all, Holiday is best known for her rendition of the song about lynchings in the South. I’m not sure if this is a stretch—I feel like it might be—but the lyrics of the song (“Then the sudden smell of burning flesh”) seem somewhat related to the first line of the poem (“Billie Holiday’s burned voice”). I also think that the title for this poem is especially significant. Canaries often live caged up, which may be in reference to Holiday’s time in prison. Additionally, the phrase “canary in a coal mine” may relate to the title, as the toxic fumes that kill canaries in mines may further symbolize Holiday’s drug addiction.
I think that the reference to the cage and the canary go deeper than just jail time. I think what Cole said about the media controlling and laying siege to women more adequately encompases the metaphor. A canary is kept in a cage to sing and be beautiful, but it is only valued for the traits that we want in it. If you buy a canary you don’t care how compassionate or intelligent the bird is, you just want to hear it sing and you want it to be beautiful. The press, likewise, didn’t care about Billie as a person, and put great pressure upon her to be beautiful and to sing well. I also think that you did not explore one interesting detail in the poem. It is written for Michael S. Harper, a fellow poet and friend of Rita Dove. He wrote about racial divides in the US, and had a powerful message. I believe that Rita Dove addressed it to him to keep him true to his cause, to not get caught up in the media, but to keep writing what and how he wants to write.
In “Tou Wan Speaks to Her Husband, Liu Sheng”, Rita Dove develops an oxymoronic tone that portrays both respect and intimacy. As demonstrated through Dove’s use of the first person, Tou Wan speaks from the beginning, establishing a personal relationship between “I” and “you” (Tou Wan and Liu Sheng, respectively). Later, at the end of the first stanza, Tou Wan calls him “my / only conqueror.” While “conqueror” sounds austere and distant, Dove adds a touch of personal color through the word “my,” making the phrase sound more personal or even romantic. Furthermore, Dove chooses to use enjambment to emphasize the effect of the word. At the end of the third stanza, the speaker trails off in ellipses, and states, “but you’re bored.” Creating a playful tone, Dove establishes Tou Wan’s level of comfort in her relationship with Liu Sheng. Afterwards, Tou Wan continues to guide her husband throughout the tomb: “Straight ahead then, the hall / leading to you, my / constant / emperor.” Once again, Tou Wan addresses Liu with both closeness and deference. Although she calls him “my constant emperor,” she also orders him around, telling him where to go. The familiar tone builds further in the sixth stanza. Tou says, “I will set you / a lamp. (And a statue / of the palace girl you most / frequently coveted.)” Historically, Liu Sheng was known to live indulgently, particularly with women. Tou acknowledges this fact in a knowing and almost teasing tone, rather than that of anger or jealousy. This again shows the closeness of the two.
This is an interesting aspect indeed. I agree that she uses the pronouns “my” to show her love to him. However, what follows the my matters. She says “my only conqueror” and “my constant emperor.” Both nouns “conqueror” and “emperor” hold a superior connotation to them. Perhaps Dove chose these specific nouns to exhibit how the husband is more superior than the wife.
After reading “Tou Wan Speaks to Her Husband, Lie Sheng,” numerous times, I realized that the complexity of the poem tells us a message about the relationship between a husband and wife. Rita Dove expresses this by embedding an allegory within the poem while relating ancient Chinese culture’s view upon a husband and wife and her era’s view. The poem is an allegory to Tou Wan’s tomb, which today, it is still famous for its extravagancy. This tomb delineated her body and was encased in gold and jade with the purpose of keeping her soul intact with the earth. The poem was written in reverse. Here, Tou Wan is building the “tomb” by saying “I will build you a house” (1) and it continues “of limited chambers but it shall last forever.” Relating to how the tomb which was built around 238 BC lasted all the way until modern times. Rita Dove continues the poem, and writes “For those times in your niche when darkness oppresses, I will set you a lamp” (32-35). This describes how well thought out the tomb was; it considered different aspects and moments of Lie Sheng’s feelings and catered accordingly. Later, Dove mentions “ a suit to keep the shape of your death” (43-44). Relating it to the tomb of Tou Wan, and how the tomb delineated her body. As for the husband and wife aspect of this poem, both ancient Chinese culture and Rita Dove’s culture perceived men as the superior one in the relationship. One example of this in the poem is when Diva writes ,” I will set you a lamp. (And a statue of the palace girl you most frequently coveted.)” It appears to be an affair, however because her husband is the most important thing to her, showing male superiority, she will acknowledge the affair and still serve her husband. Equal privilege when it comes to gender does not exist between these two eras. There are other examples, however this post is getting a little long so I’ll stop it here.
I agree that the complexity of the poem cannot be understated. I agree that the each stanza of the poem refers to a different aspect or characteristic of Liu Sheng’s life. The reference to the palace girl could be interpreted like you did, where it is a show of male superiority in the relationship, but it can also be interpreted as a sign of how deeply entwined the two are together. Thus, even though Tou Wan knows of her husband’s affair with other women, she still continues to support him. The constant description of her husband as “emperor” or “conqueror” reinforces the close relationship between the two. Good job!
In the poem, “Tou Wan Speaks to Her Husband, Liu Sheng” I noticed the bitter and passive aggressive tone towards the inequality between genders. The whole poem is an allegory to the infamous tomb that Tou Wan, the point of view of this piece was buried in. In the first stanza, when she says “my only conqueror”, I interpreted it as a sarcastic tone hidden in a usually endearing and intimate phrase. Again in the fourth stanza, she calls Liu Sheng “my constant emperor”, giving the word constant its own line. By saying “only” and “constant” it can be a reference to how women were never allowed any other partners while some men had many partners. Usually, a wife would not call their husband “conqueror” even if he was important. This shows her bitter feelings toward the superiority of males over their wives. In the 6th stanza, she talks about putting a statue of a palace girl in his niche. I thought this was odd because they were husband and wife but she is putting up a statue of his mistress before herself. This is most sarcastic stanza because she is praising and serving her husband but she hides a double meaning and puts the more sensitive information in the paranthesis. This is a reference to how women were almost servant like and were to be proper and to never disrespect or deface their husbands. Since Tou Wan is a proper, wealthy lady, she is careful to hide her real emotions and thoughts behind all the praising and serving by using sarcasm and passive agression. Rita Dove may have wrote this poem to shine a light on the nature of marriages in her time.
I agree with your interpretation of the sarcastic tones the words portray. The fact that constant even got its own line seems to me to be dripping with sarcasm. Rita Dove uses these short lines to provide major emphasis on these sarcastic tones and to show how bitter Tou Wan feels about her husband Liu Sheng. In addition, I think the use of conqueror could also be a reference to how she was forced into marriage with him. That to her they are not married, that to her, he is a merely just a conqueror.
In the poem “The Abduction” by Rita Dove, I found her use of end-stop and caesurae particularly powerful in this poem. Rita Dove uses the punctuation as a way to build up tension and emphasize key points to the climax of the poem. And this poem definitely has a climax. In the beginning of the poem, it becomes apparent that the poem is coming from the point of view of Solomon Northrup, and in this first stanza, there are only two lines of the five that are end-stop, where as almost every line after the first stanza is end-stop. I think Rita Dove did this on purpose to show Solomon Northrup’s happy beginnings as a free man of color in a time of slavery, but as the poem goes on, the end-stop is used to build up tension so the reader/listener begins to realize not everything is dandy. As the poem comes to a close, as referenced in the name of the poem, “the Abduction,” Solomon Northrup ends up in slavery, having been kidnapped. Rita Dove’s use of caesurae in this build-up and conclusion provides major emphasis on the horrors of the situation Solomon Northrup faces. “I woke and found myself alone, in darkness and in chains,” as can be seen in this quote, the caesura in the middle of the line provides a brief pause between “alone” and “in darkness” thus emphasizing both of these phrases. The use of caesura in this line focuses the reader on these points, the loneliness Solomon felt and the darkness that is slavery.
I can definitely see the emphasis provided by the caesurae. I think it was used especially effectively in combination with imagery to create an ominous and uneasy tone throughout the third stanza. “Windows rattled”, “a pink lake, tipped”, and “the sky swiveled” all build tension, but when they are used in combination with the caesurae they are much more powerful. Both “a pink lake” and “the sky swiveled” are enclosed by caesurae on both sides, making them stand out. At this point in the poem it is not certain what happens to Solomon Northup, but the uneasy feeling created by these choppy images gets the idea across very effectively.
Rita Dove’s poem “Canary” is a sonnet about the fighting for women’s rights and society’s view on women in the early 1900’s. The poem begins with a reference to “Billie Holiday.” Upon googling I found that “Billie Holiday” was the stage name for the jazz musician Eleanora Fagan, who was an extremely prominent figure in the early to mid-1900’s. One of the things that made her stand out to the rest of the jazz musicians at the time was her raspy voice, which was a result of her excessive drug use, referenced in the first line of the poem as “Billie Holiday’s burned voice.” The second stanza shows a lot of juxtaposition, for example “drummer to bass.” while drums are usually give off a fast-paced, strong beat, a bass has a calm, relaxing sound. Another juxtaposition is found in the next line: “magic spoon, magic needle.” These juxtapositions could be of reference to the views on genders in society in the historic period of Billie Holiday, with men being seen as strong figures while women are calm, soothing figures. In the second to last stanza Rita Dove mentions “women under siege,” undoubtedly mentioning the past struggles of women under male dominance, and their fight for equal rights and participation in economy and society. The last line of the poem is its own stanza, giving it more emphasis. “If you can’t be free, be a mystery.” This means that although women struggled for freedom, they didn’t decide to let the challenge own them. Instead, they decided to be unique, or a mystery, by continuing their fight for freedom and equal rights. This theme of freedom is also seen in the title “Canary,” which is a bird often associated with happiness. This shows that even through the length of their fight for equal rights, when they finally achieve this they will be happy.
The phrase "magic spoon, magic needle" isn't being used in this poem to juxtapose gender roles in society, but rather just to describe the drug use that Holiday had descended into. The needle in spoon are references to heroine usage, which also explains the use of the word "magic" to describe them. Also, while canaries certainly might be associated with happiness, I don't think that is why Dove chose to use that as the title. Canaries are usually kept in cages which in the context of Billy Holiday means that she wasn't really free. Instead, Holiday was a songbird held in a cage by the constraints of drugs, race, sex, and society in general.
The poem “Belinda’s Petition” initially caught my eye for a few reasons. Dove’s use of capitalization and formal language serves to highlight the braveness of those that fight for their freedom. This poem is a direct reference to the situation of a real slave named Belinda living in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts during the Revolutionary War. She petitioned for reparations for being enslaved for so long, and in the end she won due to the Massachusetts Constitution making slavery illegal in the state. The poem is written as a statement read by Belinda to the legislative body of Massachusetts. Throughout the poem, Dove contrasts very formal sounding language such as “To the honorable Senate and House” with the overall defiant tone of the speaker. This defiance is best shown by the lines “Lately your Countrymen have severed the Binds of Tyranny. / I would hope you would consider the Same for me.” Overall, these lines sound very polite and formal, however, the phrase “I would hope you would consider the Same for me” comes through with a searing level of irony and dissent. This tones supports the strength and braveness of Belinda and shows that she was not in need of anybody’s pity. Dove also uses capitalization in an uncommon way. Specific words like “Slave,” “Accusation,” “Ignorant,” and “Childhood” are capitalized throughout the poem. One reason this could have been done is to mimic the writing style of the time. It was common practice in this period of history to capitalize certain words in a sentence, even if they aren’t proper nouns (just look at the Constitution). However, this also serves the purpose of giving the poem a much more impassioned tone. The capitalization emphasizes the meaning and importance of certain words. Ultimately, the capitalization stands to make Belinda seem much more brave and defiant of the institution of slavery.
Nestor’s Bathtub was a very interesting poem, but I struggle to find the exact message that Rita Dove was trying to get across. It feels as though she wanted to emphasize the lack of women throughout historical texts, as Nestor, the King of Pylos, had a wife with almost no historical texts. Nestor’s Bathtub may have been inspired by the excavation of Nestor’s palace, including his 2,853 cups and extravagant bathtub. As it was typical in Ancient Greece for the man to go off into battle or to rule the kingdom and the women to maintain the household, it could be inferred that Rita Dove was suggesting a permanence to the women’s role. While the empire of Pylos fell and dissolved, the bathtub and the cups remained for hundreds, even thousands of years.
The Transport of Slaves From Maryland to Mississippi was an especially powerful poem, simply because of the story it told. A wagon of slaves broke their chains and freed themselves, and a female slave (it is written from her perspective) aided one of the slave drivers, who then ran to get help. Fighting only for their freedom, and then displaying the compassion to help a fallen adversary, the slaves were punished for the act of kindness and enslaved once more. Lines like “left for dead in the middle of the road, dust hovering around the body like a screen of mosquitos” and “his eyes were my eyes in a yellower face” show the humanity and compassion of the woman. Rita Dove even writes “he might have been a son of mine”, displaying clearly how few differences there really are between the slaves and their owners. I think that this poem was much more powerful than any of the others because of the story. The imagery was powerful, and was aided by a surplus of caesurae, but the real power of pathos came from the story itself.
In “Rosa”, Rita Dove uses sharp and precise diction, organized syntax, and vivid visual imagery to indicate the calm, collected nature of Rosa Parks and the impact of her actions for the civil rights movement in the 1950s. This poem is about Rosa Parks refusing to give up her bus seat to a white person and promptly being arrested. Her actions helped spark outrage and fuel for the civil rights movement in the 1950s. Words indicating precision, sharpness, and keenness are used to describe the actions of Rosa Parks. Rita Dove describes her as having a “trim name” (4) and a “sensible coat” (6) to indicate her sharp resolve. Dove describes her gaze as a “clean fire” indicating efficiency and merciless resilience. Besides the crisp diction, Rita Dove organizes the poem in such a way to convey the coordinated nature of Rosa Park’s actions. The twelve lines of the poem are neatly organized into four stanzas with three lines apiece. Each stanza features enjambment in the second line to indicate the drawn-out, complex natures of the actions of Rosa Parks and the Civil Rights movement. Finally, visual imagery vividly paints a picture of Rosa Park’s strength. The quote “How she sat there, the time right inside a place so wrong it was ready” (1-3) visualizes the impactful nature of her actions by supplementing her stoic statement with a short sentence describing the importance of her resistance. Rita Dove further describes Rosa Park’s unwavering courage in the face of adversity with “the clean flame of her gaze carved by a camera flash” (7-9). This quote provides context by describing the event as a highly publicized action, something necessary for goal of civil rights movement. The final image of Rosa Parks reaffirms her commitment to her ideals. “That courtesy” shows how even when purposely practicing civil disobedience, she does act rashly and maintain a calm and calculated manner.
I viewed the poem “Lady Freedom Among Us,” from the lenses of a feminist and antiracist perspective while Rita Dove communicated through imagery and the format of the poem.Dove utilizes one lady, to represent the general black female population. Describing a poor yet strong women rising from desolation through details such as “old fashioned sandals”(8) or “leaden skirts.”(9) All of which, are undesirable in our society. However, she ends that stanza with “she has risen among us in blunt reproach” as in, this lady has disapproved society’s view upon her population adamantly while Rita uses the words “blunt reproach.” (11) She continues to describe the rising of this character in the next stanza writing “fitted her hair under a hand me-down cap and spruced it up with feathers and starts.” (13-14) When someone hides their hair and puts something over it, it is similar to putting a wig. One puts a wig in order to change their demeanor, how they look. In this case, she “spruced it with feathers and stars.” This quote pertains to a rising imagery. Feathers and starts are both fancy and beautiful beautiful things, especially thing which are not usually associated with black females at that time. The format of the poem is very interesting. There exists no word that is capitalized. Rita utilizes this to emphasize how lowly society viewed women. However among those women, a lady rises and shows that even the lowly can be equal. Dove writes, they “no choice but to grant her space crown her with sky...she is each of us.” (29-32) Because she stood up adamantly for her stance and beliefs, people recognized that and realized that they too, also shared the belief.
Interesting: you took “Lady Freedom Among Us” to be both a poem about race and gender inequalities, when I thought it was only about race relations. There isn’t much specific diction referring to women (other than the symbol of Lady Freedom), but maybe “bigboned” in stanza seven could be referring to societal pressures on women to be thin. I hadn’t considered that the poem could be read from two different angles. Now that I think about it, I think that this definitely could be the case, since Lady Freedom is a lady herself, after all.
Similar to what Sam said, reading this poem for the first time, I did not consider it to be about gender inequality either. However, reading through the poem, I definitely understand where your points and evidence are coming from. The old diction used to describe aspects of the lady you mentioned is effective at establishing this relationship. The absence of capitals throughout the poem is also a fantastic observation by you and really supports the theme that women are not viewed equally in society. Quotes also support your final point that even the lowly can be considered equal through their work. Really good analysis and work!
Rita Dove originally wrote “Lady Freedom Among Us” as US Poet Laureate to commemorate the restoration of the Lady Freedom statue in 1993. Throughout the poem, she develops the idea of the unforgettable nature of freedom. In the third and fourth stanza, Dove describes the statue as almost run-down or shabby looking, using words like “oldfashioned,” “trinkets,” and “hand-me-down.” In fact, the person who the narrator addresses in the first and second stanza tries to avoid her. However, the narrator commands them not to ignore or discount Freedom. Through the second person imperative, Dove creates a defensive tone around the Freedom statue. The second stanza in particular reveals certain prejudices against Lady Freedom based on her appearance. Dove writes, “don’t mutter oh no / not another one / get a job fly a kite / go bury a bone”. The person to whom the narrator speaks seems to think of Freedom as lazy and worthless, or even animal-like, as seen in the last line, which reminds the reader of dogs. However, Dove flips this view of the statue later in the third and fourth stanzas. “[S]he has risen among us in blunt reproach”—despite Lady Freedom’s situation, she refuses to be brought down, but instead rises up over it. Dove further stresses this later in the poem, writing, “no choice but to grant her space / crown her with the sky”. Freedom demands recognition and emanates pride. Dove’s use of “crown” stresses this, proclaiming that Freedom is akin to regal nobility.
I have considered this angle of analysis. Good job in researching the origins of the poem. I think it goes along with my argument that Lady Freedom represents equality. Although I do agree that the second stanza reveal prejudice, I would like to think that there’s a deeper meaning than just Lady Freedom. I think it refers to racial inequality. However, I do agree with everything else. Good job!
Mia Kimura Period 5 I viewed “Freedom Ride” as a reference to segregation and racial tension of the 1950’s and 60’s. Throughout the poem, she mentions buses and streets which was a reference to Rosa Parks infamous protest against segregation. In the beginning of the second stanza, it talks about pulling a cord and “walking in a gauntlet of stares”. The cord is a reference to the stop request cord on buses. “Walking in a gauntlet of stares”, can be talking about how if you get off at the wrong stop, you could be stared out. I saw this as a reference to segregated communites and how if an African-American were to mistakenly get off in a white part of town. Throughout the poem there are multiple lines that talk about burning and fire. I interpreted this as the passion of the movement and how the opposing side would often put down their chances of moving foward.
I agree that the “gauntlet of stares” was powerful imagery, but I thought that perhaps the repetitive fire imagery and symbolism was more interesting. The lines “patches of yard rushing into the flames”, “Make no mistake: There’s fire back where you came from, too”, and “but where you sit is where you’ll be when the fire hits” seem to symbolize the civil rights movement, spreading like a fire throughout the country. The last stanza treats the issue like a devouring flame, consuming everything in its path. Saying that “where you sit is where you’ll be when the fire hits” feels like a cry for action. The fire is coming, whether you sit in a corner and hide or fight it, so you might as well try to fight. The mention of flames in the first stanza makes me think that segregated housing districts were being challenged. If the “fearful patches of yard” were actually heading into the civil rights issues, the symbolism of fire and the movement would be further supported.
“Climbing In” by Rita Dove is a poem about the bus boycotts. Throughout the poem, the imagery conveys a very ominous tone. The floor of the bus is described as metallic teeth, suggesting something evil about the bus itself. THe dime cuts into her palm figuratively because she feels so guilty to be disobeying the bus boycott. The bus driver is described as the wolf from little red riding hood, dressed up as the innocent grandmother but actually quite sinister. “The bright lady tumbles head over tail down the clinking gullet” references both the metallic mouth and the little red riding hood story, as the little girl, the main point of view for this story, is devoured by the horror of the bus. I thought that the imagery in this poem was far more vivid and evident than in any of the other poems about civil rights, so it stuck out to me.
Mia Kimura Parsley by Rita Dove is written from the Haitian point of view to show the brutality of the Parsley Massacres of Haitians in the 1937. In The Cane Fields there are 3 lines that are repeated, one of them is “Out of the swamp the cane appears”. This represents the how they were worked as slaves in sugar can fields. The repetition of the line shows the never-ending representaion of their lack of freedom. No matter how many they cut, the sugar cane grows back. In the fifth stanza, it says “El General has found his word: perejil”. The use of Spanish is a reference to haiti and Dominican relations. Perejil is parsley in Spanish and was the word that the Dominican guards used to identify Haitians. Haitians could not roll their R’s so this innocent sounding word became a word that decided their fate. In this context, parsley is not an herbm it is a representation and symbol of the words that decides their fate. There is a parrot that is mentioned throughout the poem and could represent Haitians hidden among the Dominicans by imitating how the Dominicans sound just like how parrots try to imitate humans.
I agree with your interpretation of the poem "Parsley" by Rita Dove, however I do believe that the parrot has more significance that what you described. There is a line in which El General remarks that even the parrot could pronounce the R, but the Haitians could not. I think the parrot is used to represent a sense of mocking, to mock the fact that they could have a better life if they merely could pronounce one word. The parrot is often mentioned "imitating spring" and sense spring is often associated with rebirth and a better life, once again the parrot is mocking the Haitians, pretending that spring/a better life is here, when in reality it is not.
I interpreted “out of the swamp, the cane appears” very differently. Instead of seeing it as the repetitive nature of slave labor, I saw the cane as the Haitians themselves. Because they spent their time in sugarcane plantations, it would be easy for the Dominicans to associate cane and Haitians. A cane appearing out of the swamp feels like something standing out from similar things all around it, much like someone who looked and acted just like everyone else, but could not roll an ‘r’. Furthermore, the Dominicans would see the cane as something that needed to be cut down, while the Haitians were tired of the action.
The poem “Parsley” by Rita Dove tells the story of the 1937 Parsley massacre. It occurred in the Dominican Republic, under the direct orders of the Dictator Rafael Trujillo. The orders were to kill anybody who could not say the Spanish word for parsley, which is perejil. Haitians were incapable of pronouncing the r sound of the word, and the Dominican soldiers killed all of them they could find. Dove writes the first section of the poem from the perspective of the Haitian workers as this massacre occurs. Something very interesting about this part of the poem is its structure. The structure of the poem is an unrhymed villanelle. Throughout this first section, there are two refrains that are repeated in an alternating pattern at the end of each line: “the cane appears” and “a parrot imitating spring.” At the end of the nineteen-line section, the two refrains are one again repeated back-to-back. In this context, the villanelle structure gives the poem a very haunting and fatalistic feeling. The repetition of the two lines gives the feeling as if nothing can be done to stop the massacre from happening; there is nothing they can do to change their fate. Additionally, the refrain “a parrot imitating spring” is placed right after especially frightening sounding lines. For example, it is placed after both, “The children knaw their teeth to arrowheads” and “And we lie down. For every drop of blood”. When contrasted with these terrible sounding things, the parrot seems peaceful and serene. In this way, the parrot symbolizes the frightening calm of the General that Dove explores in the second part of the poem. The contrasting of the utter terror that the Haitians feel and the peace that the General feels serves to make the poem even more chilling.
In the poem “Parsley” by Rita Dove, I found the first section, “The Cane Fields,” of particular interest. In this section, Rita Dove makes major connections to the Parsley massacre carried out by Dictator Rafael Trujillo in 1937. In this first section, “El General” is a reference to this Dictator, whom are often Generals, and the atrocities he committed against the Haitians. In the massacre, the way in which the soldiers determined who to kill and who to let live was through the way in which they said the word “perejil.” In Spanish, this word means parsley. Native Haitians, due to their language origins, could not pronounce/roll their R’s, as referenced by the poem “We cannot speak an R,” and thus Rita Dove’s line: “El General has found his word: perejil,” is a reference to this method of differentiation. “Who says it, lives. He laughs…” El General knows that the Haitians cannot pronounce the word, and thus finds it humorous that something as simple as pronunciation determined who lived and who died. In addition, the mention of a cane appears quite frequently in this section. On October 2nd, 1937, Trujillo ordered that ten-thousand native Haitian cane workers be executed. When the word cane is repeated throughout this section, it is a reference to this massacre. “Out of the swamp the cane appears,” and, “the cane appears in our dreams…” Rita Dove is emphasizing the suddenness of this order, and the magnitude in which it was carried out. That the massacre still remains in their dreams. Overall, Rita Dove uses powerful word choice to allude to the Parsley Massacre in 1937, so that it may never be forgotten.
I found your interpretation of those specific sections of the poem to be very well done, but You didn't discuss most of the first section. I feel like you could've added more about specific lines that were very odd. For example, the line, "The children gnaw their teeth to arrowheads," seems odd to me. I wish you had looked at more parts of the section "The Cane Fields" instead of just a few sentences.
While reading “Parsley”, by Rita Dove, I found the first section to be very intriguing. Something that interested me was the repetition of phrases. One of these phrases was, “There is a parrot imitating spring.” The parrot was probably the bird of choice because it is talking about imitating, and that is what parrots do. Although parrots can talk like humans, they can’t give us the same experience that a human can. When spring is used in poetry, it is often to symbolize renewal, hope, or growth. In this case, I believe that spring is being used to symbolize hope. This is because the last stanza of the section includes the sentence, “For every drop of blood there is a parrot imitating spring.” This means that for every person who dies, there are people who are hopeful. This could be because they hope that they make it across the border, or that their family makes it across the border. Another phrase that is repeated is, “Out of the swamp the cane appears.” The cane could represent the border patrol looking for Haitians trying to sneak across the border through the swamp. This is my interpretation because the poem says, “Out of the swamp the cane appears to haunt us,” and later, “He laughs, teeth shining out of the swamp. The cane appears in our dreams.” Since the poem is talking about cane as something that haunts the Haitians, it makes me think of the border patrol finding them and killing them. It also reminds me of the border patrol because the poem is talking about “El General” which refers to the border patrol. Another interesting part of the poem is, “We cannot speak an R-,” in the second stanza. It also says later in the poem, “... perejil. Who says it, lives.” This is referring to the fact that Haitians cannot pronounce the letter r because a lot of them spoke French or Creole. The border guards would ask the people crossing the border to say perejil. If someone could say it, they would probably be let through, but if they couldn’t pronounce it, they were killed.
I like your analysis of the meaning behind the lines "a parrot imitating spring" and "the cane appears." I do find the connection of hope with the parrot strange because of the parrot's connection to the General. It seems strange for Dove to have connected the symbol of hope with the person causing the suffering and pain so directly. Also, you mention that those two lines are repeated throughout the first section, but what I wonder is what you think the purpose of this repetition is? What tone or feeling do you think Dove was trying to create through repetition?
Peter Kraakevik Parsley is a poem describing a slave plantation where parsley is grown around the 18th century. In the second stanza (The Palace) the owner of the plantation is referred to as “The General” which has very powerful connotations. This word choice emphasises the great power the owners of plantations had over the slaves working for them. A general is the highest rank in the US army and has many officers and soldiers under his command. These other soldiers have to follow his decisions and also have to respect their authority or else risk severe punishment. The army is not known for leniency and stepping out of line will always be in a risk for consequences. This is very similar to how the plantation owners had a reign of fear and power over the slaves under their control. The general is unremorseful in his actions even when it says, “He will order many, this time, to be killed” It is also pertinent to notice that in the first stanza (The Cane Fields) he is referred to as El General, the spanish word for general, further emphasizing the alienation and how different the general is to the slaves.
In the poem “Parsley,” Rita Dove depicts the horrible genocide that happened in 1937, under the Dominican dictator Trujillo. Under this context, the poem was written through perspective of the Haitians who were the targeted ones. The poem begins with “There is a parrot imitating spring...its feathers parsley green. (1-2) A parrot is a bird, and birds usually represent freedom. However this isn’t a normal bird. This is a parrot where it is colorful and vibrant and it imitates humans. In this quote, the parrot is “imitating,” or repeating the spring.In literature, spring usually conotes hope and fresh vibrant colors, something that the parrot posses. In the next line, “Out of the swamp the cane appears to haunt us” (3-4) Rita Dove symbolizes the “cane” as the Dominican Republic’s sanguinary intents towards Haitians. The quote continues as “and we cut it down.” (4) Pointing at the Haitians attempt at resisting, hoping that if they do, it will end. The “parrot” and “spring” becomes a motif throughout the first section of the poem as along side with the “cane.” She utilizes this motif by repeating it at the end of every stanza by ending the first one with the symbolism of the “cane,” ending the next stanza with the “parrot”, starting the next with “cane, and vice versa. The stanzas that end with the motif of “parrot” concentrates about the hope which the Haitians hold to end the genocide. Such as the example provided above, during stanzas 3 to 4, it ends with “Like a parrot imitating spring” because the Haitians tried to resist the genocide by cutting the cane down. While the stanzas that end the motif of “cane,” focuses on the atrocities of the Dominican Republic’s government. The line “We cannot speak R-” references how people were identified as Haitians if they could not pronounce the letter ‘r.’ And these people were ultimately killed, supported by the following line” out of the swamp, the cane appears.” The cane represents the patrollers that massacred the Haitian people. Then finally, during the last stanza, she ends it with both the symbolism of “parrot” and “cane” symbolizing how the two synthesize and interact. When Dove wrote, “For every drop of blood there is a parrot imitating spring. Out of the swamp the cane appears,” she wanted to exemplify that every time a Haitian died due to the massacre, there is still people hoping that it will end. They did not give up.
Your analysis is very thorough and you bring up some very good points that I had not thought of. I did think of “and we cut it down” as a statement of resistance by Dominican Republicans. Your analysis on “Like a parrot imitating spring” is also different from what I thought but reading it again, your interpretation of the quote is also very plausible and well backed. I particularly agree with you that the author repeats the two refrains in the poem to emphasize a persistence of something. I originally thought it was the pervasiveness of the violence in the event but your idea about it being the continued hope of Dominican Republicans and Haitians is also very plausible. Good analysis!
Rita Dove’s poem “Parsley” symbolically exaggeratingly goes over the emotions of a man grieving about the deaths of his mother. There is a lot of imagery in this poem, most prevalently imagery of violence and hell. For example, the man is referred to in this poem as “El General.” Although this may be irrelevant, I googled the name and i found “El General” was a popular reggae artist in the late 1900’s, who continuously claims to have found his inspiration through Satan. Although this connection is most likely a coincidence and probably has nothing to do with this poem at all, there is still a lot of violent imagery in this poem. The first mention of the mother’s death is in the 7th stanza of the poem, or the beginning of the 2nd part of the poem. Rita Dove finally explains the walking cane, which was often mentioned before the seventh stanza as a cane haunting him in a swamp. Rita Dove also mentions that the cane in the swamp only always appears in his dreams. Google told me that swamps in dreams are a famous symbol of repression and darkness in a character’s mind. With the cane obviously representing his dead mother, the combination of the two show that he represses his emotions about his dead mother, trying to hide them while they haunt him in his dreams. This theory is also shown in an omnipresent phrase that is repeated constantly throughout the poem in different ways: “A parrot imitating spring.” Spring is the season of green leaves, and gives off happy feelings to everybody. The parrot imitating spring means that the man pretends to be happy while he really feels darkness and repression over the death of his mother from fall. The man does not hide his emotions successfully. Instead, I was lead to believe that he lashes out his suppressed anger on others by killing them so they could feel what his mother felt. Rita Dove mentions how people would whisper the name Katalina, while also being unable to pronounce the “R” sound. She repeats the idea of gnawing their teeth into arrowheads. Sharp teeth is usually a sign of a creature, which could be pertaining to their deaths, becoming creatures in the Underworld after they die. I believe this is the case because towards the end of the poem Rita Dove mentions how the man saw his mother’s teeth gnawed to arrowheads, which meant she was dead and a creature as well. Katalina is the name of the man’s mother, and the man kills anybody who mentions his mother’s name, which I am lead to believe in many lines of this poem (“Who can I kill today,” etc.). Upon research of the name Katarina (replaced “l” with “r” because they were unable to pronounce “r” sounds”) concerning Day of the Dead (the day his mother died), I found that the “skeleton of Catrina” is a symbol of the Day of the Dead in places where it is celebrated. Catrina was said to be a wealthy queen, but as she dies it is a symbol of how everyone is equal after death. The connections between the Catrina skeleton and his mother are very convincing, because Rita Dove mentions how his mother lived in a palace, and uses queen-like imagery to describe her (“his mother was no stupid woman; she could roll her R like a queen”) The final line of this poem tells us how the man will kill anyone who says a single, beautiful word, which is talking about anyone being killed who mentions his mother’s name. This connects to the idea of the parrot in the 10th stanza: “I never thought it would sing the soldier said, and died.” The parrot symbolizes the emotions of his mother (emotions being hidden in “a parrot imitating spring”), and the singing of the parrot is somebody mentioning the name. Consequently, the soldier who said mentioned his mother’s name died. The title “parsley” could be relating this entire
story to the Parsley Massacre of 1937, which explains the references to the Haitians. During this massacre, children were supposedly thrown onto the corpses of their mothers. This story of the man losing his mother could have some connection to the emotions of the general who ordered this massacre, trying to make the children feel the same grief that he did.
In the poem “Parsley”, Rita Dove uses repetition, colloquial diction, and visual imagery to represent the murders of Haitians in the Parsley massacre. The Parsley massacre was a military action ordered by dictator Rafael Trujillo to kill Haitians living in the Dominican Republic. Trujillo’s soldiers forced citizens to say the word “perejil” (parsley in spanish) to test whether they had a French accent (Haitian) or Spanish accent (Dominican Republic). The repetition of the phrases “Out of the swamp the cane appears” and “There is a parrot imitating spring” is a reference to the soldiers who forced people to repeat the phrase “perejil” over and over. Spring is usually a season of new beginnings. Thus, the soldiers are “parrots imitating spring” because they believe they are improving their country by killing non-natives, but in truth it is just an imitation, a false improvement of their country. The “cane” also refers to the soldiers because sugar cane was a major crop of the government in the Dominican Republic, so “the cane appears” illustrates the soldiers sent by the government appearing to interrogate people. Similarly, the parrot is a common bird in the Dominican Republic and represents the common citizen in this poem. Either one or both of the phrases appears at the end of each stanza, representing the consistent and inescapable nature of the killings. Colloquial diction is used to provide context and immerse the reader with auditory imagery of the event. The two spanish words “Katalina” and “perejil” are examples of words that soldiers used to test people’s speaking accents. Similarly, the general is mentioned with the article “el” which compliments the Dominican Republic setting. Lastly, visual imagery paints a scene to supplement the reader’s understanding of the event. References to drops of blood and “teeth shining out of the swamp” paint a picture of brutal death and fear. The picture of arrowheads in “Children gnaw their teeth to arrowheads” is representative of the violent nature of the event.
I agreed with a lot of what you wrote about on your blog post. I would like to know what you thought about why Dove repeats other lines though, like “The children gnaw their teeth to arrowheads.” (11) and “He sees his mother’s smile, the teeth gnawed to arrowheads.” (52-53). It could also be referring to the repetition of “perejil,” but I think that the repetition of phrases also links the two parts together—the first part telling the events that happened and the second revealing the background to the first.
Rita Dove continually plays with shifts in the mood throughout “Parsley.” The first stanza begins with a vibrant picture: “There is a parrot imitating spring / in the palace, its feathers parsley green.” (1-2) “[S]pring,” “parsley,” and “green”—all words associated with plants—all establish a sense of life and flourishing, contributing to a nice mood emphasizing life. However, Dove immediately contrasts this in the following lines, writing, “Out of the swamp the cane appears / to haunt us, and we cut it down…” (3-4). Dove wastes no time in waiting until the next stanza to start the rest of the poem, instead connecting line 3 to the beginning two lines, contributing to the jarring shift in mood. Rather than the happy, flourishing diction she uses before, Dove opts for ominous and harsh diction, with such words as “swamp,” “haunt,” and “cut.” The foreboding connotations of these words provide the transition to the mood that Dove conveys in the rest of part 1 in describing the Parsley Massacre. The phrase “a parrot imitating spring” appears again in line 6, but this time in a more ironic sense—this time highlighting the rain that comes with spring. In addition, the word “imitating” takes on a different connotation this time: one of false pretenses instead of faithful recreation as in the first stanza. Dove does this by tying the parrot imitating spring to the suffering of the people in the poem through an analogy. These, along with the violent diction (“screaming,” “punches”) present create a mood of tragic atrocity. This mood continues to build throughout part 1 as Dove starts to integrate shorter sentences and more enjambment and end-stops. These shorter phrases emphasize the significance of the tragedy, while longer sentences such as the first one would have given the poem a more lyrical and fairy-tale version of the story. Additionally, she repeatedly returns to certain phrases to compound this effect. The first time Dove writes “Out of the swamp the cane appears” (1), it jars the reader, but every time she repeats it, the ominous tone stacks upon itself. Taking advantage of both repetition and short, matter-of-fact phrases, Dove establishes a strong mood of eeriness by the end of part 1.
I thought that it was very interesting that the general described his mother’s smile as “teeth gnawed to arrowheads” after the haitian children had already been described the exact same way, with “the children gnaw their teeth to arrowheads”. Obviously this is done intentionally, but I can’t figure out exactly why Rita Dove would do it. Initially I thought that the general’s mother just had a hard childhood, filled with violence and suffering, or maybe the general’s own childhood was difficult and he associated it with his mother. Now, I’m starting to think that it was a reference to the fact that his mother was actually 50% Haitian. I did a little digging and found this from a few sources, none of which are particularly reliable (Wikipedia, guidegecko.com, and prevalhaiti.com), but I could not find many sources concerning the family heritage. If we assume this to be true, the parrot could actually represent his mother. She could “roll an R like a queen”, much like the parrots that imitate the sound. The general hated sweets because they reminded him of his mother’s death but ordered them for his parrot anyways, linking the two. Furthermore, if “a parrot imitating spring” represents an imitation of hope, the parrot that the general keeps could be almost a replacement of his mother, meant to keep him hopeful. Clearly it was inadequate, as his sorrow and hatred lead to the Parsley Massacre.
It is interesting you focused on the heritage aspect of this. Perhaps rather than pointing back to heritage, Rita Dove meant the quote the children gnaw their teeth to arrowheads" through a metaphorical view. Perhaps she meant that the children, the younger generation of Haitians follow the adults and rebel against the "arrowhead," or the Dominican Republic's government. Because following this quote, Dove writes, "There is a parrot imitating spring." Expressing how every one still has hope.
I also thought that the link between the descriptions of the mother and the Haitian children were a nod to his mother's mulatto heritage. I liked that you also connected the sweets in that way. With the parrot and the mother both being able to roll their R's, Dove seemed to be showing the general's line of thinking and justification for killing the people his mother came from; she could at least fake it well, and they cannot even accomplish that which a mocking bird can do. This shows some of his train of thought in thinking that Haitians were an inferior people, and could be a clue into Dove's ideas about the motives of the general, as they are not known for certain.
Parsley; a word for an herb, and a word for death. During the reign of Trujillo, more than 50,000 were killed, and at least 20,000 of those were Haitians, killed in a span of five days, because they could not correctly pronounce the word parsley. Rita Dove gives her own commentary on this terrible genocide in her poem “Parsley”. In the beginning of the poem, The Cane Fields section, Dove writes from the point of view of the Haitians. In this section, Dove utilizes animal imagery to emphasize the inhumane nature of this genocide. For example, the Parrot, and the “teeth shining/out of the swamp” that invokes an image of a beast, which is what Trujillo was. In this section of the poem, Dove also uses very violent words unexpectedly, such as “screaming”, “punches”, “gnaw”, “lashed”. This conveys the unexpected and brutal violence of the Parsley Massacre. The second part of the poem, The Palace, focuses in on the general Trujillo. Dove makes a very interesting choice here to humanize the general. She imagines his cause being grief, and helps us delve into the possible emotions the general has. He calls his mother a queen, he relates why he doesn’t like sweets because she was baking them the day he died, and he cries a tear when he is reminded of how she used to call out his name. These tender moments are interspersed with very harsh thoughts, for example “Who can I kill today?” that show that the general is still a heartlessly violent murderer. The most interesting part of this section is when he describes his mother’s smile: “the teeth/gnawed to arrowheads.” Dove had previously used this exact phrase to describe the Haitian children, and this shows how the general could have chosen to kill the Haitians because they reminded him of his mulatto mother.
When I read Rita Dove’s America Smooth poems, the first poem, “Fox Trot Fridays” stood out to me through its calming nature. The relaxing sound of the poem relates to the title as well, as foxtrot is a type of elegant, smooth and flowing dance. The flowing nature of the dance relates to the flowing nature of the poem, as enjambments make the sentences flow from one stanza to the next. Additionally, there is a repeating consonance sound at the end of each stanza (stride, smooth, smile, time, woman, sight, song), excluding the first and last stanzas, which relate to each other (in, it). This symbolizes the beginning and ending of the dance. This poem definitely attempts to carry calming emotions over to the readers.
I like how you related the type of dance a Foxtrot is to nature. I also like how you mentioned the the enjambments throughout the poem to make it flow more. However, I wish that you would've talked about the use of specific phrases to shape the poem and make it flow and, "carry calming emotions over to the readers."
I find it interesting how you noticed the repeating consonance sound at the end of each of the stanzas, and the pattern that you found in this. I understand that the first and last stanzas relate to each other, as you put it, but could it be possible that the repeating consonance sounds in the center have a meaning as well?
While reading through the American Smooth poems, the poem that interested me was “Fox Trot Fridays” by Rita Dove. I found this interesting because the poem mixed short and long lines. The name of the poem is a reference to the Foxtrot dance. The people dancing the Foxtrot dance change how quickly they move their feet according to the tempo of the music. This could be a reason for the inclusion of the word “Fridays” in the title as well as the lines being short and long. The poem has long lines as the start, transitioning to short lines in the middle, and then long lines again at the end. This could be like a person’s Friday. The “tempo” at the beginning of the day is slow, which is the reason for long lines. At the middle of the day, it feels like time is going by quicker as the person is just about to get off work or get out of school and go enjoy the weekend. The final stanzas again have long lines because that represents the end of the night when time starts to slow down again as the person is driving home or getting ready for bed. I also got a lot of religious messages from the second half of the poem. The lines, “one man and one woman, rib to rib,” reminded me of Adam and Eve from the Bible. This is because the Bible states that Eve was created from Adam’s rib. The next part of the poem says, “With no heartbreak in sight- just the sweep of Paradise.” This is a reference to the fact that Adam and Eve were living in Paradise and there were no signs of it being ruined, except for when it was ruined. Nat King Cole is also mentioned in the poem as he played some foxtrot music in the middle of the 20th century. One of his songs was called “Paradise” which is mentioned at the end of the poem. That is the reason for the poem saying, “Just the sweep of Paradise and the space of a song.” It is referencing the song by Nat King Cole.
While looking through Rita Dove’s American Smooth poems, “Fox Trot Fridays” in particular stood out to me. Upon research of what a foxtrot dance is, the foxtrot is characterized by long, flowing movements, and typically follows a pattern of alternating between quick and long steps. Rita Dove uses the entirety of the poem to illustrate this dance, from the structure, to the enjambment, the foxtrot dance can be found throughout the whole poem. The switch between long lines and short lines and back again obviously represent the style in which steps alternate between long and short strides, yet, the fact that the whole poem is only one sentence clearly represents the fact that overall, the dance is a long, continuous, flowing form of ballroom dance. The enjambment also used to further emphasize this point. In addition, Rita Dove mentions Nat King Cole, who was a famous musician beginning in the 1930s, when foxtrot began to become popular. Not only is the poem obviously intended to be about a dance (foxtrot), but also Rita Dove makes a reference to a famous musician who created many songs that people foxtrot to, even to this day. All of this combined to make me realize the layers of depth that Rita Dove went to in order to artfully represent and provide a feeling of the foxtrot within the poem, and that was what I found particularly interesting about “Fox Trot Fridays.”
I loved how you were able to connect the form of the poem to the dance it is named after. After looking at the length of the lines I noticed it actually repeated a pattern of long-short-short-long throughout the entire poem. After watching a short wiki-how video of how to do the basic foxtrot steps I can assure that this form is indeed very reminiscent of the dance itself. One thing I do wonder about in regards to this poem is the inclusion of Friday in the title. What do you think Dove might have been trying to show or represent by including that?
I agree with your analysis—actually, I was going to write on it before I saw that everyone already had. Adding to the discussion. I think the stanzas match the slow, slow, quick-quick pace of the foxtrot. For instance, the first two stanzas provide an expansive tone, using broad “s” sounds to fill the space. Then, the third stanza provides the two quick steps together—Dove does this through connecting her words with hyphens to create a fast and rhythmic tone. She uses similar techniques in repetition throughout the rest of the six stanzas. A comment on Cole’s comment: I think that Dove included “Fridays” in the title of the poem because Fridays represent a reprise from the week. Reading the first few lines of the poem gives a similar feeling. “Thank the stars there’s a day / each week to tuck in / the grief, lift your pearls, and / stride brush stride”. Dove describes using dance as an outlet for her emotions, similar to how Fridays could have feeling of relief associated with them.
In the poem “American Smooth”, Rita Dove describes the consuming yet blissful nature of being lost and overcome in an activity, specifically dance in her case. Rita Dove uses pleasing diction, visual imagery and lots of enjambment in one long stanza to characterize the flowing nature of dance and how it helped her calm down and recover after a stressful incident. Rita Dove describes the dance as “requiring restraint...and precise execution” (3-4) to demonstrate the strict nature of the practice. Later, Rita Dove compares learning dance to “perfect agony” (12) and “ecstatic mimicry” (14), implying that learning dance is difficult and at times agonizing but the relief or reward from it is ecstatic. Rita Dove further emphasizes the role of dance as a distraction from other events in her life by describing herself as “distracted by the effort…” (15-16) of dance. Dove then subtly compliments this description with a parenthetical aside describing her actions. The parenthetical aside acts as a distraction to the continuous flow of the poem, similar to how dance acted as a distraction to the events in Rita Dove’s life. Next Rita Dove uses visual imagery to highlight the effects dancing had on her. She described the activity as “two chests heaving above a seven-league stride” (8-10) and the end result as “...flight, that swift and serene magnificence” (25-27). These two descriptions help cement the blissful nature of dance that Rita Dove experienced. Finally, Rita Dove uses distinct syntax choices to further establish the theme of the poem. The poem features a lot of enjambment, which represents the flowing, continuous, uninterrupted nature of dance. In fact, if one looks at the poem head on, the poem seems to take the shape of a wave, with crests and troughs. Lastly, the entire poem is written in a single stanza with no breaks, illustrating the flow of dance.
Good analysis! I agree with your interpretation of the flowing nature of the poem and her usage of enjambments. Since she uses so much enjambment, perhaps the parts where she does include pauses in the poem adds onto your theme, such as the quote, "such perfect agony one learns to smile through," (10-11). Perhaps the quote depicts her stressful incidents and she is comparing the positive aspects of the dances with some relapses of her stressful past.
The poem “Fox” by Rita Dove relates Dove’s feelings and outlook on herself and her future after her house burned down. Through anaphora and structure, Dove creates a confident tone that reflects her own feelings after the fire. All four of the sentences of the poem begin with “she” followed by a verb: “She knew,” “She loved,” “She imagined,” and “She loved” once again. This anaphora adds immensely to the feeling of confidence that the poem displays. It reflects the feelings of a person who knows “what she was capable of,” and that loves “what she was.” In other words, Dove knows that even after the pain of losing all her possessions to a fire, she knew she had the ability to move forward because she still had herself. In the second stanza, Dove relates how the tragedy of the fire also helped to understand what was really important to her. Even though much was lost during the fire she still “loved/nothing more/than what she had,/which was enough/for her.” These lines show how Dove came to understand that her possessions were not what gave her life meaning or made her happy. Instead, what she had was a confidence and an ability that allowed her to do whatever she put her mind to, which is what the first stanza talks about. This self-reliance that Dove displays may have seemed off-putting to the men around her, which explains the ending of the poem where she says, “which was more/than any man/could handle.” Overall, the poem gives off a very self-assured and positive tone that portrays Dove’s desire to move on after the fire and be happy with her life.
In the “American Smooth, Rita dove utilizes juxtaposition,soft diction and enjambment to capture the smooth nature of dancing. I interpreted the dancing as an exhibition of how some people end up not noticing things right in front of them because they are too focused on other things. Everything flows with an underlying negative tone. While they were dancing, she recalls it as “ something romantic but requiring restraint.”(3-4) Romantic dances usually holds a positive connotation, however Dove inputs the words “requiring restraint,” an uncomfortable feeling to experience. In these lines, she writes it with soft diction and enjambment between the lines to fabricate a flowing nature of the poem. And since it flows, just like real life, it is easy to look over the negative aspects such as “requiring restraint,” and for the moment, no one notices and continues. Later, Rita Dove expresses the theme by expressing, “because I was distracted by the efforts of keeping my frame...I didn’t notice how still you’d become” (15-23).” The word “distracted” shows that the protagonist was so immersed in the act of dancing correctly, that she did not notice the person in front of her for “(for two measures? four?) (25-26). The parenthesis and guessing further adds on that the protagonist did not pay much attention to the dancing. And finally Rita ends the poem with “magnificence, before the earth remembered who we were and brought us down.” (27-30) The line contains enjambment and soft diction between the lines to show, even though she fell from being magnificent, it was almost unnoticeable, due to the flowing characteristics of the whole poem and dance.
Interesting analysis. Your idea on the theme and overall tone of “American Smooth” is quite different from mine but still makes sense. The juxtaposition of key descriptions and words do provided a contrast and slightly negative tone to the poem. Similar to what I thought that the parenthesis symbolized a distraction, you thought that it meant the protagonist did not pay attention to the dancing. Finally, I agree with you about the use of enjambment in the poem. I feel that the enjambment is purposeful to help convey the flowy and continuous rhythm of dance. Interesting points and good analysis.
In “Quick”, Rita Dove takes the premise of a baby fox looking for his mother in order to explain how she feels about her house burning down. The female fox in the poem represents Dove herself. The mother fox refers to Dove’s poem “Fox”, which explores Dove’s reflections on her house burning down. (I wish I could have read “Brown”, another of Dove’s poems which is sandwiched between “Quick” and “Fox” in the table of contents of “American Smooth”, seeming to indicate the poem’s relevance to the narrative. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find “Brown” online.) In “Quick”, Dove uses superior, untouchable diction when talking about the mother fox. She chooses words like “sleek” and “flamboyant” to give herself dignity in face of the “red swish” of her house fire. Instead of lingering on what she had lost, Dove chooses to move on, with “pure purpose / poured into flight.” Using alliteration to emphasize her point, she conveys the idea of moving on—perhaps her “pure purpose” is her inspiration to pick up ballroom dance after the tragedy. If the mother fox is Rita Dove, the baby fox is her poetry, her child of sorts. Dove has described her poetry writing process as irregular, often starting with a single line or two and building up from there, sometimes jumping around. I think that this relates to the baby fox’s role in the poem. Take the lines, “all bobble and twitch, vacant eyes: / he’s been through this bait and switch / all night. Where’s mother?” Dove’s poetry is looking for a home, yet is denied one as the mother fox leaves in the poem. In real life, this could correspond to some of Dove’s poetry being lost in her house when the fire started. I’m not 100% sure on this interpretation, and there are others that I considered, but this one made the most sense to me at the moment.
Mia Kimura The abduction The abduction is an obvious reference to free blacks being conned into slavery. One of the first things I noticed even before reading it was the structure of the poem. The stanza start out with 5 lines but gradually get shorter and shorter. By the last stanza, it is only 1 line long. Solomon Northrup, the perspective of the poem, is a free black who lives a fulfilling and happy life. We can see that by how much he has to say in the first stanza. He talks of bells and cannons and houses, using words like ¨I among them¨. This shows how he lives a life where he feel almost equal to the white population. This is important to note because as the poem progresses, the lines get shorter and the tone is darker. The first line of the second stanza shows the complete betrayal he feels by his ¨new friends Brown and Hamilton¨. Assuming his friends are white, it shows how as a free black, he did not expect to be tricked into slavery by trusted friends. In the third stanza, it shows how he was taken advantage of when he was drunk. He wakes up in the fourth stanza, realizing he is on a ship but this time not as a free black. He was in chains as a slave. His tone shows the betrayal and darkness he felt as he saw his freedom be stripped of him.
I like your idea about the lines getting shorter, and the tone becomes darker, but when he refers to "Brown and Hamilton," I think that he is not feeling a typical sense of betrayal when it comes to them. Since they are not the ones who physically forced him into slavery, rather the betray and disappointment stems from a sentiment about their political policies and their personal views when it comes to slavery. That they do nothing to solve the problem of slavery.
“The Transport of Slaves From Maryland to Mississippi,” by Rita Dove, provided a fresh take on poetry, especially by Rita Dove, that I have not seen before. This poem, as is described in parenthesis before the poem begins, is about an escape attempt by a wagonload of slaves in 1839. What particularly was intriguing about this poem was the structure Rita Dove chose to use in order to provide a meaningful impact on the reader. Rita Dove told the story from three different perspectives, the perspective of the slave woman who helped the driver go ride for help, from the perspective of those who went to go round up the slaves, and following the perspective of Atkins, one of the drivers responsible for the slaves. These multiple perspectives were particularly powerful, as they conveyed how ingrained slavery was into the minds of not just the slavers, but the slaves themselves as well. In the mind of the slave woman, she had no idea why she helped the driver go get help, only that “He might have been a son of mine.” (13) This shows that she had sympathy for him, but also it shows that she was willing to help those who helped oppress her and many others like her. Furthermore, in the second section, the perspective of those who went out to round up to freed slaves, the last line ends this section describing the uprising as a “...most shocking affray and murder.” This shows the perspective of the plantation owners, that they would expect nothing but total obedience from their slaves, that this system of slavery was certainly ingrained within them. Finally, in the very last line of the poem, as the uprising occurs Atkins thinks “Wait. you ain’t supposed to act this way.” This is a particularly powerful moment, showing the complete ignorance, and almost brainwashing, of drivers and plantation owners, that they might not even consider slaves people, especially not those who can act on their own accord. Rita Dove’s use of multiple perspectives allows for this idea to be emphasized and thoroughly expressed, catching my attention instantly.
Peter Kraakevik In “The Abduction” Rita Dove uses word choice to model the emotional change in the slave depicted in this poem. It opens with bells and cannons, when put together represent joy and victory. It then depicts recognizable and powerful leaders of the US, men associated with the freedom of the new land, this sets the tone that the us is coming and it should be a celebration after all “Why should I have doubted them? The wages were good.” Everything is fit as a fiddle and flashy to these people leading indigenous lifestyles. The reality of the situation comes in line 13 when it describes that they are on a ship with few supplies given and on and “pillows of stone” the life of a slave is none of these promises that they have been given but rather darkness and chains.
I like your analysis of the change in the situation from the life of a normal person to suddenly being on a slave ship. The poem is titled "The Abduction" which implies that the man was abducted. This part is very clear, but you mention that he is on a slave ship. He, however, seems to know about "men associated with the freedom of the new land." Do you think the abduction is talking about him being taken from the North, or from Africa? I think that it could be interpreted as either because slaves, to my knowledge, were not transported back from the North to the South by slave ships, but he also mentions that he has free papers.
“The House Slave”, by Rita Dove, is about the experience of a house slave on a plantation. This poem interested me because it shows the perspective we are not used to seeing on a plantation. When people think of slavery, they usually think of the lives of the slaves in the field instead of the slaves in the house. In the beginning of the poem, there is a quote, “children are bundled into aprons, cornbread/and water gourds grabbed, a salt pork breakfast taken.” The fact that there is an enjambment here with no punctuation to separate the lines combined with the verbs used gives me a sense of urgency and competitiveness to get the food before the other people can so that they can eat. This is relevant to history because the slaves were often not fed enough so it would make sense that they would be urgent to get to the food. There are spots of the poem that show the horrors that the house slave witnesses, “I can not fall asleep again. At the second horn, the whip curls across the back of the laggards… I weep. It is not yet daylight.” This demonstrates how the house slave is so horrified by the cruelty of the field slaves having to go out and work before daylight. He is so horrified that he cannot sleep. In the last stanza, it emphasizes how the slaves feel when working in the fields, “and as the fields unfold to whiteness, and they spill like bees among the fat flowers.” When bees are collecting pollen, they’re doing it frantically and quickly so that they can help the hive. In the case of the slaves, they’re doing it frantically and quickly enough so that they don’t get whipped by the slave driver.
I agree with your point that this poem emphasizes a point of view on slavery that is not usually talked about as much. Generally when we hear about slavery it is about the direct abuse that slaves working in fields would receive, but rarely about the psychological trauma that other slaves also were put through. This poem emphasizes that even for those slaves who may not have been treated horribly physically, the emotional damage that occurs to them is still completely crushing. In this poem, the slave had to hear her sister being tormented and beaten, which was the reason for her weeping. Seeing a family member you love and care about being tormented on a regular basis is something that would haunt almost anybody. Also, thank you for explaining the whole bees among the fat flowers thing, I genuinely was having a hard time understanding it before.
I accidentally blogged on the slavery section a while ago so here's one on the civil rights section. If you want to read by blog on the slavery section it's somewhere up there^^.
“Rosa” by Rita Dove is a poem about the historical act of defiance by Rosa Parks in Montgomery, Alabama during the Civil Rights era. In the poem, Dove captures the feelings and the importance of Rosa Parks’ act on the bus in 1955. One technique Dove uses to enhance the feeling of the poem is short, concise structure. The poem is by no means a long one, just 12 short lines. However, the short length of the poem doesn’t mean it isn’t powerful. In fact, the short length of it emphasizes how something so simple and unassuming can have such a profound impact, just like Rosa Parks. Additionally, the short lines and frequent use of enjambment seems to slow down the moment in time. It causes single thoughts to be stretched out over multiple lines, giving the reader time to reflect on each part as it passes. Dove’s diction in this poem is also fairly simplistic and short. In fact, only two words in the entire poem are longer than two syllables (“sensible,” and “courtesy”). Ultimately, the effect of the short lines and words causes the poem to have a very humble feeling. This reflects the 1955 event itself, simple, yet profound. While the poem is very obviously about Rosa Parks, there still are some very interesting historical illusions within the poem. The most fascinating to me comes in the first stanza where dove writes, “the time right inside a place/ so wrong it was ready.” At first, these two lines may seem confusing. “The time” is right because of the growing Civil Rights movement during the fifties, and Montgomery is the place “so wrong” because of the extreme racial tension there, due to it being in the South. Through these techniques, Dove expresses the feeling and importance of Parks’ simple action, and demonstrates how sometimes “Doing nothing” can be “the doing.”
In “The Abduction”, Rita Dove uses clever symbolism, foreshadowing with visual imagery, and a purposeful organization of five stanzas with decreasing lines to describe and illustrate the overwhelming nature of Solomon Northup’s transition to slavery. In the beginning, the houses are described as “black with crepe” (1) and the avenue as “clotted” (2). Black as a color in literature usually symbolizes mortality, darkness and evil while crepe (the cloth) is a type of fabric that is normally used in funeral clothing. The morbid nature of these words foreshadow the coming tribulations of Solomon Northup. Similarly, the verb “clotted” is associated with malignant things such as blood clots. Next, Rita Dove uses symbolism to emphasize the tone of each stanza in the poem. In the first stanza, bells and cannons are described, objects usually associated with freedom or revolution. Rita Dove also mentions “Saratoga Springs” (4), an allusion to the famous battle in the American Revolutionary War that is often seen as the turning point for the Americans. In the second stanza, mentions to more strained or nervous symbols or behaviors are mentioned, such as “jig on a tightrope” (8) or “I fiddled” (9). In the fourth stanza, the symbolism turns a lot darker as Solomon “floated on water [he] could not drink” (13) and slept on a “pillow [that] was stone.” (14) Finally, the final stanza completes the solemn mood by describing Solomon as “alone, in darkness, and in chains” (15). The adjective alone describes the common mood felt by slaves and chains are often a symbol of servitude. Rita Dove completes the solemn tone of the poem by purposely making each successive stanza shorter. The first stanza is five lines while the last stanza is only one line. The larger number of lines at the start represent the freedom of the north while the solitary line at the end represents the monotone life of slavery.
Good job on noticing the adjectives, slowly receding into misery. I agree with most your points. But I thought that perhaps this poem symbolized how one loses hope when they are enslaved. Because the beginning has exclamation marks and they are talking about freedom. And the poem gradually loses its fervent energy for freedom in the beginning until the last line. In addition, initially it appears as they are in groups. And in the last line, the word "alone" shows the hope that is lost for freedom since it is a difficult battle to win on the slave side. This is just a different interpretation of it, but it is still similar!
Nice catch on all those symbols. I think you missed one, though. The fourth stanza clearly contains a biblical allusion: “....Though the pillow / was stone, I climbed no ladders in that sleep.” (13-14). In the Bible, there is a story of Jacob laying down to sleep, using a rock as a pillow. While he sleeps, he dreams of a ladder reaching heaven. God then comes down and comforts him, and upon waking up, Jacob realizes that God was with him in that place. I’m wondering why you thought Dove included that allusion there. I think that the Bible story has a consoling tone to it, which is what Dove wanted to evoke—or rather, not evoke, since Solomon Northup doesn’t see any ladders. He didn’t even feel like he had God with him.
Rita Dove exhibits the cruel life which African-American slaves suffered from during antebellum America in the poem “The House Slave.” She employs a first perspective, jargon, and juxtaposition from that time to allow the reader to view their lives from someone who experienced the atrocities. The poem starts off with “the first horn lifts its arm over the dew-lit grass/ .../children are bundled into aprons.” (1,3) In plantations, the horn is used to call slaves to give an order. And as Dove, writes “dew-lit grass” we can tell that it is very early in the morning since there is dew, yet young children are already being forced to do work early. There is no consideration for age. Similarly, later Dove writes, “At the second horn, the whip curls across the backs of laggards-.” (8-9) With the second call, slaves you could not wake up fast enough, were punished. Again, mercy does not exist even though it is “before-dawn.” (5) The protagonist expresses, “I lie on my cot, shivering in the early heat.” (12) Juxtaposition is being utilized in “shivering in the early heat.” Normally one would shiver, in the cold, not in the heat. However, because of this unnatural choice of words, it causes the reader to read it again. The protagonist is not shivering because of the heat, rather due to fear and terror of being in this situation. Rita Dove ends the poem with short sentences, “I weep. It is not yet daylight” (15) to reiterate the theme that the situation is cruel. In addition, the short sentences, allows the reader to attend to the weight those words hold. The sun has not risen, yet people are being forced to wake up early, work regardless of age and gender, and whipped if they are not fast enough.
Very good points and analysis! There were a lot of things that I missed on my first read through of the poem but you're points have made me rethink my initial interpretation of the poem. I thought that auditory imagery was important in this poem in reinforcing the uncompromising nature of slavery among children as well. I noticed that she effectively used auditory imagery in conjunction with visual imagery to reinforce the feelings of the poem. Finally, I thought your point about the juxtaposition in line 12 is very good and really makes the reader think about the feelings of slaves during that time. Good job!
Rita Dove injects a personal touch into history in her poem “Belinda’s Petition.” The poem describes what Belinda Sutton—an innocent character from Ghana who was enslaved and shipped to America as a twelve-year-old child—might have felt as she applied for a pension from her former slave masters after she became free at the age of seventy. Dove honors the historical tone of the petition, using formal diction and capitalization, as well as quoting lines from the text, to mimic the writing style of the past. The first two lines nearly quote the original document: “To the honorable Senate and House / of Representatives of this Country,” (1-2) writes Dove, while the historical text addresses “To the Honourable the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled.” This clues the reader into the historical significance as well as respect history. Furthermore, Dove purposely incorporates words like “Fathers of this Nation.” (7), “Countrymen” (8), and “Binds of Tyranny” (9) to bring the reader into the time period of the history. Using such language establishes a formal tone that indicative of historical documents. However, at the same time, Dove provides personal insight into Belinda’s story. Instead of referring to her in third person, as does the original document, Dove chooses to use the first person point of view, drawing the reader in closer and emphasizing one’s own experience over the cold facts. Dove writes “... I am Belinda, an African,” (3) as opposed to “The Petition of Belinda an Affrican, humbly shrews:” so that the reader can place themselves in the position of Belinda and empathize with her. Dove heightens this personal tone with emotional diction. Belinda implores, “I will not take too much of your Time, / but to plead and place my pitiable Life / unto the Fathers of this Nation.” (5-7). “Plead” and “pitiable,” connected and emphasized through alliteration, create a tone of begging—as if Belinda is not allowed to believe as if she is worth the Congress’ attention. Dove characterizes Belinda’s petition as more of a plea or begging, again making the reader relate with Belinda.
In the poem “The House Slave,” Rita Dove uses many poetic devices such as consonance, juxtapositions, symbols and more to illustrate a violent and uneasy tone to the reader. The third line of the poem is a great example for the consonance shown throughout the poem: “and water gourds grabbed, a salt pork breakfast taken.” The extremely prevalent use of consonants such as “g,” “k,” or “t” carries over an aggressive tone to the reader as he/she is reading through the poem, setting the scene for the rest of the poem. This aggressive and violent tone relates to the message of the poem, which shows the violence and aggressiveness towards slaves. It is written in the perspective of a slave, who describes the cruelties done to the slaves, and the strictness of being prompt to work on time. “the dew lit grass” (line 1) is a symbol for morning time on the plantations. “At the second horn, the whip curls cross the backs of the laggards” (line 9) shows how the slaves were punished violently with whips if they were not up or on the fields on time. A juxtaposition in the fourth stanza, “shivering in the early heat” really emphasizes the fear and panic in the mind of the narrator/slave. The last line of the poem, “I weep. It is not yet daylight.” additionally shows the emotional toll on the slaves. “It is not yet daylight” shows the extreme earliness of their work periods, but also with “daylight” being a symbol for freedom, this passage also emphasizes the willingness of freedom of the slaves, and they are just waiting for the day to come.
Cole Jones
ReplyDeleteAmong the poems that make up Rita Dove’s Mother Love, the poem titled “Party Dress for a First Born” stood out to me. The poem stood out to me because of the somewhat ambiguous point of view that the poem is written from. The poem could easily be interpreted from the point of view of either Demeter or Persephone. To me, the poem seems to be written from the perspective of Persephone as she addresses a party dress laying on a bed that she plans to wear at a party. Interpreting the poem from this point of view explains the meaning of the line “Headless girl so ill at ease on the bed.” In this interpretation, the “headless girl” the narrator refers to is the dress. The narrator continues the poem by painting a picture of a childhood where mother was always there; “When I ran to my mother, waiting / radiant as a cornstalk at the edge of the field, / nothing else mattered….” Persephone sees this world of the past as a good thing, something she wishes she could go back to. This idea is juxtaposed with Persephone’s negative interpretation of the party described in the second stanza. No longer is Persephone living in a world where she can run to her mother. Instead, she is transitioning into a more mature world; one full of men and “petals waiting to loosen.” Persephone’s outlook on this transition is an extremely negative one. Phrases like “elegant scissors” and “wishing them dead” describe the scene of a party in a very harsh light. This idea ties back to the first words of the poem, “Headless girl so ill at ease on the bed.” For Persephone, to be in bed with a man is to be beheaded, and to be something for somebody else to wear, just like her dress. The ultimate effect of directly talking to the dress is to point out the loneliness that Persephone feels in her transition into womanhood. Being a firstborn, as pointed out in the title, she has no older siblings to turn to that have already experienced this transition. She also feels she can’t speak to her mother, as she wants to keep it as “our little secret.” In the end, she has nobody to turn, nobody but the dress that is “ill at ease on the bed.”
The poem “Exit” piqued my interest due to its title. Since Rita Dove wrote only one word, it makes me question the mitigating circumstances surrounding the title. And after reading through the poem, I noticed that Rita Dove meant exiting from the protective world which your mom constructed for you and becoming independent and leaving. Dove writes,” a reprieve is granted.” The word reprieve means “the cancellation or postponement of punishment” according to google. Reprieve in this case would point towards to a parental figure, specifically a mother in this case, because the theme is a Mother’s love, and mothers typically expresses their love when they punish their child for committing a wrong act. When a child is granted cancellation or postponement from this punishment, it means that the parental figure is no longer there to punish. In this specific poem it means that the child is leaving the mother because later in the poem it states, “the door to the taxicab waits. This suitcase, the saddest object in the world.” A door usually connotes to a transition or passageway to another world. Here, the child is leaving the protective world to an independent one. A suitcase means someone is leaving. Dove describes it as “the saddest object in the world” because it is sad both for the mother and child when they have to leave each other after bonding for so many years. The word exit makes a reader feel “sad and lonely” and Rita Dove expresses this feeling throughout the poem as the child is becoming independent and leaving the mother.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your interpretation of the poem, however, the word reprieve generally is taken and used in a sense of a postponement of consequences. I think, it is possible that Rita Dove used that word to give the reader a sense that while one may exit the protective world of your parents, eventually, that protective world will come right back. Maybe in the sense of old age, where one has trouble taking care of themselves, or maybe in the sense of government, society, or work that take the place of parental supervision, but some way or another, it is only a reprieve from this lack of independence.
DeleteWhile reading Rita Dove's Mother Love poems, the poem "Heroes," caught my attention in particular. The title "Heroes," suggestions something good or heroic, it has the connotations of happy ending, and a story of helping others. However, in this poem, the opposite of which occurs. The subject of the poem (the reader, in fact) plucks a poppy flower, but the last poppy flower of a garden. The reader then kills the woman over the flower and becomes a fugitive. In my mind, the fact that the story is titled "Heroes" is quite ironic. The action of picking the flower to save its life, results in the death of a human being. To me, this felt like Rita Dove was making a commentary on the modern idea of super heroes, how they always save the day, but in the process they always end up destroying much more than they help. Just like for this flower, the subject of the poem attempts to save the flower’s life, because it is wilting, but in the end, causes more death and destruction just to save a simple flower. Rita Dove is communicating to the reader that sometimes, those hailed as heroes, or those attempting heroic acts, end up having more negative impacts than positive ones.
ReplyDeletePatrick Huang
DeleteI found your take on this poem very interesting and insightful. I found your idea about the negative effects of heroism novel because nearly all media and popular entertainment always promote heroism as extremely positive; heroes are usually viewed favorably and their final actions often overshadow any past transgressions they may have committed. I think that Dove purposely uses heroic diction to demonstrate the dogma that heroes are always great and then describes the actions of the hero to systematically show that this principle is not true. For example, a white boulder is used to kill the woman; White symbolisms light, goodness and safety, a stark contradiction to what the boulder does in the poem. Good stuff.
Sam Kwak
DeleteI agree with you on the theme of Heroes, to an extent. To contribute to the discussion, I think that the heavy use of the second person adds to the accusatory tone of the poem—you did this, you are responsible. At the same time, it could be emphasizing the fact that this is not just one small tale, but that it could happen to anybody. Trying to be a “hero” but ultimately destroying more beauty than you save is not unique to superheroes, as you mentioned, but is something that all of us can unintentionally do. I think that this adds to the tragic nature of the story of the flower, as the character in the poem never meant to hurt anyone, but did in the end—this is not a case of hubris, but that of loss. In fact, the reader can tell when in the fourth stanza, Dove writes, “It’s too late for apologies” that the flower-picker is not a bad person at heart.
The intimate use of the second person starts to leave a bad taste in my mouth in the fifth stanza, when the character strikes the woman. I think that Dove is saying that anybody can commit terrible crimes in moments of panic. We feel as if we have no option, as if “there’s nothing to be done”, but of course this is not the case—it is only that we can not recognize that fact. Dove is conveying the theme not only that heroes can end up harming when they try to save, but that heroes and criminals, for the most part, are at heart the same types of people, and only circumstance dictates which we become (which is a scary thought for me).
Patrick Huang
ReplyDelete“Used”, a poem by Rita Dove, is about the senselessness of values and desires promoted by society. This sonnet has an indefinable type and is divided into three stanzas, each focusing on a different aspect of society. Rita Dove rhymes throughout the poem to develop a sense of continuity in the sonnet. “Size threes” are rhymed with “twinkling knees” to establish her opinion on the frivolous nature of wanting to improve one’s own beauty and look. The verb “ballooning” used to describe the clothes mocks the want of many to buy new garments. Dove trivializes a female’s desire for a new skirt as only a means to satisfy the dreams of “man-child(ren).” Keeping in tune with the rhyming trend, “grief” and “brief” are rhymed to contrast the brief periods of elation in motherhood to the more persistent feeling of grief.
The sentence “We have been used” supports the idea that bearing children and motherhood are more often societal pressures or expectations than things innately desired. In the third stanza, consonance and rhyming work together to establish the tone of society’s emphasis on insignificant ideas and desires. The consonance in the line “persuaded by postnatal dread” of “P” and “D”, both hard sounds, reinforces the demanding nature of conformity by describing the need of one to hide one’s own body after pregnancy as dictated by society. Finally, Dove rhymes “zip” with “slipped” to associate the extra nature of silk sheets as pointless and “quilts” with “guilt” to show how the unnecessary silk sheets interfered with the actual garment, the quilt, that keeps one warm.
This is really good analysis! I’m starting to wonder if these themes, similar to those in Siddhartha, are common in Rita Dove’s poems. Her allusions to the Greek hunter, Narcissus, certainly have a statement about excessive pride, and the poem “Primer” hints at the idea of not wanting help. Similar to how Siddhartha abandoned his teachers to seek enlightenment, the daughter abandoned her mother (momentarily, albeit) to be strong. I hadn’t really thought about the ties between Siddhartha and Mother Love, but I’m starting think there are lots.
DeleteSam Kwak
ReplyDeleteThroughout The Bistro Styx, Dove explores the doleful mood of a mother letting her daughter go to the “dark side”. In Greek mythology, the river Styx separates Earth from the Underworld. In terms of the myth of Persephone’s abduction, the Earth represents her mother’s world while the Underworld represents that of Hades. Thus, the title signifies a crossroads or a threshold for Persephone—she must choose between coming back to her mother Demeter or staying in the Underworld with Hades. While Demeter hopes that her daughter will come back, she later learns that Persephone has already lost herself to the void with Hades, contributing to the tone of loss.
In fact, Dove indicates several times that Persephone has strayed in her path. When she first arrives, Dove uses visual imagery almost blatantly. Persephone arrives “dressed all in gray, / from a kittenish cashmere skirt and cowl down to the graphite signature of her shoes.” Dove creates a dark tone by choosing the color gray, which can be associated with darkness and the Underworld. However, Dove intentionally chooses gray, not black, because Persephone is still somewhat new to life in the underworld. Like a little child possessed by the devil, Persephone is Hades’ apprentice of sorts. She even dons a cowl (loose hood), adding to her dark appearance. Yet, at the same time, she wears a playful skirt, a callback to her innocent roots. Within her, there exists a dichotomy of childishness and darkness, combining to create a feeling of tainted beauty. Demeter recognizes this within her child, describing her as “my blighted child,” wondering what her once radiant daughter has become.
There was a whole lot that I didn’t get to cover (I only got to the third stanza!), like the food symbolism or the eerie diction in the fourteenth stanza, but this post is getting a little long so I’ll have to cut it off here.
I totally agree with opinion on how the description of the clothing symbolizes Persephone's deviation from her past. Good work! I would like to add a supporting point to your argument. During the first few stanzas which you analyzed, the cape, was also included as a piece of clothing to describe Persephone. The cape usually is worn by those of the upper class. And since Persephone is Hades’s apprentice, she exults some sort of an “aristocratic” aura. (Stanza 4) In addition, Dove chooses the color “silvery” to describe the cape which is also associated with riches and nobility. Perhaps these changes also further prove that Persephone is drifting from her original path and is swayed by Hades. Just a thought.
DeleteKevin Krenz
ReplyDeleteIn Rita Dove’s Mother Love Poems, one poem particularly caught my attention - “Breakfast of Champions.” The poem is relatively short, and is an Indefinable Sonnet. It has the form of a Petrarchan Sonnet by having an octave followed by a sestet, however doesn’t follow a rhyme scheme of any kind.
The poem has a sad and depressing tone, using a lot of sad symbolism and imagery to further portray this theme. The first sentence alone gives the reader a melancholic feel: “Finally, overcast skies.” In the third line of the poem, “a little dust on the laurel branch,” you can find more symbolism, this time with dust on the laurel branch. A laurel branch is the stereotypical greek prize or award to make one feel proud and happy. The dust symbolizes how this is an old feeling for the narrator, and she no longer feels pride or happiness. There are many other symbols and uses of imagery in this poem, all pertaining to the gloomy mood, but the most important one is the whole idea of a breakfast of champions, which is also the title of the poem. She follows up on this idea in the fourth line of the poem: “I’ll dive into a grateful martini tonight.” A breakfast of champions is having alcohol or a cigarette for breakfast as an example when you’re feeling good and happy. Rita Dove uses this idea in irony, as the narrator is obviously not happy and is in a sad mood throughout the poem.
The Poem relates to the myth of Persephone, who got taken by Hades to the Underworld while walking around by herself. Demeter, Persephone’s mother, feels responsible for not raising her properly and allowing her to wander off by herself. The sorrow and grief of this poem represents how Demeter feels after having lost her daughter. “Arise, it’s a new morning! Though I pour myself the recommended bowlful, stones are what I sprinkle among the chaff.” These are the final three lines of the poem. The spring theme in these final lines through terms such as new morning and chaff are a representation of how Persephone will return in the spring. Demeter telling herself to arise shows how she feels she should be happy about the return of her daughter, but she still feels sorrow and grief as represented through the last line by her stoning the chaffs.
Nathan Mercer
DeleteI like how you talk about the overarching mood of gloominess. I agree that it is a very relevant part of the poem. I also like how you mentioned Greek mythology with Persephone returning after the winter. However, I think that you should've mentioned her leaving for winter as it talks about the weather and makes references to winter.
Nathan Mercer
ReplyDeleteThe poem Primer by Rita Dove interested me. I found it interesting because it can be related to the modern day instead of to Greek mythology. I especially found it interesting how Rita Dove chose to use Caddie as the car the mother drove up in. It is interesting because it could be a reference to a golf caddie. In golf, a caddie gives the golfer advice about what they should do. The caddie also give the clubs to the golfer. This is related to how a mother gives advice to her child based on her experiences and what she thinks is best. A mother will also give her child the tools they need to succeed in life. Another interesting section of the indefinable poem is when Rita Dove writes, “my five-foot-zero mother drove up in her Caddie to shake them down to size.” It seems like the daughter is making fun of her mother. The part that makes it appear this way is the word “zero”. Most people just say five feet, but in this poem, Rita Dove writes “five-foot-zero”. This adds extra emphasis to the fact that her mother is short and adds a new element of mockery to the sentence. The final thing that I found to be very interesting about this poem is that it says the girl, “took the long way home.” This is foreshadowing, assuming this poem is about Persephone, that she will be going home from the underworld after each winter. This way home from the underworld is considered to be the long way home instead of having her mother come and rescue her.
Cole Jones
DeleteI found your point about “Caddie” being a reference to a golf caddie to be an interesting one, but it is certainly not how I interpreted it. When talking about cars, “Caddie” refers to a Cadillac, America’s quintessential luxury car brand. I do think this is what Rita Dove was referring to when she said “Caddie.” However, it is very possible that Rita Dove specifically chose to use the word “Caddie” because of its other meaning, as you pointed out. Also, I agree with your point that saying “five-foot-zero” does sound more insulting than just saying “five feet,” but why do you think the Persephone character would want be mocking her mom? What point is she trying to prove about herself?
We talked a lot about Demeter and Persephone in class, as they were essential to the poems. However, Narcissus, another Greek deity, plays a role as well. In the poems “The Narcissus Flower” and “Persephone, Falling”, Persephone is symbolized as a narcissus flower. I dug into the plant a little bit, and came upon some interesting facts. Initially, I had assumed that there was some connection between the word narcissistic and the flower, and I turned out to be right. The Greek hunter Narcissus was excessively proud, looked down on all those who loved him, and eventually fell in love with his own reflection. Persephone is likewise foolish and proud. She did not listen to her mother, and instead assumed that she knew what she was doing. Both characters disrespect those who care about them. When Narcissus falls in love with his own reflection, he loses his will to live, and dies there, staring into the water. Persephone did not pay the price of death, but she instead faces marriage to Hades. Another interesting thing that I found is that the Narcissus flower is poisonous, containing lycorine. It may be beautiful above the earth, but beneath it contains a bitter and poisonous bulb. In “Persephone, Falling”, Dove wrote that “She pulled, stooped to pull harder— when, sprung out of the earth on his glittering terrible carriage”. Now, it is obviously a reference to Hades, but it could also be referencing the sinister bulb beneath the beautiful flower, much like the sinister fate of the beautiful girl. Now, I’m not entirely sure what Rita Dove meant by it, but she certainly picked an interesting flower to symbolize the daughter throughout Mother Love.
ReplyDelete“The House Slave” by Rita Dove caught my attention in particular. When reading the poem, it becomes apparent that the poem is coming from the perspective of a house slave. This poem in particular emphasizes the pain the house slave faces, not necessarily physically, but rather emotionally and empathetically. The house slave faces pain as he/she watches his/her people be oppressed in slavery. “At the second horn, the whip curls across the backs of the laggards… I weep. It is not yet daylight,” these lines in particular express the house slave’s pain in watching the enslavement of his/her people. For Rita Dove to take the position of a house slave instead of a field slave is intriguing. It provides an outside perspective to the harshest conditions of slavery, but a perspective that is not unaware of slavery, and one that knows the evils of it. This perspective allows for the reader to actually better empathize with slave life. Not only is the reader now able to be aware of physical oppression occurring, but also the emotional damage and affect on other slaves and people. The house slave’s deep sadness stirs pain in the reader’s heart as the house slave hears their own sister being whipped and knows that they can do nothing about it. Sometimes it is more emotionally impactful not to have physical abuse happen to the main character/point of view, but rather for it to happen to someone they deeply care about.
ReplyDeleteCole Jones
DeleteI agree with your idea that having the poem be written through the eyes of a house slave helps to drive the emotion of the poem. It emphasizes that even for those slaves who may not have been treated horribly physically, the emotional damage that occurs to them is still completely crushing. Seeing a family member you love and care about being tormented on a regular basis is something that would haunt almost anybody.
However, something that stood out to me about this poem was the structure of it. It is broken up into five stanzas, each containing three lines. I'm wondering how you think this structure might contribute to its meaning?
Patrick Huang
ReplyDeleteIn “Sonnet in Primary Colors”, Rita Dove employs symbolism and pain imagery to describe the life and experiences of Frida Kahlo, the famous Mexican painter. Dove describes Frida Kahlo as “the woman with one black wing perched over her eyes” (1-2), a reference to Kahlo’s famous unibrow. At the end of the poem, her brow is mentioned again as immutable, a reference this time to Kahlo’s strong personality and mental strength in times of hardship. The symbolism of the “plaster corset her spine resides in” (5) is about an accident during Kahlo’s childhood that injured her permanently. The plaster and corset symbolize the physical imprisonment she suffered because corsets are very restricting and plaster is often used to solidify stationary objects. “Lenin and Marx and Stalin arrayed at the footstead…” (9) symbolizes Kahlo’s connection with the Mexican Revolution and her support for their communist rhetoric. “Diego’s love a skull…” (12) is a reference to her tumultuous relationship with painter Diego Rivera. Rita Dove uses the word skull to symbolize the death of the love between Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. Throughout the poem, Rita Dove uses pain imagery to show the pain of Frida Kahlo’s life. “Each night she lay down in pain…” (7) is about Frida Kahlo’s physical suffering from injuries and emotional pain from relationships with Diego Rivera. Dove describes the dead as beloved to Frida, implying Frida Kahlo’s close relationship with pain and suffering. Finally, the title of the poem is a symbol of the effect of Frida Kahlo’s painful experiences on her life. A sonnet is usually fourteen lines long but this poem is only thirteen. Thus, the title of the poem is somewhat ironic because the “Primary Colors” implies Kahlo had a full and complete life, but the missing line in the poem contradicts the “Sonnet” and symbolizes how pain hindered part of her life.
Nathan Mercer
ReplyDeleteThe poem Sonnet in Primary Colors by Rita Dove is about the artist Frida Kahlo. The line, “one black wing perched over her eyes.” is a reference to the fact that she had a unibrow and she embraced it. The poem also mentions a mirror and a circular window. This is probably a reference to the fact that she embraced duality in her art. The mirror represents what she feels inside versus what she looks like on the outside. Whenever there is a mirror in movies, it is usually circular. This circular window could be meaning a mirror. However, it could also represent her day to day life seeming bland as a child because of her multiple accidents. The poem also says, “Erect among parrots, in the stern petticoats of the peasant.” The mention of “erect among parrots” is an allusion to the fact that she was brought up as a child while raising parrots. The fact that the petticoat is stern emphasizes the fact that she didn’t have a lot of money growing up. The quote, “Each night she lay down in pain and rose to her celluloid butterflies of her Beloved Dead, Lenin and Marx and Stalin arrayed at the footstead.” is full of references. The celluloid butterflies could represent the butterfly effect of how the things that Lenin, Marx, and Stalin did effected her life. The mention of Lenin, Marx, and Stalin represent how Frida Kahlo was heavily influenced by Communism. Those three names are mentioned because they are the first people that are thought of when Communism is mentioned. The footstead is likely a reference to how heavily Communism influenced her. Those two words mean that Communism is the base of her political beliefs.
Jordan Barr
DeleteI agree with your interpretation of this poem for the most part, but your explanation of the phrase “erect among parrots” seems odd to me. While you say it reference’s Kahlo's childhood, I agree more with Eleanor that it references one of her interesting paintings titled “Yo y mis pericos.” One of the interesting features about this painting is the title, which would have made sense to be called “Self-Portrait with Parrots” since she was going through a phase in which she included “Self-Portrait” in the titles of her art pieces. I also thoroughly agree with your interpretation of the mirror as a symbol of the dualist phase Kahlo went through. The contrast between the positivity in the first half of the poem and the harshness in the other helps emphasize this feature in some of Kahlo’s art.
Cole Jones
ReplyDeleteThe poem “Canary” by Rita Dove stood out to me after my first readthrough. Dove carefully crafts imagery into her poem to paint a picture of a glamorous, yet tragic figure: Billie Holiday. In the first line, Dove describes her voice as being “burned.” In the context of Billie Holiday's life, the word “burned” signifies that Holiday has lived a rough life, and that pain and hardship can be heard when she sings. It also means that her voice was literally damaged by years of alcohol and substance abuse. Dove then goes on to describe Holiday’s voice as having “as many shadows as lights.” Once again, Dove is using imagery to describe Holiday’s voice, which at the same time is a metaphor for her life. Holiday did not have an easy life, and despite her fame, there was still a very dark side to her. Dove explores this idea in the second stanza. The second stanza describes Holiday’s frequent drug abuse through lines like “magic spoon, magic needle” and “ with your mirror and your bracelet of song.” These lines allude to both heroin and cocaine use, something for which Holiday struggled with, and was arrested for.
After painting a picture of a famous singer whose life was characterized by hardship, Dove uses the last three lines to make a broader statement about the entertainment industry and famous women. The lines “Fact is, the invention of women under siege / has been to sharpen love in the service of myth,” seem to describe a damsel in distress type figure. As if the entertainment industry preys on women in trouble and takes advantage of their situation. In the final line of the poem, Dove writes, “If you can't be free, be a mystery.” This means that famous people can keep themselves and their story from being invented by others by keeping their life and their thoughts hidden. From these lines, I also made a connection to the song “Candle in the Wind” by Elton John. The song is about Marilyn Monroe, another famous woman who died young due to drugs and hardship. In both their cases, they kept who they really were a mystery, and only let the public see the side that they wanted them to see. However, the constant pressure from the media, the world, and their pasts proved too much for them and they turned to drugs to ease their pain. As a result, their candles burned out long before their legends ever will.
Sam Kwak
DeleteNice insights. I wonder if there was a reason that Rita Dove wrote about Billie Holiday aside from her tragic life—namely, her song, “Strange Fruit,” after all, Holiday is best known for her rendition of the song about lynchings in the South. I’m not sure if this is a stretch—I feel like it might be—but the lyrics of the song (“Then the sudden smell of burning flesh”) seem somewhat related to the first line of the poem (“Billie Holiday’s burned voice”).
I also think that the title for this poem is especially significant. Canaries often live caged up, which may be in reference to Holiday’s time in prison. Additionally, the phrase “canary in a coal mine” may relate to the title, as the toxic fumes that kill canaries in mines may further symbolize Holiday’s drug addiction.
I think that the reference to the cage and the canary go deeper than just jail time. I think what Cole said about the media controlling and laying siege to women more adequately encompases the metaphor. A canary is kept in a cage to sing and be beautiful, but it is only valued for the traits that we want in it. If you buy a canary you don’t care how compassionate or intelligent the bird is, you just want to hear it sing and you want it to be beautiful. The press, likewise, didn’t care about Billie as a person, and put great pressure upon her to be beautiful and to sing well. I also think that you did not explore one interesting detail in the poem. It is written for Michael S. Harper, a fellow poet and friend of Rita Dove. He wrote about racial divides in the US, and had a powerful message. I believe that Rita Dove addressed it to him to keep him true to his cause, to not get caught up in the media, but to keep writing what and how he wants to write.
DeleteSam Kwak
ReplyDeleteIn “Tou Wan Speaks to Her Husband, Liu Sheng”, Rita Dove develops an oxymoronic tone that portrays both respect and intimacy. As demonstrated through Dove’s use of the first person, Tou Wan speaks from the beginning, establishing a personal relationship between “I” and “you” (Tou Wan and Liu Sheng, respectively). Later, at the end of the first stanza, Tou Wan calls him “my / only conqueror.” While “conqueror” sounds austere and distant, Dove adds a touch of personal color through the word “my,” making the phrase sound more personal or even romantic. Furthermore, Dove chooses to use enjambment to emphasize the effect of the word. At the end of the third stanza, the speaker trails off in ellipses, and states, “but you’re bored.” Creating a playful tone, Dove establishes Tou Wan’s level of comfort in her relationship with Liu Sheng. Afterwards, Tou Wan continues to guide her husband throughout the tomb: “Straight ahead then, the hall / leading to you, my / constant / emperor.” Once again, Tou Wan addresses Liu with both closeness and deference. Although she calls him “my constant emperor,” she also orders him around, telling him where to go.
The familiar tone builds further in the sixth stanza. Tou says, “I will set you / a lamp. (And a statue / of the palace girl you most / frequently coveted.)” Historically, Liu Sheng was known to live indulgently, particularly with women. Tou acknowledges this fact in a knowing and almost teasing tone, rather than that of anger or jealousy. This again shows the closeness of the two.
This is an interesting aspect indeed. I agree that she uses the pronouns “my” to show her love to him. However, what follows the my matters. She says “my only conqueror” and “my constant emperor.” Both nouns “conqueror” and “emperor” hold a superior connotation to them. Perhaps Dove chose these specific nouns to exhibit how the husband is more superior than the wife.
DeleteAfter reading “Tou Wan Speaks to Her Husband, Lie Sheng,” numerous times, I realized that the complexity of the poem tells us a message about the relationship between a husband and wife. Rita Dove expresses this by embedding an allegory within the poem while relating ancient Chinese culture’s view upon a husband and wife and her era’s view. The poem is an allegory to Tou Wan’s tomb, which today, it is still famous for its extravagancy. This tomb delineated her body and was encased in gold and jade with the purpose of keeping her soul intact with the earth. The poem was written in reverse. Here, Tou Wan is building the “tomb” by saying “I will build you a house” (1) and it continues “of limited chambers but it shall last forever.” Relating to how the tomb which was built around 238 BC lasted all the way until modern times. Rita Dove continues the poem, and writes “For those times in your niche when darkness oppresses, I will set you a lamp” (32-35). This describes how well thought out the tomb was; it considered different aspects and moments of Lie Sheng’s feelings and catered accordingly. Later, Dove mentions “ a suit to keep the shape of your death” (43-44). Relating it to the tomb of Tou Wan, and how the tomb delineated her body. As for the husband and wife aspect of this poem, both ancient Chinese culture and Rita Dove’s culture perceived men as the superior one in the relationship. One example of this in the poem is when Diva writes ,” I will set you a lamp. (And a statue of the palace girl you most frequently coveted.)” It appears to be an affair, however because her husband is the most important thing to her, showing male superiority, she will acknowledge the affair and still serve her husband. Equal privilege when it comes to gender does not exist between these two eras. There are other examples, however this post is getting a little long so I’ll stop it here.
ReplyDeletePatrick Huang
DeleteI agree that the complexity of the poem cannot be understated. I agree that the each stanza of the poem refers to a different aspect or characteristic of Liu Sheng’s life. The reference to the palace girl could be interpreted like you did, where it is a show of male superiority in the relationship, but it can also be interpreted as a sign of how deeply entwined the two are together. Thus, even though Tou Wan knows of her husband’s affair with other women, she still continues to support him. The constant description of her husband as “emperor” or “conqueror” reinforces the close relationship between the two. Good job!
Mia Kimura
ReplyDeletePeriod 5
In the poem, “Tou Wan Speaks to Her Husband, Liu Sheng” I noticed the bitter and passive aggressive tone towards the inequality between genders. The whole poem is an allegory to the infamous tomb that Tou Wan, the point of view of this piece was buried in. In the first stanza, when she says “my only conqueror”, I interpreted it as a sarcastic tone hidden in a usually endearing and intimate phrase. Again in the fourth stanza, she calls Liu Sheng “my constant emperor”, giving the word constant its own line. By saying “only” and “constant” it can be a reference to how women were never allowed any other partners while some men had many partners. Usually, a wife would not call their husband “conqueror” even if he was important. This shows her bitter feelings toward the superiority of males over their wives. In the 6th stanza, she talks about putting a statue of a palace girl in his niche. I thought this was odd because they were husband and wife but she is putting up a statue of his mistress before herself. This is most sarcastic stanza because she is praising and serving her husband but she hides a double meaning and puts the more sensitive information in the paranthesis. This is a reference to how women were almost servant like and were to be proper and to never disrespect or deface their husbands. Since Tou Wan is a proper, wealthy lady, she is careful to hide her real emotions and thoughts behind all the praising and serving by using sarcasm and passive agression. Rita Dove may have wrote this poem to shine a light on the nature of marriages in her time.
I agree with your interpretation of the sarcastic tones the words portray. The fact that constant even got its own line seems to me to be dripping with sarcasm. Rita Dove uses these short lines to provide major emphasis on these sarcastic tones and to show how bitter Tou Wan feels about her husband Liu Sheng. In addition, I think the use of conqueror could also be a reference to how she was forced into marriage with him. That to her they are not married, that to her, he is a merely just a conqueror.
DeleteIn the poem “The Abduction” by Rita Dove, I found her use of end-stop and caesurae particularly powerful in this poem. Rita Dove uses the punctuation as a way to build up tension and emphasize key points to the climax of the poem. And this poem definitely has a climax. In the beginning of the poem, it becomes apparent that the poem is coming from the point of view of Solomon Northrup, and in this first stanza, there are only two lines of the five that are end-stop, where as almost every line after the first stanza is end-stop. I think Rita Dove did this on purpose to show Solomon Northrup’s happy beginnings as a free man of color in a time of slavery, but as the poem goes on, the end-stop is used to build up tension so the reader/listener begins to realize not everything is dandy. As the poem comes to a close, as referenced in the name of the poem, “the Abduction,” Solomon Northrup ends up in slavery, having been kidnapped. Rita Dove’s use of caesurae in this build-up and conclusion provides major emphasis on the horrors of the situation Solomon Northrup faces. “I woke and found myself alone, in darkness and in chains,” as can be seen in this quote, the caesura in the middle of the line provides a brief pause between “alone” and “in darkness” thus emphasizing both of these phrases. The use of caesura in this line focuses the reader on these points, the loneliness Solomon felt and the darkness that is slavery.
ReplyDeleteI can definitely see the emphasis provided by the caesurae. I think it was used especially effectively in combination with imagery to create an ominous and uneasy tone throughout the third stanza. “Windows rattled”, “a pink lake, tipped”, and “the sky swiveled” all build tension, but when they are used in combination with the caesurae they are much more powerful. Both “a pink lake” and “the sky swiveled” are enclosed by caesurae on both sides, making them stand out. At this point in the poem it is not certain what happens to Solomon Northup, but the uneasy feeling created by these choppy images gets the idea across very effectively.
DeleteKevin Krenz
ReplyDeleteRita Dove’s poem “Canary” is a sonnet about the fighting for women’s rights and society’s view on women in the early 1900’s. The poem begins with a reference to “Billie Holiday.” Upon googling I found that “Billie Holiday” was the stage name for the jazz musician Eleanora Fagan, who was an extremely prominent figure in the early to mid-1900’s. One of the things that made her stand out to the rest of the jazz musicians at the time was her raspy voice, which was a result of her excessive drug use, referenced in the first line of the poem as “Billie Holiday’s burned voice.” The second stanza shows a lot of juxtaposition, for example “drummer to bass.” while drums are usually give off a fast-paced, strong beat, a bass has a calm, relaxing sound. Another juxtaposition is found in the next line: “magic spoon, magic needle.” These juxtapositions could be of reference to the views on genders in society in the historic period of Billie Holiday, with men being seen as strong figures while women are calm, soothing figures. In the second to last stanza Rita Dove mentions “women under siege,” undoubtedly mentioning the past struggles of women under male dominance, and their fight for equal rights and participation in economy and society. The last line of the poem is its own stanza, giving it more emphasis. “If you can’t be free, be a mystery.” This means that although women struggled for freedom, they didn’t decide to let the challenge own them. Instead, they decided to be unique, or a mystery, by continuing their fight for freedom and equal rights. This theme of freedom is also seen in the title “Canary,” which is a bird often associated with happiness. This shows that even through the length of their fight for equal rights, when they finally achieve this they will be happy.
Cole Jones
DeleteThe phrase "magic spoon, magic needle" isn't being used in this poem to juxtapose gender roles in society, but rather just to describe the drug use that Holiday had descended into. The needle in spoon are references to heroine usage, which also explains the use of the word "magic" to describe them. Also, while canaries certainly might be associated with happiness, I don't think that is why Dove chose to use that as the title. Canaries are usually kept in cages which in the context of Billy Holiday means that she wasn't really free. Instead, Holiday was a songbird held in a cage by the constraints of drugs, race, sex, and society in general.
Cole Jones
ReplyDeleteThe poem “Belinda’s Petition” initially caught my eye for a few reasons. Dove’s use of capitalization and formal language serves to highlight the braveness of those that fight for their freedom. This poem is a direct reference to the situation of a real slave named Belinda living in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts during the Revolutionary War. She petitioned for reparations for being enslaved for so long, and in the end she won due to the Massachusetts Constitution making slavery illegal in the state. The poem is written as a statement read by Belinda to the legislative body of Massachusetts. Throughout the poem, Dove contrasts very formal sounding language such as “To the honorable Senate and House” with the overall defiant tone of the speaker. This defiance is best shown by the lines “Lately your Countrymen have severed the Binds of Tyranny. / I would hope you would consider the Same for me.” Overall, these lines sound very polite and formal, however, the phrase “I would hope you would consider the Same for me” comes through with a searing level of irony and dissent. This tones supports the strength and braveness of Belinda and shows that she was not in need of anybody’s pity. Dove also uses capitalization in an uncommon way. Specific words like “Slave,” “Accusation,” “Ignorant,” and “Childhood” are capitalized throughout the poem. One reason this could have been done is to mimic the writing style of the time. It was common practice in this period of history to capitalize certain words in a sentence, even if they aren’t proper nouns (just look at the Constitution). However, this also serves the purpose of giving the poem a much more impassioned tone. The capitalization emphasizes the meaning and importance of certain words. Ultimately, the capitalization stands to make Belinda seem much more brave and defiant of the institution of slavery.
Cole Jones
DeleteI have come to the realization I did this blog on the slavery section and not the civil rights section.
Whoops.
Nestor’s Bathtub was a very interesting poem, but I struggle to find the exact message that Rita Dove was trying to get across. It feels as though she wanted to emphasize the lack of women throughout historical texts, as Nestor, the King of Pylos, had a wife with almost no historical texts. Nestor’s Bathtub may have been inspired by the excavation of Nestor’s palace, including his 2,853 cups and extravagant bathtub. As it was typical in Ancient Greece for the man to go off into battle or to rule the kingdom and the women to maintain the household, it could be inferred that Rita Dove was suggesting a permanence to the women’s role. While the empire of Pylos fell and dissolved, the bathtub and the cups remained for hundreds, even thousands of years.
ReplyDeleteThe Transport of Slaves From Maryland to Mississippi was an especially powerful poem, simply because of the story it told. A wagon of slaves broke their chains and freed themselves, and a female slave (it is written from her perspective) aided one of the slave drivers, who then ran to get help. Fighting only for their freedom, and then displaying the compassion to help a fallen adversary, the slaves were punished for the act of kindness and enslaved once more. Lines like “left for dead in the middle of the road, dust hovering around the body like a screen of mosquitos” and “his eyes were my eyes in a yellower face” show the humanity and compassion of the woman. Rita Dove even writes “he might have been a son of mine”, displaying clearly how few differences there really are between the slaves and their owners. I think that this poem was much more powerful than any of the others because of the story. The imagery was powerful, and was aided by a surplus of caesurae, but the real power of pathos came from the story itself.
ReplyDeletePatrick Huang
ReplyDeleteIn “Rosa”, Rita Dove uses sharp and precise diction, organized syntax, and vivid visual imagery to indicate the calm, collected nature of Rosa Parks and the impact of her actions for the civil rights movement in the 1950s. This poem is about Rosa Parks refusing to give up her bus seat to a white person and promptly being arrested. Her actions helped spark outrage and fuel for the civil rights movement in the 1950s. Words indicating precision, sharpness, and keenness are used to describe the actions of Rosa Parks. Rita Dove describes her as having a “trim name” (4) and a “sensible coat” (6) to indicate her sharp resolve. Dove describes her gaze as a “clean fire” indicating efficiency and merciless resilience. Besides the crisp diction, Rita Dove organizes the poem in such a way to convey the coordinated nature of Rosa Park’s actions. The twelve lines of the poem are neatly organized into four stanzas with three lines apiece. Each stanza features enjambment in the second line to indicate the drawn-out, complex natures of the actions of Rosa Parks and the Civil Rights movement. Finally, visual imagery vividly paints a picture of Rosa Park’s strength. The quote “How she sat there, the time right inside a place so wrong it was ready” (1-3) visualizes the impactful nature of her actions by supplementing her stoic statement with a short sentence describing the importance of her resistance. Rita Dove further describes Rosa Park’s unwavering courage in the face of adversity with “the clean flame of her gaze carved by a camera flash” (7-9). This quote provides context by describing the event as a highly publicized action, something necessary for goal of civil rights movement. The final image of Rosa Parks reaffirms her commitment to her ideals. “That courtesy” shows how even when purposely practicing civil disobedience, she does act rashly and maintain a calm and calculated manner.
I viewed the poem “Lady Freedom Among Us,” from the lenses of a feminist and antiracist perspective while Rita Dove communicated through imagery and the format of the poem.Dove utilizes one lady, to represent the general black female population. Describing a poor yet strong women rising from desolation through details such as “old fashioned sandals”(8) or “leaden skirts.”(9) All of which, are undesirable in our society. However, she ends that stanza with “she has risen among us in blunt reproach” as in, this lady has disapproved society’s view upon her population adamantly while Rita uses the words “blunt reproach.” (11) She continues to describe the rising of this character in the next stanza writing “fitted her hair under a hand me-down cap and spruced it up with feathers and starts.” (13-14) When someone hides their hair and puts something over it, it is similar to putting a wig. One puts a wig in order to change their demeanor, how they look. In this case, she “spruced it with feathers and stars.” This quote pertains to a rising imagery. Feathers and starts are both fancy and beautiful beautiful things, especially thing which are not usually associated with black females at that time. The format of the poem is very interesting. There exists no word that is capitalized. Rita utilizes this to emphasize how lowly society viewed women. However among those women, a lady rises and shows that even the lowly can be equal. Dove writes, they “no choice but to grant her space crown her with sky...she is each of us.” (29-32) Because she stood up adamantly for her stance and beliefs, people recognized that and realized that they too, also shared the belief.
ReplyDeleteSam Kwak
DeleteInteresting: you took “Lady Freedom Among Us” to be both a poem about race and gender inequalities, when I thought it was only about race relations. There isn’t much specific diction referring to women (other than the symbol of Lady Freedom), but maybe “bigboned” in stanza seven could be referring to societal pressures on women to be thin. I hadn’t considered that the poem could be read from two different angles. Now that I think about it, I think that this definitely could be the case, since Lady Freedom is a lady herself, after all.
Patrick Huang
DeleteSimilar to what Sam said, reading this poem for the first time, I did not consider it to be about gender inequality either. However, reading through the poem, I definitely understand where your points and evidence are coming from. The old diction used to describe aspects of the lady you mentioned is effective at establishing this relationship. The absence of capitals throughout the poem is also a fantastic observation by you and really supports the theme that women are not viewed equally in society. Quotes also support your final point that even the lowly can be considered equal through their work. Really good analysis and work!
Sam Kwak
ReplyDeleteRita Dove originally wrote “Lady Freedom Among Us” as US Poet Laureate to commemorate the restoration of the Lady Freedom statue in 1993. Throughout the poem, she develops the idea of the unforgettable nature of freedom. In the third and fourth stanza, Dove describes the statue as almost run-down or shabby looking, using words like “oldfashioned,” “trinkets,” and “hand-me-down.” In fact, the person who the narrator addresses in the first and second stanza tries to avoid her. However, the narrator commands them not to ignore or discount Freedom. Through the second person imperative, Dove creates a defensive tone around the Freedom statue. The second stanza in particular reveals certain prejudices against Lady Freedom based on her appearance. Dove writes, “don’t mutter oh no / not another one / get a job fly a kite / go bury a bone”. The person to whom the narrator speaks seems to think of Freedom as lazy and worthless, or even animal-like, as seen in the last line, which reminds the reader of dogs. However, Dove flips this view of the statue later in the third and fourth stanzas. “[S]he has risen among us in blunt reproach”—despite Lady Freedom’s situation, she refuses to be brought down, but instead rises up over it. Dove further stresses this later in the poem, writing, “no choice but to grant her space / crown her with the sky”. Freedom demands recognition and emanates pride. Dove’s use of “crown” stresses this, proclaiming that Freedom is akin to regal nobility.
I have considered this angle of analysis. Good job in researching the origins of the poem. I think it goes along with my argument that Lady Freedom represents equality. Although I do agree that the second stanza reveal prejudice, I would like to think that there’s a deeper meaning than just Lady Freedom. I think it refers to racial inequality. However, I do agree with everything else. Good job!
DeleteMia Kimura
ReplyDeletePeriod 5
I viewed “Freedom Ride” as a reference to segregation and racial tension of the 1950’s and 60’s. Throughout the poem, she mentions buses and streets which was a reference to Rosa Parks infamous protest against segregation. In the beginning of the second stanza, it talks about pulling a cord and “walking in a gauntlet of stares”. The cord is a reference to the stop request cord on buses. “Walking in a gauntlet of stares”, can be talking about how if you get off at the wrong stop, you could be stared out. I saw this as a reference to segregated communites and how if an African-American were to mistakenly get off in a white part of town. Throughout the poem there are multiple lines that talk about burning and fire. I interpreted this as the passion of the movement and how the opposing side would often put down their chances of moving foward.
I agree that the “gauntlet of stares” was powerful imagery, but I thought that perhaps the repetitive fire imagery and symbolism was more interesting. The lines “patches of yard rushing into the flames”, “Make no mistake: There’s fire back where you came from, too”, and “but where you sit is where you’ll be when the fire hits” seem to symbolize the civil rights movement, spreading like a fire throughout the country. The last stanza treats the issue like a devouring flame, consuming everything in its path. Saying that “where you sit is where you’ll be when the fire hits” feels like a cry for action. The fire is coming, whether you sit in a corner and hide or fight it, so you might as well try to fight. The mention of flames in the first stanza makes me think that segregated housing districts were being challenged. If the “fearful patches of yard” were actually heading into the civil rights issues, the symbolism of fire and the movement would be further supported.
ReplyDelete“Climbing In” by Rita Dove is a poem about the bus boycotts. Throughout the poem, the imagery conveys a very ominous tone. The floor of the bus is described as metallic teeth, suggesting something evil about the bus itself. THe dime cuts into her palm figuratively because she feels so guilty to be disobeying the bus boycott. The bus driver is described as the wolf from little red riding hood, dressed up as the innocent grandmother but actually quite sinister. “The bright lady tumbles head over tail down the clinking gullet” references both the metallic mouth and the little red riding hood story, as the little girl, the main point of view for this story, is devoured by the horror of the bus. I thought that the imagery in this poem was far more vivid and evident than in any of the other poems about civil rights, so it stuck out to me.
ReplyDeleteMia Kimura
ReplyDeleteParsley by Rita Dove is written from the Haitian point of view to show the brutality of the Parsley Massacres of Haitians in the 1937. In The Cane Fields there are 3 lines that are repeated, one of them is “Out of the swamp the cane appears”. This represents the how they were worked as slaves in sugar can fields. The repetition of the line shows the never-ending representaion of their lack of freedom. No matter how many they cut, the sugar cane grows back. In the fifth stanza, it says “El General has found his word: perejil”. The use of Spanish is a reference to haiti and Dominican relations. Perejil is parsley in Spanish and was the word that the Dominican guards used to identify Haitians. Haitians could not roll their R’s so this innocent sounding word became a word that decided their fate. In this context, parsley is not an herbm it is a representation and symbol of the words that decides their fate. There is a parrot that is mentioned throughout the poem and could represent Haitians hidden among the Dominicans by imitating how the Dominicans sound just like how parrots try to imitate humans.
I agree with your interpretation of the poem "Parsley" by Rita Dove, however I do believe that the parrot has more significance that what you described. There is a line in which El General remarks that even the parrot could pronounce the R, but the Haitians could not. I think the parrot is used to represent a sense of mocking, to mock the fact that they could have a better life if they merely could pronounce one word. The parrot is often mentioned "imitating spring" and sense spring is often associated with rebirth and a better life, once again the parrot is mocking the Haitians, pretending that spring/a better life is here, when in reality it is not.
DeleteI interpreted “out of the swamp, the cane appears” very differently. Instead of seeing it as the repetitive nature of slave labor, I saw the cane as the Haitians themselves. Because they spent their time in sugarcane plantations, it would be easy for the Dominicans to associate cane and Haitians. A cane appearing out of the swamp feels like something standing out from similar things all around it, much like someone who looked and acted just like everyone else, but could not roll an ‘r’. Furthermore, the Dominicans would see the cane as something that needed to be cut down, while the Haitians were tired of the action.
DeleteCole Jones
ReplyDeleteThe poem “Parsley” by Rita Dove tells the story of the 1937 Parsley massacre. It occurred in the Dominican Republic, under the direct orders of the Dictator Rafael Trujillo. The orders were to kill anybody who could not say the Spanish word for parsley, which is perejil. Haitians were incapable of pronouncing the r sound of the word, and the Dominican soldiers killed all of them they could find. Dove writes the first section of the poem from the perspective of the Haitian workers as this massacre occurs. Something very interesting about this part of the poem is its structure. The structure of the poem is an unrhymed villanelle. Throughout this first section, there are two refrains that are repeated in an alternating pattern at the end of each line: “the cane appears” and “a parrot imitating spring.” At the end of the nineteen-line section, the two refrains are one again repeated back-to-back. In this context, the villanelle structure gives the poem a very haunting and fatalistic feeling. The repetition of the two lines gives the feeling as if nothing can be done to stop the massacre from happening; there is nothing they can do to change their fate. Additionally, the refrain “a parrot imitating spring” is placed right after especially frightening sounding lines. For example, it is placed after both, “The children knaw their teeth to arrowheads” and “And we lie down. For every drop of blood”. When contrasted with these terrible sounding things, the parrot seems peaceful and serene. In this way, the parrot symbolizes the frightening calm of the General that Dove explores in the second part of the poem. The contrasting of the utter terror that the Haitians feel and the peace that the General feels serves to make the poem even more chilling.
In the poem “Parsley” by Rita Dove, I found the first section, “The Cane Fields,” of particular interest. In this section, Rita Dove makes major connections to the Parsley massacre carried out by Dictator Rafael Trujillo in 1937. In this first section, “El General” is a reference to this Dictator, whom are often Generals, and the atrocities he committed against the Haitians. In the massacre, the way in which the soldiers determined who to kill and who to let live was through the way in which they said the word “perejil.” In Spanish, this word means parsley. Native Haitians, due to their language origins, could not pronounce/roll their R’s, as referenced by the poem “We cannot speak an R,” and thus Rita Dove’s line: “El General has found his word: perejil,” is a reference to this method of differentiation. “Who says it, lives. He laughs…” El General knows that the Haitians cannot pronounce the word, and thus finds it humorous that something as simple as pronunciation determined who lived and who died. In addition, the mention of a cane appears quite frequently in this section. On October 2nd, 1937, Trujillo ordered that ten-thousand native Haitian cane workers be executed. When the word cane is repeated throughout this section, it is a reference to this massacre. “Out of the swamp the cane appears,” and, “the cane appears in our dreams…” Rita Dove is emphasizing the suddenness of this order, and the magnitude in which it was carried out. That the massacre still remains in their dreams. Overall, Rita Dove uses powerful word choice to allude to the Parsley Massacre in 1937, so that it may never be forgotten.
ReplyDeleteNathan Mercer
DeleteI found your interpretation of those specific sections of the poem to be very well done, but You didn't discuss most of the first section. I feel like you could've added more about specific lines that were very odd. For example, the line, "The children gnaw their teeth to arrowheads," seems odd to me. I wish you had looked at more parts of the section "The Cane Fields" instead of just a few sentences.
Nathan Mercer
ReplyDeleteWhile reading “Parsley”, by Rita Dove, I found the first section to be very intriguing. Something that interested me was the repetition of phrases. One of these phrases was, “There is a parrot imitating spring.” The parrot was probably the bird of choice because it is talking about imitating, and that is what parrots do. Although parrots can talk like humans, they can’t give us the same experience that a human can. When spring is used in poetry, it is often to symbolize renewal, hope, or growth. In this case, I believe that spring is being used to symbolize hope. This is because the last stanza of the section includes the sentence, “For every drop of blood there is a parrot imitating spring.” This means that for every person who dies, there are people who are hopeful. This could be because they hope that they make it across the border, or that their family makes it across the border. Another phrase that is repeated is, “Out of the swamp the cane appears.” The cane could represent the border patrol looking for Haitians trying to sneak across the border through the swamp. This is my interpretation because the poem says, “Out of the swamp the cane appears to haunt us,” and later, “He laughs, teeth shining out of the swamp. The cane appears in our dreams.” Since the poem is talking about cane as something that haunts the Haitians, it makes me think of the border patrol finding them and killing them. It also reminds me of the border patrol because the poem is talking about “El General” which refers to the border patrol. Another interesting part of the poem is, “We cannot speak an R-,” in the second stanza. It also says later in the poem, “... perejil. Who says it, lives.” This is referring to the fact that Haitians cannot pronounce the letter r because a lot of them spoke French or Creole. The border guards would ask the people crossing the border to say perejil. If someone could say it, they would probably be let through, but if they couldn’t pronounce it, they were killed.
Cole Jones
DeleteI like your analysis of the meaning behind the lines "a parrot imitating spring" and "the cane appears." I do find the connection of hope with the parrot strange because of the parrot's connection to the General. It seems strange for Dove to have connected the symbol of hope with the person causing the suffering and pain so directly. Also, you mention that those two lines are repeated throughout the first section, but what I wonder is what you think the purpose of this repetition is? What tone or feeling do you think Dove was trying to create through repetition?
Peter Kraakevik
ReplyDeleteParsley is a poem describing a slave plantation where parsley is grown around the 18th century. In the second stanza (The Palace) the owner of the plantation is referred to as “The General” which has very powerful connotations. This word choice emphasises the great power the owners of plantations had over the slaves working for them. A general is the highest rank in the US army and has many officers and soldiers under his command. These other soldiers have to follow his decisions and also have to respect their authority or else risk severe punishment. The army is not known for leniency and stepping out of line will always be in a risk for consequences. This is very similar to how the plantation owners had a reign of fear and power over the slaves under their control. The general is unremorseful in his actions even when it says, “He will order many, this time, to be killed”
It is also pertinent to notice that in the first stanza (The Cane Fields) he is referred to as El General, the spanish word for general, further emphasizing the alienation and how different the general is to the slaves.
VienYen HoPham
ReplyDeleteIn the poem “Parsley,” Rita Dove depicts the horrible genocide that happened in 1937, under the Dominican dictator Trujillo. Under this context, the poem was written through perspective of the Haitians who were the targeted ones. The poem begins with “There is a parrot imitating spring...its feathers parsley green. (1-2) A parrot is a bird, and birds usually represent freedom. However this isn’t a normal bird. This is a parrot where it is colorful and vibrant and it imitates humans. In this quote, the parrot is “imitating,” or repeating the spring.In literature, spring usually conotes hope and fresh vibrant colors, something that the parrot posses. In the next line, “Out of the swamp the cane appears to haunt us” (3-4) Rita Dove symbolizes the “cane” as the Dominican Republic’s sanguinary intents towards Haitians. The quote continues as “and we cut it down.” (4) Pointing at the Haitians attempt at resisting, hoping that if they do, it will end. The “parrot” and “spring” becomes a motif throughout the first section of the poem as along side with the “cane.” She utilizes this motif by repeating it at the end of every stanza by ending the first one with the symbolism of the “cane,” ending the next stanza with the “parrot”, starting the next with “cane, and vice versa. The stanzas that end with the motif of “parrot” concentrates about the hope which the Haitians hold to end the genocide. Such as the example provided above, during stanzas 3 to 4, it ends with “Like a parrot imitating spring” because the Haitians tried to resist the genocide by cutting the cane down. While the stanzas that end the motif of “cane,” focuses on the atrocities of the Dominican Republic’s government. The line “We cannot speak R-” references how people were identified as Haitians if they could not pronounce the letter ‘r.’ And these people were ultimately killed, supported by the following line” out of the swamp, the cane appears.” The cane represents the patrollers that massacred the Haitian people. Then finally, during the last stanza, she ends it with both the symbolism of “parrot” and “cane” symbolizing how the two synthesize and interact. When Dove wrote, “For every drop of blood there is a parrot imitating spring. Out of the swamp the cane appears,” she wanted to exemplify that every time a Haitian died due to the massacre, there is still people hoping that it will end. They did not give up.
Patrick Huang
DeleteYour analysis is very thorough and you bring up some very good points that I had not thought of. I did think of “and we cut it down” as a statement of resistance by Dominican Republicans. Your analysis on “Like a parrot imitating spring” is also different from what I thought but reading it again, your interpretation of the quote is also very plausible and well backed. I particularly agree with you that the author repeats the two refrains in the poem to emphasize a persistence of something. I originally thought it was the pervasiveness of the violence in the event but your idea about it being the continued hope of Dominican Republicans and Haitians is also very plausible. Good analysis!
Kevin Krenz
ReplyDeleteRita Dove’s poem “Parsley” symbolically exaggeratingly goes over the emotions of a man grieving about the deaths of his mother. There is a lot of imagery in this poem, most prevalently imagery of violence and hell. For example, the man is referred to in this poem as “El General.” Although this may be irrelevant, I googled the name and i found “El General” was a popular reggae artist in the late 1900’s, who continuously claims to have found his inspiration through Satan. Although this connection is most likely a coincidence and probably has nothing to do with this poem at all, there is still a lot of violent imagery in this poem.
The first mention of the mother’s death is in the 7th stanza of the poem, or the beginning of the 2nd part of the poem. Rita Dove finally explains the walking cane, which was often mentioned before the seventh stanza as a cane haunting him in a swamp. Rita Dove also mentions that the cane in the swamp only always appears in his dreams. Google told me that swamps in dreams are a famous symbol of repression and darkness in a character’s mind. With the cane obviously representing his dead mother, the combination of the two show that he represses his emotions about his dead mother, trying to hide them while they haunt him in his dreams. This theory is also shown in an omnipresent phrase that is repeated constantly throughout the poem in different ways: “A parrot imitating spring.” Spring is the season of green leaves, and gives off happy feelings to everybody. The parrot imitating spring means that the man pretends to be happy while he really feels darkness and repression over the death of his mother from fall.
The man does not hide his emotions successfully. Instead, I was lead to believe that he lashes out his suppressed anger on others by killing them so they could feel what his mother felt. Rita Dove mentions how people would whisper the name Katalina, while also being unable to pronounce the “R” sound. She repeats the idea of gnawing their teeth into arrowheads. Sharp teeth is usually a sign of a creature, which could be pertaining to their deaths, becoming creatures in the Underworld after they die. I believe this is the case because towards the end of the poem Rita Dove mentions how the man saw his mother’s teeth gnawed to arrowheads, which meant she was dead and a creature as well. Katalina is the name of the man’s mother, and the man kills anybody who mentions his mother’s name, which I am lead to believe in many lines of this poem (“Who can I kill today,” etc.). Upon research of the name Katarina (replaced “l” with “r” because they were unable to pronounce “r” sounds”) concerning Day of the Dead (the day his mother died), I found that the “skeleton of Catrina” is a symbol of the Day of the Dead in places where it is celebrated. Catrina was said to be a wealthy queen, but as she dies it is a symbol of how everyone is equal after death. The connections between the Catrina skeleton and his mother are very convincing, because Rita Dove mentions how his mother lived in a palace, and uses queen-like imagery to describe her (“his mother was no stupid woman; she could roll her R like a queen”)
The final line of this poem tells us how the man will kill anyone who says a single, beautiful word, which is talking about anyone being killed who mentions his mother’s name. This connects to the idea of the parrot in the 10th stanza: “I never thought it would sing the soldier said, and died.” The parrot symbolizes the emotions of his mother (emotions being hidden in “a parrot imitating spring”), and the singing of the parrot is somebody mentioning the name. Consequently, the soldier who said mentioned his mother’s name died.
The title “parsley” could be relating this entire
story to the Parsley Massacre of 1937, which explains the references to the Haitians. During this massacre, children were supposedly thrown onto the corpses of their mothers. This story of the man losing his mother could have some connection to the emotions of the general who ordered this massacre, trying to make the children feel the same grief that he did.
DeletePatrick Huang
ReplyDeleteIn the poem “Parsley”, Rita Dove uses repetition, colloquial diction, and visual imagery to represent the murders of Haitians in the Parsley massacre. The Parsley massacre was a military action ordered by dictator Rafael Trujillo to kill Haitians living in the Dominican Republic. Trujillo’s soldiers forced citizens to say the word “perejil” (parsley in spanish) to test whether they had a French accent (Haitian) or Spanish accent (Dominican Republic). The repetition of the phrases “Out of the swamp the cane appears” and “There is a parrot imitating spring” is a reference to the soldiers who forced people to repeat the phrase “perejil” over and over. Spring is usually a season of new beginnings. Thus, the soldiers are “parrots imitating spring” because they believe they are improving their country by killing non-natives, but in truth it is just an imitation, a false improvement of their country. The “cane” also refers to the soldiers because sugar cane was a major crop of the government in the Dominican Republic, so “the cane appears” illustrates the soldiers sent by the government appearing to interrogate people. Similarly, the parrot is a common bird in the Dominican Republic and represents the common citizen in this poem. Either one or both of the phrases appears at the end of each stanza, representing the consistent and inescapable nature of the killings. Colloquial diction is used to provide context and immerse the reader with auditory imagery of the event. The two spanish words “Katalina” and “perejil” are examples of words that soldiers used to test people’s speaking accents. Similarly, the general is mentioned with the article “el” which compliments the Dominican Republic setting. Lastly, visual imagery paints a scene to supplement the reader’s understanding of the event. References to drops of blood and “teeth shining out of the swamp” paint a picture of brutal death and fear. The picture of arrowheads in “Children gnaw their teeth to arrowheads” is representative of the violent nature of the event.
Sam Kwak
DeleteI agreed with a lot of what you wrote about on your blog post. I would like to know what you thought about why Dove repeats other lines though, like “The children gnaw their teeth to arrowheads.” (11) and “He sees his mother’s smile, the teeth gnawed to arrowheads.” (52-53). It could also be referring to the repetition of “perejil,” but I think that the repetition of phrases also links the two parts together—the first part telling the events that happened and the second revealing the background to the first.
Sam Kwak
ReplyDeleteRita Dove continually plays with shifts in the mood throughout “Parsley.” The first stanza begins with a vibrant picture: “There is a parrot imitating spring / in the palace, its feathers parsley green.” (1-2) “[S]pring,” “parsley,” and “green”—all words associated with plants—all establish a sense of life and flourishing, contributing to a nice mood emphasizing life. However, Dove immediately contrasts this in the following lines, writing, “Out of the swamp the cane appears / to haunt us, and we cut it down…” (3-4). Dove wastes no time in waiting until the next stanza to start the rest of the poem, instead connecting line 3 to the beginning two lines, contributing to the jarring shift in mood. Rather than the happy, flourishing diction she uses before, Dove opts for ominous and harsh diction, with such words as “swamp,” “haunt,” and “cut.” The foreboding connotations of these words provide the transition to the mood that Dove conveys in the rest of part 1 in describing the Parsley Massacre. The phrase “a parrot imitating spring” appears again in line 6, but this time in a more ironic sense—this time highlighting the rain that comes with spring. In addition, the word “imitating” takes on a different connotation this time: one of false pretenses instead of faithful recreation as in the first stanza. Dove does this by tying the parrot imitating spring to the suffering of the people in the poem through an analogy. These, along with the violent diction (“screaming,” “punches”) present create a mood of tragic atrocity. This mood continues to build throughout part 1 as Dove starts to integrate shorter sentences and more enjambment and end-stops. These shorter phrases emphasize the significance of the tragedy, while longer sentences such as the first one would have given the poem a more lyrical and fairy-tale version of the story. Additionally, she repeatedly returns to certain phrases to compound this effect. The first time Dove writes “Out of the swamp the cane appears” (1), it jars the reader, but every time she repeats it, the ominous tone stacks upon itself. Taking advantage of both repetition and short, matter-of-fact phrases, Dove establishes a strong mood of eeriness by the end of part 1.
I thought that it was very interesting that the general described his mother’s smile as “teeth gnawed to arrowheads” after the haitian children had already been described the exact same way, with “the children gnaw their teeth to arrowheads”. Obviously this is done intentionally, but I can’t figure out exactly why Rita Dove would do it. Initially I thought that the general’s mother just had a hard childhood, filled with violence and suffering, or maybe the general’s own childhood was difficult and he associated it with his mother. Now, I’m starting to think that it was a reference to the fact that his mother was actually 50% Haitian. I did a little digging and found this from a few sources, none of which are particularly reliable (Wikipedia, guidegecko.com, and prevalhaiti.com), but I could not find many sources concerning the family heritage. If we assume this to be true, the parrot could actually represent his mother. She could “roll an R like a queen”, much like the parrots that imitate the sound. The general hated sweets because they reminded him of his mother’s death but ordered them for his parrot anyways, linking the two. Furthermore, if “a parrot imitating spring” represents an imitation of hope, the parrot that the general keeps could be almost a replacement of his mother, meant to keep him hopeful. Clearly it was inadequate, as his sorrow and hatred lead to the Parsley Massacre.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting you focused on the heritage aspect of this. Perhaps rather than pointing back to heritage, Rita Dove meant the quote the children gnaw their teeth to arrowheads" through a metaphorical view. Perhaps she meant that the children, the younger generation of Haitians follow the adults and rebel against the "arrowhead," or the Dominican Republic's government. Because following this quote, Dove writes, "There is a parrot imitating spring." Expressing how every one still has hope.
DeleteI also thought that the link between the descriptions of the mother and the Haitian children were a nod to his mother's mulatto heritage. I liked that you also connected the sweets in that way. With the parrot and the mother both being able to roll their R's, Dove seemed to be showing the general's line of thinking and justification for killing the people his mother came from; she could at least fake it well, and they cannot even accomplish that which a mocking bird can do. This shows some of his train of thought in thinking that Haitians were an inferior people, and could be a clue into Dove's ideas about the motives of the general, as they are not known for certain.
DeleteParsley; a word for an herb, and a word for death. During the reign of Trujillo, more than 50,000 were killed, and at least 20,000 of those were Haitians, killed in a span of five days, because they could not correctly pronounce the word parsley. Rita Dove gives her own commentary on this terrible genocide in her poem “Parsley”. In the beginning of the poem, The Cane Fields section, Dove writes from the point of view of the Haitians. In this section, Dove utilizes animal imagery to emphasize the inhumane nature of this genocide. For example, the Parrot, and the “teeth shining/out of the swamp” that invokes an image of a beast, which is what Trujillo was. In this section of the poem, Dove also uses very violent words unexpectedly, such as “screaming”, “punches”, “gnaw”, “lashed”. This conveys the unexpected and brutal violence of the Parsley Massacre. The second part of the poem, The Palace, focuses in on the general Trujillo. Dove makes a very interesting choice here to humanize the general. She imagines his cause being grief, and helps us delve into the possible emotions the general has. He calls his mother a queen, he relates why he doesn’t like sweets because she was baking them the day he died, and he cries a tear when he is reminded of how she used to call out his name. These tender moments are interspersed with very harsh thoughts, for example “Who can I kill today?” that show that the general is still a heartlessly violent murderer. The most interesting part of this section is when he describes his mother’s smile: “the teeth/gnawed to arrowheads.” Dove had previously used this exact phrase to describe the Haitian children, and this shows how the general could have chosen to kill the Haitians because they reminded him of his mulatto mother.
ReplyDeleteKevni Krenz
ReplyDeleteWhen I read Rita Dove’s America Smooth poems, the first poem, “Fox Trot Fridays” stood out to me through its calming nature. The relaxing sound of the poem relates to the title as well, as foxtrot is a type of elegant, smooth and flowing dance. The flowing nature of the dance relates to the flowing nature of the poem, as enjambments make the sentences flow from one stanza to the next. Additionally, there is a repeating consonance sound at the end of each stanza (stride, smooth, smile, time, woman, sight, song), excluding the first and last stanzas, which relate to each other (in, it). This symbolizes the beginning and ending of the dance. This poem definitely attempts to carry calming emotions over to the readers.
Nathan Mercer
DeleteI like how you related the type of dance a Foxtrot is to nature. I also like how you mentioned the the enjambments throughout the poem to make it flow more. However, I wish that you would've talked about the use of specific phrases to shape the poem and make it flow and, "carry calming emotions over to the readers."
I find it interesting how you noticed the repeating consonance sound at the end of each of the stanzas, and the pattern that you found in this. I understand that the first and last stanzas relate to each other, as you put it, but could it be possible that the repeating consonance sounds in the center have a meaning as well?
DeleteNathan Mercer
ReplyDeleteWhile reading through the American Smooth poems, the poem that interested me was “Fox Trot Fridays” by Rita Dove. I found this interesting because the poem mixed short and long lines. The name of the poem is a reference to the Foxtrot dance. The people dancing the Foxtrot dance change how quickly they move their feet according to the tempo of the music. This could be a reason for the inclusion of the word “Fridays” in the title as well as the lines being short and long. The poem has long lines as the start, transitioning to short lines in the middle, and then long lines again at the end. This could be like a person’s Friday. The “tempo” at the beginning of the day is slow, which is the reason for long lines. At the middle of the day, it feels like time is going by quicker as the person is just about to get off work or get out of school and go enjoy the weekend. The final stanzas again have long lines because that represents the end of the night when time starts to slow down again as the person is driving home or getting ready for bed. I also got a lot of religious messages from the second half of the poem. The lines, “one man and one woman, rib to rib,” reminded me of Adam and Eve from the Bible. This is because the Bible states that Eve was created from Adam’s rib. The next part of the poem says, “With no heartbreak in sight- just the sweep of Paradise.” This is a reference to the fact that Adam and Eve were living in Paradise and there were no signs of it being ruined, except for when it was ruined. Nat King Cole is also mentioned in the poem as he played some foxtrot music in the middle of the 20th century. One of his songs was called “Paradise” which is mentioned at the end of the poem. That is the reason for the poem saying, “Just the sweep of Paradise and the space of a song.” It is referencing the song by Nat King Cole.
While looking through Rita Dove’s American Smooth poems, “Fox Trot Fridays” in particular stood out to me. Upon research of what a foxtrot dance is, the foxtrot is characterized by long, flowing movements, and typically follows a pattern of alternating between quick and long steps. Rita Dove uses the entirety of the poem to illustrate this dance, from the structure, to the enjambment, the foxtrot dance can be found throughout the whole poem. The switch between long lines and short lines and back again obviously represent the style in which steps alternate between long and short strides, yet, the fact that the whole poem is only one sentence clearly represents the fact that overall, the dance is a long, continuous, flowing form of ballroom dance. The enjambment also used to further emphasize this point. In addition, Rita Dove mentions Nat King Cole, who was a famous musician beginning in the 1930s, when foxtrot began to become popular. Not only is the poem obviously intended to be about a dance (foxtrot), but also Rita Dove makes a reference to a famous musician who created many songs that people foxtrot to, even to this day. All of this combined to make me realize the layers of depth that Rita Dove went to in order to artfully represent and provide a feeling of the foxtrot within the poem, and that was what I found particularly interesting about “Fox Trot Fridays.”
ReplyDeleteCole Jones
DeleteI loved how you were able to connect the form of the poem to the dance it is named after. After looking at the length of the lines I noticed it actually repeated a pattern of long-short-short-long throughout the entire poem. After watching a short wiki-how video of how to do the basic foxtrot steps I can assure that this form is indeed very reminiscent of the dance itself. One thing I do wonder about in regards to this poem is the inclusion of Friday in the title. What do you think Dove might have been trying to show or represent by including that?
Sam Kwak
DeleteI agree with your analysis—actually, I was going to write on it before I saw that everyone already had. Adding to the discussion. I think the stanzas match the slow, slow, quick-quick pace of the foxtrot. For instance, the first two stanzas provide an expansive tone, using broad “s” sounds to fill the space. Then, the third stanza provides the two quick steps together—Dove does this through connecting her words with hyphens to create a fast and rhythmic tone. She uses similar techniques in repetition throughout the rest of the six stanzas.
A comment on Cole’s comment: I think that Dove included “Fridays” in the title of the poem because Fridays represent a reprise from the week. Reading the first few lines of the poem gives a similar feeling. “Thank the stars there’s a day / each week to tuck in / the grief, lift your pearls, and / stride brush stride”. Dove describes using dance as an outlet for her emotions, similar to how Fridays could have feeling of relief associated with them.
Patrick Huang
ReplyDeleteIn the poem “American Smooth”, Rita Dove describes the consuming yet blissful nature of being lost and overcome in an activity, specifically dance in her case. Rita Dove uses pleasing diction, visual imagery and lots of enjambment in one long stanza to characterize the flowing nature of dance and how it helped her calm down and recover after a stressful incident. Rita Dove describes the dance as “requiring restraint...and precise execution” (3-4) to demonstrate the strict nature of the practice. Later, Rita Dove compares learning dance to “perfect agony” (12) and “ecstatic mimicry” (14), implying that learning dance is difficult and at times agonizing but the relief or reward from it is ecstatic. Rita Dove further emphasizes the role of dance as a distraction from other events in her life by describing herself as “distracted by the effort…” (15-16) of dance. Dove then subtly compliments this description with a parenthetical aside describing her actions. The parenthetical aside acts as a distraction to the continuous flow of the poem, similar to how dance acted as a distraction to the events in Rita Dove’s life. Next Rita Dove uses visual imagery to highlight the effects dancing had on her. She described the activity as “two chests heaving above a seven-league stride” (8-10) and the end result as “...flight, that swift and serene magnificence” (25-27). These two descriptions help cement the blissful nature of dance that Rita Dove experienced. Finally, Rita Dove uses distinct syntax choices to further establish the theme of the poem. The poem features a lot of enjambment, which represents the flowing, continuous, uninterrupted nature of dance. In fact, if one looks at the poem head on, the poem seems to take the shape of a wave, with crests and troughs. Lastly, the entire poem is written in a single stanza with no breaks, illustrating the flow of dance.
Good analysis! I agree with your interpretation of the flowing nature of the poem and her usage of enjambments. Since she uses so much enjambment, perhaps the parts where she does include pauses in the poem adds onto your theme, such as the quote, "such perfect agony one learns to smile through," (10-11). Perhaps the quote depicts her stressful incidents and she is comparing the positive aspects of the dances with some relapses of her stressful past.
DeleteCole Jones
ReplyDeleteThe poem “Fox” by Rita Dove relates Dove’s feelings and outlook on herself and her future after her house burned down. Through anaphora and structure, Dove creates a confident tone that reflects her own feelings after the fire. All four of the sentences of the poem begin with “she” followed by a verb: “She knew,” “She loved,” “She imagined,” and “She loved” once again. This anaphora adds immensely to the feeling of confidence that the poem displays. It reflects the feelings of a person who knows “what she was capable of,” and that loves “what she was.” In other words, Dove knows that even after the pain of losing all her possessions to a fire, she knew she had the ability to move forward because she still had herself. In the second stanza, Dove relates how the tragedy of the fire also helped to understand what was really important to her. Even though much was lost during the fire she still “loved/nothing more/than what she had,/which was enough/for her.” These lines show how Dove came to understand that her possessions were not what gave her life meaning or made her happy. Instead, what she had was a confidence and an ability that allowed her to do whatever she put her mind to, which is what the first stanza talks about. This self-reliance that Dove displays may have seemed off-putting to the men around her, which explains the ending of the poem where she says, “which was more/than any man/could handle.” Overall, the poem gives off a very self-assured and positive tone that portrays Dove’s desire to move on after the fire and be happy with her life.
In the “American Smooth, Rita dove utilizes juxtaposition,soft diction and enjambment to capture the smooth nature of dancing. I interpreted the dancing as an exhibition of how some people end up not noticing things right in front of them because they are too focused on other things. Everything flows with an underlying negative tone. While they were dancing, she recalls it as “ something romantic but requiring restraint.”(3-4) Romantic dances usually holds a positive connotation, however Dove inputs the words “requiring restraint,” an uncomfortable feeling to experience. In these lines, she writes it with soft diction and enjambment between the lines to fabricate a flowing nature of the poem. And since it flows, just like real life, it is easy to look over the negative aspects such as “requiring restraint,” and for the moment, no one notices and continues. Later, Rita Dove expresses the theme by expressing, “because I was distracted by the efforts of keeping my frame...I didn’t notice how still you’d become” (15-23).” The word “distracted” shows that the protagonist was so immersed in the act of dancing correctly, that she did not notice the person in front of her for “(for two measures? four?) (25-26). The parenthesis and guessing further adds on that the protagonist did not pay much attention to the dancing. And finally Rita ends the poem with “magnificence, before the earth remembered who we were and brought us down.” (27-30) The line contains enjambment and soft diction between the lines to show, even though she fell from being magnificent, it was almost unnoticeable, due to the flowing characteristics of the whole poem and dance.
ReplyDeletePatrick Huang
DeleteInteresting analysis. Your idea on the theme and overall tone of “American Smooth” is quite different from mine but still makes sense. The juxtaposition of key descriptions and words do provided a contrast and slightly negative tone to the poem. Similar to what I thought that the parenthesis symbolized a distraction, you thought that it meant the protagonist did not pay attention to the dancing. Finally, I agree with you about the use of enjambment in the poem. I feel that the enjambment is purposeful to help convey the flowy and continuous rhythm of dance. Interesting points and good analysis.
Sam Kwak
ReplyDeleteIn “Quick”, Rita Dove takes the premise of a baby fox looking for his mother in order to explain how she feels about her house burning down.
The female fox in the poem represents Dove herself. The mother fox refers to Dove’s poem “Fox”, which explores Dove’s reflections on her house burning down. (I wish I could have read “Brown”, another of Dove’s poems which is sandwiched between “Quick” and “Fox” in the table of contents of “American Smooth”, seeming to indicate the poem’s relevance to the narrative. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find “Brown” online.) In “Quick”, Dove uses superior, untouchable diction when talking about the mother fox. She chooses words like “sleek” and “flamboyant” to give herself dignity in face of the “red swish” of her house fire. Instead of lingering on what she had lost, Dove chooses to move on, with “pure purpose / poured into flight.” Using alliteration to emphasize her point, she conveys the idea of moving on—perhaps her “pure purpose” is her inspiration to pick up ballroom dance after the tragedy.
If the mother fox is Rita Dove, the baby fox is her poetry, her child of sorts. Dove has described her poetry writing process as irregular, often starting with a single line or two and building up from there, sometimes jumping around. I think that this relates to the baby fox’s role in the poem. Take the lines, “all bobble and twitch, vacant eyes: / he’s been through this bait and switch / all night. Where’s mother?” Dove’s poetry is looking for a home, yet is denied one as the mother fox leaves in the poem. In real life, this could correspond to some of Dove’s poetry being lost in her house when the fire started.
I’m not 100% sure on this interpretation, and there are others that I considered, but this one made the most sense to me at the moment.
Mia Kimura
ReplyDeleteThe abduction
The abduction is an obvious reference to free blacks being conned into slavery. One of the first things I noticed even before reading it was the structure of the poem. The stanza start out with 5 lines but gradually get shorter and shorter. By the last stanza, it is only 1 line long. Solomon Northrup, the perspective of the poem, is a free black who lives a fulfilling and happy life. We can see that by how much he has to say in the first stanza. He talks of bells and cannons and houses, using words like ¨I among them¨. This shows how he lives a life where he feel almost equal to the white population. This is important to note because as the poem progresses, the lines get shorter and the tone is darker. The first line of the second stanza shows the complete betrayal he feels by his ¨new friends Brown and Hamilton¨. Assuming his friends are white, it shows how as a free black, he did not expect to be tricked into slavery by trusted friends. In the third stanza, it shows how he was taken advantage of when he was drunk. He wakes up in the fourth stanza, realizing he is on a ship but this time not as a free black. He was in chains as a slave. His tone shows the betrayal and darkness he felt as he saw his freedom be stripped of him.
I like your idea about the lines getting shorter, and the tone becomes darker, but when he refers to "Brown and Hamilton," I think that he is not feeling a typical sense of betrayal when it comes to them. Since they are not the ones who physically forced him into slavery, rather the betray and disappointment stems from a sentiment about their political policies and their personal views when it comes to slavery. That they do nothing to solve the problem of slavery.
Delete“The Transport of Slaves From Maryland to Mississippi,” by Rita Dove, provided a fresh take on poetry, especially by Rita Dove, that I have not seen before. This poem, as is described in parenthesis before the poem begins, is about an escape attempt by a wagonload of slaves in 1839. What particularly was intriguing about this poem was the structure Rita Dove chose to use in order to provide a meaningful impact on the reader. Rita Dove told the story from three different perspectives, the perspective of the slave woman who helped the driver go ride for help, from the perspective of those who went to go round up the slaves, and following the perspective of Atkins, one of the drivers responsible for the slaves. These multiple perspectives were particularly powerful, as they conveyed how ingrained slavery was into the minds of not just the slavers, but the slaves themselves as well. In the mind of the slave woman, she had no idea why she helped the driver go get help, only that “He might have been a son of mine.” (13) This shows that she had sympathy for him, but also it shows that she was willing to help those who helped oppress her and many others like her. Furthermore, in the second section, the perspective of those who went out to round up to freed slaves, the last line ends this section describing the uprising as a “...most shocking affray and murder.” This shows the perspective of the plantation owners, that they would expect nothing but total obedience from their slaves, that this system of slavery was certainly ingrained within them. Finally, in the very last line of the poem, as the uprising occurs Atkins thinks “Wait. you ain’t supposed to act this way.” This is a particularly powerful moment, showing the complete ignorance, and almost brainwashing, of drivers and plantation owners, that they might not even consider slaves people, especially not those who can act on their own accord. Rita Dove’s use of multiple perspectives allows for this idea to be emphasized and thoroughly expressed, catching my attention instantly.
ReplyDeletePeter Kraakevik
ReplyDeleteIn “The Abduction” Rita Dove uses word choice to model the emotional change in the slave depicted in this poem. It opens with bells and cannons, when put together represent joy and victory. It then depicts recognizable and powerful leaders of the US, men associated with the freedom of the new land, this sets the tone that the us is coming and it should be a celebration after all “Why should I have doubted them? The wages were good.” Everything is fit as a fiddle and flashy to these people leading indigenous lifestyles. The reality of the situation comes in line 13 when it describes that they are on a ship with few supplies given and on and “pillows of stone” the life of a slave is none of these promises that they have been given but rather darkness and chains.
Nathan Mercer
DeleteI like your analysis of the change in the situation from the life of a normal person to suddenly being on a slave ship. The poem is titled "The Abduction" which implies that the man was abducted. This part is very clear, but you mention that he is on a slave ship. He, however, seems to know about "men associated with the freedom of the new land." Do you think the abduction is talking about him being taken from the North, or from Africa? I think that it could be interpreted as either because slaves, to my knowledge, were not transported back from the North to the South by slave ships, but he also mentions that he has free papers.
Nathan Mercer
ReplyDelete“The House Slave”, by Rita Dove, is about the experience of a house slave on a plantation. This poem interested me because it shows the perspective we are not used to seeing on a plantation. When people think of slavery, they usually think of the lives of the slaves in the field instead of the slaves in the house. In the beginning of the poem, there is a quote, “children are bundled into aprons, cornbread/and water gourds grabbed, a salt pork breakfast taken.” The fact that there is an enjambment here with no punctuation to separate the lines combined with the verbs used gives me a sense of urgency and competitiveness to get the food before the other people can so that they can eat. This is relevant to history because the slaves were often not fed enough so it would make sense that they would be urgent to get to the food. There are spots of the poem that show the horrors that the house slave witnesses, “I can not fall asleep again. At the second horn, the whip curls across the back of the laggards… I weep. It is not yet daylight.” This demonstrates how the house slave is so horrified by the cruelty of the field slaves having to go out and work before daylight. He is so horrified that he cannot sleep. In the last stanza, it emphasizes how the slaves feel when working in the fields, “and as the fields unfold to whiteness, and they spill like bees among the fat flowers.” When bees are collecting pollen, they’re doing it frantically and quickly so that they can help the hive. In the case of the slaves, they’re doing it frantically and quickly enough so that they don’t get whipped by the slave driver.
Cole Jones
DeleteI agree with your point that this poem emphasizes a point of view on slavery that is not usually talked about as much. Generally when we hear about slavery it is about the direct abuse that slaves working in fields would receive, but rarely about the psychological trauma that other slaves also were put through. This poem emphasizes that even for those slaves who may not have been treated horribly physically, the emotional damage that occurs to them is still completely crushing. In this poem, the slave had to hear her sister being tormented and beaten, which was the reason for her weeping. Seeing a family member you love and care about being tormented on a regular basis is something that would haunt almost anybody. Also, thank you for explaining the whole bees among the fat flowers thing, I genuinely was having a hard time understanding it before.
Good job, guys! I'm glad you looked Northrup up! :)
ReplyDeleteCole Jones
ReplyDeleteI accidentally blogged on the slavery section a while ago so here's one on the civil rights section. If you want to read by blog on the slavery section it's somewhere up there^^.
“Rosa” by Rita Dove is a poem about the historical act of defiance by Rosa Parks in Montgomery, Alabama during the Civil Rights era. In the poem, Dove captures the feelings and the importance of Rosa Parks’ act on the bus in 1955. One technique Dove uses to enhance the feeling of the poem is short, concise structure. The poem is by no means a long one, just 12 short lines. However, the short length of the poem doesn’t mean it isn’t powerful. In fact, the short length of it emphasizes how something so simple and unassuming can have such a profound impact, just like Rosa Parks. Additionally, the short lines and frequent use of enjambment seems to slow down the moment in time. It causes single thoughts to be stretched out over multiple lines, giving the reader time to reflect on each part as it passes. Dove’s diction in this poem is also fairly simplistic and short. In fact, only two words in the entire poem are longer than two syllables (“sensible,” and “courtesy”). Ultimately, the effect of the short lines and words causes the poem to have a very humble feeling. This reflects the 1955 event itself, simple, yet profound. While the poem is very obviously about Rosa Parks, there still are some very interesting historical illusions within the poem. The most fascinating to me comes in the first stanza where dove writes, “the time right inside a place/ so wrong it was ready.” At first, these two lines may seem confusing. “The time” is right because of the growing Civil Rights movement during the fifties, and Montgomery is the place “so wrong” because of the extreme racial tension there, due to it being in the South. Through these techniques, Dove expresses the feeling and importance of Parks’ simple action, and demonstrates how sometimes “Doing nothing” can be “the doing.”
Patrick Huang
ReplyDeleteIn “The Abduction”, Rita Dove uses clever symbolism, foreshadowing with visual imagery, and a purposeful organization of five stanzas with decreasing lines to describe and illustrate the overwhelming nature of Solomon Northup’s transition to slavery. In the beginning, the houses are described as “black with crepe” (1) and the avenue as “clotted” (2). Black as a color in literature usually symbolizes mortality, darkness and evil while crepe (the cloth) is a type of fabric that is normally used in funeral clothing. The morbid nature of these words foreshadow the coming tribulations of Solomon Northup. Similarly, the verb “clotted” is associated with malignant things such as blood clots. Next, Rita Dove uses symbolism to emphasize the tone of each stanza in the poem. In the first stanza, bells and cannons are described, objects usually associated with freedom or revolution. Rita Dove also mentions “Saratoga Springs” (4), an allusion to the famous battle in the American Revolutionary War that is often seen as the turning point for the Americans. In the second stanza, mentions to more strained or nervous symbols or behaviors are mentioned, such as “jig on a tightrope” (8) or “I fiddled” (9). In the fourth stanza, the symbolism turns a lot darker as Solomon “floated on water [he] could not drink” (13) and slept on a “pillow [that] was stone.” (14) Finally, the final stanza completes the solemn mood by describing Solomon as “alone, in darkness, and in chains” (15). The adjective alone describes the common mood felt by slaves and chains are often a symbol of servitude. Rita Dove completes the solemn tone of the poem by purposely making each successive stanza shorter. The first stanza is five lines while the last stanza is only one line. The larger number of lines at the start represent the freedom of the north while the solitary line at the end represents the monotone life of slavery.
Good job on noticing the adjectives, slowly receding into misery. I agree with most your points. But I thought that perhaps this poem symbolized how one loses hope when they are enslaved. Because the beginning has exclamation marks and they are talking about freedom. And the poem gradually loses its fervent energy for freedom in the beginning until the last line. In addition, initially it appears as they are in groups. And in the last line, the word "alone" shows the hope that is lost for freedom since it is a difficult battle to win on the slave side. This is just a different interpretation of it, but it is still similar!
DeleteSam Kwak
DeleteNice catch on all those symbols. I think you missed one, though. The fourth stanza clearly contains a biblical allusion: “....Though the pillow / was stone, I climbed no ladders in that sleep.” (13-14). In the Bible, there is a story of Jacob laying down to sleep, using a rock as a pillow. While he sleeps, he dreams of a ladder reaching heaven. God then comes down and comforts him, and upon waking up, Jacob realizes that God was with him in that place. I’m wondering why you thought Dove included that allusion there. I think that the Bible story has a consoling tone to it, which is what Dove wanted to evoke—or rather, not evoke, since Solomon Northup doesn’t see any ladders. He didn’t even feel like he had God with him.
Rita Dove exhibits the cruel life which African-American slaves suffered from during antebellum America in the poem “The House Slave.” She employs a first perspective, jargon, and juxtaposition from that time to allow the reader to view their lives from someone who experienced the atrocities. The poem starts off with “the first horn lifts its arm over the dew-lit grass/ .../children are bundled into aprons.” (1,3) In plantations, the horn is used to call slaves to give an order. And as Dove, writes “dew-lit grass” we can tell that it is very early in the morning since there is dew, yet young children are already being forced to do work early. There is no consideration for age. Similarly, later Dove writes, “At the second horn, the whip curls across the backs of laggards-.” (8-9) With the second call, slaves you could not wake up fast enough, were punished. Again, mercy does not exist even though it is “before-dawn.” (5) The protagonist expresses, “I lie on my cot, shivering in the early heat.” (12) Juxtaposition is being utilized in “shivering in the early heat.” Normally one would shiver, in the cold, not in the heat. However, because of this unnatural choice of words, it causes the reader to read it again. The protagonist is not shivering because of the heat, rather due to fear and terror of being in this situation. Rita Dove ends the poem with short sentences, “I weep. It is not yet daylight” (15) to reiterate the theme that the situation is cruel. In addition, the short sentences, allows the reader to attend to the weight those words hold. The sun has not risen, yet people are being forced to wake up early, work regardless of age and gender, and whipped if they are not fast enough.
ReplyDeletePatrick Huang
DeleteVery good points and analysis! There were a lot of things that I missed on my first read through of the poem but you're points have made me rethink my initial interpretation of the poem. I thought that auditory imagery was important in this poem in reinforcing the uncompromising nature of slavery among children as well. I noticed that she effectively used auditory imagery in conjunction with visual imagery to reinforce the feelings of the poem. Finally, I thought your point about the juxtaposition in line 12 is very good and really makes the reader think about the feelings of slaves during that time. Good job!
Sam Kwak
ReplyDeleteRita Dove injects a personal touch into history in her poem “Belinda’s Petition.” The poem describes what Belinda Sutton—an innocent character from Ghana who was enslaved and shipped to America as a twelve-year-old child—might have felt as she applied for a pension from her former slave masters after she became free at the age of seventy. Dove honors the historical tone of the petition, using formal diction and capitalization, as well as quoting lines from the text, to mimic the writing style of the past. The first two lines nearly quote the original document: “To the honorable Senate and House / of Representatives of this Country,” (1-2) writes Dove, while the historical text addresses “To the Honourable the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled.” This clues the reader into the historical significance as well as respect history. Furthermore, Dove purposely incorporates words like “Fathers of this Nation.” (7), “Countrymen” (8), and “Binds of Tyranny” (9) to bring the reader into the time period of the history. Using such language establishes a formal tone that indicative of historical documents. However, at the same time, Dove provides personal insight into Belinda’s story. Instead of referring to her in third person, as does the original document, Dove chooses to use the first person point of view, drawing the reader in closer and emphasizing one’s own experience over the cold facts. Dove writes “... I am Belinda, an African,” (3) as opposed to “The Petition of Belinda an Affrican, humbly shrews:” so that the reader can place themselves in the position of Belinda and empathize with her. Dove heightens this personal tone with emotional diction. Belinda implores, “I will not take too much of your Time, / but to plead and place my pitiable Life / unto the Fathers of this Nation.” (5-7). “Plead” and “pitiable,” connected and emphasized through alliteration, create a tone of begging—as if Belinda is not allowed to believe as if she is worth the Congress’ attention. Dove characterizes Belinda’s petition as more of a plea or begging, again making the reader relate with Belinda.
Kevin RKenz
ReplyDeleteIn the poem “The House Slave,” Rita Dove uses many poetic devices such as consonance, juxtapositions, symbols and more to illustrate a violent and uneasy tone to the reader. The third line of the poem is a great example for the consonance shown throughout the poem: “and water gourds grabbed, a salt pork breakfast taken.” The extremely prevalent use of consonants such as “g,” “k,” or “t” carries over an aggressive tone to the reader as he/she is reading through the poem, setting the scene for the rest of the poem. This aggressive and violent tone relates to the message of the poem, which shows the violence and aggressiveness towards slaves. It is written in the perspective of a slave, who describes the cruelties done to the slaves, and the strictness of being prompt to work on time. “the dew lit grass” (line 1) is a symbol for morning time on the plantations. “At the second horn, the whip curls cross the backs of the laggards” (line 9) shows how the slaves were punished violently with whips if they were not up or on the fields on time. A juxtaposition in the fourth stanza, “shivering in the early heat” really emphasizes the fear and panic in the mind of the narrator/slave. The last line of the poem, “I weep. It is not yet daylight.” additionally shows the emotional toll on the slaves. “It is not yet daylight” shows the extreme earliness of their work periods, but also with “daylight” being a symbol for freedom, this passage also emphasizes the willingness of freedom of the slaves, and they are just waiting for the day to come.