In Rita Dove’s Canary, the metaphor for Billie Holliday’s life struggle and drug addiction is conveyed through the symbol of a canary found in the title. A canary is a caged song bird and Dove relates Holiday to the bird’s attributes of imprisonment and beauty of song, due to her life backstory, struggles as well as her amazing impact in the music world. Billie Holliday suffered from drug addiction for a large portion of her life and Dove is connecting her addiction to an imprisonment or jail for Holiday, just as a cage for a bird. Dove also uses light imagery to convey darker themes and tones which helps relate the poem to her drug use and also shows irony. In the line “magic spoon, magic needle.” representing Holliday’s spoon and needle to use heroin. This irony can also be seen in how a canary, something thought to be beautiful and lovely, still lives in a constant imprisonment. Holliday has a troubling past with such events including rape and abuse and this is reflected in Dove’s poem contributing to an idea of imprisonment and a life of a woman “under siege”. Another selection near the end of the poem reads “the invention of women under siege has been to sharpen love in the service of myth./ If you can’t be free, be a mystery.” (9-11). This excerpt is saying that Holliday’s life of struggle has only added to the myth of herself, or the legend that she is, and her incapability of being free of drug usage has made Holliday even more of a mystery. This poem like many others has a significant title in understanding the underlying metaphor of this poem, and is a strong example of the importance of a poem’s title.
Your analysis was very insightful and conveyed many of the same points I saw. The statement you made that resonated with me the most was regarding the canary. When analyzing this symbol, I also saw it as a representation of beauty trapped in chains. Billie Holiday’s addiction not only hindered her greatly, but also held her down and prevented her from truly soaring to the level of greatness she was capable of. Holiday’s story really is one of tragedy and can also be seen as an accurate portrayal of the impact that the treatment of someone by others has on them. Thanks for your post!
“Sonnet in Primary Colors” by Rita Dove compares Frida Kahlo’s beliefs to her appearance to show convey that reflections alone do not create someone. “This is for the woman with one black wing / perched over her eyes: lovely Frida, erect / among parrots, in the stern petticoats of the peasant, / who painted herself a present- / wildflowers entwining the plaster corset / her spine resides in the romance of mirrors / 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. / And rose to her easel, the hundred dogs panting / like children along the gravelled walks of the garden, Diego's / love a skull in the circular window / of the thumping searing her immutable brow.” First, Dove uses jargon specific to Mexico, such as parrot, a native bird, and skull, as commonly seen for Day of the Dead. This use of words shows Kahlo’s love for Mexico. Lines five through seven discuss the plaster corset and Kahlo’s pain. This pain was something Kahlo had to work through and overcome in her life. The mirrors, while being literal, also hold a symbolical interpretation that reflections do not dictate who she is, further alluding to Kahlo’s inner worth as a role model. The poem uses lots of visual imagery to describe Kahlo’s unibrow and tactile imagery to describe her pain to show imperfect aspects of her life. This is followed by visual diction: primary colors, painting, celluloid butterflies, etc. with positive connotations to show that there is more to Kahlo than meets the eye. Dove compares Kahlo’s physical appearance to her beliefs and ideals to show that people are more than their appearances.
I as well noticed a lot of diction was used to put a dominant effect of pain or suffering on the reader. Words such as skull, dead, and searing help emphasis the pain she suffers daily from as a result of her bus crash. You also could have used words such as erect, rose, and stern to help further your point that this pain was something she had to work through and that, because of this she makes herself of symbol of perseverance. Showing her inner worth as you say.
In the Canary by Rita Dove, there is heavy use of diction that gives an ominous feel to the whole poem. Words like shadow, magic, myth, mystery, and mirror are used to add to the allusion to Billie Holiday’s drug addiction. Drug use is often described as mesmerizing or transcendent, and with this it is easy to see how words like magic can be used to allude to her addiction. They also can be used to directly show the reader how she feels about her addiction. At the poem’s end Rita Dove writes, “If you can’t be free, be a mystery” (Dove, 11). This line is basically explaining how Billie Holiday felt imprisoned by her drug addiction and that she felt she needed to hide the shame of her imprisonment. The use of antithesis in “Holiday’s burned voice had as many shadows as lights” (Dove, 2), emphasises her internal struggles and illustrates further the wear and tear her life has had on her. The shadows represent the sexual abuse she was subject to by her moms boyfriend, a short lived prostitution career, and drug addiction. Where the lights are her charisma, talent as a singer, and beauty. The past tense is used for most of the poem, except in stanza two, which uses present tense. This could symbolize how the drug keeps her in the here and know, by pushing the dark memories of her past down into the depths of her subconscious. This stanza also seems to be the least depressing of the stanzas,due to the use of words like magic and an upbeat tone, lending to the idea that this drug is keeping her alive. Overall the poem seems to have a general tone of mystery, as Billie Holiday desired to hide her shadows.
I find your analysis very insightful. You wrote how the difference between past tense and present tense, and its relevance to her drug use and her dislocation of being in the present, to being high on drugs. I thought that was really smart and adds some depth to the poem I hadn't seen before. I agree with you that the tone or mood of this poem is overall mystery which does add to both the ideas of the poem regarding drug use and depression, but also adds to the "myth" or enigma of Billie Holliday as a character or persona.
In the poem Tou Wan speaks to Her Husband, Liu Sheng uses metaphors to portray the love she has for her husband. For example, in lines 1-2, Sheng uses the metaphor, “I will build you a house of limited chambers but it shall last forever: four rooms hewn in the side of stone for you, my only conquer”(Sheng 1-2). She uses the house as a way to represent their love. by saying she builds a house she is showing that her love will continue to grow for him. By saying that her house house limited chambers, is a way of saying that it may not be a lot, but it’s all she has. When she says it shall last forever, she means that her love for him will never die.By saying the four rooms are cut in stone, she is saying that she is giving him the best ability of her. It’s not particularly easy to cut stone, and their love may not be easy sometimes, but she’s willing to do whatever to show how much he really does mean to her.Lastly, when she says for you, my only conquer, she is showing that he is the only one for her. That she is only willing to go to such lengths for him.he is her one and only and their love means everything to her.This poem shows how much women cherished their husbands in the late 1900’s. How being with a man was so important that women were willing to go through great lengths to keep their support and love.
Living in pre-civil rights era America as a woman, Billie Holiday showed resilience in the face of adversity, becoming a renowned musician and overcoming an obvious social disadvantage. Although she is regarded to as one of the greatest, most influential jazz singers of all time, Holiday had her struggles. It could be argued that, ultimately, the root of Billie Holiday’s demons came from the oppression that, being a black woman in early 20th century America, she was born into. In the poem Canary, Rita Dove writes about Holiday, focusing mainly on her plight and the ongoing struggle she endured. This poem is likely an allegory for the effect that gender and racial persecution had and how it could even lead someone like Billy Holiday to their eventual demise. It is widely theorized that Holiday’s addiction, which is brought up in Rita Dove’s poem, is sourced from the sexual abuse that somewhat corrupted her. In this era, sexual abuse was rarely prosecuted and women found that they had no voice to speak out with. It could be inferred that the last line of the poem (“If you can’t be free, be a mystery”) was commenting on how Holiday, being unable to find justice, was never able to truly be free from her abuse and instead drifted into the shadow of addiction, becoming a “mystery”.
I like how you mentioned the social disadvantages of Billie Holiday and how she was able to be so influential by getting over them. I also liked how you mentioned that persecution of sexual abuse wasn’t very common in her time. When I had read the last line of the poem, I had the same analysis that you had. I however, also thought that it was her way of not giving up. How she was abused and was at a disadvantage socially and was still able to be such an amazing singer. Many must have asked how she was able to overcome her demons, and be able to perform just as well. Maybe they hadn’t known about her drug and alcohol addiction and that was her sense of mystery.
The “Abduction” by Rita Dove is a poem written to articulate a portion of the story of once free man named Solomon Northup, who is soon forced into slavery for twelve years. Dove uses strong positive to negative imagery in her work in order to accurately capture the true emotion and tone shift behind the true events for the reader. At the beginning of the poem Dove writes about Solomon’s “new friends” and his own close possession including his violin, and freedom papers. This description at first gives the reader a positive sense using positive imagery. Then she writes “Hamilton’s feet did a jig on a tightrope,/ pigs squealed invisibly from the bleachers and I fiddled” These sentences reveal a positive and playful tone. The reader feels carefree and lines such as “then the wine, like a pink lake, tipped./ I was lifted”(11-12). These lines support the reader’s ability to feel a joyous mood with the author’s precise use of positive imagery. Knowing Solomon’s story, the tone quickly changes to reveal what laid ahead. With the line “through the pillow was stone”(13) the author gives the reader his/or her first insight that what may seem so great and amazing may be an illusion. Similar to the illusion Solomon felt when tricked into becoming a slave. This line may not only be true, but is also portrayed as a metaphor for the truth behind what his new friend’s intentions really were, like a pillow under stone. In the last line the author writes “I woke and found myself alone, in darkness and in chains”(15). This line brings forth the truth within the poem. What started out as very innocent and playful with the poetic imagery used, quickly shifts tone to it’s dark and true tone. This tone shift was intentionally done by Dove using imagery in order for the reader to understand the roller coaster of emotion behind Solomon’s story.
I enjoyed your analyzation of the positive and negative tone used in the poem. I agree that she used positive tones towards the beginning to help give the the reader a human connection to Solomon Northup and create a reason for the reader to care when the tone shifted. I like how you also talked about the use of imagery to elevate the tone and the reader’s attitude. Overall your analyzation was solid and focused.
“The House Slave,” by Rita Dove uses imagery and the metaphor of sleep to convey the hardship and darkness that comes through slavery. “The first horn lifts its arm over the dew-lit grass / and in the slave quarters there is a rustling- / children are bundled into aprons, cornbread / and water gourds grabbed, a salt pork breakfast taken. / I watch them driven into the vague before-dawn / while their mistress sleeps like an ivory toothpick.” Horns are usually associated with power, which is further backed up because Dove uses personification when discussing the horn. In these two stanzas, the slaves rise early to gather needed supplies before the masters discover them. “and Massa dreams of asses, rum, and slave-funk. / I cannot fall asleep again. At the second horn, / the whip curls across the backs of the laggards-” Sleep, we find in this stanza, represents freedom, peace, and wealth. Dove states that the lady of the house is dreaming of items that show wealth to convey this metaphor. She also explains that the narrator cannot sleep, symbolizing their lack of freedom. She also uses tactile imagery to describe the whip, which shows the cruelty of slavery. “sometimes my sister's voice, unmistaken, among them. / “Oh! pray,” she cries. “Oh! pray!” Those days / I lie on my cot, shivering in the early heat,” In this stanza, Dove uses auditory imagery so we can hear the pleas of the slave, and understand that these pleas go unheard. “and as the fields unfold to whiteness, / and they spill like bees among the fat flowers, / I weep. It is not yet daylight.” This last stanza describes the sorrows of the narrator in slavery. They should be free but they are not, as Dove explains in the last line. From this poem, the hardships of slavery are described through imagery and symbolism.
I liked what you wrote on the symbolism of sleep. I can see how it represents a sense of freedom and peace. Also now it makes sense in which how when the author cannot sleep, they cannot be free, that is a smart connection. However I found irony in how the slaves must awaken from their sleep early in order to live in freedom and escape from their masters. This might be because sleep represented not actual freedom, but an escape from their life, and only in their dreams could they feel what freedom was like because growing up a slave, they don't know what that really feels like. Good analysis.
I had liked how you discovered the use of symbolism and imagery to express the hardships and pain that they slaves have felt. The last line in your analysis had stood out to me as well when I had read the poem.I had noticed that Dove had said, ““And as the fields unfold to whiteness, / and they spill like bees among the fat flowers, / I weep. It is not yet daylight.” This had stood out to me in the sense that in the morning, they hadn’t only gathered the supplies that they had needed for the day but they had also began to work before the sun even had rose. She expresses her exhaustion when she states that she is crying before there had even been daylight. I feel as if she feels somewhat of defeat knowing that she still has the whole day ahead of her to work.
The Transport of Slaves From Maryland to Mississippi contains four stanzas, of which two spoke to me the most. The first stanza comes from the perspective of the slave woman who helped the “negro” driver escape from the rebelling slaves. Rita Dove uses visual imagery in the form of, “dust hovering around the body,” (Dove, 4) and “The skin across his cheekbones burst open like baked yams-” (Dove, 7-8), to set the scene and illustrate the horror of murder. As the white man looks into the unnamed slave woman’s eyes his gaze confirms her feelings about the situation. She feels compassion for the beaten slave driver, something that humans feel for others in pain no matter the situation. The moment when she feels the human connection with her captor, she says, “His eyes were my eyes in a yellower face” (Dove, 10). She expresses at the very end of the stanza, that she does not wish to be apart of the murder of these white men, because she sees them as purely human and sadly acknowledges the fact that the only way she and the others will ever be free is in death. The second stanza of this poem is a stark contrast to the previous. The obvious reason being that the source seems to be a white account of the situation. Less obvious is the use of irony in the form of, “ending this shocking affray and murder” (Dove, 18). The irony is the white men call attention to this murder, as if murder is unusual in the plantation plentiful South, and that they think this is shocking behavior from human beings. Rita Dove uses the irony to further the contrast between reality of the human experience and the fantasy of the corrupted mind. Additionally the first paragraph is more human in it’s analyzation of the event, whereas the second stanza reads more robotically and sees the event purely as murder not survival. This is also a contrast between the black and white community today as for many young African Americans stuck in poverty and with society against them feel that, “death and salvation- one accommodates the other” (Dove, 11).
In Rita Dove’s “Belinda Petition”, I had noticed the poem was told from the viewpoint of a slave.She had expressed herself in a way she had never been able to because she had been in the shadows for her entire life. Dove used literary devices such as tactical imagery, allegories, and allusions to demonstrate and instill her feeling in the reader. I noticed her use of allegories when Belinda states, “I will not take too much of your Time, but to plead and place my pitiable life unto the fathers of this Nation” (Dove 5-7). This passage sends the message that Belinda feels as if she is not important or even considered a person. That she shouldn’t even have the opportunity to express her feelings because she is not of any value. She among many are not valued and their voices aren’t heard. She pleads as to get her story out however. I had noticed the use of allusions when Belinda represents others of no value when she says,”Lately your countrymen have severed the Binds of Tyranny. I would hope you would consider the same for me” (Dove 8-10). She expresses how the lower class is exhausted from the way they have been treated. Like they are the working dogs of society and are to do the work that the higher class, and government hadn’t wanted to do. Or the lower paying, if paying at all, jobs. They were tired of being treated with not even the uttermost respect. They were about to put it to and end and Belinda had hoped that they would give her, and everyone else, the respect they had given to the upper class. The tactical imagery I had noticed was in the last few lines of the poem. When Belinda expresses,”As to the Accusation that I am Ignorant: I recieved Existence on the Banks of the Rio de Valta. All My childhood I expected nothing, if that be ignorance” (Dove 13-16). These lines stood out to me as a reader. They showed me how she hadn't been told she was nothing since the age of 12 until she went to a place where she was noticed. She hadn’t been exposed to this feeling before. The feeling of being someone and being acknowledged. I believe these may have been the lines to inspire her to write this poem. It expresses how she had actually been respected which may have driven her to a point to actually reach out. That they way she had been treated is not how others had been treated,. It encouraged her to reach out and seek the treatment the upper class had.
Your outlook on this poem was very thought-provoking. When reading this poem, I too thought that the point of view was essential to the overall strength of it. Another common perspective we share is who the narrator likely is as a person: a freedom-seeking slave. I feel like, since the poem is set around the same time that America gained it's independence, the poem is likely a commentary on the idea of "freedom". Given that the contents of the letter are asking the government of the country to "consider the Same" (line 3, stanza 2), it is quite obvious that the narrator desires to share and celebrate the same freedom that her white counterparts are now feeling. Another interesting detail Dove included was the capitalization of the word "Same" in the quote I earlier brought up. I personally think Dove did this to express the importance of equality and to show just how much it meant to the narrator. Thanks for posting your analysis!
In "The House Slave", Rita Dove writes through the eyes of a slave who works within the master’s house (It is inferred that the narrator is a house slave based on the title), describing the horror of witnessing the grueling and agonizing life of a field slave from afar. In the poem, the slave narrating the story weeps and shivers. I believe that he/she is crying not just out of sympathy for the other slaves tediously working in the field, but also out of guilt. On plantations, house slaves were known to live much “””nicer””” lives than those working in the fields. For the most part, house slaves evaded the whipping, farm work, and harsh living conditions that the field slaves constantly endured. This “”””pampered”””” lifestyle often lead to feelings of resentment towards the house slaves from the others and somewhat even created social classes amongst the slaves. The narrator of the story likely feels conflicted. On one hand, the narrator feels almost as though he/she is betraying the other slaves by living in the home, but, on the other hand, the slave probably fears life in the field. The choice of perspective for this poem was a key part of what made it so powerful and emotional. It truly shows how effective a point of view can be when writing a poem.
In Rita Dove’s “Freedom Ride”, the struggles and motivation for the Freedom Riders of the Civil rights movement is discussed. Dove references the important figures of the movement when she writes “Dallas playing its mistake over and over until even that sad reel won’t stay stuck--there’s still Bobby and Malcolm and Memphis” (17-20). This quote is a direct reference to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in November of 1963 in Dallas. A recording of the assassination was most likely played over and over which can be found in the line “Dallas playing its mistake over and over until that sad reel won't stay stuck” In the next line Dove makes reference to chain of assassinations that came to follow JFK including his brother Bobby Kennedy (Bobby), Malcom X (Malcom), and Martin Luther King (Memphis). I believe Dove is referencing all of these figures as a type of freedom rider due to their importance in the civil rights movement, and their sacrifice for it. Like these men many freedom riders lost their life to promote ideas of desegregation and civil rights throughout the country. In this poem Dove’s mission is to shine light, or to highlight how vulnerable and exposed the fighters and voices of civil rights were at this time. In the last stanza Dove writes “ You can ride/ into the afternoon singing with strangers,/ or rush home to the scotch/ you've been pitching all day--/ but where you sit is where you'll be/ when the fire hits.” (25-30). Here Dove is basically saying that any individual (like those who sacrificed their lives for the movement) have the power to speak their mind or protest for what they believe in, but if you choose to stay at home and hide away in fear of danger or persecution, then you won’t be apart of the movement or the fight when things start to happen or when “the fire hits”. Rita Dove in “Freedom Ride” is highlighting both the importance of those who sacrificed themselves to the movement and the importance of “joining the ride” or fighting for what's right.
Your analyzes is very well articulated. I can see clearly the connections you make and think that Rita Dove is making commentary on human nature. She calls on the reader to not hide from the plights they are burdened with, but rather to attack them head on as many have before. Such as Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, and Bobby Kennedy. I really enjoy the message of this poem and believe that today that the American people have a tendency to hide or change the channel from the problems that our nation faces. This indifference is saddening and many people today could learn from this poem.
“Climbing In,” by Rita Dove tells the story of Red Riding Hood as an allegory to the inequalities in the bus system and other public areas to describe the fear blacks felt, as well as a false sense of security. The title itself, “Climbing In,” evokes some fear. The phrase “Climbing In” leaves unanswered questions and doubt. Climbing into something leaves you enclosed or trapped. The first stanza also helps to evoke fear when it uses harsher words by themselves for emphasis. In addition, the phrase “lie-gapped,” to my understanding meaning the lies told leave open gaps of questions that can only be answered with the truth. The next stanza informs readers that this is an allegory to the bus system. This also reverts back to the title as it says “to step up, up.” The last three stanzas confirm the Red Riding Hood story. A young girl travels to visit her grandmother. The wolf, hoping to eat the girl, hurries to her grandmother's house, and tricks the grandmother. The wolf eats the grandmother and disguises himself as the woman. When Little Red Riding Hood comes, the wolf’s trick fools her, and the poor girl gets gobbled. This story helps portray a false sense of security. The rules of segregation seem like protection, but the disguise covers only the wolf, all the negative impacts and inequalities. Dove’s poem “Climbing In,” tells the story of Red Riding Hood to convey fears and lies found in segregation.
I very much enjoyed this analysis. The continued references to the ambiguity of the situation really do provide help me put myself in the shoes of someone caught up in these new, changing times during the Civil Rights period. While finishing up reading your analysis, I can't help but think of the mindset of an African American at the time, believing the US to be a protector only to be quickly attacked by its laws and policies against the African American people. Both whites and blacks are impacted by the deception put forth, be it from the false sense of security, or supposed opportunities America has to offer.
I very much agree with your analysis and like how you noticed the allegory between the poem and Red riding hood. I would have never thought of that, but after reviewing both pieces, that was a very good comparison.You had mentioned in the begging how you felt that the title “Climbing in” meant perhaps being trapped. After reading “Rosa” and knowing the history of segregation and the bus system do you think that the reason blacks had to sit in the back was so they felt as if they actually were trapped and so they knew that they weren’t to any value. They were always the last to leave since they were in the back. They also had to go down the walk of shame past all the glares of the white people to get to the back of the bus. So do you think that maybe they used the bus as a tortue system? Maybe the embarrassment and feeling of being trapped was to keep the blacks off the bus? Like I’m sure if they wanted to they could have made a law to jst have kept the blacks off the busses, but they would have caused an uproar. So do you think this was their way of trying to make them feel unwelcome and stay off the bus?
Rita Dove’s Climbing In, is made up of five stanzas, and is an allegory about the fear Blacks felt in the South during the civil rights era. Rita Dove creates this allegory by using metaphors, symbolism, and tone. The most obvious of the metaphors is how she uses the folktale, Red Riding Hood, to help establish an uneasy or nervous tone throughout the the poem. The story of red riding hood has a very notable scene, where the wolf dresses as the Grandma. Rita Dove uses the deception in this scene to fuel her allegory. She writes, “these are big teeth, teeth of the wolf// under Grandmother’s cap” (Dove, 9-11). First of all, the wolf in this metaphor symbolizes the white bus driver. The word Grandmother is used to create the innocence that the white man wishes to use to hide his or her true feelings about the individual getting on the bus. The teeth of the wolf are the hatred that the southern whites feel towards the African American Southerners and are used to add to the Red Riding Hood illusion. The dime used by the black male or female is assumed to be a Mercury dime or liberty dime, from the sentences, “sweat gilding the dear lady’s cheek,” (Dove, 8-9) and “ as the bright lady tumbles” (Dove, 14). The dime symbolizes the true identity and deep prejudice of the average white citizen in the South. This comes from the often confused identity of the head on the coin as Hermes the greek messenger god. Where in reality it is Miss Liberty.
Wow! just wow! I thoroughly enjoyed your incredibly insightful analysis. I like how you saw the connection to folktale such as Red Riding Hood, while I also saw a similar connection I failed to understand the nervous or uneasy tone you described. I also liked your connection to the symbolization of the dime to the actual prejudice of the south, I see that connection. I also see how you found the word "grandmother" to represent a symbol of innocence or a use of "positive imagery". This was a good thorough analysis.
Rita Dove's "Lady Freedom Among Us" is a 32-line poem, separated into 9 stanzas. The poem describes the bronze statue, the Statue of Freedom, atop of US Capital Building. The biggest reoccurring figure of speech is the personification of the statue, which Dove uses to convey the triumphs and struggles of democracy from both past and present, as well as present criticism to its history. This is first alluded to with the line "She has risen among us in blunt reproach" (Dove, 11), where Dove describes Lady Freedom, and democracy itself, rising above rising above the ways of the past. In the sixth stanza, we see both a praise alongside a critic of the history of the US Democracy, reading "she who has brought mercy back into the streets and will not retire politely to the potter's field" (Dove, 20-21). While Dove describes Democracy as an unwavering entity, continuing to strive throughout hardship, she also alludes to the persistent desire for freedom by oppressed groups of history, such as African Americans. Dove finishes the poem by describing freedom as an entity that will not perish, and instead should be accepted rather than suppressed in the final stanzas, "Don't think you can ever forget her//don't even try //she's not going to budge// no choice but to grant her space"(Dove, 26-29). This continues to praise the endurance of democracy, but also brings light to the attempts at suppressing the freedoms of minority groups, an attempt that Dove believes is futile, as freedom will still prevail,
The poem Rosa by Rita Dove really intrigued me. I feel as if Dove bases this poem off of the era of the civil right movement and uses allegories to represent the actions of Rosa Parks. When Dove sets the scene with her first stanza by saying,”How she sat there, the time right inside a place so wrong it was read”(Dove 1-3).This stood out to me as Dove meaning to say that this action couldn’t have been done at a better time. In her previous collection of “Slavery poems” the message tended to send that the slaves were sick of being treated like second class citizens.That they had finally begun to see that not all people were treated the way that they were. They were sick of being treated like second class citizens and felt it was time to let the world know how they felt. I think this is where Dove was going with this poem in this stanza. She expresses how Rpsa knew the consequences, but she remained there.She wanted to be part of this civil rights movement and knew that this would be the perfect stunt to hop aboard it. Rosa was done being treated badly and being told to sitting the back of the bus. It was time for her to take a stand for not only herself, but the re4st of the colored population.
Your analysis struck a chord with me. You saw the poem in such a similar way to me that there is very little I could add. I think your description of Rosa Parks captured who she was as a person quite well. She was a rebel with a cause, fighting for what she believed in, tired of being treated as a second class citizen. Thanks for posting!
In the poem 'In the Lobby of Warner Theatre, Washington D.C.', Dove writes about an aged Rosa Parks making an appearance for a movie premiere. The movie, Amistad, was a film centered around a slave ship. This racial conflict focused plot is likely the reason that the director, Steven Spielberg, “cajoled her to come”. In this poem, I feel the text portrays Rosa Parks as a person worthy of every man’s respect, and rightfully so. Rita Dove writes of her as though looking through the eyes of someone witnessing Parks at the premiere, practically gawking at the aura of positivity the elderly woman brought. Dove paints Parks to be a person of peace and tranquility, using words such as “gently” and “soothing” to describe her actions. The description of Rosa Parks by the narrator as “living history” demonstrates how highly regarded she was and how much she was honored for her bravery and courage. An interesting thing I also noticed was that, in stanza 1, Spielberg is almost portrayed negatively. Dove hints at him having a selfish persona, writing that he persuaded (“cajoled”) Parks to come to the premiere. It seems that the narrator has their doubts about Spielberg’s intentions as well, bringing up and quickly denying that the director might be using Parks to “push his film”. However, I don’t believe this to be Rita Dove’s way of throwing shade on Spielberg, but rather her making a point of just how much Rosa Parks could steal a spotlight, even if the spotlight she was stealing was from a director of a premiering, multi-million dollar film.
In the poem “Parsley” by Rita Dove, I had noticed a few things right off the bat. The first thing I had noticed was the title, parsley. Parsley is a green, culinary herb that can also be used as a garnish to give the food that more professional, fancy appearance.For those seeing the parsley on a dish, this can be associated with wealth, but for those seeing the parsley in the fields, this symbolizes, lack of money and hard work.So, immediately I notice the contrast between the wealthy and the poor.I saw this again in the first stanza of “The Cane Fields”. Dove says, “There is a parrot imitating spring in the palace, its feathers parsley green.Out of the swamp the cane appears” (Dove 1-3).In the first line, Dove uses a metaphor and a personification to represent Spring and also wealth through the bird.As I had mentioned earlier, Parsley represents wealth and poor depending on where you are seeing it. Since the bird is in a palace with feathers parsley green, you can infer that this bird represents the riches.Parsley needs a full amount of sunlight to grow pertaining to the seasons spring and summer.Springs and summer could symbolize happiness and relaxation. In the Spring and summer, people tend to have more fun and be happier with the weather being warmer, and also taking vacations with family.As you go onto the third line, Dove talks about eh sugar cane appearing out of the swamp. Just like the Parsley, sugar cane, in this instance,symbolizes the poor. In the era o civil rights, the poor and slaves were sent into the fields to harvest it.Once harvest, their owners/farmers would then take it to sell, making riches. So here again, you notice the contrast between the wealthy and poor.Finally when Dove says,”For every drop of blood there is a parrot imitating spring”(Dove 17-18).I think this is a metaphor of showing how everything the poor does benefits the rich. The slaves go into the field to harvest sugarcane, and the wealthy get to make the profit out of it.For all of their hard work, someone else benefits from it. That’s where the parrot comes into play. The parrot symbolizes happiness, riches, and brightness. The sugar cane symbolizes the poor, hard work and unfairness of the civil rights era.
Your analyzes was great. I had seen the symbolism of the parrot as wealth, but did not think about the parsley being similar in that way. I also enjoyed how you looked at the contrast of wealth or power. As the power hunger usually end up being brutal and corrupt leaders in governments. Being rich sometimes gives people like Trujillo a feeling of invincibility. I can see how I could have connected this to my comment, by using the difference in understanding of the meaning of Parsley that you describe and how these different understandings of things can make some actions seem plausible to Trujillo. The realization of power he gets from this herb could help make genocide seem like something he can get away with.
In Rita Dove’s “Parsley”, The Parrot is an important recurring symbol in the poem. While the parrot in “Parsley” may represent many things, I found a strong connection in it’s symbolic elements of slavery and murder. A parrot is caged, separate from everyday life. While the parrot like the slaves, are independent, smart and beautiful, yet seen and treated in a harsher light and disrespected. The recurring line “The parrot is imitating spring”, is a metaphor. Dove is saying how the parrot is trying to live a life of beauty and reach its full potential, yet is imitating because it is encaged and controlled, and will always live it’s life separate from its potential and not in freedom. This is similar with slaves who were incapable of living their life to full potential and due to their life circumstances constantly live their life in a parody sense compared to the full lives on those unenslaved. In this poem the parrot is most likely representing the slavery and massacre upon the haitian people in the Parsley Massacre. In this event of the early 20th century, the word “parsley” was the word black haitian cane workers were forced to say (in spanish “perejil”), and those who could say the word with the rolled R’s were able to live, and those who did not were executed. In “parsley”, Dove is shining light to this historic event, as well as showing the cruel mentality behind the killing. The symbol of the parrot is used to represent a creature that is mistreated, beautiful and encaged. Most importantly a parrot is capable of repeating human words, with this in mind the parrot could be capable of saying the word “perejil”, this shows the great insignificance for having to say the word. The fact that people were seen as inhuman or unequal due to their incapability to do something even a parrot could do, shows the inhumanity of the murder.
Your analysis shows you clearly understand the poem. I thought the same thing about the parrot in the cage being a representation of trapped beauty. The ivory material of the cage is also likely representative of wealth or power, as it is an expensive and hard to obtain material. It is weird to me how much a trapped bird comes up in literature, as we've seen it so far in Siddhartha, the Billie Holiday poem, and now this too. The Parsley Massacre truly was an inhumane, desensitized example of just how savage man could be. Thanks for posting!
Great analysis! It brought up points and had given a backstory that I hadn’t even thought of. I liked how you connected the birds and slaves as a sense of not having freedom. Your analysis compares to mine using the parrot. I believed that the parrot had been above the slaves in the field and represented riches. In your analysis, you had mentioned how the parrot could do things that the slaves hadn’t even been able to do. Thanks for posting!
In the poem, “Parsley,” Rita Dove uses repetition, tone, and analogy to place the reader in the mind of the Dominican dictator, Rafael Trujillo, while also illustrating the Parsley Massacre. In almost every other stanza of this poem a phrase is repeated with little variation. The phrase can be seen most frequently as, “Out of the swamp the cane appears” (Dove, 19). This phrase is alluding to the Haitian immigrant's journey to the Dominican Republic for work in the sugarcane fields. The cane is also referred to in line sixteen as being in the Haitians dreams, which obviously translates to being hope for the poor Haitians on the border, where the land isn’t as fertile. The repetition or parallel structure of these phrases is used to help build up to the final moment, where the Parsley Massacre starts, as a result of the influx of Haitian immigrants in the region. Repetition is also used by Rita Dove to create a psychotic tone in many instances. The repeating of these phrases is intended so that the reader feels the constant uncomfortable feeling the dictator has with the constant presence of the Haitians. The word Katalina seems harmless enough, but is used with a mocking tone in the mind of Trujillo by the Haitians as they go on with the work in the fields. The singing, despite being innocent in nature, irritates Trujillo and adds to his psychotic demeanor and creates an eerie vibe. Rita Dove takes it even a step further by showing the reader his deep prejudice towards the predominantly black Haitians. the Analogy, used in stanza 12, “God knows// his mother was no stupid woman; she// could roll an R like a queen. Even// a parrot can roll an R!” (Dove, 58-61), is used by dove to express how trujillo feels superior to the Black Haitians. They are compared to a Parrot to emphasis how, in Trujillo’s view, they are dumber than a parrot. The dehumanization of the Afro-Haitians helps Trujillo and his soldiers carry out the parsley massacre, as is the case in many genocides. Overall the poem was created to educate the public about the history and politics of a country many Americans don’t pay much attention to.
I like what you had to say about the change in tone, and the positive imagery, such as how you said certain words come off to the reader as innocent or harmless in order to play with the reader's perspective of the story, like the word katalina. Your comment was well written and had very interesting perspective into the poem. You mentioned how the poem gives the reader an insight into a horrible event that most American's wouldn't know much about, I wonder what other horrible events the average American is yet to be educated about, and what important voice such as Dove's, is going to educate us?
Seasons are often personified by people and assigned traits to convey the feelings they bring. In ‘Parsley’, this proves to be true. The background story of this poem is one of grief and sorrow, as a bloodthirsty general seeks to kill the innocent out of sheer spite. He is a troubled man, distraught by the death of his mother, who once fed cookies to a parrot. This general loathes those he deems to be inferior, and holds them to arbitrary standards, punishing them with execution if they do not meet them. In the poem, the general has decided that those who cannot pronounce the “r” in “parsley” are unworthy and condemns them to death. Now that I have given a background to the poem, I will return to my earlier statement of seasons being symbolic in the text. In this poem, fall is talked about as a time of “love and death”. This is true, as fall, although vibrant and beautiful, is a time of life loss. Leaves begin to fade and fall to the ground, crumbling to a dust, and living creatures become scarce. There appears to be a correlation between the meaning of fall in the poem and what role fall plays in the real world, which adds to the text greatly. Spring is also mentioned in the poem and is given a more positive mood, having connotations of beauty and life. When spring comes up in the text, it is usually accompanied with something that is living, such as the “parrot imitating spring” or the walking cane that flowers into “four-star blossoms”. This feeling of life is similar to the feeling that accompanies spring as an actual season, as spring is a time of growth and rebirth.
“Parsley,” by Rita Dove contrasts attitudes toward the Parsley Massacre through personification, auditory imagery, and metaphors. The first section, “The Cane Fields,” shows the Haitians point of view. Personification is used to show how frightened the people are when it says “...the cane appears / to haunt us,” and “as rain punches through.” Dove uses auditory imagery to invoke the same feeling when she writes “we lie down screaming.” In addition, when she describes the Haitians whispering “Katalina" it shows a sense of fear, as they try to hide their inadequacies from the general. Dove also uses word choice such as “we come up green,” to show how new and inexperienced they are. This pervading sense of fear gives readers a sense of what the Haitians feel about this massacre. Conversely, “The Palace" evokes a much different feeling. The general shares his view, as he shares a short story, first about his mother, then about the battlefield. He tells of a soldier who remarked about the guns singing. This humanizes guns to make them seem less threatening. Near the end, the general remembers “Someone / cals out his name in a voice / so like his mother's, a startled tear /splashes the tip of his right boot.” This shows his sensitivity, to his mother to help explain that the general committed this murder in honor of his mother's voice. Lastly, the word parsley was probably used because “The general remembers the tiny green sprigs / men of his village wore in their capes / to honor the birth of a son. He will / order many, this time, to be killed / for a single, beautiful word.” Parsley, to the general, is a symbol of his parents love. From Dove’s poem “Parsley,” we can learn of the Haitians fear, as well as the reasoning behind the general's actions.
In the poem “Primer”, Rita Dove uses jargon, Person vs. Person, and dramatic monologue to create a dominant effect of being bullied while revealing the theme that no matter what someone does to you, you should remain as the better person.By using jargon, This gives the reader more of an insight of the bullies personality. Rita Dove uses jargon when she says,”Hissing Brainiac! and Mrs. Stringbean!” (Dove 3-4). In these lines, it shows the insecurities of the bullies. They make fun of this young girl by calling her “Stringbean”. Although, in the earlier text, Dove mentions that the three sisters are skinny, so for them to call this young girl skinny, they must be at an anorexic state. The bullies also call her a “Brainiac” pointing out their insecurities about their own intelligence. Dramatic monologue was expressed when Dove says, “I knew my body was no big deal but never thought to retort: who’s calling who skinny”(Dove 5-7). This shows how the character was using herself as a reassurance that the bullies were wrong. She states the facts to herself in order to put the situation into perspective by almost getting her own opinion, and own moral support. Dove uses person vs. Person when she says, “Nothing could get me into that car.I took the long way home, swore I’d show them all: I would grow up”(Dove 12-15). These few lines show how the character isn’t only battling with the Gatlin sisters but also her mom. She didn’t want to sink to the level of them, so she had just decided to ignore the situation until a further date until she could better handle it. She also battles her mom in the sense that she is old enough to fight her own battles. Even though her mother thought she was helping, she wasn’t. She gave the bullies a sense tahat this girl couldn’t stand up for herself and needed the support of her mother.It also shows a battle with her mother. She wants to be old enough and handle her problems herself, but her mother still wants to be involved. It’s the sense that no matter how old you are, your mom is always going to want to protect you.
I really liked your analysis, I found what you wrote about how the dramatic monologue helped better convey the theme of being the better person, or always keeping the better hand of situations. What you wrote about how your age has no effect on how your mother wants to control your life is very accurate, and I found a pattern in most of these poems in people feeling the need to be free from mother, or parental control, but won't succeed, because no matter what they will always be wanting to protect us no matter our age even if they think they are but are not, like in "Primer". I also found those same connections in person v.s person, which can connect to mother v.s child relationship which you had mentioned you found in the poem as well. Overall solid and insightful analysis.
Your analyzation of the poem was very well thought out. I thought that your thesis was also good, and that in your analyzation you were able to back up that thesis you made. Talking about person versus person was a good move. I could clearly see the connections you created and overall, your comment on “Primer” was well done. There wasn’t much more I would have added.
In Rita Dove’s “Persephone Falling” Dove connects ancient greek myth to a theme of mother relationships in her poetry. In greek myth Persephone was the beautiful daughter of Demeter, who gets kidnapped by the god of the underworld, Hades. Persephone is forced to live the underworld with away from her old life, leaving her mother in despair. Due to this event Demeter (the goddess of harvest) stops the world from growing crops and life. (This becomes the explanation for the time of winter). This story is a classic tale of parent and child relationship and the control and concerns mothers have for their children's overall well being. The purpose of Dove’s poem is show the side or perspective that all teens have felt, the longing to feel freedom from their parents control and authority, but as well the poem, like Persephone’s story, shines light on the consequences of disregarding parental orders. What Persephone does is not only a mistake for herself and the future for her life, but is also extremely selfish and leaves her mother in a state of total despair and depression. One of the amazing aspects of this story, as well as this poem is the reader does not only get an insight into the troubles and perspective of a teen wanting liberty, but we also see the perspective of the other side, we get to see why parents want control, or why they worry. The story gives an outlook into both mindsets and attitudes towards a parent to child relationship that most stories fail to accurately articulate properly.
I enjoy your analysis, and find it interesting how connected both of our poems are, concerning the same Greek myth. Each poem seems to tell a story from a different perspective, with the younger daughter, Persephone, and the mother, Demeter. Like you, I tried to connect the myth to a modern mother and daughter relationship, showing the mindset and emotional response of the family members during their splitting. I really do enjoy the level of background research you did on the myth, and commend you for connecting it to our modern age.
In Rita Dove’s poem “Used”, Dove uses types of diction and figurative language to convey a tone of relentless assault by an outside force, while also conveying the mental and physical burdens put upon the women of society. In the very beginning of this poem she uses hyperbole and diction in the form of, “The conspiracy to make us thin” (Dove, 1). This exaggeration is mostly self explanatory. Their isn’t literally a conspiracy to make women thin, but the word conspiracy is used to make the point that most women feel the burden of society's expectations of them to live up to society's standard of beauty. Other diction such as Dialect like, “Tabula Rasa. No slate’s that clean-” (Dove, 4), are used to show how women feel they must be physically flawless. Tabula Rasa translates from Latin to “blank slate”, which implies the flawless or perfect quality of something. The sentence after reminds the reader that people are all born with imperfections, and that the women from television, magazines, and porn, that men fantasize about, are not real. Dove uses Personification in the form of, “Our muscles say We have been used” (Dove, 7). When she uses this personification she means to somehow put the pain of childbirth into words, which is incredibly difficult. She also uses these words to allude to the feeling that some women may have that is that their only purpose is to bare children. The speaker feels her muscles have been used for their purpose, and nothing more is needed of them and this implies that women can’t accomplish anything greater than giving birth. This is simply not true, but many women feel that they are destine to be homemakers. In the third stanza Rita Dove uses concrete diction in the line, “persuaded by postnatal dread” (Dove, 9), to help the reader understand the emotions the speaker feels after childbirth. The person speaking is in a deep depression, that could be Postpartum depression. The woman may feel that her freedom is gone now that she has given birth. She may also be fearful of the life she will provide for her baby.
In the poem "Demeter, Waiting" by Rita Dove, Dove uses emotional diction and dramatic monologue to convey the anger and, eventually, sadness of a mother, in this case, Demeter, from Greek mythology. In the myth, Demeter is separated from her daughter, Persephone, whom she loves dearly. As a result of this separation, she creates the season of Winter, which we see in the passage "I will drag my grief through a winter of my own making" (Dove, 8-9). While literal, these lines, along with the entire stanza, convey the sense of melancholy and sorrow Demeter, and many other mothers, undergo when separated from their children. Winter, which is derived from the old Germanic word, Winter, means "times of water", and can be related to the tears being shed by Demeter. Along side this sorrow, we also see Demeter's frustration with the line "I will wail and thrash until the whole goddamn golden panorama freezes over." (Dove, 12-14). Goddamn, which is considered by many to be vulgar diction, is rarely used in a professional setting, and shows the reader just how emotional and furious Demeter is over her loss. This poem can perhaps be told from the perspective of another mother as well, making reference to figures existing after the age of the Greeks, with passage line "like one of those ashen Christian philosophers," (Dove, 5-6). This led me to believe that the mother is not frustrated over her daughter leaving, but perhaps the response of those around her, being told to allow her to branch away. This is most evident with the passage "Only someone who hates herself, who believes to pull a hand back from a daughter's cheek is to put love in her pocket" (Dove, 1-4).
(When I looked up this poem, it showed the word visa in place of reprieve. I am choosing to use this because it better supports my thesis.)
Rita Dove’s poem “Exit" describes the instance of leaving, and the emotions associated with change, using personification and imagery to convey that change though difficult helps us learn and grow. The first line “Just when hope withers, a visa is granted" uses personification to describe the fear of leaving. “The door opens onto a street like in the movies, / clean of people, of cats; except it is your street / you are leaving. A visa has been granted, / “provisionally" -a fretful word” The rest of this first stanza continues to back up the feeling of fear. Dove uses visual imagery to describe the empty street, loneliness. She again uses personification, the word provisionally is fretful, an adjective of nervousness to back up the fearful emotion. “The windows you have closed behind / you are turning pink, doing what they do / every dawn. Here it's gray; the door / to the taxicab awaits.” These lines show the opportunity that change holds when Dove talks about the dawn and the waiting taxicab. The last line in the second stanza, however reverts back to negative emotions when it says “This suitcase / the saddest object in the world.” The last stanza contradicts these negative feelings and allude to the theme. “Well, the world's open. And now through / the windshield the sky begins to blush, / as you did when your mother told you / what it took to be a woman in this life.” Dove reiterates the idea of opportunity in changes, then proceeds to reminisce the mother's view of what the girl can become. Because Dove ends the poem here, we can conclude that she wants us to see the opportunities and benefits of change. Dove uses personification and visual imagery to describe the feelings associated with change, but remind that it holds opportunity.
You captured the loneliness and solidarity this poem conveys quite well. I shared many of your viewpoints and too felt that this poem sent a message preaching that change, although terrifying, opens doors for us in life, allowing us to escalate ourselves as people and reach our true potential. Dove’s usage of imagery in this poem is what made it so powerful and the way she set up a relatable mood made it even more impactful. Thanks for your post!
In ‘Heroes’ by Rita Dove, a character referred to as “you” sees a dying flower and plucks it, hoping to save it. When the character visits a nearby house to get water to put the weeping flower in, the resident screams, distraught by the theft of the one thing that motivated her to live. Because this poem is under a collection by Dove called ‘Mother Love’, I came into it expecting there to be some sort of representation of motherhood. When looking at this poem, I see the characters (the unnamed character, the woman, and the flower) as representations of different aspects of life. To me, the woman of the house represents a mother. This mother (the woman) is emotionally destroyed, having witnessed her daughter (the flower) being stolen from her by a boy (“you”). To validate these being possible representations, the text can be referred to. When Dove states “the one that gave her the strength every morning” in line 3 of stanza 3, it can be taken away that this was meant to portray the bond a mother shares with her daughter and how love she holds for her child. A flower is used to play the role of the daughter, as flowers normally carry feminine connotations and suggest innocence or beauty. The character who is “you” could be a representation of a boy seeking courtship of the mother’s daughter, offering gifts or “trinkets” to gain the mother’s trust. When the mother doesn’t approve of the boy however, the boy metaphorically kills her by removing her from the daughter’s life. The woman’s death symbolizes the heartbreak and angst of a mother watching a child leaving home, ending a bond once thought to be inseparable. This poem was a very powerful one, in my opinion, and could be my favorite one we’ve read, so far.
In American Smooth by Rita Dove, the poem “Chocolate” uses imagery, figurative language, and concrete diction to create a dominant effect of contentment. Gustatory, visual and olfactory imagery like velvet, melt, and liquefy are used to create a warm and inviting tone and help in making an overall delighted tone in the whole poem. Diction is used in many instances to emphasise the satisfaction this simple treat gives a person. In stanza two Rita Dove writes, “how you numb me//with your rich attentions!” (Dove, 4-5). The word numb and rich are used in these lines as sensory words. They imply a sense of euphoria and add to the experience being described. Eating extremely quality chocolate can set off a large amount of endorphins in the brain and can cause a sensory overload of sorts. This is why the richness of the chocolate is described as being numbing. In the fourth stanza Dove writes, “dark punch//of earth and night and leaf”(Dove, 10-11). This personification is used to describe the depth of flavor this chocolate morsel has and its connection to nature, which makes it feel tangible to the reader and notes its earthy qualities. Overall the poem is quite different than many of Rita Dove’s poems I have read, because most contain social commentary. Whereas “Chocolate” is more concentrated on the simple pleasures of life.
I liked your analysis overall, intelligent and well thought out like always. I do agree with you entirely, this pome is extremely different than anything Dove writes stereotypically to her writing. This poem unlike others seems to be almost "irrelevant", or not as important and defining as her other work. However as you know from your analysis, Dove still shows herself as the great writer she is with extensive and intellectual placing of imagery, language and diction. This poem, while it may not be as you said "a social commentary" is still a depiction of Dove's capabilities as a writer.
In Rita Dove’s American Smooth, her title poem “American Smooth” describes the trance and romanticism of her experience with ballroom dancing. Dove uses many literary devices to help her poem truly captivate the unearthly and magical experience she feels when ballroom dancing. One device commonly as well as strongly used in the poem is personification. In the line “That swift and serene/ magnificence,/ before the earth/ remembered who we were/ and brought us down” (27-31). The use of personifying the earth in this excerpt is used for Dove to contrast her strong experience and feeling of escape from the world, and feeling of being not restricted to earth’s surface, but with the ability to fly away freely, and compares to; the earth forgetting who she was and then remembering her and bringing her down from an almost “high” or euphoric experience of ballroom dancing. Another interesting device Dove uses is the breakup of verse in the poem. I found the splitting of verses in “American Smooth” to basically mimic a rhythmic or dance like pattern. For instance the first five lines reading “We were dancing---it must have/ been a foxtrot or a waltz,/ something romantic but/ requiring restraint,/ rise and fall, precise” (1-5). This excellent use of rhythm styled writing gives the reader a more accurate sense of what the mood of the setting is, as well as captivates the reader and almost transports them into the specific context of the poem. What Rita Dove’s “American Smooth” does so well is successfully shift the reader into the writing whether it’s through explicit uses of metaphors and personification, or through the writing of each verse in order to convey greater ideas within the poem.
I feel that although the subject matter in the poems we discussed were completely different, the principle matter is the same. It seems that from both of these poems a message of finding pleasure in the simple things in life, can be seen depicted. I enjoyed how you commented about how the dancing would make her feel like flying away, and how you pointed out that there was a rhythm to the poem that does what the dancing does to Dove. I think your thesis in the beginning could have been improved and it seemed some comments at the end could have been better at the beginning, but this was minor and didn’t really hurt the content. Overall your analyzation was thoughtful and well articulated.
Rita Dove’s poem “Sic Itur Ad Astra" evokes a surreal, dreamlike feeling by her use of similes, symbols, and personification to tell the wonders of dreams, but also fear of the unknown. “Bed, where are you flying to? / I went to sleep / nearly an hour ago, / and now I'm on a porch / open to the stars!” Right away, Dove personifies the bed to show how it works as a comforter. Dove also poses a question unanswered to evoke some worry or doubt in the reader. She uses short lines to describe the scene to help convey the dreamlike state with quickly fleeting images. The stars in this poem represent opportunity. “Close my eyes /and sink back to / day’s tiny dismissals; / open wide and I'm / barefoot, nightshirt / fluttering white as a sail.” Contrasting the open and closed eyes help readers understand dreams and how they can be good. Dove uses a simile to show she is discussing dreams. “What will they say / when they find me / missing-just / the shape of my dreaming / creasing the sheets? / Come here, bed,” This stanza completely confirms that Dove is discussing dreams. She also reintroduces the worry. The bed represents comfort, and the narrator wishes for that comfort back. “I need you! I don't know my way. /At least leave my pillow behind to remind me / what affliction I've fled- / my poor, crushed pillow / with its garden of smells!” Further pleading for the bed to return, Dove accurately shows how people react to fear. Even when it is something good, they wish for something to hold onto. Dove’s poem “Sic Itur Ad Astra" describes the wonders of dreams, and the fear that pervades it.
Wow, great analysis. I like how you saw that Dove used personification to show how the bed had left her. I also liked how you said that the bed is a source of comfort for her. I feel like the reason Dove can’t sleep is because she is having troubles in her daily life. Like.Like she says in the poem she cannot sleep and thinks back to her troubles in the day. I think the bed is a symbol for the reason that she couldn’t sleep, do you have any ideas as to what that might be? Thanks for posting!
Great analysis! I agreed with your points of how Dove used personification and symbolism to represent deeper meanings. I enjoyed the dream-like feeling this poem created and thought the atmosphere it projected made it very engaging. Another interesting thing I found out was that the title translates to "So we go to the stars", giving it even more of a dreamy feel. Thanks for posting!
In American Smooth by Rita Dove, the poem “All souls” uses personification, oxymorons, and romanticism. Dove uses personifications when she is talking about the dance and says, “I didn’t notice how still you’d become until we had done it (for two measures?four?)-achieved flight, that swift and serene magnificence, before the earth remembered who we were and brought” (Dove 22-31). Her personification of the Earth, portrays her own feelings about the dance. How she had been felt so taken away during the dance. She hadn’t realized how bored/ not into it her husband was however. So when she had realized that, it’s like she had been ripped from her high and put back into reality, or to a disappointed, sad state. She uses oxymorons when she says, “-such perfect agony, one learns to smile through (Dove 10-11). Perfect is a joyful feeling of everything is correct and agony is extreme pain. By saying this, She means that the time and effort to get this dance right is the greatest frustration she could feel. She loves it even though it may be hard, she loves the feeling she gets from it. She uses romanticism throughout this whole poem but one place I noticed it was when she said, “two chests heaving above a seven-league stride-such a perfect agony, one learns to smile through, ecstatic mimicry being the sine qua non of American Smooth” (Dove 8-14). By being so descriptive, she shows how the dance resonated with her. How certain moves felt, how much practice you had to have to nail the moves. How everything she did was worth it. How achieving the feeling of getting everything right was worth everything they went through.
In this poem by Rita Dove, a hurricane is “nudging up the coast”. The hurricane referenced in this poem is likely the hurricane named Floyd, which happened in 1999. This can be inferred because, later on in the poem, Dove writes “Floyd’s cussing up a storm”. This personification of the storm is used to portray the hurricane as violent or angry, seeking to cause strife wherever it goes. The storm itself could also be a representation of society, with the house being the sanctuary of love and trust. When opening the poem, it is addressed to someone named Fred. When writing this, Dove likely had her husband, named Fred, in mind. She writes about Fred passionately, painting him as her knight in shining armor. The title of the poem, “Cozy Apologia”, is likely alluding to a sarcastic apology, as she is non-apologetic for not reaching the “Divine” standards society has set for relationships. She is glad she’s in an unordinary partnership, veering away from the “all business” age of today. Going back to my point of the house being a representation of sanctuary from society (the storm), Rita and Fred’s unique relationship can easily fill the role of the house, as they seem to be uninfluenced by what society wants. Rita Dove herself is an unordinary yet extraordinary person, touching the hearts of and inspiring people from all over with her poetry.
In Rita Dove’s “Lullaby”, Dove’s stanza structure and cesura helps convey a dialogistic sense to her poem. In the poem “Lullaby” Dove describes a conversation with her mother, discussing while simultaneously describing to the reader her longing to be a child again, and experience childlike wonder, and feeling of security. The way dove writes each stanza is in a strange pattern with half of the text being on one side of the page, and the other in line to the far left. I felt this created a dialogue dynamic in the writing, as if the speaking is stopped and then picked up somewhere else by someone else, or possibly she is comparing herself to her mother by filling in and speaking the next line to comfort herself, as her mother would if she was alive. The poem basically goes into the many ways her mother extensively takes care of her such as the line “Mother, I want the birthday supper of my childhood,/ dripping with sauce./ Then you must lie down while I fix it!/ Here a pillow for your back.” (16-19). However the next line says “I can’t. The school bus is coming. She’ll be waiting around the corner./ Already? So soon!” (20-22). I saw these lines as being put at the end of the poem to display Dove’s growing up and moving on, how she can't stay home with her mother forever, and when the reply to her departure is “Already? So soon!” It shows the reader how the mother’s daughter is leaving so fast, and growing up and leaving sooner than she thought. In general the poem depicts the relationship she has with her mother and how she misses both her mother and her lifestyle, and Dove creatively conveys this theme in “Lullaby” by using dialogue like stanzas and caesuras for the same effect.
In the poem "Meditation at Fifty Yards, Moving Target" by Rita Dove, Dove uses dialogue and point of view to create a primary feeling of control as well as urge. Throughout the entire poem, dialogue is used to explain the workings and advice of guns, with some stanzas swapping to the point of view of non-living objects, such as the air perturbed by the flying of the bullet, and the bullet itself as it nears its target, or "home". In the opening to the section "Blues in Half-Tones, 3/4 Time", Dove writes "Our heart was forged out of barbarism and violence. We learned to control it, but it is still a part of us." The entirety of the third stanza seems to support this developed control over a violent urge, describing the control over a firearm, "Don't hold anything, just stop breathing." (Dove, 20-22). Many humans find a pleasure out of firing guns, but even when engaging in a "violent" pastime, a variety of measures are taken to ensure control over the device. Continuing from the opening of "Blues in Half-Tones, 3/4 Time" Dove writes that "To pretend it does not exists is to create an opportunity for it to escape." Many turn to shooting, or other seemingly violent activities such as martial arts or video games, to relieve the natural urge to commit harm. This urge, and its relief, is seen in stanza 2. "Then the sudden pleasure of heft - as if the hand had always yearned for this solemn fit" (Dove, 13-16). A natural urge for disruption and violent acts exist in all of us, but, as time has passed, we have learnt to control this urge, and over-selves, through other means in our lives.
Your analysis was thoughtful. As I read this poem, I could clearly see the connections you made. I really liked in the poem how each time the tone changed a monometer was used before the new stream of consciousness was added to the poem. It increased the intensity of the poem and with every change in thought I felt myself almost horrified by the power of such a weapon beyond its use. I also liked the simplicity of the analysis. You were straight to the point. You were able to take a quality look into the text and give some great commentary.
In Rita Dove’s “American Smooth”, the poem “Against Flight” uses metaphors, symbolism, and abstract diction to allude to the bigger message about human technological progress. In the first stanza the message can be derived from the metaphor, “Everyone wants to go up-”(Dove, 134). In this line Dove tries to convey a message about the faults of human progress. Rising into the sky can related to being accepted by god or transcending. She seems to be commenting here how humans want perfection and as the poem continues she plays of this simple desire. Following this line in stanza three Rita Dove writes, “No sense// looking around when you can see everywhere:”(Dove, 6-8). Here she is stating that as humanity advances, the technologies that make our life more and more comfortable will make us less and less curious and may actually hurt the real progress. She also uses the diction like “see” and “look” specifically in this line. The word “see” seems to be more of a broad term, pertaining to observing the surface of something. Whereas the word “look” seems to be associated with a more in depth observation of things in the world. Rita Dove also uses contrasting diction, like “stars” (Dove, 21), and “sinks” (Dove, 21), to emphasis this conflict between progress, while trying to retain one’s humanity. In stanza seven Dove writes, “no more theatre, for that matter” (Dove, 13), using theatre as a symbol for the arts in order to shine light on how people are forgetting about one of the primal of human creations. Similar connections from this poem can be made to a speech by the late great Charlie Chaplin, in the movie the Great Dictator. In the movie Chaplin’s character explains, “We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical. Our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness.” (The Great Dictator, Chaplin). Here the ideas about humanity leaving what makes it human behind as greed and ego infest society. Overall the poem “Against Flight” conveys a message people should not ignore as humanity moves into a golden age of technology.
I really liked your analysis, very thorough, what I found to be the most interesting is what you wrote about how our own advances technologically (or not regarding technology) may possibly lead to our own demise, or errors. After reading your comment I read this poem and can see this ironic comparison. What I found very interesting was in how you stated diction in such simple, or seemingly irrelevant words, actually can have important meanings and contrasts like "sink" and "stars". I also liked how you pointed out how important the message of this poem is to us as humans. Humanity needs to understand and take into consideration its limits. Overall I found your post to be very observant and interesting.
In “Eliza Age 10, Harlem" author Rita Dove uses personification and metaphors to describe how even the smallest, most insignificant person is special. “I'm not small like they say, / those withered onions on the stoop / clucking their sorrowful tongues. / I'm concentrated. I'm a sweet package of love. Jesus" In this first line, Dove introduces her point straight-forwardly when she writes “I'm not small like they say.” She then describes who “they" are as withered onions clucking their tongues. Onions typically make people cry, which is why Dove used it as a metaphor for those who are saying hurtful things. “[Jesus] says so, and He's better than angels / ‘cause He knows how to die; / He suffers the children / to come into Him. / I can climb these stairs-” This stanza discusses Eliza’s belief in Jesus Christ, a common belief, and how He is the reason why she can be strong amidst the conflict. “easy, even in T-straps. Yes, / I am my grandma's sugar pea / and someday I'm gonna pop / right out-and then, boys, / you better jump back!” In this last stanza,Eliza complements herself: she can climb stairs easily, even in heels. She also boasts of her grandma's pet name for her, sugar pea. This emphasizes how Eliza, though mistreated is still special and has the opportunity to be great. Through metaphors and personification, Dove conveys that everyone is special, no matter what.
I really like your analysis and you have pointed out several things that I hadn’t seen when I had read this poem. Like how the onion represents crying because people usually cry when they are peeling onions. I had also noticed something else after reading your analysis. I had noticed that our poems are very similar. Like you had pointed out, Dove is trying to get the point across that everyone is special in their own way. In the poem “Fox”, I think Rita Dove is trying to convey the same aspect. The fox is a strong animal that has a glow and that's what she used to describe the girl. She says in the end of her poem that is was more than any man could handle. Implying that she doesn’t need a man in this case to make her feel special because she knows that she already is. Thanks for posting!
In Rita Dove’s “American Smooth”, the poem “Fox”, uses metaphor and mood to give depth to this young woman she was describing. She starts off by using the metaphor of, “ She loved what she was, there for the taking, imagine” (Dove 7-10). Dove uses the fox as a way to describe this girl. Foxes are creatures that are subtle but definitely stand out. They can take care of oneself and do a good job doing so. This woman is confident in what she is doping and has much pride in herself. Dove uses the mood of this poem to get across to young females or really anybody. After reading this poem, one may feel the urge as to stand more independent, not needing anybody else. We see this when Dove says, “She imagines nothing.She loved nothing more than what she had, which was enough for her, which was more than any man could handle (Dove 11-20). After reading these lines, one may feel more confident in themselves. Given the feeling that you don’t need to impress anyone but yourself. That you can be happy by taking some pride in yourself. You don’t need anyone else to notice it but yourself. That you should take pride in yourself. That's what gave this young woman the glow that she had. That she knew she had it, instead of looking to someone else to tell her that she did.
In Rita Dove’s Canary, the metaphor for Billie Holliday’s life struggle and drug addiction is conveyed through the symbol of a canary found in the title. A canary is a caged song bird and Dove relates Holiday to the bird’s attributes of imprisonment and beauty of song, due to her life backstory, struggles as well as her amazing impact in the music world. Billie Holliday suffered from drug addiction for a large portion of her life and Dove is connecting her addiction to an imprisonment or jail for Holiday, just as a cage for a bird. Dove also uses light imagery to convey darker themes and tones which helps relate the poem to her drug use and also shows irony. In the line “magic spoon, magic needle.” representing Holliday’s spoon and needle to use heroin. This irony can also be seen in how a canary, something thought to be beautiful and lovely, still lives in a constant imprisonment. Holliday has a troubling past with such events including rape and abuse and this is reflected in Dove’s poem contributing to an idea of imprisonment and a life of a woman “under siege”. Another selection near the end of the poem reads “the invention of women under siege has been to sharpen love in the service of myth./ If you can’t be free, be a mystery.” (9-11). This excerpt is saying that Holliday’s life of struggle has only added to the myth of herself, or the legend that she is, and her incapability of being free of drug usage has made Holliday even more of a mystery. This poem like many others has a significant title in understanding the underlying metaphor of this poem, and is a strong example of the importance of a poem’s title.
ReplyDeleteNathan Maisonville
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Your analysis was very insightful and conveyed many of the same points I saw. The statement you made that resonated with me the most was regarding the canary. When analyzing this symbol, I also saw it as a representation of beauty trapped in chains. Billie Holiday’s addiction not only hindered her greatly, but also held her down and prevented her from truly soaring to the level of greatness she was capable of. Holiday’s story really is one of tragedy and can also be seen as an accurate portrayal of the impact that the treatment of someone by others has on them. Thanks for your post!
“Sonnet in Primary Colors” by Rita Dove compares Frida Kahlo’s beliefs to her appearance to show convey that reflections alone do not create someone.
ReplyDelete“This is for the woman with one black wing / perched over her eyes: lovely Frida, erect / among parrots, in the stern petticoats of the peasant, / who painted herself a present- / wildflowers entwining the plaster corset / her spine resides in the romance of mirrors / 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. / And rose to her easel, the hundred dogs panting / like children along the gravelled walks of the garden, Diego's / love a skull in the circular window / of the thumping searing her immutable brow.”
First, Dove uses jargon specific to Mexico, such as parrot, a native bird, and skull, as commonly seen for Day of the Dead. This use of words shows Kahlo’s love for Mexico. Lines five through seven discuss the plaster corset and Kahlo’s pain. This pain was something Kahlo had to work through and overcome in her life. The mirrors, while being literal, also hold a symbolical interpretation that reflections do not dictate who she is, further alluding to Kahlo’s inner worth as a role model. The poem uses lots of visual imagery to describe Kahlo’s unibrow and tactile imagery to describe her pain to show imperfect aspects of her life. This is followed by visual diction: primary colors, painting, celluloid butterflies, etc. with positive connotations to show that there is more to Kahlo than meets the eye. Dove compares Kahlo’s physical appearance to her beliefs and ideals to show that people are more than their appearances.
I as well noticed a lot of diction was used to put a dominant effect of pain or suffering on the reader. Words such as skull, dead, and searing help emphasis the pain she suffers daily from as a result of her bus crash. You also could have used words such as erect, rose, and stern to help further your point that this pain was something she had to work through and that, because of this she makes herself of symbol of perseverance. Showing her inner worth as you say.
DeleteIn the Canary by Rita Dove, there is heavy use of diction that gives an ominous feel to the whole poem. Words like shadow, magic, myth, mystery, and mirror are used to add to the allusion to Billie Holiday’s drug addiction. Drug use is often described as mesmerizing or transcendent, and with this it is easy to see how words like magic can be used to allude to her addiction. They also can be used to directly show the reader how she feels about her addiction. At the poem’s end Rita Dove writes, “If you can’t be free, be a mystery” (Dove, 11). This line is basically explaining how Billie Holiday felt imprisoned by her drug addiction and that she felt she needed to hide the shame of her imprisonment. The use of antithesis in “Holiday’s burned voice had as many shadows as lights” (Dove, 2), emphasises her internal struggles and illustrates further the wear and tear her life has had on her. The shadows represent the sexual abuse she was subject to by her moms boyfriend, a short lived prostitution career, and drug addiction. Where the lights are her charisma, talent as a singer, and beauty. The past tense is used for most of the poem, except in stanza two, which uses present tense. This could symbolize how the drug keeps her in the here and know, by pushing the dark memories of her past down into the depths of her subconscious. This stanza also seems to be the least depressing of the stanzas,due to the use of words like magic and an upbeat tone, lending to the idea that this drug is keeping her alive. Overall the poem seems to have a general tone of mystery, as Billie Holiday desired to hide her shadows.
ReplyDeleteI find your analysis very insightful. You wrote how the difference between past tense and present tense, and its relevance to her drug use and her dislocation of being in the present, to being high on drugs. I thought that was really smart and adds some depth to the poem I hadn't seen before. I agree with you that the tone or mood of this poem is overall mystery which does add to both the ideas of the poem regarding drug use and depression, but also adds to the "myth" or enigma of Billie Holliday as a character or persona.
DeleteIn the poem Tou Wan speaks to Her Husband, Liu Sheng uses metaphors to portray the love she has for her husband. For example, in lines 1-2, Sheng uses the metaphor, “I will build you a house of limited chambers but it shall last forever: four rooms hewn in the side of stone for you, my only conquer”(Sheng 1-2). She uses the house as a way to represent their love. by saying she builds a house she is showing that her love will continue to grow for him. By saying that her house house limited chambers, is a way of saying that it may not be a lot, but it’s all she has. When she says it shall last forever, she means that her love for him will never die.By saying the four rooms are cut in stone, she is saying that she is giving him the best ability of her. It’s not particularly easy to cut stone, and their love may not be easy sometimes, but she’s willing to do whatever to show how much he really does mean to her.Lastly, when she says for you, my only conquer, she is showing that he is the only one for her. That she is only willing to go to such lengths for him.he is her one and only and their love means everything to her.This poem shows how much women cherished their husbands in the late 1900’s. How being with a man was so important that women were willing to go through great lengths to keep their support and love.
ReplyDeleteNathan Maisonville (P7)
ReplyDeleteAllegory in Canary
Living in pre-civil rights era America as a woman, Billie Holiday showed resilience in the face of adversity, becoming a renowned musician and overcoming an obvious social disadvantage. Although she is regarded to as one of the greatest, most influential jazz singers of all time, Holiday had her struggles. It could be argued that, ultimately, the root of Billie Holiday’s demons came from the oppression that, being a black woman in early 20th century America, she was born into. In the poem Canary, Rita Dove writes about Holiday, focusing mainly on her plight and the ongoing struggle she endured. This poem is likely an allegory for the effect that gender and racial persecution had and how it could even lead someone like Billy Holiday to their eventual demise. It is widely theorized that Holiday’s addiction, which is brought up in Rita Dove’s poem, is sourced from the sexual abuse that somewhat corrupted her. In this era, sexual abuse was rarely prosecuted and women found that they had no voice to speak out with. It could be inferred that the last line of the poem (“If you can’t be free, be a mystery”) was commenting on how Holiday, being unable to find justice, was never able to truly be free from her abuse and instead drifted into the shadow of addiction, becoming a “mystery”.
I like how you mentioned the social disadvantages of Billie Holiday and how she was able to be so influential by getting over them. I also liked how you mentioned that persecution of sexual abuse wasn’t very common in her time. When I had read the last line of the poem, I had the same analysis that you had. I however, also thought that it was her way of not giving up. How she was abused and was at a disadvantage socially and was still able to be such an amazing singer. Many must have asked how she was able to overcome her demons, and be able to perform just as well. Maybe they hadn’t known about her drug and alcohol addiction and that was her sense of mystery.
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ReplyDeleteThe “Abduction” by Rita Dove is a poem written to articulate a portion of the story of once free man named Solomon Northup, who is soon forced into slavery for twelve years. Dove uses strong positive to negative imagery in her work in order to accurately capture the true emotion and tone shift behind the true events for the reader. At the beginning of the poem Dove writes about Solomon’s “new friends” and his own close possession including his violin, and freedom papers. This description at first gives the reader a positive sense using positive imagery. Then she writes “Hamilton’s feet did a jig on a tightrope,/ pigs squealed invisibly from the bleachers and I fiddled” These sentences reveal a positive and playful tone. The reader feels carefree and lines such as “then the wine, like a pink lake, tipped./ I was lifted”(11-12). These lines support the reader’s ability to feel a joyous mood with the author’s precise use of positive imagery. Knowing Solomon’s story, the tone quickly changes to reveal what laid ahead. With the line “through the pillow was stone”(13) the author gives the reader his/or her first insight that what may seem so great and amazing may be an illusion. Similar to the illusion Solomon felt when tricked into becoming a slave. This line may not only be true, but is also portrayed as a metaphor for the truth behind what his new friend’s intentions really were, like a pillow under stone. In the last line the author writes “I woke and found myself alone, in darkness and in chains”(15). This line brings forth the truth within the poem. What started out as very innocent and playful with the poetic imagery used, quickly shifts tone to it’s dark and true tone. This tone shift was intentionally done by Dove using imagery in order for the reader to understand the roller coaster of emotion behind Solomon’s story.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your analyzation of the positive and negative tone used in the poem. I agree that she used positive tones towards the beginning to help give the the reader a human connection to Solomon Northup and create a reason for the reader to care when the tone shifted. I like how you also talked about the use of imagery to elevate the tone and the reader’s attitude. Overall your analyzation was solid and focused.
Delete“The House Slave,” by Rita Dove uses imagery and the metaphor of sleep to convey the hardship and darkness that comes through slavery. “The first horn lifts its arm over the dew-lit grass / and in the slave quarters there is a rustling- / children are bundled into aprons, cornbread / and water gourds grabbed, a salt pork breakfast taken. / I watch them driven into the vague before-dawn / while their mistress sleeps like an ivory toothpick.” Horns are usually associated with power, which is further backed up because Dove uses personification when discussing the horn. In these two stanzas, the slaves rise early to gather needed supplies before the masters discover them.
ReplyDelete“and Massa dreams of asses, rum, and slave-funk. / I cannot fall asleep again. At the second horn, / the whip curls across the backs of the laggards-” Sleep, we find in this stanza, represents freedom, peace, and wealth. Dove states that the lady of the house is dreaming of items that show wealth to convey this metaphor. She also explains that the narrator cannot sleep, symbolizing their lack of freedom. She also uses tactile imagery to describe the whip, which shows the cruelty of slavery. “sometimes my sister's voice, unmistaken, among them. / “Oh! pray,” she cries. “Oh! pray!” Those days / I lie on my cot, shivering in the early heat,” In this stanza, Dove uses auditory imagery so we can hear the pleas of the slave, and understand that these pleas go unheard. “and as the fields unfold to whiteness, / and they spill like bees among the fat flowers, / I weep. It is not yet daylight.”
This last stanza describes the sorrows of the narrator in slavery. They should be free but they are not, as Dove explains in the last line. From this poem, the hardships of slavery are described through imagery and symbolism.
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DeleteI liked what you wrote on the symbolism of sleep. I can see how it represents a sense of freedom and peace. Also now it makes sense in which how when the author cannot sleep, they cannot be free, that is a smart connection. However I found irony in how the slaves must awaken from their sleep early in order to live in freedom and escape from their masters. This might be because sleep represented not actual freedom, but an escape from their life, and only in their dreams could they feel what freedom was like because growing up a slave, they don't know what that really feels like. Good analysis.
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DeleteI had liked how you discovered the use of symbolism and imagery to express the hardships and pain that they slaves have felt. The last line in your analysis had stood out to me as well when I had read the poem.I had noticed that Dove had said, ““And as the fields unfold to whiteness, / and they spill like bees among the fat flowers, / I weep. It is not yet daylight.” This had stood out to me in the sense that in the morning, they hadn’t only gathered the supplies that they had needed for the day but they had also began to work before the sun even had rose. She expresses her exhaustion when she states that she is crying before there had even been daylight. I feel as if she feels somewhat of defeat knowing that she still has the whole day ahead of her to work.
The Transport of Slaves From Maryland to Mississippi contains four stanzas, of which two spoke to me the most. The first stanza comes from the perspective of the slave woman who helped the “negro” driver escape from the rebelling slaves. Rita Dove uses visual imagery in the form of, “dust hovering around the body,” (Dove, 4) and “The skin across his cheekbones burst open like baked yams-” (Dove, 7-8), to set the scene and illustrate the horror of murder. As the white man looks into the unnamed slave woman’s eyes his gaze confirms her feelings about the situation. She feels compassion for the beaten slave driver, something that humans feel for others in pain no matter the situation. The moment when she feels the human connection with her captor, she says, “His eyes were my eyes in a yellower face” (Dove, 10). She expresses at the very end of the stanza, that she does not wish to be apart of the murder of these white men, because she sees them as purely human and sadly acknowledges the fact that the only way she and the others will ever be free is in death. The second stanza of this poem is a stark contrast to the previous. The obvious reason being that the source seems to be a white account of the situation. Less obvious is the use of irony in the form of, “ending this shocking affray and murder” (Dove, 18). The irony is the white men call attention to this murder, as if murder is unusual in the plantation plentiful South, and that they think this is shocking behavior from human beings. Rita Dove uses the irony to further the contrast between reality of the human experience and the fantasy of the corrupted mind. Additionally the first paragraph is more human in it’s analyzation of the event, whereas the second stanza reads more robotically and sees the event purely as murder not survival. This is also a contrast between the black and white community today as for many young African Americans stuck in poverty and with society against them feel that, “death and salvation- one accommodates the other” (Dove, 11).
ReplyDeleteIn Rita Dove’s “Belinda Petition”, I had noticed the poem was told from the viewpoint of a slave.She had expressed herself in a way she had never been able to because she had been in the shadows for her entire life. Dove used literary devices such as tactical imagery, allegories, and allusions to demonstrate and instill her feeling in the reader. I noticed her use of allegories when Belinda states, “I will not take too much of your Time, but to plead and place my pitiable life unto the fathers of this Nation” (Dove 5-7). This passage sends the message that Belinda feels as if she is not important or even considered a person. That she shouldn’t even have the opportunity to express her feelings because she is not of any value. She among many are not valued and their voices aren’t heard. She pleads as to get her story out however. I had noticed the use of allusions when Belinda represents others of no value when she says,”Lately your countrymen have severed the Binds of Tyranny. I would hope you would consider the same for me” (Dove 8-10). She expresses how the lower class is exhausted from the way they have been treated. Like they are the working dogs of society and are to do the work that the higher class, and government hadn’t wanted to do. Or the lower paying, if paying at all, jobs. They were tired of being treated with not even the uttermost respect. They were about to put it to and end and Belinda had hoped that they would give her, and everyone else, the respect they had given to the upper class. The tactical imagery I had noticed was in the last few lines of the poem. When Belinda expresses,”As to the Accusation that I am Ignorant: I recieved Existence on the Banks of the Rio de Valta. All My childhood I expected nothing, if that be ignorance” (Dove 13-16). These lines stood out to me as a reader. They showed me how she hadn't been told she was nothing since the age of 12 until she went to a place where she was noticed. She hadn’t been exposed to this feeling before. The feeling of being someone and being acknowledged. I believe these may have been the lines to inspire her to write this poem. It expresses how she had actually been respected which may have driven her to a point to actually reach out. That they way she had been treated is not how others had been treated,. It encouraged her to reach out and seek the treatment the upper class had.
ReplyDeleteYour outlook on this poem was very thought-provoking. When reading this poem, I too thought that the point of view was essential to the overall strength of it. Another common perspective we share is who the narrator likely is as a person: a freedom-seeking slave. I feel like, since the poem is set around the same time that America gained it's independence, the poem is likely a commentary on the idea of "freedom". Given that the contents of the letter are asking the government of the country to "consider the Same" (line 3, stanza 2), it is quite obvious that the narrator desires to share and celebrate the same freedom that her white counterparts are now feeling. Another interesting detail Dove included was the capitalization of the word "Same" in the quote I earlier brought up. I personally think Dove did this to express the importance of equality and to show just how much it meant to the narrator. Thanks for posting your analysis!
DeleteNathan Maisonville P7
ReplyDeletePoint of View in "The House Slave"
In "The House Slave", Rita Dove writes through the eyes of a slave who works within the master’s house (It is inferred that the narrator is a house slave based on the title), describing the horror of witnessing the grueling and agonizing life of a field slave from afar. In the poem, the slave narrating the story weeps and shivers. I believe that he/she is crying not just out of sympathy for the other slaves tediously working in the field, but also out of guilt. On plantations, house slaves were known to live much “””nicer””” lives than those working in the fields. For the most part, house slaves evaded the whipping, farm work, and harsh living conditions that the field slaves constantly endured. This “”””pampered”””” lifestyle often lead to feelings of resentment towards the house slaves from the others and somewhat even created social classes amongst the slaves. The narrator of the story likely feels conflicted. On one hand, the narrator feels almost as though he/she is betraying the other slaves by living in the home, but, on the other hand, the slave probably fears life in the field. The choice of perspective for this poem was a key part of what made it so powerful and emotional. It truly shows how effective a point of view can be when writing a poem.
In Rita Dove’s “Freedom Ride”, the struggles and motivation for the Freedom Riders of the Civil rights movement is discussed. Dove references the important figures of the movement when she writes “Dallas playing its mistake over and over until even that sad reel won’t stay stuck--there’s still Bobby and Malcolm and Memphis” (17-20). This quote is a direct reference to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in November of 1963 in Dallas. A recording of the assassination was most likely played over and over which can be found in the line “Dallas playing its mistake over and over until that sad reel won't stay stuck” In the next line Dove makes reference to chain of assassinations that came to follow JFK including his brother Bobby Kennedy (Bobby), Malcom X (Malcom), and Martin Luther King (Memphis). I believe Dove is referencing all of these figures as a type of freedom rider due to their importance in the civil rights movement, and their sacrifice for it. Like these men many freedom riders lost their life to promote ideas of desegregation and civil rights throughout the country. In this poem Dove’s mission is to shine light, or to highlight how vulnerable and exposed the fighters and voices of civil rights were at this time. In the last stanza Dove writes “ You can ride/ into the afternoon singing with strangers,/ or rush home to the scotch/ you've been pitching all day--/ but where you sit is where you'll be/ when the fire hits.” (25-30). Here Dove is basically saying that any individual (like those who sacrificed their lives for the movement) have the power to speak their mind or protest for what they believe in, but if you choose to stay at home and hide away in fear of danger or persecution, then you won’t be apart of the movement or the fight when things start to happen or when “the fire hits”. Rita Dove in “Freedom Ride” is highlighting both the importance of those who sacrificed themselves to the movement and the importance of “joining the ride” or fighting for what's right.
ReplyDeleteYour analyzes is very well articulated. I can see clearly the connections you make and think that Rita Dove is making commentary on human nature. She calls on the reader to not hide from the plights they are burdened with, but rather to attack them head on as many have before. Such as Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, and Bobby Kennedy. I really enjoy the message of this poem and believe that today that the American people have a tendency to hide or change the channel from the problems that our nation faces. This indifference is saddening and many people today could learn from this poem.
Delete“Climbing In,” by Rita Dove tells the story of Red Riding Hood as an allegory to the inequalities in the bus system and other public areas to describe the fear blacks felt, as well as a false sense of security. The title itself, “Climbing In,” evokes some fear. The phrase “Climbing In” leaves unanswered questions and doubt. Climbing into something leaves you enclosed or trapped. The first stanza also helps to evoke fear when it uses harsher words by themselves for emphasis. In addition, the phrase “lie-gapped,” to my understanding meaning the lies told leave open gaps of questions that can only be answered with the truth. The next stanza informs readers that this is an allegory to the bus system. This also reverts back to the title as it says “to step up, up.” The last three stanzas confirm the Red Riding Hood story. A young girl travels to visit her grandmother. The wolf, hoping to eat the girl, hurries to her grandmother's house, and tricks the grandmother. The wolf eats the grandmother and disguises himself as the woman. When Little Red Riding Hood comes, the wolf’s trick fools her, and the poor girl gets gobbled. This story helps portray a false sense of security. The rules of segregation seem like protection, but the disguise covers only the wolf, all the negative impacts and inequalities. Dove’s poem “Climbing In,” tells the story of Red Riding Hood to convey fears and lies found in segregation.
ReplyDeleteKaden Cui
DeleteI very much enjoyed this analysis. The continued references to the ambiguity of the situation really do provide help me put myself in the shoes of someone caught up in these new, changing times during the Civil Rights period. While finishing up reading your analysis, I can't help but think of the mindset of an African American at the time, believing the US to be a protector only to be quickly attacked by its laws and policies against the African American people. Both whites and blacks are impacted by the deception put forth, be it from the false sense of security, or supposed opportunities America has to offer.
I very much agree with your analysis and like how you noticed the allegory between the poem and Red riding hood. I would have never thought of that, but after reviewing both pieces, that was a very good comparison.You had mentioned in the begging how you felt that the title “Climbing in” meant perhaps being trapped. After reading “Rosa” and knowing the history of segregation and the bus system do you think that the reason blacks had to sit in the back was so they felt as if they actually were trapped and so they knew that they weren’t to any value. They were always the last to leave since they were in the back. They also had to go down the walk of shame past all the glares of the white people to get to the back of the bus. So do you think that maybe they used the bus as a tortue system? Maybe the embarrassment and feeling of being trapped was to keep the blacks off the bus? Like I’m sure if they wanted to they could have made a law to jst have kept the blacks off the busses, but they would have caused an uproar. So do you think this was their way of trying to make them feel unwelcome and stay off the bus?
DeleteRita Dove’s Climbing In, is made up of five stanzas, and is an allegory about the fear Blacks felt in the South during the civil rights era. Rita Dove creates this allegory by using metaphors, symbolism, and tone. The most obvious of the metaphors is how she uses the folktale, Red Riding Hood, to help establish an uneasy or nervous tone throughout the the poem. The story of red riding hood has a very notable scene, where the wolf dresses as the Grandma. Rita Dove uses the deception in this scene to fuel her allegory. She writes, “these are big teeth, teeth of the wolf// under Grandmother’s cap” (Dove, 9-11). First of all, the wolf in this metaphor symbolizes the white bus driver. The word Grandmother is used to create the innocence that the white man wishes to use to hide his or her true feelings about the individual getting on the bus. The teeth of the wolf are the hatred that the southern whites feel towards the African American Southerners and are used to add to the Red Riding Hood illusion. The dime used by the black male or female is assumed to be a Mercury dime or liberty dime, from the sentences, “sweat gilding the dear lady’s cheek,” (Dove, 8-9) and “ as the bright lady tumbles” (Dove, 14). The dime symbolizes the true identity and deep prejudice of the average white citizen in the South. This comes from the often confused identity of the head on the coin as Hermes the greek messenger god. Where in reality it is Miss Liberty.
ReplyDeleteWow! just wow! I thoroughly enjoyed your incredibly insightful analysis. I like how you saw the connection to folktale such as Red Riding Hood, while I also saw a similar connection I failed to understand the nervous or uneasy tone you described. I also liked your connection to the symbolization of the dime to the actual prejudice of the south, I see that connection. I also see how you found the word "grandmother" to represent a symbol of innocence or a use of "positive imagery". This was a good thorough analysis.
DeleteKaden Cui
ReplyDeleteRita Dove's "Lady Freedom Among Us" is a 32-line poem, separated into 9 stanzas. The poem describes the bronze statue, the Statue of Freedom, atop of US Capital Building. The biggest reoccurring figure of speech is the personification of the statue, which Dove uses to convey the triumphs and struggles of democracy from both past and present, as well as present criticism to its history. This is first alluded to with the line "She has risen among us in blunt reproach" (Dove, 11), where Dove describes Lady Freedom, and democracy itself, rising above rising above the ways of the past. In the sixth stanza, we see both a praise alongside a critic of the history of the US Democracy, reading "she who has brought mercy back into the streets and will not retire politely to the potter's field" (Dove, 20-21). While Dove describes Democracy as an unwavering entity, continuing to strive throughout hardship, she also alludes to the persistent desire for freedom by oppressed groups of history, such as African Americans. Dove finishes the poem by describing freedom as an entity that will not perish, and instead should be accepted rather than suppressed in the final stanzas, "Don't think you can ever forget her//don't even try //she's not going to budge// no choice but to grant her space"(Dove, 26-29). This continues to praise the endurance of democracy, but also brings light to the attempts at suppressing the freedoms of minority groups, an attempt that Dove believes is futile, as freedom will still prevail,
ReplyDeleteThe poem Rosa by Rita Dove really intrigued me. I feel as if Dove bases this poem off of the era of the civil right movement and uses allegories to represent the actions of Rosa Parks. When Dove sets the scene with her first stanza by saying,”How she sat there, the time right inside a place so wrong it was read”(Dove 1-3).This stood out to me as Dove meaning to say that this action couldn’t have been done at a better time. In her previous collection of “Slavery poems” the message tended to send that the slaves were sick of being treated like second class citizens.That they had finally begun to see that not all people were treated the way that they were. They were sick of being treated like second class citizens and felt it was time to let the world know how they felt. I think this is where Dove was going with this poem in this stanza. She expresses how Rpsa knew the consequences, but she remained there.She wanted to be part of this civil rights movement and knew that this would be the perfect stunt to hop aboard it. Rosa was done being treated badly and being told to sitting the back of the bus. It was time for her to take a stand for not only herself, but the re4st of the colored population.
Your analysis struck a chord with me. You saw the poem in such a similar way to me that there is very little I could add. I think your description of Rosa Parks captured who she was as a person quite well. She was a rebel with a cause, fighting for what she believed in, tired of being treated as a second class citizen. Thanks for posting!
DeleteNathan Maisonville
ReplyDelete(P7)
In the poem 'In the Lobby of Warner Theatre, Washington D.C.', Dove writes about an aged Rosa Parks making an appearance for a movie premiere. The movie, Amistad, was a film centered around a slave ship. This racial conflict focused plot is likely the reason that the director, Steven Spielberg, “cajoled her to come”. In this poem, I feel the text portrays Rosa Parks as a person worthy of every man’s respect, and rightfully so. Rita Dove writes of her as though looking through the eyes of someone witnessing Parks at the premiere, practically gawking at the aura of positivity the elderly woman brought. Dove paints Parks to be a person of peace and tranquility, using words such as “gently” and “soothing” to describe her actions. The description of Rosa Parks by the narrator as “living history” demonstrates how highly regarded she was and how much she was honored for her bravery and courage. An interesting thing I also noticed was that, in stanza 1, Spielberg is almost portrayed negatively. Dove hints at him having a selfish persona, writing that he persuaded (“cajoled”) Parks to come to the premiere. It seems that the narrator has their doubts about Spielberg’s intentions as well, bringing up and quickly denying that the director might be using Parks to “push his film”. However, I don’t believe this to be Rita Dove’s way of throwing shade on Spielberg, but rather her making a point of just how much Rosa Parks could steal a spotlight, even if the spotlight she was stealing was from a director of a premiering, multi-million dollar film.
In the poem “Parsley” by Rita Dove, I had noticed a few things right off the bat. The first thing I had noticed was the title, parsley. Parsley is a green, culinary herb that can also be used as a garnish to give the food that more professional, fancy appearance.For those seeing the parsley on a dish, this can be associated with wealth, but for those seeing the parsley in the fields, this symbolizes, lack of money and hard work.So, immediately I notice the contrast between the wealthy and the poor.I saw this again in the first stanza of “The Cane Fields”. Dove says, “There is a parrot imitating spring in the palace, its feathers parsley green.Out of the swamp the cane appears” (Dove 1-3).In the first line, Dove uses a metaphor and a personification to represent Spring and also wealth through the bird.As I had mentioned earlier, Parsley represents wealth and poor depending on where you are seeing it. Since the bird is in a palace with feathers parsley green, you can infer that this bird represents the riches.Parsley needs a full amount of sunlight to grow pertaining to the seasons spring and summer.Springs and summer could symbolize happiness and relaxation. In the Spring and summer, people tend to have more fun and be happier with the weather being warmer, and also taking vacations with family.As you go onto the third line, Dove talks about eh sugar cane appearing out of the swamp. Just like the Parsley, sugar cane, in this instance,symbolizes the poor. In the era o civil rights, the poor and slaves were sent into the fields to harvest it.Once harvest, their owners/farmers would then take it to sell, making riches. So here again, you notice the contrast between the wealthy and poor.Finally when Dove says,”For every drop of blood there is a parrot imitating spring”(Dove 17-18).I think this is a metaphor of showing how everything the poor does benefits the rich. The slaves go into the field to harvest sugarcane, and the wealthy get to make the profit out of it.For all of their hard work, someone else benefits from it. That’s where the parrot comes into play. The parrot symbolizes happiness, riches, and brightness. The sugar cane symbolizes the poor, hard work and unfairness of the civil rights era.
ReplyDeleteYour analyzes was great. I had seen the symbolism of the parrot as wealth, but did not think about the parsley being similar in that way. I also enjoyed how you looked at the contrast of wealth or power. As the power hunger usually end up being brutal and corrupt leaders in governments. Being rich sometimes gives people like Trujillo a feeling of invincibility. I can see how I could have connected this to my comment, by using the difference in understanding of the meaning of Parsley that you describe and how these different understandings of things can make some actions seem plausible to Trujillo. The realization of power he gets from this herb could help make genocide seem like something he can get away with.
DeleteIn Rita Dove’s “Parsley”, The Parrot is an important recurring symbol in the poem. While the parrot in “Parsley” may represent many things, I found a strong connection in it’s symbolic elements of slavery and murder. A parrot is caged, separate from everyday life. While the parrot like the slaves, are independent, smart and beautiful, yet seen and treated in a harsher light and disrespected. The recurring line “The parrot is imitating spring”, is a metaphor. Dove is saying how the parrot is trying to live a life of beauty and reach its full potential, yet is imitating because it is encaged and controlled, and will always live it’s life separate from its potential and not in freedom. This is similar with slaves who were incapable of living their life to full potential and due to their life circumstances constantly live their life in a parody sense compared to the full lives on those unenslaved. In this poem the parrot is most likely representing the slavery and massacre upon the haitian people in the Parsley Massacre. In this event of the early 20th century, the word “parsley” was the word black haitian cane workers were forced to say (in spanish “perejil”), and those who could say the word with the rolled R’s were able to live, and those who did not were executed. In “parsley”, Dove is shining light to this historic event, as well as showing the cruel mentality behind the killing. The symbol of the parrot is used to represent a creature that is mistreated, beautiful and encaged. Most importantly a parrot is capable of repeating human words, with this in mind the parrot could be capable of saying the word “perejil”, this shows the great insignificance for having to say the word. The fact that people were seen as inhuman or unequal due to their incapability to do something even a parrot could do, shows the inhumanity of the murder.
ReplyDeleteYour analysis shows you clearly understand the poem. I thought the same thing about the parrot in the cage being a representation of trapped beauty. The ivory material of the cage is also likely representative of wealth or power, as it is an expensive and hard to obtain material. It is weird to me how much a trapped bird comes up in literature, as we've seen it so far in Siddhartha, the Billie Holiday poem, and now this too. The Parsley Massacre truly was an inhumane, desensitized example of just how savage man could be. Thanks for posting!
DeleteGreat analysis! It brought up points and had given a backstory that I hadn’t even thought of. I liked how you connected the birds and slaves as a sense of not having freedom. Your analysis compares to mine using the parrot. I believed that the parrot had been above the slaves in the field and represented riches. In your analysis, you had mentioned how the parrot could do things that the slaves hadn’t even been able to do. Thanks for posting!
DeleteIn the poem, “Parsley,” Rita Dove uses repetition, tone, and analogy to place the reader in the mind of the Dominican dictator, Rafael Trujillo, while also illustrating the Parsley Massacre. In almost every other stanza of this poem a phrase is repeated with little variation. The phrase can be seen most frequently as, “Out of the swamp the cane appears” (Dove, 19). This phrase is alluding to the Haitian immigrant's journey to the Dominican Republic for work in the sugarcane fields. The cane is also referred to in line sixteen as being in the Haitians dreams, which obviously translates to being hope for the poor Haitians on the border, where the land isn’t as fertile. The repetition or parallel structure of these phrases is used to help build up to the final moment, where the Parsley Massacre starts, as a result of the influx of Haitian immigrants in the region. Repetition is also used by Rita Dove to create a psychotic tone in many instances. The repeating of these phrases is intended so that the reader feels the constant uncomfortable feeling the dictator has with the constant presence of the Haitians. The word Katalina seems harmless enough, but is used with a mocking tone in the mind of Trujillo by the Haitians as they go on with the work in the fields. The singing, despite being innocent in nature, irritates Trujillo and adds to his psychotic demeanor and creates an eerie vibe. Rita Dove takes it even a step further by showing the reader his deep prejudice towards the predominantly black Haitians. the Analogy, used in stanza 12, “God knows// his mother was no stupid woman; she// could roll an R like a queen. Even// a parrot can roll an R!” (Dove, 58-61), is used by dove to express how trujillo feels superior to the Black Haitians. They are compared to a Parrot to emphasis how, in Trujillo’s view, they are dumber than a parrot. The dehumanization of the Afro-Haitians helps Trujillo and his soldiers carry out the parsley massacre, as is the case in many genocides. Overall the poem was created to educate the public about the history and politics of a country many Americans don’t pay much attention to.
ReplyDeleteI like what you had to say about the change in tone, and the positive imagery, such as how you said certain words come off to the reader as innocent or harmless in order to play with the reader's perspective of the story, like the word katalina. Your comment was well written and had very interesting perspective into the poem. You mentioned how the poem gives the reader an insight into a horrible event that most American's wouldn't know much about, I wonder what other horrible events the average American is yet to be educated about, and what important voice such as Dove's, is going to educate us?
DeleteNathan Maisonville (P7)
ReplyDeleteSymbolism in Seasons
Seasons are often personified by people and assigned traits to convey the feelings they bring. In ‘Parsley’, this proves to be true. The background story of this poem is one of grief and sorrow, as a bloodthirsty general seeks to kill the innocent out of sheer spite. He is a troubled man, distraught by the death of his mother, who once fed cookies to a parrot. This general loathes those he deems to be inferior, and holds them to arbitrary standards, punishing them with execution if they do not meet them. In the poem, the general has decided that those who cannot pronounce the “r” in “parsley” are unworthy and condemns them to death. Now that I have given a background to the poem, I will return to my earlier statement of seasons being symbolic in the text. In this poem, fall is talked about as a time of “love and death”. This is true, as fall, although vibrant and beautiful, is a time of life loss. Leaves begin to fade and fall to the ground, crumbling to a dust, and living creatures become scarce. There appears to be a correlation between the meaning of fall in the poem and what role fall plays in the real world, which adds to the text greatly. Spring is also mentioned in the poem and is given a more positive mood, having connotations of beauty and life. When spring comes up in the text, it is usually accompanied with something that is living, such as the “parrot imitating spring” or the walking cane that flowers into “four-star blossoms”. This feeling of life is similar to the feeling that accompanies spring as an actual season, as spring is a time of growth and rebirth.
“Parsley,” by Rita Dove contrasts attitudes toward the Parsley Massacre through personification, auditory imagery, and metaphors. The first section, “The Cane Fields,” shows the Haitians point of view. Personification is used to show how frightened the people are when it says “...the cane appears / to haunt us,” and “as rain punches through.” Dove uses auditory imagery to invoke the same feeling when she writes “we lie down screaming.” In addition, when she describes the Haitians whispering “Katalina" it shows a sense of fear, as they try to hide their inadequacies from the general. Dove also uses word choice such as “we come up green,” to show how new and inexperienced they are. This pervading sense of fear gives readers a sense of what the Haitians feel about this massacre. Conversely, “The Palace" evokes a much different feeling. The general shares his view, as he shares a short story, first about his mother, then about the battlefield. He tells of a soldier who remarked about the guns singing. This humanizes guns to make them seem less threatening. Near the end, the general remembers “Someone / cals out his name in a voice / so like his mother's, a startled tear /splashes the tip of his right boot.” This shows his sensitivity, to his mother to help explain that the general committed this murder in honor of his mother's voice. Lastly, the word parsley was probably used because “The general remembers the tiny green sprigs / men of his village wore in their capes / to honor the birth of a son. He will / order many, this time, to be killed / for a single, beautiful word.” Parsley, to the general, is a symbol of his parents love. From Dove’s poem “Parsley,” we can learn of the Haitians fear, as well as the reasoning behind the general's actions.
ReplyDeleteIn the poem “Primer”, Rita Dove uses jargon, Person vs. Person, and dramatic monologue to create a dominant effect of being bullied while revealing the theme that no matter what someone does to you, you should remain as the better person.By using jargon, This gives the reader more of an insight of the bullies personality. Rita Dove uses jargon when she says,”Hissing Brainiac! and Mrs. Stringbean!” (Dove 3-4). In these lines, it shows the insecurities of the bullies. They make fun of this young girl by calling her “Stringbean”. Although, in the earlier text, Dove mentions that the three sisters are skinny, so for them to call this young girl skinny, they must be at an anorexic state. The bullies also call her a “Brainiac” pointing out their insecurities about their own intelligence. Dramatic monologue was expressed when Dove says, “I knew my body was no big deal but never thought to retort: who’s calling who skinny”(Dove 5-7). This shows how the character was using herself as a reassurance that the bullies were wrong. She states the facts to herself in order to put the situation into perspective by almost getting her own opinion, and own moral support. Dove uses person vs. Person when she says, “Nothing could get me into that car.I took the long way home, swore I’d show them all: I would grow up”(Dove 12-15). These few lines show how the character isn’t only battling with the Gatlin sisters but also her mom. She didn’t want to sink to the level of them, so she had just decided to ignore the situation until a further date until she could better handle it. She also battles her mom in the sense that she is old enough to fight her own battles. Even though her mother thought she was helping, she wasn’t. She gave the bullies a sense tahat this girl couldn’t stand up for herself and needed the support of her mother.It also shows a battle with her mother. She wants to be old enough and handle her problems herself, but her mother still wants to be involved. It’s the sense that no matter how old you are, your mom is always going to want to protect you.
ReplyDeleteI really liked your analysis, I found what you wrote about how the dramatic monologue helped better convey the theme of being the better person, or always keeping the better hand of situations. What you wrote about how your age has no effect on how your mother wants to control your life is very accurate, and I found a pattern in most of these poems in people feeling the need to be free from mother, or parental control, but won't succeed, because no matter what they will always be wanting to protect us no matter our age even if they think they are but are not, like in "Primer". I also found those same connections in person v.s person, which can connect to mother v.s child relationship which you had mentioned you found in the poem as well. Overall solid and insightful analysis.
DeleteYour analyzation of the poem was very well thought out. I thought that your thesis was also good, and that in your analyzation you were able to back up that thesis you made. Talking about person versus person was a good move. I could clearly see the connections you created and overall, your comment on “Primer” was well done. There wasn’t much more I would have added.
DeleteIn Rita Dove’s “Persephone Falling” Dove connects ancient greek myth to a theme of mother relationships in her poetry. In greek myth Persephone was the beautiful daughter of Demeter, who gets kidnapped by the god of the underworld, Hades. Persephone is forced to live the underworld with away from her old life, leaving her mother in despair. Due to this event Demeter (the goddess of harvest) stops the world from growing crops and life. (This becomes the explanation for the time of winter). This story is a classic tale of parent and child relationship and the control and concerns mothers have for their children's overall well being. The purpose of Dove’s poem is show the side or perspective that all teens have felt, the longing to feel freedom from their parents control and authority, but as well the poem, like Persephone’s story, shines light on the consequences of disregarding parental orders. What Persephone does is not only a mistake for herself and the future for her life, but is also extremely selfish and leaves her mother in a state of total despair and depression. One of the amazing aspects of this story, as well as this poem is the reader does not only get an insight into the troubles and perspective of a teen wanting liberty, but we also see the perspective of the other side, we get to see why parents want control, or why they worry. The story gives an outlook into both mindsets and attitudes towards a parent to child relationship that most stories fail to accurately articulate properly.
ReplyDeleteKaden Cui
DeleteI enjoy your analysis, and find it interesting how connected both of our poems are, concerning the same Greek myth. Each poem seems to tell a story from a different perspective, with the younger daughter, Persephone, and the mother, Demeter. Like you, I tried to connect the myth to a modern mother and daughter relationship, showing the mindset and emotional response of the family members during their splitting. I really do enjoy the level of background research you did on the myth, and commend you for connecting it to our modern age.
In Rita Dove’s poem “Used”, Dove uses types of diction and figurative language to convey a tone of relentless assault by an outside force, while also conveying the mental and physical burdens put upon the women of society. In the very beginning of this poem she uses hyperbole and diction in the form of, “The conspiracy to make us thin” (Dove, 1). This exaggeration is mostly self explanatory. Their isn’t literally a conspiracy to make women thin, but the word conspiracy is used to make the point that most women feel the burden of society's expectations of them to live up to society's standard of beauty. Other diction such as Dialect like, “Tabula Rasa. No slate’s that clean-” (Dove, 4), are used to show how women feel they must be physically flawless. Tabula Rasa translates from Latin to “blank slate”, which implies the flawless or perfect quality of something. The sentence after reminds the reader that people are all born with imperfections, and that the women from television, magazines, and porn, that men fantasize about, are not real. Dove uses Personification in the form of, “Our muscles say We have been used” (Dove, 7). When she uses this personification she means to somehow put the pain of childbirth into words, which is incredibly difficult. She also uses these words to allude to the feeling that some women may have that is that their only purpose is to bare children. The speaker feels her muscles have been used for their purpose, and nothing more is needed of them and this implies that women can’t accomplish anything greater than giving birth. This is simply not true, but many women feel that they are destine to be homemakers. In the third stanza Rita Dove uses concrete diction in the line, “persuaded by postnatal dread” (Dove, 9), to help the reader understand the emotions the speaker feels after childbirth. The person speaking is in a deep depression, that could be Postpartum depression. The woman may feel that her freedom is gone now that she has given birth. She may also be fearful of the life she will provide for her baby.
ReplyDeleteKaden Cui
ReplyDeleteIn the poem "Demeter, Waiting" by Rita Dove, Dove uses emotional diction and dramatic monologue to convey the anger and, eventually, sadness of a mother, in this case, Demeter, from Greek mythology. In the myth, Demeter is separated from her daughter, Persephone, whom she loves dearly. As a result of this separation, she creates the season of Winter, which we see in the passage "I will drag my grief through a winter of my own making" (Dove, 8-9). While literal, these lines, along with the entire stanza, convey the sense of melancholy and sorrow Demeter, and many other mothers, undergo when separated from their children. Winter, which is derived from the old Germanic word, Winter, means "times of water", and can be related to the tears being shed by Demeter. Along side this sorrow, we also see Demeter's frustration with the line "I will wail and thrash until the whole goddamn golden panorama freezes over." (Dove, 12-14). Goddamn, which is considered by many to be vulgar diction, is rarely used in a professional setting, and shows the reader just how emotional and furious Demeter is over her loss. This poem can perhaps be told from the perspective of another mother as well, making reference to figures existing after the age of the Greeks, with passage line "like one of those ashen Christian philosophers," (Dove, 5-6). This led me to believe that the mother is not frustrated over her daughter leaving, but perhaps the response of those around her, being told to allow her to branch away. This is most evident with the passage "Only someone who hates herself, who believes to pull a hand back from a daughter's cheek is to put love in her pocket" (Dove, 1-4).
(When I looked up this poem, it showed the word visa in place of reprieve. I am choosing to use this because it better supports my thesis.)
ReplyDeleteRita Dove’s poem “Exit" describes the instance of leaving, and the emotions associated with change, using personification and imagery to convey that change though difficult helps us learn and grow. The first line “Just when hope withers, a visa is granted" uses personification to describe the fear of leaving. “The door opens onto a street like in the movies, / clean of people, of cats; except it is your street / you are leaving. A visa has been granted, / “provisionally" -a fretful word” The rest of this first stanza continues to back up the feeling of fear. Dove uses visual imagery to describe the empty street, loneliness. She again uses personification, the word provisionally is fretful, an adjective of nervousness to back up the fearful emotion. “The windows you have closed behind / you are turning pink, doing what they do / every dawn. Here it's gray; the door / to the taxicab awaits.” These lines show the opportunity that change holds when Dove talks about the dawn and the waiting taxicab. The last line in the second stanza, however reverts back to negative emotions when it says “This suitcase / the saddest object in the world.” The last stanza contradicts these negative feelings and allude to the theme. “Well, the world's open. And now through / the windshield the sky begins to blush, / as you did when your mother told you / what it took to be a woman in this life.” Dove reiterates the idea of opportunity in changes, then proceeds to reminisce the mother's view of what the girl can become. Because Dove ends the poem here, we can conclude that she wants us to see the opportunities and benefits of change. Dove uses personification and visual imagery to describe the feelings associated with change, but remind that it holds opportunity.
You captured the loneliness and solidarity this poem conveys quite well. I shared many of your viewpoints and too felt that this poem sent a message preaching that change, although terrifying, opens doors for us in life, allowing us to escalate ourselves as people and reach our true potential. Dove’s usage of imagery in this poem is what made it so powerful and the way she set up a relatable mood made it even more impactful. Thanks for your post!
DeleteNathan Maisonville (P7)
ReplyDeleteHeroes
In ‘Heroes’ by Rita Dove, a character referred to as “you” sees a dying flower and plucks it, hoping to save it. When the character visits a nearby house to get water to put the weeping flower in, the resident screams, distraught by the theft of the one thing that motivated her to live. Because this poem is under a collection by Dove called ‘Mother Love’, I came into it expecting there to be some sort of representation of motherhood. When looking at this poem, I see the characters (the unnamed character, the woman, and the flower) as representations of different aspects of life. To me, the woman of the house represents a mother. This mother (the woman) is emotionally destroyed, having witnessed her daughter (the flower) being stolen from her by a boy (“you”). To validate these being possible representations, the text can be referred to. When Dove states “the one that gave her the strength every morning” in line 3 of stanza 3, it can be taken away that this was meant to portray the bond a mother shares with her daughter and how love she holds for her child. A flower is used to play the role of the daughter, as flowers normally carry feminine connotations and suggest innocence or beauty. The character who is “you” could be a representation of a boy seeking courtship of the mother’s daughter, offering gifts or “trinkets” to gain the mother’s trust. When the mother doesn’t approve of the boy however, the boy metaphorically kills her by removing her from the daughter’s life. The woman’s death symbolizes the heartbreak and angst of a mother watching a child leaving home, ending a bond once thought to be inseparable. This poem was a very powerful one, in my opinion, and could be my favorite one we’ve read, so far.
In American Smooth by Rita Dove, the poem “Chocolate” uses imagery, figurative language, and concrete diction to create a dominant effect of contentment. Gustatory, visual and olfactory imagery like velvet, melt, and liquefy are used to create a warm and inviting tone and help in making an overall delighted tone in the whole poem. Diction is used in many instances to emphasise the satisfaction this simple treat gives a person. In stanza two Rita Dove writes, “how you numb me//with your rich attentions!” (Dove, 4-5). The word numb and rich are used in these lines as sensory words. They imply a sense of euphoria and add to the experience being described. Eating extremely quality chocolate can set off a large amount of endorphins in the brain and can cause a sensory overload of sorts. This is why the richness of the chocolate is described as being numbing. In the fourth stanza Dove writes, “dark punch//of earth and night and leaf”(Dove, 10-11). This personification is used to describe the depth of flavor this chocolate morsel has and its connection to nature, which makes it feel tangible to the reader and notes its earthy qualities. Overall the poem is quite different than many of Rita Dove’s poems I have read, because most contain social commentary. Whereas “Chocolate” is more concentrated on the simple pleasures of life.
ReplyDeleteI liked your analysis overall, intelligent and well thought out like always. I do agree with you entirely, this pome is extremely different than anything Dove writes stereotypically to her writing. This poem unlike others seems to be almost "irrelevant", or not as important and defining as her other work. However as you know from your analysis, Dove still shows herself as the great writer she is with extensive and intellectual placing of imagery, language and diction. This poem, while it may not be as you said "a social commentary" is still a depiction of Dove's capabilities as a writer.
DeleteIn Rita Dove’s American Smooth, her title poem “American Smooth” describes the trance and romanticism of her experience with ballroom dancing. Dove uses many literary devices to help her poem truly captivate the unearthly and magical experience she feels when ballroom dancing. One device commonly as well as strongly used in the poem is personification. In the line “That swift and serene/ magnificence,/ before the earth/ remembered who we were/ and brought us down” (27-31). The use of personifying the earth in this excerpt is used for Dove to contrast her strong experience and feeling of escape from the world, and feeling of being not restricted to earth’s surface, but with the ability to fly away freely, and compares to; the earth forgetting who she was and then remembering her and bringing her down from an almost “high” or euphoric experience of ballroom dancing. Another interesting device Dove uses is the breakup of verse in the poem. I found the splitting of verses in “American Smooth” to basically mimic a rhythmic or dance like pattern. For instance the first five lines reading “We were dancing---it must have/ been a foxtrot or a waltz,/ something romantic but/ requiring restraint,/ rise and fall, precise” (1-5). This excellent use of rhythm styled writing gives the reader a more accurate sense of what the mood of the setting is, as well as captivates the reader and almost transports them into the specific context of the poem. What Rita Dove’s “American Smooth” does so well is successfully shift the reader into the writing whether it’s through explicit uses of metaphors and personification, or through the writing of each verse in order to convey greater ideas within the poem.
ReplyDeleteI feel that although the subject matter in the poems we discussed were completely different, the principle matter is the same. It seems that from both of these poems a message of finding pleasure in the simple things in life, can be seen depicted. I enjoyed how you commented about how the dancing would make her feel like flying away, and how you pointed out that there was a rhythm to the poem that does what the dancing does to Dove. I think your thesis in the beginning could have been improved and it seemed some comments at the end could have been better at the beginning, but this was minor and didn’t really hurt the content. Overall your analyzation was thoughtful and well articulated.
DeleteRita Dove’s poem “Sic Itur Ad Astra" evokes a surreal, dreamlike feeling by her use of similes, symbols, and personification to tell the wonders of dreams, but also fear of the unknown. “Bed, where are you flying to? / I went to sleep / nearly an hour ago, / and now I'm on a porch / open to the stars!” Right away, Dove personifies the bed to show how it works as a comforter. Dove also poses a question unanswered to evoke some worry or doubt in the reader. She uses short lines to describe the scene to help convey the dreamlike state with quickly fleeting images. The stars in this poem represent opportunity. “Close my eyes /and sink back to / day’s tiny dismissals; / open wide and I'm / barefoot, nightshirt / fluttering white as a sail.” Contrasting the open and closed eyes help readers understand dreams and how they can be good. Dove uses a simile to show she is discussing dreams. “What will they say / when they find me / missing-just / the shape of my dreaming / creasing the sheets? / Come here, bed,” This stanza completely confirms that Dove is discussing dreams. She also reintroduces the worry. The bed represents comfort, and the narrator wishes for that comfort back. “I need you! I don't know my way. /At least leave my pillow behind to remind me / what affliction I've fled- / my poor, crushed pillow / with its garden of smells!” Further pleading for the bed to return, Dove accurately shows how people react to fear. Even when it is something good, they wish for something to hold onto. Dove’s poem “Sic Itur Ad Astra" describes the wonders of dreams, and the fear that pervades it.
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DeleteWow, great analysis. I like how you saw that Dove used personification to show how the bed had left her. I also liked how you said that the bed is a source of comfort for her. I feel like the reason Dove can’t sleep is because she is having troubles in her daily life. Like.Like she says in the poem she cannot sleep and thinks back to her troubles in the day. I think the bed is a symbol for the reason that she couldn’t sleep, do you have any ideas as to what that might be? Thanks for posting!
Great analysis! I agreed with your points of how Dove used personification and symbolism to represent deeper meanings. I enjoyed the dream-like feeling this poem created and thought the atmosphere it projected made it very engaging. Another interesting thing I found out was that the title translates to "So we go to the stars", giving it even more of a dreamy feel. Thanks for posting!
DeleteIn American Smooth by Rita Dove, the poem “All souls” uses personification, oxymorons, and romanticism. Dove uses personifications when she is talking about the dance and says, “I didn’t notice
ReplyDeletehow still you’d become until we had done it (for two measures?four?)-achieved flight, that swift and serene magnificence, before the earth remembered who we were and brought” (Dove 22-31). Her personification of the Earth, portrays her own feelings about the dance. How she had been felt so taken away during the dance. She hadn’t realized how bored/ not into it her husband was however. So when she had realized that, it’s like she had been ripped from her high and put back into reality, or to a disappointed, sad state. She uses oxymorons when she says, “-such perfect agony, one learns to smile through (Dove 10-11). Perfect is a joyful feeling of everything is correct and agony is extreme pain. By saying this, She means that the time and effort to get this dance right is the greatest frustration she could feel. She loves it even though it may be hard, she loves the feeling she gets from it. She uses romanticism throughout this whole poem but one place I noticed it was when she said, “two chests heaving above a seven-league stride-such a perfect agony, one learns to smile through, ecstatic mimicry being the sine qua non of American Smooth” (Dove 8-14). By being so descriptive, she shows how the dance resonated with her. How certain moves felt, how much practice you had to have to nail the moves. How everything she did was worth it. How achieving the feeling of getting everything right was worth everything they went through.
Nathan Maisonville (P7)
ReplyDeleteCozy Apologia
In this poem by Rita Dove, a hurricane is “nudging up the coast”. The hurricane referenced in this poem is likely the hurricane named Floyd, which happened in 1999. This can be inferred because, later on in the poem, Dove writes “Floyd’s cussing up a storm”. This personification of the storm is used to portray the hurricane as violent or angry, seeking to cause strife wherever it goes. The storm itself could also be a representation of society, with the house being the sanctuary of love and trust. When opening the poem, it is addressed to someone named Fred. When writing this, Dove likely had her husband, named Fred, in mind. She writes about Fred passionately, painting him as her knight in shining armor. The title of the poem, “Cozy Apologia”, is likely alluding to a sarcastic apology, as she is non-apologetic for not reaching the “Divine” standards society has set for relationships. She is glad she’s in an unordinary partnership, veering away from the “all business” age of today. Going back to my point of the house being a representation of sanctuary from society (the storm), Rita and Fred’s unique relationship can easily fill the role of the house, as they seem to be uninfluenced by what society wants. Rita Dove herself is an unordinary yet extraordinary person, touching the hearts of and inspiring people from all over with her poetry.
In Rita Dove’s “Lullaby”, Dove’s stanza structure and cesura helps convey a dialogistic sense to her poem. In the poem “Lullaby” Dove describes a conversation with her mother, discussing while simultaneously describing to the reader her longing to be a child again, and experience childlike wonder, and feeling of security. The way dove writes each stanza is in a strange pattern with half of the text being on one side of the page, and the other in line to the far left. I felt this created a dialogue dynamic in the writing, as if the speaking is stopped and then picked up somewhere else by someone else, or possibly she is comparing herself to her mother by filling in and speaking the next line to comfort herself, as her mother would if she was alive. The poem basically goes into the many ways her mother extensively takes care of her such as the line “Mother, I want the birthday supper of my childhood,/ dripping with sauce./ Then you must lie down while I fix it!/ Here a pillow for your back.” (16-19). However the next line says “I can’t. The school bus is coming. She’ll be waiting around the corner./ Already? So soon!” (20-22). I saw these lines as being put at the end of the poem to display Dove’s growing up and moving on, how she can't stay home with her mother forever, and when the reply to her departure is “Already? So soon!” It shows the reader how the mother’s daughter is leaving so fast, and growing up and leaving sooner than she thought. In general the poem depicts the relationship she has with her mother and how she misses both her mother and her lifestyle, and Dove creatively conveys this theme in “Lullaby” by using dialogue like stanzas and caesuras for the same effect.
ReplyDeleteKaden Cui
ReplyDeleteIn the poem "Meditation at Fifty Yards, Moving Target" by Rita Dove, Dove uses dialogue and point of view to create a primary feeling of control as well as urge. Throughout the entire poem, dialogue is used to explain the workings and advice of guns, with some stanzas swapping to the point of view of non-living objects, such as the air perturbed by the flying of the bullet, and the bullet itself as it nears its target, or "home". In the opening to the section "Blues in Half-Tones, 3/4 Time", Dove writes "Our heart was forged out of barbarism and violence. We learned to control it, but it is still a part of us." The entirety of the third stanza seems to support this developed control over a violent urge, describing the control over a firearm, "Don't hold anything, just stop breathing." (Dove, 20-22). Many humans find a pleasure out of firing guns, but even when engaging in a "violent" pastime, a variety of measures are taken to ensure control over the device. Continuing from the opening of "Blues in Half-Tones, 3/4 Time" Dove writes that "To pretend it does not exists is to create an opportunity for it to escape." Many turn to shooting, or other seemingly violent activities such as martial arts or video games, to relieve the natural urge to commit harm. This urge, and its relief, is seen in stanza 2. "Then the sudden pleasure of heft - as if the hand had always yearned for this solemn fit" (Dove, 13-16). A natural urge for disruption and violent acts exist in all of us, but, as time has passed, we have learnt to control this urge, and over-selves, through other means in our lives.
Your analysis was thoughtful. As I read this poem, I could clearly see the connections you made. I really liked in the poem how each time the tone changed a monometer was used before the new stream of consciousness was added to the poem. It increased the intensity of the poem and with every change in thought I felt myself almost horrified by the power of such a weapon beyond its use. I also liked the simplicity of the analysis. You were straight to the point. You were able to take a quality look into the text and give some great commentary.
DeleteIn Rita Dove’s “American Smooth”, the poem “Against Flight” uses metaphors, symbolism, and abstract diction to allude to the bigger message about human technological progress. In the first stanza the message can be derived from the metaphor, “Everyone wants to go up-”(Dove, 134). In this line Dove tries to convey a message about the faults of human progress. Rising into the sky can related to being accepted by god or transcending. She seems to be commenting here how humans want perfection and as the poem continues she plays of this simple desire. Following this line in stanza three Rita Dove writes, “No sense// looking around when you can see everywhere:”(Dove, 6-8). Here she is stating that as humanity advances, the technologies that make our life more and more comfortable will make us less and less curious and may actually hurt the real progress. She also uses the diction like “see” and “look” specifically in this line. The word “see” seems to be more of a broad term, pertaining to observing the surface of something. Whereas the word “look” seems to be associated with a more in depth observation of things in the world. Rita Dove also uses contrasting diction, like “stars” (Dove, 21), and “sinks” (Dove, 21), to emphasis this conflict between progress, while trying to retain one’s humanity. In stanza seven Dove writes, “no more theatre, for that matter”
ReplyDelete(Dove, 13), using theatre as a symbol for the arts in order to shine light on how people are forgetting about one of the primal of human creations. Similar connections from this poem can be made to a speech by the late great Charlie Chaplin, in the movie the Great Dictator. In the movie Chaplin’s character explains, “We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical. Our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness.”
(The Great Dictator, Chaplin). Here the ideas about humanity leaving what makes it human behind as greed and ego infest society. Overall the poem “Against Flight” conveys a message people should not ignore as humanity moves into a golden age of technology.
I really liked your analysis, very thorough, what I found to be the most interesting is what you wrote about how our own advances technologically (or not regarding technology) may possibly lead to our own demise, or errors. After reading your comment I read this poem and can see this ironic comparison. What I found very interesting was in how you stated diction in such simple, or seemingly irrelevant words, actually can have important meanings and contrasts like "sink" and "stars". I also liked how you pointed out how important the message of this poem is to us as humans. Humanity needs to understand and take into consideration its limits. Overall I found your post to be very observant and interesting.
DeleteIn “Eliza Age 10, Harlem" author Rita Dove uses personification and metaphors to describe how even the smallest, most insignificant person is special. “I'm not small like they say, / those withered onions on the stoop / clucking their sorrowful tongues. / I'm concentrated. I'm a sweet package of love. Jesus" In this first line, Dove introduces her point straight-forwardly when she writes “I'm not small like they say.” She then describes who “they" are as withered onions clucking their tongues. Onions typically make people cry, which is why Dove used it as a metaphor for those who are saying hurtful things. “[Jesus] says so, and He's better than angels / ‘cause He knows how to die; / He suffers the children / to come into Him. / I can climb these stairs-” This stanza discusses Eliza’s belief in Jesus Christ, a common belief, and how He is the reason why she can be strong amidst the conflict. “easy, even in T-straps. Yes, / I am my grandma's sugar pea / and someday I'm gonna pop / right out-and then, boys, / you better jump back!” In this last stanza,Eliza complements herself: she can climb stairs easily, even in heels. She also boasts of her grandma's pet name for her, sugar pea. This emphasizes how Eliza, though mistreated is still special and has the opportunity to be great. Through metaphors and personification, Dove conveys that everyone is special, no matter what.
ReplyDeleteI really like your analysis and you have pointed out several things that I hadn’t seen when I had read this poem. Like how the onion represents crying because people usually cry when they are peeling onions. I had also noticed something else after reading your analysis. I had noticed that our poems are very similar. Like you had pointed out, Dove is trying to get the point across that everyone is special in their own way. In the poem “Fox”, I think Rita Dove is trying to convey the same aspect. The fox is a strong animal that has a glow and that's what she used to describe the girl. She says in the end of her poem that is was more than any man could handle. Implying that she doesn’t need a man in this case to make her feel special because she knows that she already is. Thanks for posting!
DeleteIn Rita Dove’s “American Smooth”, the poem “Fox”, uses metaphor and mood to give depth to this young woman she was describing. She starts off by using the metaphor of, “ She loved what she was, there for the taking, imagine” (Dove 7-10). Dove uses the fox as a way to describe this girl. Foxes are creatures that are subtle but definitely stand out. They can take care of oneself and do a good job doing so. This woman is confident in what she is doping and has much pride in herself. Dove uses the mood of this poem to get across to young females or really anybody. After reading this poem, one may feel the urge as to stand more independent, not needing anybody else. We see this when Dove says, “She imagines nothing.She loved nothing more than what she had, which was enough for her, which was more than any man could handle (Dove 11-20). After reading these lines, one may feel more confident in themselves. Given the feeling that you don’t need to impress anyone but yourself. That you can be happy by taking some pride in yourself. You don’t need anyone else to notice it but yourself. That you should take pride in yourself. That's what gave this young woman the glow that she had. That she knew she had it, instead of looking to someone else to tell her that she did.
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