Color-Marking: An Excuse to Use your Colored Pencils!
Here is an example of how you can go about color marking a poem. I’ve used the first poem in the “Historical Figures” packet as the example. It is fine if you copy this to get started. This is ONE example. It is not the ONLY RIGHT way to do it. Obviously, there are some things most everyone will mark, but sometimes you will see things others don’t, or you might NOT see things others do! Like everything, you will get better at this with time and practice!
Ladies and gentlemen, get out your colored pencils and begin. . .
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What follows is a sample explication (literary analysis of the poem “Canary”:
Billie Holiday: Be a Mystery
Some people with the greatest gifts and talents can also possess personal demons which they hide with their charisma and talent. Robin Williams, the actor and comedian, hid deep depression beneath his happy, manic behavior. The Australian actor, Heath Ledger, succumbed to a drug overdose soon after giving a brilliant performance as The Joker. Judy Garland, who portrayed Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, concealed her battle with alcohol from the public even as she performed on screen and stage. Unfortunately, this was also the case with the legendary jazz singer, Billie Holiday. Her voice and style of singing was unparalleled, yet beneath the persona lurked personal problems and addictions. Rita Dove captures both Holiday’s talent and her demise. In the poem, “Canary,” Rita Dove creates a dominant effect of tragedy through the use of visual imagery, symbols, metaphors, and musical diction as she describes the short life of Billie Holiday.
Dove sets the tragic mood of the poem even before beginning the poem through the use of visual imagery and symbols. The title, “Canary,” connotes images of little yellow songbirds, but then the reader could connect the image of canaries with their use in coal mines. (Canaries were often taken down with miners since mines, in the early days, were not ventilated as they are now. If the levels of methane or carbon monoxide were at dangerous levels, the canaries would die, and the miners knew to leave the tunnels.) Like a canary, Holiday was sensitive to her environment; the canary, unable to withstand the toxic levels of gas, died, while Holiday tried to cope with her problems through the abuse of drugs. She tried to overcome childhood abuse, racial discrimination and failed relationships, but in the end could not endure. This fragility is reflected in the first stanza when Dove writes, “Billie Holiday’s burned voice/ had as many shadows as lights” (1-2). With these lines the reader realizes Holiday’s talents are still remarkable, yet changed. The visual imagery of “shadows” and “lights” conjures despair and joy, which are still apparent in Holiday’s singing despite her physical demise. Later, her “signature” white gardenia is juxtaposed with “that ruined face” implying that, while the gardenia is fresh, pure and beautiful, Holiday herself is tired, beaten down and haggard due to emotional abuse as well as drug use (4). As a symbol, the gardenia at one point was perfect as a representation of this bright new talent. Gardenias are exotic, with thick petals and an alluring fragrance; certainly Holiday was a rare talent whose voice acted like a siren’s song. These images and symbols remind us of the tragedy of her life and death.
The more sordid details of Holiday’s life are revealed through various metaphors and musical diction. For example, when Dove writes, “Now you’re cooking, drummer to bass,/ magic spoon, magic needle”, she is not only alluding to Holiday’s musicality, but her drug use (5-6). One of the drugs abused by the singer was heroin which is often cooked in a spoon and injected with a needle. The term “cooking” also applies to how well a group is working together as a singer and her band would need to do. Later in the second stanza the lines, “Take all day if you have to/ with your mirror and your bracelet of song” also allude to drug use as mirrors are sometimes used to snort cocaine (4). Dove writes, “Take all day if you have to” implying that Holiday spent most of her days in a haze of drugs. The “bracelet of song” connotes an almost visual image of Holiday surrounded by a musical score full of bars and notes, yet also could imply bracelets of a different kind. Handcuffs or shackles are euphemistically called bracelets. Also, while Holiday was not literally shackled or bound, she certainly was by the circumstances surrounding her life. Her life was controlled by men, mostly white men, who decided when and where she would perform, and laws, which promoted prejudice and segregation. That Holiday tried to escape these bonds is hardly surprising.
The dominant effect, along with the theme of the poem, is brought into focus with Dove’s closing lines. The poet writes, “Fact is, the invention of women under siege/ has been to sharpen love in the service of myth”, Dove describes Holiday’s initial triumph over and eventual capitulation to her various oppressors (9-10). One does not often think of a blues singer as someone who is “under siege,” yet she was. She overcame abandonment by her father, abuse at the hands of relatives who were supposed to care for her, and a stint in jail for prostitution. Lady Day (an epithet given to Holiday) rose above these hardships to begin singing in small New York jazz clubs Here, in one of these clubs, talent scouts discovered Holiday; not long after, she was on her way to becoming a pivotal figure and icon in American Jazz. During the height of her success, she began to abuse heroin, opium and alcohol. This was mainly due to her many successive relationships with men who mistreated her. During the 1930’s through 1950’s when Holiday was popular, the media was not as intrusive as it is now in the lives of celebrities. Even if there was scandal, it was not reported as readily or it was “hushed up” by the record labels or studios that controlled the artists’ careers. The phrase, “sharpen love in the service of myth,” alludes to Holiday’s mythic persona that is prevalent now (10). People often root for the “underdogs” or those who are battling to overcome unfortunate situations. Modern jazz artists and aficionados who now know the real person behind the white gardenia see her talent as even more remarkable and iconic. The adoration of her fans is “sharpened” by the knowledge that she was a fighter. The poem concludes with the line, “If you can’t be free, be a mystery” (11). Even with all the information now known about Lady Day, there are still many unknowns. She was able to keep her problems and addictions hidden and create a persona of an elegant, cool and polished performer whose life was a mystery to her fans. According to Dove, Holiday was successful with this, despite the many difficulties life brought her way. Although she was shackled with many people and circumstances, she created an image that is still recognized today, fifty-five years after her death.
The public often forgets that with the glamour of fame and fortune, come different types of restrictions and problems. Some problems, such as abandonment, abuse and prejudice know no socio-economic boundaries. All human beings are susceptible to tragedy. All human beings are capable of triumph. Billie Holiday, with her rich, nuanced voice, was one who was capable of both. Rita Dove captures this tragedy through word choice and literary devices in her poem “Canary.”
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