I'm posting this for Nam The poem that I picked to blog about is, Sonnet in Primary Colors, written by Rita Dove. The first and second line stated, "This is for the woman with one black wing/ perched over her eyes: lovely Frida, erect". These lines described an artist known as, Frida Kahlo. Dove's descriptions was of her unibrow, the dark-black eyebrow that was above her eyes that was so thick that it looked like the pair of wings of a bird in the sky. This could be label as a visual auditory. In the next line,"... in the stern petticoats of the peasant", meaning her status as a daughter of an immigrant; peasant usually means a low status which led to my thought of her father that immigrated from Germany. The fifth and sixth line of the poem,"...plaster corset/ ... Romance of mirrors", suggested the accident that Kahlo has when she was young, which left her bedridden and unable to have child. "Mirrors" in this line represents Kahlo's illusion of trying to have a child but failed to have any. The seventh line suggested she was in pain for a very long time and was hard for her to sleep at night. The eighth and ninth line tells the fact of her time being in a state of war. The 10th all to the last line suggested the love Diego had for her even though they were on and off. The last line could also be interpreted that Diego loved Kahlo eyes and her unibrow.
I agree with your statement regarding “one black wing / perched over her eyes…” as a reference to Frida Kahlo’s unibrow. However, to add on to your analysis of “Sonnet in Primary Colors”, I think Rita Dove used words like “Beloved Dead” and “skull” to allude to Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. Since Frida Kahlo was very proud of her Hispanic culture, it is certain that she celebrated the holiday. So, “Beloved Dead, / Lenin and Marx and Stalin arrayed at the footstead” and “Diego’s / love a skull in the circular window” refers to the altars made in order to commemorate those that were near and dear to her heart. And by adding aspects of Mexican culture to her poem, Dove was able to give the reader more insight on Frida Kahlo’s character.
The poem I chose in this unit is "Canary" by Rita Dove for Michael S. Harper. The first quatrain stanza states, "Billie Holliday's burned voice had as many shadows as lights, a mournful candelabra against a sleek piano, the gardenia her signature under that ruined face". In this stanza, Rita Dove uses drug symbolism in the first line, "... burned voice...", meaning that after injecting herself with heroine so many times, her voice began to coarse and didn't sound very well when she sang. Also in the next line, Rita Dove describes Billie's voice using contrasting diction, "... had as many shadows as lights...", describing how her voice sounded like an angel but after she decided to follow a dark path, her voice wasn't as good as it was when she first started her singing career. The second quatrain stanza states, "(Now you're cooking, drummer to bass, magic spoon, magic needle. Take all day if you have to with your mirror and your bracelet of song)". Rita Dove also uses drug symbolism in this stanza when saying, "... You're cooking... magic needle." The "cooking" is the way that Billie Holliday made the heroine; either she made it or she had a dealer that made it for her. Also, "magic needle", which is the way Holliday injected herself with the heroine and Dove describes the needle as magical because Holliday did drugs to make herself feel more.happy and not have to feel depressed. In the last stanza Dove wrote, "If you can't be free, be a mystery". I think that Dove is saying that, since her childhood, Holliday hasn't been a very happy child. She's gone through tough times as a kid and one can not ignore the bad things that happened and forget about it. So Dove is saying that, if one can't escape the past, live life freely and however one wants to live their life.
I agree with your idea of Rita Dove’s message with Billie Holiday’s struggles in life. I also think that Dove employed an interesting device in terms of stanza length. Starting from the second quatrain stanza, the length of each stanza begins to decrease. The first two stanzas focus more on Billie Holiday and her life. Then in the third stanza, Dove expands the subject of the poem to all women, writing “Fact is, the invention of women under siege has been to sharpen love in the service of myth” (line 9). Then, in the last stanza, Dove presents a moral or notion of wisdom in one line, writing “If you can’t be free, be a mystery” (11). The use of this technique allows the reader to relate to the life of Billie Holiday, as well as learn from it.
The poem I chose to analyze is “Nestor’s Bathtub” by Rita Dove. This poem describes the havoc wreaked by Nestor’s wife, Eurydice, as well as her misbehavior, while Nestor, King of Pylos, is away fighting in the Trojan War or “counting the jars of oil in storeroom 34” (line 8). Dove uses a lot of visual imagery throughout the poem in lines such as “jug upon jug of fragrant water poured until the small room steamed” (4) and “blasted by the force of olive oil exploding in the pot” (16) to describe the setting of destruction that Eurydice caused. She knocked down pots and bathed in fragrant water while her husband was away. The use of visual imagery throughout the poem helps to establish a dominant feeling of immersion for the reader inside Nestor and Eurydice’s home, as well as the destruction that occurs. In addition, the author uses caesurae in lines 6, 16, and 31 in order to initiate a break before going into a list. The lists consist of a lengthy description of events that contribute to the immersion of the reader. The lists are also drawn out with few breaks or pauses to show the longevity of the mischievous acts done by Eurydice. Also, Dove uses personification with line 33, “clay pots screamed” to add human emotions and actions to the destruction. Also, in this poem, Dove did not want to associate Nestor with his home. Rather, she wanted to show how Eurydice was actually the one who indulged in the amenities of the home. The author uses repetition by mentioning in each stanza that “legend got it all wrong” (1), “Legend, as usual, doesn’t say” (14), and “For the sake of legend only the tub stands” (26) to argue against legend and how it incorrectly depicted Nestor’s life.
I agree with your analysis of "Nestor's Bathtub", especially the part when you talk about the repetition of how the legend got the story of his wife all wrong. The background information on Nestor's life helped give insight when reading this poem. Also, Rita Dove added symboism. I analyzed lines 12 and 13, "while his wife with her white hands scraped the dirt from a lover's back", as, the "white hands" referred to how spoiled Nestor's wife was while he was away even though she, "scraped the dirt from a lover's back", which signifies that, while her husband was away fighting in the war, she succumbed to the feeling of loneliness and had an affair. This is showing how the legends and the real story are so different from each other when discussing Nestor's wife.
In the poem “Catherine of Siena”, Rita Dove portrays the story of Catherine’s strenuous life in the church through hyperbole, religious diction and natural imagery. First, in the line, “You walked the length of Italy”, Dove alludes to Catherine’s hard work and exhausting life. By taking her situation in Siena and over exaggerating her language, Dove uses an arduous trek through Italy to represent the period in Catherine’s life where she tended to the sick, helped the poor and began missionary work in her church. Next, by using religious diction, Dove was able to connect her poem to the religious aspect of Catherine’s life. Through the words “fate”, “heaven” and “prayed”, it is suggested that Catherine was very religious and played a large role in the church. After further investigation, it is concluded that Catherine was a patron saint of Italy, named Doctor of the Church by Pope Paul VI and later declared a patron saint of Europe by Pope John Paul II. Lastly, natural imagery was used to show her relationship with the outside world. Through words like “boulder”, “roadside”, “star”, “cedar”, “sky” and “path”, Dove digs deeper into Catherine’s character. By this, it is deduced that in addition to her work in the church and with other people, Catherine also had a profound love for the earth, and traveled near and far to spread her views. Through her use of hyperbole, religious diction and natural imagery, Rita Dove gave insight on the taxing and religious life of Catherine of Siena.
I agree with your idea that “fate,” “heaven,” and “prayed” suggests that Catherine was very religious and played a large role in the church. I also think that Dove uses diction relating to the heavens such as “fate,” “star-washed dome,” “heaven,” and “sky” to symbolize Catherine’s connection God. According to history, St. Catherine was said to have had mystical experiences called “spiritual espousals” (a mystical marriage). Basically, the mystical marriage is a vision in which Christ takes a soul as His “bride.” According to New Advent Encyclopedia, with the completion of this “marriage,” the person who underwent the spiritual espousal is said to receive “sudden augmentation of charity and familiarity with God… ” and the mystical spouse is more involved in God’s sufferings. I think that Dove represents this in her poem through the usage of heavenly diction to show Catherine’s familiarity and connection with God, and through the last two stanzas “No one stumbled across your path./ No one unpried your fists as you slept” (5-6) represents Catherine’s pains and suffering that she now shared with God after her spiritual espousal.
In the poem “Tou Wan Speaks to Her Husband, Liu Sheng,” Rita Dove uses light and dark language to represent Tou Wan’s essential role as Liu Sheng’s wife. Liu Sheng was a prince and a very successful ruler in China during the Han dynasty. However, the poem portrays Tou Wan, the faithful, devoted, and subservient wife who serves Liu Sheng, as the protagonist rather than Liu Sheng, the celebrated ruler of China in history. In the first stanza, Tou Wan is already serving her husband by “building a house,” or a tomb, full of wealth for Liu Sheng. Tou Wan, knowing that that wealth is not enough, not only acknowledges that Shiu Leng is unsatisfied or “bored” (19), but she also uses dark language such as “stench of your/ own diminishing” (24-25), “darkness/ oppresses” (34-35), and “shape of your death” (44) to show that Liu Sheng is actually not the hero he is celebrated to be. Alone, Shiu Leng is helpless and weak, trapped by darkness that he cannot overcome. Dove emphasizes this idea by juxtaposing Tou Wan who is represented by light and Liu Sheng who struggles with darkness. When Liu Sheng is in the “stench of his own diminishing that drives him to air” that he cannot find (19-27), Tou Wan immediately appears with an incense burner (28) to rid of his “stench”. When “darkness/ oppresses” Liu Sheng (34-35), Tou Wan promises to set him a lamp in stanza 36 to ward off the dark. Finally, when Dove writes about Liu Sheng’s death in line 44, Tou Wan promises to encase in a “brilliant envelope” (42) of jade and gold to protect him from the darkness of death. Just as how dark cannot exist without light, Liu Sheng cannot rest without his wife serving him even after his death. Dove purposefully used darkness and light to represent the Liu Sheng and Tou Wan in order to emphasize the theme of women’s importance in world history despite women being overlooked. Although Tou Wan is not very well known, especially compared to Liu Sheng, this poem depicts and recognizes Tou Wan as the true hero. She is characterized as a faithful, selfless, and devoted woman who selflessly carries out her duties to serve her husband.
In the poem “Catherine of Alexandria,” Rita Dove portrays the intimate relationship St. Catherine of Alexandria had with Jesus, though the saint is praised as a martyr and virgin in Christianity. St. Catherine, in her life, claimed that Jesus was her spouse and that her virginity belonged only to him. Dove uses irony, in that she implies throughout the poem that St. Catherine is having relations with a man, “in your bed— / and what went on / each night was fit / for nobody’s ears / but Jesus’” (Lines 6-9), though she in reality is pure. Later in the poem Dove also hints that she could be pregnant: “Each morning / the nightshirt bunched / above your waist— / a kept promise” (Lines 12-15). However, these lines could also signify her faithfulness in that she exposes her stomach to advertise that she had not become pregnant. Though Dove uses diction conveying that St Catherine is having relations with a man, it is meant to show the concrete relationship that she maintained with Jesus. In the lines 6-9, Dove also uses a hyperbole, stating that nobody was fit to hear St Catherine but Jesus— further portraying the intimate relationship the two had, and how influential Jesus was in her life. I believe Rita Dove was attempting to show in this poem that though St Catherine of Alexandria was powerful, independent and influential, she still showed weakness to men. She appears submissive in the first line, seemingly having no choice in her life (due to the power of men in that era): “Deprived of learning and / the chance to travel, / no wonder sainthood / came as a voice” (Lines 1-4). St. Catherine did not have access to education in life, and sainthood simply appeared to her– suggesting she had no choice. Furthermore, Dove portrays the saint as vulnerable in describing how Jesus came over her at night. This poem relates to the others as well, in that a strong, influential woman in history is brought to have another side to her, one that is exposed and having weakness.
The poem I'm going to talk about is The House Slave by Rita Dove. The poem talked about the view of an African-American, or as he/she were called slave at the time during the civil war. The first through the sixth line described a white man went to war to defend the South. The imagery in the first line of dew and sound of horn in the morning stated the time of day that the battle started or when they had to prepared for am the battle. The forth line described how rushed the man was to get breakfast and get to the battlefield. The sixth line described the man leaving his wife while she was asleep and I thought that the man did not want to say goodbye because he probably knows he might not survive. The seventh to the eleventh line described the others around the African-American person, especially his/her sister, praying and I assumed that they are praying for their safety. The twelfth through the last line described the battlefield, the white men running and fighting. The imagery, "...they spill like bees among the fat flowers" (line 14), described how much blood were spill in the battle and the simile compared the blood spilling with how nectar get spill when the need remove their mouth from the flower. The last line show the person weeping and that he/she cannot believe that the battle isn't over, yet. -Nam Nguyen
I had a very similar analysis of this poem as you did but between lines 7-11, "...At the second horn, // the whip curls across the backs of the laggards-- // sometimes my sister's voice, unmistaken, among them. // "Oh! pray," she cries. "Oh! pray!"...", I had a different interpretation. I thought that Dove was talking about the slaves that were being brought out onto the battlefield by their owners, being forced to help fight the war. And that his/her sister was saying "Oh! pray", for those that were going out to help fight the war.
That's a very interesting analysis, I didn't seem to directly connect the civil war to the poem as much. Rather, instead of the man leaving his wife and going to fight the battle, it was about a house slave who felt sympathetic to their fellow slaves who had to work before it was daylight. It was a very emotional poem, and Rita Dove's visual imagery throughout the poem aided the reader in developing these emotions. Perhaps you are right though, I simply took a lighter approach to the harsh time period!
The poem I chose to discuss about is “David Walker (1785-1830)” by Rita Dove. David Walker was born a free man but he grew up in a slave society. Disliking the sadness and misery where he was living, he decided to travel the world.The first stanza, lines 1-8, Dove uses similes and personification. In lines 1-3, “...They strip and beat and drag us about / like rattlesnakes…”. In these lines, Dove talks about how the slaves were being treated by their owners and how lucky Walker was to be born free. Being born free, Walker was able to travel the world and so he decided to travel away from where he was once living and came upon Brattle Street in Boston. There, he established a second-hand clothing business. Walker was also an author and an abolitionist. In the second and third stanza, lines 9-24, Dove uses vivid imagery and anaphora describing what had happened after Walker published his first pamphlet “Walker's Appeal in Four Articles; Together with a Preamble, to the Coloured Citizens of the World, but in Particular and Very Expressly to Those of the United States of America”. Walker urged slaves to stand up for themselves and fight back. After his first pamphlet was published, many people were reading about it and smuggling it to show other people. This pamphlet caused an uproar and the legislature enacted consequences if anyone were to teach a slave how to read or write. In the fourth stanza, lines 25-31, Dove uses vivid imagery. Walker had successfully gotten his second and third edition published. The press was appalled by what was happening. In lines 29-31, it states, “his person (is that all?) found face-down / in the doorway at Brattle Street // his frame slighter than friends remembered //”. I interpreted these last few lines as Walker’s death. When I looked up Walker’s background, it said that 3 months after his third edition was published Walker had died but his death was a mystery. Some people believe that he was poisoned as a reward from Southern slaveholders.
My interpretation of “David Walker” was very similar to yours. After research of my own, I came to the same conclusion as you regarding Walker’s death being a mystery, possibly poison. However, what struck me as interesting was the last line of the poem, “his frame slighter than his friends remembered” (32). The way I interpreted this was that Walker had worked so hard on the pamphlets that he had inadvertently let himself go on his fight for abolition, causing his body to weaken. And while there is debate whether his death was an accident or murder, I think Dove put this line in her poem in order to hint at the fact that there was a suspicious aspect to his untimely demise.
In the poem “The Abduction”, Rita Dove uses auditory imagery and stanza length to foreshadow Solomon Northrup’s abduction. To begin the poem, Dove writes in the first five-lined stanza, “The bells, the cannons, the houses black with crepe, / all for the great Harrison!” (1-2). From this, although it is referring to the death of president William Henry Harrison, Dove sets a happy mood through words like ‘bells’ and ‘cannons’. Flowing into the second stanza of four lines, the poem reads, “pigs squealed invisibly from the bleachers and I fiddled” (9). Here, the pigs squealing and Northrup playing his violin emphasize the joyful scene. It isn’t until the third stanza that Dove changes the mood of the poem in three lines. “I remember how the windows rattled with each report. / Then the wine, like a pink lake, tipped. / I was lifted- the sky swiveled, clicked into place” (10-12). Through the words ‘rattled’, ‘tipped’ and ‘clicked’ a sense of disorientation is recognized as Northrup’s life is shaken and turned upside down. The following two-lined stanza is mute in regard to auditory imagery, where Northrup is floating on water and sleeping on a pillow of stone. The last stanza of one single line is the same, where Dove writes, “I woke and found myself alone, in darkness and in chains” (15). Through the silence of the last two stanzas, a grim mood is set that strongly contrasts with the opening stanzas. By using auditory imagery to create a mood shift and eliminating a line in each consecutive stanza, Dove foreshadows the abduction of Solomon Northrup as his life will go from lively to tragic; and how his life will be lessened by slavery.
I thought that your analysis of the decreasing stanza length was very accurate. It is amazing to see how something as simple as decreasing stanza lengths can have on the poem as a whole. I also noticed that in addition to decreasing stanza length, the author also employs decreasing line length as the end of the poem nears. Short sentences and phrases like “Then the wine, like a pink lake, tipped” (line 11) made it seem as though Northrup barely had any energy to utter these sentences as he was succumbing to the tainted liquor. The next line “I was lifted – the sky swiveled, clicked into place” (12) continues this idea of short sentences and makes it seem as though he thought that his fate was sealed forever.
I chose to analyze “The Transport of Slaves From Maryland to Mississippi” by Rita Dove. This poem centers around an attempted escape of slaves who broke free from their chains while in a wagon. The slaves then proceeded to kill two white men. However, they did not escape because one slave woman helped a black driver mount his horse to look for help. In this poem, Dove makes some of the sentences in the poem italicized. She uses this technique in lines such as “I don’t know if I helped him up / because I thought he was our salvation / or not” (lines 1-3) and “I am no brute. I got feelings. / He might have been a son of mine” (12-13). These italicized sentences represent someone’s thoughts. Although most of the thoughts are the woman’s, in the fourth stanza of the poem, the line “Some n*****’s laid on another one’s leg” actually refers to the thoughts of Baggage man Petit, one of the white men killed. The audience can experience the woman’s thoughts as they are happening which adds to the immersion of the poem. Also, the use of colloquial language within these italicized lines helps to enhance the feeling of the time period and the way slaves spoke, such as in “I got feelings” (12) and “You ain’t supposed to act this way” (29). Also, if you only read the italicized lines of the poem, you get a very brief and general description of what happened. This can relate to how this event happened so fast and how the woman made quick judgments on what to do. In addition, the author uses caesurae in lines 8, 9, and 11 to separate thought from description. This creates the illusion of a second narrator other than the woman. Dove also uses a lot of similes in lines such as “…dust hovering around the body / like a screen of mosquitoes” (4-5) and “The skin across his cheekbones / burst open like baked yams” (7-8). This allows the reader to make connections to a sight that may be more familiar to him or her than the image of a distraught, bruised slave lying on the ground.
I agree with your idea that Dove italicized parts of her poem to represents someone’s thoughts. I also thought that Dove further emphasizes the change in narrator by switching from first to third person. The italicized parts of the poem uses first person “I” and refers to the reader as “you.” However, the rest of the poem is in third person. I think Dove does this because first person is usually easier for readers to connect with than with a narrator speaking in third person. Furthermore, the italicized part of the poem contains more language relating to emotion. For example, the italicized part in the first stanza, which is in the point of view of the woman who helped the driver and thus prevented the escape of the slaves, Dove writes, “I am no brute. I got feelings. / He might have been a son of mine.” (12-13). By writing in first person and using emotional language, readers are able to connect with and understand the slaves more rather than just learning and knowing that slavery was a terrible institution in history. One of Dove’s purpose of this poem is to convey not only the history of what happened to the slaves, but also the emotions and the thoughts of the slaves because it is the understanding of what slaves had gone through that is the true lesson of learning the history of slavery.
In the poem “The Abduction,” Rita Dove uses literary consonance or sibilance of the ““s” or “sh” sound to create an ominous and evil tone. Each stanza contains a plethora of sibilance. Even though there are only 5 lines in the first stanza, there is a total of ten instances of the “s” sound including “bells,” “houses,” Solomon,” “Saratoga Springs,” and more. In the second stanza, there are only four lines, but there are eight instances of the “s” should including “should,” “squealed,” and “invisibly.” The remaining stanzas also all have a large number of sibilance especially compared to the small number of lines. The constant appearance of the “s” and the “sh” sound, especially when read aloud, gives the poem a sinister tone because the sound is often associated with the sound of snakes. Snakes often symbolize evil, so by utilizing sibilance, Dove is able make readers feel tense and apprehensive of what is to happen to Solomon Northup despite the seemingly cheerful beginning of the poem. Rita Dove also uses an anaphora with the word “I.” By constantly repeating the word “I,” Dove emphasizes that Solomon Northup is a person, not a simple “object” that slaves were equated to at the time. In fact, in the first stanza, Solomon says “The citizenry of Washington / clotted the avenue- I among them, Solomon Northup / from Saratoga Springs, free papers in my pocket…” (2-4). Solomon Northup starts the poem by emphasizing that he is a citizen of Washington with the phrase “I among them.” He further emphasizes this point by stating his name and the fact that he has his free papers. Because the poem started with Solomon’s declaration of his freedom and humanity, the constant repetition of “I” creates a familiarity and personal connection between Solomon and the readers. This makes readers become more affected and pained when Solomon Northup is tricked by Brown and Hamilton. In fact, the last line of the poem, which is: “I woke and found myself alone, in darkness and in chains.” (15), is arguably the most powerful line of the poem because this is when Solomon Northup, the free man with whom the readers had connected to, is unfairly captured, imprisoned, and alone.
In the poem “The House Slave,” Rita Dove expresses the emotions of a house slave as they watch other slaves begin their day of work even before daylight, while they sleep comfortably within the house. The visual imagery throughout the poem is what projects this intense emotion from the house slave to the reader, as the reader is able to picture exactly what is occurring. For example, Dove writes, “At the second horn, / the whip curls across the backs of the laggards—” (lines 8-9). These lines arise discomfort in the reader and make them feel deeply sympathetic for the slaves. Rita Dove also includes an oxymoron, writing, “I lie on my cot, shivering in the early heat” (line 12). This literary device shows the nervousness and fear the house slave has for the fellow slaves, as although it is warm they are still shaking. The house slave feels guilty as well, as they are under the warmth of the house while the rest of the slaves must wake before dawn and begin working. In the final line, they express this: “I weep. It is not yet daylight” (line 15). Not only is the sadness simply from watching others go through pain, but the house slave must listen to their sister’s cries as well, amplifying it even more. Overall, this poem is extremely emotional and causes the reader to connect with the house slave, visualizing how horrible it was for the many slaves that worked in the fields.
During the 1950s, riding the bus for a white person was a simple, everyday task. However, for a person of color, the experience was completely different. In the poem “Climbing In”, Rita Dove alludes to the fairy tale “Little Red Riding Hood” to give the reader deeper insight on what it was like for a black individual to ride the bus over 50 years ago. To begin, the opening stanza describes teeth as “metallic”, “lie-gapped” and having “not a friendly shine”. These descriptions connect to the big bad wolf as he persuades Little Red Riding Hood to stop and pick flowers on the way to her grandmother’s house. In the poem, the big bad wolf is the bus driver as he greets the passenger with a fake and unwelcoming grimace. The following lines read, “like the dime / cutting my palm” (4-5). The passenger’s bus fare is representative of the basket Little Red Riding Hood carries in her hand for her grandmother; acting as a form of payment to get into the grandmother’s house. In the middle of the poem, Dove writes, “teeth of the wolf / under Grandmother’s cap” (10-11). This is a direct reference to “Little Red Riding Hood”, showing how the bus driver was hiding behind a grin, like the wolf was hiding behind the grandmother’s clothes. Lastly, the closing stanza reads, “as the bright lady tumbles / head over tail / down the clinking gullet” (14-16). From this, the fairy tale allusion comes to an end as the coin falls into the bus driver’s pay meter and Little Red Riding Hood is swallowed whole, ending up in the big bad wolf’s stomach. By alluding to a popular fairy tale, Dove was able to convey the struggle of black bus riders to a larger audience.
The poem I chose to discuss in this unit is “Rosa” by Rita Dove. As everyone knows, Rosa Park was an activist and a slave who had refused to surrender her seat to a white person on a bus. This refusal had inspired members of the NAACP to organize a boycott in Montgomery, thus beginning the Montgomery boycott. In the first triplet stanza, lines 1-3, Dove discusses how Rosa Park decided to sit down in a section marked for “colored” people and had refused to give up her seat when asked to move; because she was done giving in to what “colored” people were telling her to do. In the second triplet stanza, lines 4-6, Dove uses symbolism when saying, “... dream of a bench/”, this is saying that Rosa Park had a strong desire for desegregation. In the third triplet stanza, Dove uses paradox when saying, “Doing nothing was the doing://”, meaning that just by sitting in that seat, Rosa Parks was making a loud statement saying, “Yes, I’m black but that doesn’t mean a thing”, by not doing a thing. Dove also uses alliteration in this stanza using a hard “c” sound, letting the reader realize how serious Rosa Parks was about doing this. Also when saying, “the clean flame of her gaze / carved by a camera flash”, Dove is describing her mug shot when she got taken in by the police, saying that it is serious and stern. In the fourth stanza, lines 10-12, I thought that lines 1 and 10 was the denotative meaning and the connotative meaning, “How she sat there, // How she stood up / “ (lines 1 and 10). Rosa Parks didn’t stand up in the bus but she stood up for all the other African-Americans that didn’t have the voice to stand up for themselves. I also realized that each stanza is only 3 lines each and each line is very short and I thought that this represented her personality because Rosa Parks was a very humble and quiet person and before the whole bus ordeal, no one really knew who she was.
I agree with your idea Dove uses the paradox in line 7 to illustrate that Rosa Park’s sitting down was the way she stood up to society on not only her behalf, but also every other discriminated African American. Because of Rosa Park’s courage and inspiring boldness, Dove reveres Park as one of the greatest historical figures and a living legend. In fact, Dove uses kinesthetic imagery to visually place Rosa Parks in a superior position than those of the policemen. In the third stanza, Dove writes, “How she stood up / When they [the police] bent down to retrieve her purse.” (10-12). By juxtaposing Park standing up with the policemen bending down, readers can immediately envision Park as above the policemen which gives Park a powerful aura that readers can admire. Another reason why Park may have used opposite actions for Rosa and the policemen is to attract reader’s attention. Since readers can often lose focus at the end of the poem, having contrasting actions can spark reader’s interest and curiosity.
I agreed with your analysis of the poem, Rosa. I also thought that 10th line to the last was an interpretation of the African American praising for the braveness and strong personality of standing up for their rights. She was their hero and the action of picking up her purse is a symbol of them being less brave than her.
In the poem “Lady Freedom Among Us,” Rita Dove uses worn down and tired language to describe the statue of Lady Freedom in order to emphasize the great significance Lady Freedom holds in the history of freedom in the United States. Historically, the Statue of Freedom was one of the most famous and significant symbol as it was the representation a freedom, the basis of the United States Constitution. In fact, it crowns Dome of the United States Capitol in Washington D.C. However, freedom was a huge struggle for many people in the United States especially in for the African Americans. By using worn down and tired language throughout the poem such as “leaden,” “drenched gaze,” “shining brow,” and “weathered plumage,” Dove is able express the idea that the Statue of Freedom is the embodiment of not only freedom, but also the struggle to attain freedom. Dove also uses determined language to show that the Statue of Freedom, as weathered as it may be, will continue to stand and symbolize freedom no matter what. For example, Dove writes,“ [she] will not retire politely,” “bigboned resolute,” and “she’s not going to budge.” Dove includes these descriptions to further emphasize the idea that the great importance of freedom is everlasting. I think Dove writes this poem with the focus on the history of the struggle for freedom because freedom is not as big of an issue in current America so many people today take freedom for granted. To bring more attention to this matter, Dove uses an anaphora of the command “don’t” throughout the poem to command her readers to not to just pass by the Statue of Freedom and regard it as a mere “tourist’s agenda” (18). She further writes “don’t think you can ever forget her / don’t even try” (27-28). By bringing attention to the statue, Dove hopes to revive interest in and appreciation for freedom, an idea that is now often overlooked.
I agree with your analysis recognizing Dove's use of tired and determined language to describe the Statue of Freedom. However, the first thing I noticed about "Lady Freedom Among Us" was the absence of capitalization and end punctuation. I think Dove purposely left those grammar elements out of her work in order to show how each word adds the same amount of value to the poem; that they all have the same worth. This represents the belief that all people are equal regardless of age, gender or skin color. By excluding some grammar elements, Dove subtly conveys the fact that the Statue of Freedom also stands for equality.
When I realized that all of the words and letters in "Lady Freedom Among Us" were all lower-cased, I interpreted it as a different reason. Since Lady Freedom is a staute of a woman dressed up in warrior-type clothing and holding a weapon, I thought that the absence of capital letters was pertaining to the fact that the statue was a statue of a woman. Since women weren't that significant in that time period, I thought that the all of the lower-cased words and letters were referring to the fact that women weren't very significant in that time period.
Though the Declaration of Independence claims “all men are created equal,” segregation appears everywhere and Rita Dove sought to bring this to light with her poetry. In the poem, “Freedom Ride,” Dove makes references to fallen civil rights activists, such as John and Robert Kennedy (Dallas and Bobby), Malcolm X (Malcolm), and MLK Jr. (Memphis). All of these activists were murdered or assassinated for their beliefs, and these references in the poem serve to display how severe the consequences were for protesting. The poem describes a bus ride, showing how African Americans could only get off at one stop to avoid persecution. The first stanza describes a nicer neighborhood, Dove writing: “the view would veer onto / someplace fresh: Curaçao, / or a mosque adrift on a milk-fed pond” (lines 3-5). Mosques are considered holy or sacred, and this could refer to the African Americans being unable to set foot on the land. Further in the poem, Dove shows the consequences of getting off at the wrong stop– “stop too soon, and / you’ll find yourself walking / a gauntlet of stares” (lines 12-14). If an African American were to stop in the nicer neighborhood described earlier, the white population would harass and glare at them, hence “a gauntlet of stares,” meaning a heavy stare. Dove also writes, “Daydream, and you’ll wake up / in the stale dark of a cinema, / Dallas playing its mistake over and over” (lines 15-17). This also displays a consequence of getting off at the wrong stop, as “Dallas” or John F. Kennedy was potentially assassinated for his views and support of the black community. Throughout the poem, Dove also speaks of “fire,” almost indicating that it is the persecution itself. The last lines, “where you sit is where you’ll be / when the fire hits” (lines 29-30), tells that hate and persecution is unavoidable. No matter what you believe, the “fire” will always hit you. This poem takes a very pessimistic view, reminding the reader of the murders of several civil rights activists, and that hatred is unavoidable.
I agree with your analysis of Dove’s allusion to famous civil rights activists such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Another technique that I noticed Dove made use of in this poem was visual imagery. In the first stanza, Dove writes “But there’s just more cloud cover, / and germy air / condensing on the tinted glass, / and the little houses with / their fearful patches of yard / rushing into the flames” (lines 6-11). I believe that this second part of the first stanza describes an uncomfortable and dangerous environment for African Americans. We can see this idea through phrases like “germy air” (7) and “fearful patches of yard” (10).
The poem I chose to talk about in this blog is "The situation is intolerable" by Rita Dove. The poem talked about the Selma to Montgomery March during the civil rights movement. The stanza describe, giving a visual imagery, of the march. It talked about their clothing, how they worn the best cloth and pants; evidence,"... Shoes shined" (line 2). In the fifth and sixth line was a metaphor between the civil war and the march. During the Civil war, the soldiers would march toward the battlefield and the same with the marchers, they march toward Washington D.C to fight for their freedom. I interpreted the second stanza as a description of their hopes. Dove kept talking about the darkness around the marchers, which represented the dark time they were in and losing hope because of how they were mistreated. Then she talked about the stars, how they were "missionary". The stars represent the little hope people had left and those hopes fuel the march. The third stanza talked about their feelings of wonder why they were mistreated and taken advantage off. The fifteenth to eighteenth line talked about their utility, how dirty it was, and this was a way of giving an image of how poor they were and that even if they were poor why were being mistreated. The nineteenth to the last line told that they no longer have any patience for the nation to change and they must march for their freedom. -Nam Nguyen
I can't seem to reply to MaLeane's post for some reason, so I'll just comment about it:
MaLeane,
Your analysis really cleared everything up for me– I didn't even correlate the Little Red Riding Hood fable with the poem at all. Now that I think about it, the wolf could be related to not only the bus driver, but the rest of the white community as well. I'm sure the white people in that time were indeed "big" and "bad," as they had a higher status and access to much more power, and treated the African Americans poorly. As for the bus fare relating to the basket, your comparison seems spot on! Dove writes, "like the dime / cutting my palm” (4-5). Maybe the dime cutting into the person's palm could also express anger or fear in the person, as they are tensing their fists?
I'm still amazed I didn't see the connection to the Little Red Riding Hood before!
Although Rosa Parks is considered to be the icon of the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955, Claudette Colvin, a pioneer of the African American Civil Rights movement, was actually the first to be arrested for resisting bus segregation in Alabama. Colvin was arrested nine months before the Rosa Parks incident. This poem follows Claudette Colvin and her experience going to work, as well as the prejudice that she faces along the way. The first two stanzas of the poem “Claudette Colvin Goes to Work” by Rita Dove describe the nighttime of Lexington, and how Colvin leaves for work as everyone else is coming home. Dove uses visual imagery in lines such as “Menial twilight sweeps the storefronts along Lexington” (line 1) and “lightbulbs coming on / in each narrow residence, the golden wattage / of bleak interiors…” (4-6) to describe the tranquil and dark setting of Lexington. Also, the visual imagery used in line 10-11 “I like the sugary / look of things in bad light” describes a visual idea with gustatory imagery, which helps to give a different description of something instead of using basic, visual descriptors. When Dove writes “Sometimes I wait until / it’s dark enough for my body to disappear;” (13-14), she really emphasizes the prejudice that Colvin faced and how she felt that only when it has turned dark can she can go to work. Also, the tone of the poem changes as it progresses. In the beginning, the tone of the poem is calm Dove writes in a very composed voice. Then, around line 20, the tone of the poem picks up and becomes more passionate. We can see this effect in lines such as “So ugly, so fat, so dumb, so greasy” (24) and “and I’m the crazy girl of the bus, the one / who wrote in class she was going to be President” (28). This shows how Colvin began to question society and begin to have thoughts that might have sparked her decision to resist bus segregation. However, the last stanza shows the more acquiescent side of Colvin as she doesn’t “curse or spit / or kick and scratch like they say I did then” (31-32). This can represent a return to reality as Colvin remembers that she lives a life of prejudice.
Through the repeating reference of the 'r' sound in the poem “Parsley” by Rita Dove, the circumstances in the excerpt from "The Farming of Bones" by Edwidge Danticat are better understood and give the reader more insight on the 1937 Parsley Massacre. In the beginning of the excerpt, a Haitian girl refuses to speak the word ‘perejil’, as handfuls of parsley are shoved down her throat. The reason for her silence is not specified; however after reading “Parsley” her motive becomes clear. To begin, an important line in the poem reads, “El General has found his word: perejil. / Who says it, lives” (13-14). This refers to the Dominican dictator General Rafael Trujillo, who let those who could properly roll the 'r' in ‘perejil’ live. With that known, Dove makes reference to the 'r' sound many times throughout the poem, writing that, “we cannot speak the R” (8), “the Haitians sing without R’s” (54) and “even / a parrot can roll an R!” (59-60). From this, it is understood that the Haitian sugar cane workers were unable to say ‘perejil’ with accuracy; and as a result, many of them were killed. This connects to the excerpt, as the Haitian girl recounts her time in the local market and how, “…the trill of the r and the precision of the j was sometimes too burdensome a joining for my tongue”. Using both the poem and the excerpt, it is deduced that the girl refused to say ‘perejil’ because she knew that mispronouncing it would result in her death. The reference to the 'r' sound in “Parsley” by Rita Dove both connects to and explains the excerpt from "The Farming of Bones" that gives the reader a more comprehensive understanding of the Parsley Massacre.
I agree with your idea that the girl refused to say the word “perejil” because she couldn’t trill the “r.” However I also found another meaning in lines 59-60 of “Parsley” by Rita Dove. In the lines, “Even / “a parrot can roll an R!” (59-60), Trujillo dehumanizes Haitians by placing a parrot above them solely on the basis that the parrot can trill the “r” when the Haitians cannot. I think this is a key part in the poem because this subtly shows Trujillo’s thinking process behind the Parsley Massacre. Most people cannot even fathom the thought of killing another human, but dehumanizing others makes killing it so much easier. Furthermore, in the eighth stanza, Dove writes, “As he paces he wonders / Who can I kill today. And for a moment / the little knot of screams / is still.” (30-33). Through these lines, readers can understand that Trujillo’s grief over his mother’s death can only be soothed by thinking violent and destructive thoughts. This is why every time he feels sadness, he turns it into rage and violence, and it is through this rage and dehumanization of the Haitians that Trujillo is able order the massacre of over 20,000 people.
In the poem “Parsley,” Rita Dove uses a parrot to represent the Haitian genocide that occurred during General Rafael Trujillo’s reign. In 1937, Trujillo ordered the Parsley Massacre, a genocidal massacre against the Haitians in the Dominican Republic. Because Trujillo was notorious for disregarding Haitians’ civil rights, I think that Trujillo may have seen killing Haitians as a “cleansing” of the Dominican Republic, and thus making it “beautiful.” This idea is apparent in the poem “Parsley” through the anaphora “a parrot imitating spring.” The repetition of this phrase is used to constantly remind readers that spring and parrots are beautiful things. However, the word “imitating” is purposely used because the parrot, or the genocide, is trying to be beautiful, but it can never be a real beauty. Also, in the sixth stanza, Dove uses an enjambment in the lines “For every drop of blood / there is a parrot imitating spring.” (17-18). By omitting punctuation, Dove is able to connect the blood and the parrot in the same sentence making the parrot represent the Haitians massacre. Furthermore, these lines emphasize the idea that for every drop of blood or for every Haitian killed, the parrot is trying to be beautiful by imitating spring. However, once again, the parrot is merely a false idea of beauty. Dove also writes that the parrot is “practicing / spring” (35-36). Like the word “imitating,” the word “practising” shows that the parrot, which represents the genocide, is not something truly beautiful like spring. No matter how much Trujillo strives to create a “beautiful” Dominican Republic by exterminating the Haitians, it will never be beautiful. In fact, in the twelfth stanza, the parrot has a “blackened tongue” (63), which shows that the parrot has an imperfection. Black represents both ugliness and death. Despite having a beautiful outside appearance, the blackened tongue shows that the parrot in the inside is actually something ugly, frightening, and deadly.
I agree with your analysis regarding Dove’s use of anaphora in the poem “Parsley”, however I interpreted an additional meaning behind the significance of the parrot. In a variety of literary works and national emblems, birds are used to represent freedom; for example, the eagle on the United States seal. I think in “Parsley”, Dove uses a parrot in order to symbolize the Haitians longing for freedom from General Trujillo’s dictatorship; their desire to fly away from their oppression. By using a parrot to symbolize the Haitians hunger for liberty, Dove gives the reader more insight on the brutality of the Parsley Massacre.
n the poem “Parsley” by Rita Dove, Dove uses the motif of wealth to help the readers see more into General Trujillo’s personal life. In the first two lines of the first stanza, “There is a parrot imitating spring / in the palace, its feathers parsley green.” (lines 1-2). Right off the bat, Dove lets the reader know that this is taking place in a palace, a place in which people with great wealth live in. Also she describes the parrot’s feathers as “parsley green”. When I think of the color green, I tend to think of money, pertaining to wealth. In the 7th stanza, lines 24-26, "... he planted her walking cane at the grave / and it flowered, each spring stolidly forming / forming four-star blossoms... /", Dove uses personification when saying "it flowered," because a walking cane can't flower into blossoms. Dove also uses symbolism when saying, "four-star blossoms". When I think of four-stars, I think of hotels, restaurants and generals, which all also pertain to wealth, being able to own a business, and also someone that is higher up in importance; royalty. Also in the 9th and 10th stanza, lines 40-42, Dove says, "He orders pastries / brought up for the bird; they arrive / dusted with sugar on a bed of lace. ". The parrot is very spoiled because the General brought the bird pastries, on literally, a silver platter. Again the only people able to spoil their bird with pastries brought on a silver platter are wealthy people. In the 12th stanza, lines 58-59, Dove says, " she / could roll an R like a queen." Dove is talking about the General's mother who was half Haitian, could still roll her "r". He had thought of his mother as perfection, there was nothing wrong with her even though she was Haitian. Which is also ironic because he ends up massacring many Haitians in the end.
I agreed with your analysis on the poem pertain to the wealth of the general. I want to also add to your analysis that Rita Dove is also giving a hidden thought in her poem. The hidden thought is of Trujillo, how he was spoiled and the power he possess have consumed him and led him to think he can do whatever he wants. -Nam Nguyen
I found your analysis very interesting of how the “four-star blossoms” (26) can be connected to expensive luxuries like hotels and high-class restaurants, and how this idea connected to The General’s life. I believe that this idea of the wealth of the General can also be related to his display of power in this second part of the poem. Lines such as “Who can I kill today” (31) and “He will / order many, this time, to be killed / for a single, beautiful word” (70-72) display General Trujillo’s power and how he could decide how lives and who dies so easily.
I chose to talked about the first half of the poem, Parsley, written by Rita Dove. The whole poem talked about the massacre of slaves in the Dominican Republic when Trujillo was the dictator. The first part of the poem is named, The Cane Fields, and this is referenced to the sugarcane fields where the slaves worked. The first stanza described a green parrot, which is a symbol for wealth because the "green" referred to money. The third line down to the fourth line give the readers a visual imagery of the workers on the field. The second stanza mentioned "El General" which is a pseudonym for the dictator, Trujillo. The author told us the general is looking for a word, and the word, from later of the poem, is a metaphor for Trujillo judgement on the slaves, whether they will die or not based on how they pronounce the word (if the can't pronounce the "R" in the world then they are killed). The third stanza give us an auditory imagery of the slaves' screams before they are killed. Dove described, "... as rain punches through / and we become green..." (line 7-8). The rain here is when after the slave died, their body will decompose and weathered into soil which become the nutrients for the plants (which is the "green" in this line). The fourth stanza talked about the "mountains" which meant they could escape Trujillo's grasp if they were over the mountain, but the mountains also symbolizes freedom. The fourth stanza also described the feared that was put into children's mind; their teeth grind together meant the reflex when humans experience nervousness and fear. The fifth stanza shows the cruelty of the general; he picked the word "perejil" which has an "R" and the workers cannot pronounce it. The last stanza of the first part of the poem describes the blood that was spill. -Nam Nguyen
I agree with your analysis of the first section of the poem "Parsley" but in line 12 when Dove talks about the mountain, "and then the mountain we call in whispers Katalina." It is originally called Katarina but since the Haitians couldn't pronounce their R's they pronounced it as Katarina. I also wonder why Trujillo picked the word 'perejil'. He could've chosen another word that contained an 'r' that the Haitians couldn't pronounce but he decided to choose 'perejil'.
I agree with your analysis of the first section of the poem "Parsley" but in line 12 when Dove talks about the mountain, "and then the mountain we call in whispers Katalina." It is originally called Katarina but since the Haitians couldn't pronounce their R's they pronounced it as Katarina. I also wonder why Trujillo picked the word 'perejil'. He could've chosen another word that contained an 'r' that the Haitians couldn't pronounce but he decided to choose 'perejil'.
The poem “Parsley” by Rita Dove is divided into two parts, named “The Cane Fields”, and “The Palace”. With this division of the poem, we can see a difference in the language of the two parts, the first part being more abrupt describing the life of the workers from their perspective, and the second part describing the life of the dictator, Trujillo. The poem writes about an event in 1937 in which a dictator named Rafael Trujillo ordered the execution of nearly 20,000 workers because they could not pronounce the word “parsley” in Spanish correctly. The author uses visual imagery in the first part of the poem to describe the fear and oppression of the workers in the sugarcane fields. We can see this effect in lines such as “Out of the swamp the cane appears / to haunt us, and we cut it down” (lines 3-4) and “we lie down screaming as rain punches through / and we come up green” (7-8). The work “haunts” the workers, as doing this type of labor was not an easy task at the time, especially with the possibility of death looming over. In this first part of the poem, Dove also uses repetition with phrases like “Out of the swamp the cane appears” to emphasize how the sight of the cane appearing from the swamp can represent a symbol of the workers’ oppression. In the second part of the poem, we are given insight into General Trujillo’s life. From lines “36-40”, we know that his mother had passed away while baking sweets. I believe that much of the anger of Trujillo that was taken out on the workers was due to his mother’s death. We can see this in lines such as “God knows / his mother was no stupid woman” (57-58), “Someone / calls out his name in a voice / so like his mother’s. a startled tear / splashes the tip of his right boot” (63-66), and “My mother, my love in death” (67). These lines show The General’s deep love of his mother and her connection to the word “perejil” or “parsley” in Spanish motivated him to order the executions of the workers.
I agree with you that Dove seems to use repetition to emphasize certain concepts. Along with using repetition of "out of the swamp," she also uses repetition of the phrase "a parrot imitating spring." It is repeated four times through the poem, and this is probably the most significant form of repetition. The parrot is owned and respected by the general– it imitates language, as it "imitates spring." The Haitians, on the other hand, imitate the Spanish language but do not earn the respect of the general. Their speech is not authentic, as the parrot appears to be. It is really an interesting metaphor, one that explores a new aspect to the massacre of the Haitians.
Rita Dove takes on a heavy topic in her poem, “Parsley,” visiting the genocide of Haitian slaves in the Dominican Republic during General Rafael Trujillo’s rule. “El General,” as referred to in the poem, sentenced to death all those who could not pronounce the “r” sound in the Spanish word for “parsley.” This is expressed in the poem: “El General has found his word: perejil. / Who says it, lives” (lines 13-14). This line serves as an allusion to the massacre of the slaves in the Dominican Republic. Dove presents two perspectives in her poem, the first of the Haitians and the second of the general himself. The excerpt from “The Farming of Bones” by Edwidge Danticat, however, focuses solely on one slave’s point of view and better develops an emotional reaction from the reader. The excerpt takes place in the midst of action, as three slaves are shoved to the ground awaiting the general to determine their fate. They were forced to attempt to say “perejil,” and the narrator reveals the difficulty of simply speaking a single word: “the trill of the r and the precision of the j was sometimes too burdensome a joining for my tongue” (Danticat). Further into the excerpt, the author uses visual imagery to display the cruel and horrific actions the soldiers did to the slaves, for simply having an accent. This visual imagery, describing the soldiers shoving parsley into the mouths of the Haitians, stirs the reader’s mind, spiraling into disbelief that this situation could ever happen. How could a man decide that the inability to speak a single word results in death? And for what reason did the man choose the word “parsley?” Perhaps it could have been meant to remind them of their status, to show that those slaves were the ones responsible for farming the parsley. If they cannot even speak the word of their work, then they deserve to die? It is an interesting concept, and certainly not one I would hope to see in the future of any countries today. Dictatorship still exists, so we can all hope that there are not any presently that murder groups of people.
In the poem “Persephone, Falling”, Rita Dove uses symbolism and allusion to Greek mythology to send a message about conformity. The opening lines read, “One narcissus among the ordinary beautiful / flowers, one unlike all the others!” (1-2). Immediately, the allusion starts as ‘narcissus’ is a character from Greek mythology who falls in love with his own reflection. However, in this case, the narcissus is a flower used to symbolize Persephone; the ‘ordinary flowers’ symbolize other children. This comparison is representative of the traits that characterize Persephone as unique and different, and make her stand out from the other kids. Unfortunately, her individuality catches the eye of a stranger and, “…sprung out of the earth / on his glittering terrible / carriage, he claimed his due” (4-6). This man in a chariot is Hades, who came out of the Underworld to abduct the lovely Persephone. The closing line of the first stanza reads “…She had strayed from the herd” (8). From this, Dove touches on the idea that being unlike everyone else is what put Persephone in the wake of danger and outside the reach of assistance. The second stanza opens with a message that every young boy and girl has heard, “(Remember: go straight to school. / This is important, stop fooling around! / Don’t answer to strangers. Stick / with your playmates. Keep your eyes down)” (9-12). Through this message, Dove shares that isolation is the key to safety in both mythology and the real world. Dove uses symbolism and allusion to Greek mythology to inform readers about conformity; that to avoid a fate like Persephone, one must follow the crowd.
I appreciate your thorough analysis and background research on Persephone. Usually, most parents tell their children that it's a positive thing to stand out and be unique, however Dove doesn't seem to agree with that scenario in this poem. Do you think this could have to do with human nature and the inevitability of people conforming to society eventually in life? That what Dove was trying to say is that reality is too overpowering for our desires/intentions sometimes?
The poem I chose to discuss in this blog is "Wiederkehr" by Rita Dove. I looked up the title and found its meaning which is "someone who occasionally return to the same place". This narrow my thought to the story of Persephone in the Underworld, how she ate six pomegranate seeds and result in her coming back to the underworld during fall to the end of winter. The first line to the seventh of the poem describes Hades wanting Persephone as his wife because he wanted to be happy. The lines also give visual imagery of Hades being please with himself after capturing Persephone. The eighth line to the tenth give the perception of Hades's sexual urges of wanting to sleep with Persephone, but she refuses to sleep with him. "I sat to hold the rain untouched / inside me..." (line 10-11). The rain here represent/symbolizes Persephone's purity/virginity because rain was the most purest form of a liquid that is drinkable during the time period of the story. The eleventh line to the last described Persephone's choice of staying or living Hades, but it is an irony because she never had a choice due to Hades tricking her into eating the pomegranate seeds resulting in her misery and the seasons. The theme of this poem is the yearning of wanting love and the lesson is that it is impossible to force someone into loving a person. Another theme is inequality, how women are treated as a sexual object rather than a human being because it was described that Hades wanted to take Persephone's virginity and did not treat her as someone he loves. The final theme, maybe, is that in every abusive relationship, there is always a choice to get out of it like how Persephone could have gotten out if she had not ate the pomegranate, but also it is hard to get out because sometime people believe that no one would care for them and that is why they stay with the abusive partner. To put it in short, it is a trickery thing to get out of an abusive relationship. -Nam Nguyen
Your analysis connecting "Wiederkehr" by Rita Dove to the story of Persephone and Hades was very accurate and insightful. However, what I found awfully interesting was how Dove was able to allude to the Greek myth without explicitly mentioning any names or places specific to Greek mythology. By avoiding the use of proper nouns in her poem, Dove is able to connect to a wider audience; not only those who are in an abusive relationship like Persephone, but those who are not. As a result of using only pronouns in her poem "Wiederkehr", Dove puts the reader in Persephone’s shoes and subtly sends a message about domestic abuse.
In the poem, “Exit,” Rita Dove uses language that gives mixed feelings to the reader, being both sad and hopeful. The poem describes a woman leaving her childhood home, going off to lead her own life. The theme behind this is opportunity, and Dove characterizing this as a sad, yet encouraging aspect of life. In the second stanza, Dove uses somber diction to describe the appearance of the house, and to help display how the woman is feeling. For example, “The windows you have closed” … “Here it’s gray;” and “this suitcase, / the saddest object in the world” all have language indicating sadness. This stanza shows the hard part of leaving behind what you’ve always known, and how sad it can be. In the third stanza, Dove shares the other side of opportunity, the encouraging half. Dove writes, “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” (lines 11-14). These lines describe the joy involved in opportunity, using the word “blush” contrasting with the “gray” mentioned in the previous stanza. Stanzas two and three contrast with each other, but stanza one has contrast within itself. In line one, Dove writes, “Just when hope withers, a reprieve is granted.” That when you no longer have hope, you are spared of consequences. It is an interesting concept, but seems to contrast with itself as often hope brings good things. Relating to this context, the woman’s “hope withers” when she must leave her home, but “a reprieve is granted” when she looks ahead at the opportunities that are to come.
I thought that your analysis of this poem was very insightful. I would like to add on something that I also found in this poem, which was the use of symbolism. I found that in line 9-10, Dove writes “This suitcase, / the saddest object in the world.” This serves as a symbol of the depressing and average life of someone who works a desk job in a cubicle. Although it might be the dream job for some, many other people would want to do something greater in life. Another example of symbolism is in line 3, where “your street” represents your path in life.
In the poem “Used” by Rita Dove, the author displays social commentary on how society forces us to be a certain way. Dove uses visual imagery and rhyme to describe the challenging life that comes with trying to be “cool”. In the first quatrain stanza, we can see Dove’s use of visual imagery in line 2 with “skirts ballooning above twinkling knees”. This emphasizes the idealized image of what beauty is and how it was “every man-child’s preadolescent dream” (3). In the third septet stanza, Dove uses another example of visual imagery, writing “We couldn’t hang on, slipped / to the floor and by morning the quilts / had slid off, too” (11-13). This line represents how it is very hard to maintain this image of beauty and perfection, and how they “couldn’t hang on” to this lifestyle. Also, this line describes how this beauty does not last long and how “by morning the quilts / had slid off, too.” This can be connected to how fashion trends are always changing and it is difficult to keep up with what is hip or in style. Another literary device that the author makes use of in this poem is rhyme. Throughout all three of the stanzas, we can see rhyme in pairs such as “threes” (1) and “knees” (2), “grief” (5) and “brief” (6), “quilts” (12) and “guilt” (13), and a few others. The use of rhyme with these pairs of words help to connect these words to further emphasize their underlying meaning. For example, “quilts” and “guilt” can represent how trying to fit in and obtain a perfect image can cause guilt or resentment. Another example is with “zip” and “slipped”, which represents how money is lost when you invest in trying to fit into society.
I agree with your analysis of the poem "Used" by Rita Dove. But I would also add how society has also corrupted every women to thinking that skinny is the best thing ever. In lines 1-2, "The conspiracy's to make us thin. Size threes / are all the rage,...". Women and teenagers have been so corrupted by society that every girl/women believes that being skinny is the best thing ever. Well hello, it's not! Being curvy, a little bit bigger, or even a combination of both is perfectly fine. Women let society change them to become people they aren't; to become a part of the "hip" or "cool" people.
I agreed with your analysis on the poem, Used. I would like to add the theme that Rita Dove was trying to portray here is the fact that how women clothes reveals their body and that this could have also connect with Persephone, how she might have worn revealing clothes that made Hades abducted her.
The poem I chose to discuss about is “Demeter, Waiting” by Rita Dove. Throughout this collection of mothers and daughters, Rita Dove writes a lot about the greek goddess and her daughter, Demeter and Persephone. In this poem, Dove uses vulgar diction to display a theme of sadness and grief, being without her daughter, and hatred Demeter has towards her daughter’s kidnapper. In the second stanza, lines 6-11, Dove says, “...I will drag my grief through a winter / of my own making and refuse / any meadow that recycles itself into / hope…”. Being the goddess of harvest, Demeter refused to let any crops grow, creating a drought, during the time her daughter was away, down in the underworld. Also, since Hades has Persephone during this winter time, Demeter refuses to let the crops grow but also Demeter uses winter as this depressing time for her and spring as a happy time to restart with her daughter. Lines 11-14, “...Shit on the cicadas… / finicky butterflies! I will wail and thrash until the whole goddamned golden panorama freezes / over…”. In these lines, it shows how Demeter is frustrated with Hades for taking her daughter and making her stay there in the Underworld for most of the year.
I agree with your idea that Demeter uses winter to express her depression over her taken daughter. To expand on this point, I think that Dove uses violent language and diction to show the theme of a mother’s obsession and possessiveness over her daughter is actually harmful not only to others, but also to herself. With the words “drag my grief through a winter of my own making,” “wail,” and “thrash,” readers can clearly visualize the mother’s rage, frenzy, and even insanity in her destruction. Even though it is understandable that any mother would be heartbroken if her daughter were taken away, we know through Greek mythology that Persephone was taken for a season and was unharmed, so Demeter’s actions can seem very extreme. I think that Dove portrayed Demeter as this violent character to represent mothers who are too attached to their daughters for their own good.
In the poem “Primer,” Rita Dove uses caesura, enjambment, and group diction to show that bullies work in groups because alone, they have little or no power. The poem starts with visual imagery with “I was chased home by / the Gaitlin kids, three skinny sisters / in rolled-down bobby socks.” (1-3). Dove uses both caesura and an enjambment to isolate “three skinny sisters” to show that they were bullies when the three of them were together, but alone, they would merely be skinny girls, powerless much like the narrator. Throughout the poem, Dove always refers to them as a group rather than one person or “she.” For example, the narrator was “chased by / the Gaitlin kids” (1-2), “they trod my heel” (4), “they’d beat me up” (8), “their shoves” (9), and “shake them down” (11). This emphasizes the theme that bullies, when alone, are often powerless as their victims, but when together, they act in order to get a sense of superiority, dominance, and power. Dove also uses an onomatopoeia when she writes, “Hissing / Brainiac! and Mrs. Stringbean!” (3-4). The word “hissing” has a similar sound to a snake, which is often associated with evil. By using onomatopoeia, readers can experience the bitterness and harshness of the bullies’ words that the narrator experienced. Dove also uses end-stops and caesurae to show the narrator’s resolve to “grow up” and fight for herself. Previously, she “never thought to retort” (6) despite her bullies’ taunts, but after her mother saves her, the narrator cannot help but feel resentment and perhaps shame that she could not fend for herself. In the lines “Nothing could get me into that car. / I took the long way home, swore / I’d show them all : I would grow up.” (12-14), the end-stops and caesurae make each thought short. This is fitting because anger and resentment can cause people to talk in short sentences. She also said that she would not get into the car because she resented the fact that her mother was the one who fended off the bullies rather than her own self. This spurs her to swear that one day, she will grow up and “show them all” that she is capable of protecting herself to, including her mother.
I agree with your analysis– another thing to note is that the narrator uses a sarcastic tone to describe the scene when her mother shows up: "I survived / their shoves across the schoolyard / because my five-foot zero mother drove up / in her Caddie to shake them down to size" (8-11). It is ironic, in that the mother is "shaking them down to size" when she in fact is only 5 feet tall. This moment is what wakes up the "narrator's resolve to 'grow up,'" as you say.
As a result of many medical studies, it has been deduced that eating chocolate can help prevent cardiovascular problems as well as relieve stress. In the poem “Chocolate”, Rita Dove uses an extended metaphor complete with sensory words to convey the idea that a lover is as valuable to life as chocolate is valuable to health. The opening stanza reads, “I hold up to sniff / between finger and thumb- // how you numb me” (2-4). Here, Dove uses the olfactory and tactile words of ‘sniff’ and ‘numb’ to compare the scent of chocolate to the way this person’s aroma makes her feel senseless and stress free. Later, visual words like ‘melt’ and ‘liquefy’ compare the nature of the chocolate when heated to the way her intense feelings for this person makes her heart soft, warm and happy. The following lines read, “for a taste of you // any woman would gladly / crumble to ruin” (12-14). Through the gustatory word of ‘taste’, Dove conveys the way that this person is desirable and irresistible, similar to the flavor of chocolate, as well as how a woman’s affection for a lover is fatal. Lastly, the poem ends by saying, “Enough chatter: I am ready // to fall in love!” (15-16). By using the auditory word ‘chatter’, Dove shows that she does not need to have a conversation with her lover, as she falls in love with their being, not their words; similar to the way chocolate speaks through taste. By using sensory words and an extended metaphor to compare a person to chocolate, Dove alludes to the idea that a lover will lead to a happy, healthy heart; just like chocolate does.
I agree with your analysis of the poem, Chocolate. I had a different view on the poem when I read it. In the line that talk about chocolate melting, I thought that it was a metaphor for the moment of intimacy between two people and they would keep staring or paying attention to each other.
I agree with your analysis of this poem. But I would also add that in the second and third stanza, Dove shows a bad side to chocolate; love, when saying "If I don't eat you quickly // you'll melt in my palm //". This is saying that if one doesn't grab onto who they love, that person could lose interest in them and leave. So, not only does Dove use chocolate as a positive metaphor to love, but also a negative one.
The poem I chose to discuss is “Cozy Apologia” by Rita Dove, for Fred. Fred Viebahn is a German writer and is also married to Rita Dove, probably why she wrote this poem for him. In this poem, Dove uses metaphor, allusion, and sarcasm to display her affection for her husband. In the first stanza, lines 1-10, Dove uses an allusion, “Astride a dappled mare… / … / There you’ll be, with furrowed brow / And chain mail glinting, to set me free: //” (lines 6-9). This is, in any princess or romance movie, the typical hero or prince that goes to rescue their princess. Dove is saying that whenever she feels trapped, Fred, her husband, helps her feel safe and protected and not trapped anymore. In the second stanza, lines 11-20, Dove uses metaphor, “... Today a hurricane is nudging up the coast, // Oddly male: Big Bad Floyd, who brings a host of daydreams… /” (lines 13-15). In saying this, Dove is saying that, like Hurricane Floyd brought bad weather on the Atlantic coast, it is bringing back bad and awkward memories of her when she used to have silly crushes on worthless boys. She is trying to forget all of her crushes and just stay focused on the one lover she has and intends to keep. In the third stanza, lines 21-30, Dove uses sarcasm, “Who’s satisfied simply with what’s good for us, // When has the ordinary ever been news? //” (lines 26-27). The poem is called “Cozy Apologia” which translates to “Comforted Apology”. Dove is apologizing, in a sarcastic manner, that she’s not ordinary like everyone else but at the same time she questions why anyone would want to be ordinary. She is comfortable, hence the title of the poem, with being different from everybody else.
I agree with your analysis of the poem, “Cozy Apologia” by Rita Dove. Other literary devices that I noticed the author using in this poem were iambic foot and rhyme. Although not all lines in the poem were using iambic foot, many lines did. Because iambic foot includes an unstressed followed by a stressed syllable, it follows the rhythm of a heartbeat, which can relate to Rita Dove’s deep love for her husband, Fred Viebahn. We can see this technique in lines such as “Astride a dappled mare, legs braced as far apart” (lines 6). Also the use of rhyme in lines like “I could pick anything and think of you - / This lamp, the wind-still rain, the glossy blue” (1) in conjunction with iambic foot further emphasizes the repetitive heartbeat pattern as well as connects two lines of poetry even though said lines might not always end with an end stop.
I agree with your idea that Rita Dove is sarcastically apologizing for being different from others. Another example that supports this idea is the changing rhyme scheme throughout the “Cozy Apologia.” In the first stanza, each line has an end rhyme including “you” (1), “blue” (2), “page” (3), “age” (4), “heart” (5), and “apart” (6). The second stanza (lines 11-20) has a similar pattern of end rhymes as the first stanza, but the pattern stays the same only until the 16th line. Lines 17-20 do not have any end rhymes. The third stanza (line 21-30) has a very different rhyme scheme. In fact, there is no clear “rule” or consistent pattern. Rather, it is very random such as “mine” (22) and “Divine” (24), “news” (27), “blues” (29), “do” (28), and “you” (30). I think Dove consistently kept the same rhyme scheme in the beginning to represent “ordinary” people. Also, many people often think the poems must rhyme or have a consistent pattern, but towards the end, Dove deviates from the pattern to represent her being different for ordinary.
The topic of gun control and safety is a very controversial subject, with passionate support on both sides of the argument. Some believe that people should have the right to own a gun; some believe otherwise. Rita Dove makes social commentary on this issue in her poem “Meditation at Fifty Yards, Moving Target”. The author also uses visual and tactile imagery to create a dominant effect of immersion for the reader. The first stanza of this poem describes the dangers of firearms, and we can see this in the last two lines, “You could wound the burglar and kill your child / sleeping in the next room, all with one shot” (lines 11-12). This line highlights the dangers of guns and how collateral damage is a definite possibility if firearms are not used properly. However, in the second stanza, Dove describes the pleasure of shooting a gun and the power it grants. This is evident in lines 13-17 where the author writes “Fear, of course. Then the sudden / pleasure of heft – as if the hand / had always yearned for this solemn / fit, this gravitas, and now had found / its true repose.” These lines show in spite of the possible danger, firing a gun is an almost fulfilling experience. We can see Dove’s use of visual imagery in lines such as “tin cans swing-dancing in the trees, / the paper bull’s-eye’s tidy rupture at fifty yards” (31-32) and “thunk-and-slide of a blunt-nose silver Mossberg, / or double-handed Colts, slugging it out from the hips.” (26-27). The use of visual imagery here helps to enhance the difference between men and women and how they handle firearms differently by creating images to which the reader can connect and relate. Also, the author uses tactile imagery to contribute to the dominant effect of immersion by allowing the reader to relate to the feel of the guns. We can see this technique with lines like “Glocks are lightweight but sensitive; / the Keltec has a long pull and a kick” (4-5) and “Don’t pull the trigger, squeeze it - / squeeze between heartbeats. / Look down the sights. Don’t / hold your breath. Don’t hold / anything, just stop breathing.” (18-22). The reader attempts to recreate these tactile senses in his or her mind as he or she reads these parts of the poem.
I agree with your analysis regarding Rita Dove's use of visual and tactile imagery to immerse the reader in her poem. However, to add, what I found intriguing about "Meditation at Fifty Yards, Moving Target" was the final stanza titled "The Bullet". It was unique from the other three stanzas as it was from the perspective of the bullet and lacked capitalization and punctuation. By omitting capital letters, I believe Dove was trying to highlight the fact that the bullet is an inanimate object; that it can't control its actions or know right from wrong. In addition, I think Dove did not punctuate this stanza in order to set a fast pace. By reading what is more or less a run on sentence, Dove emphasizes the speed and severity of the bullet; that it doesn't stop or pause for anything but its target.
The poem, Chocolate by Rita Dove, Dove uses visual imagery and gustatory imagery to create the dominant effect of love in the readers. The subject of the poem is love and comparing love with chocolates. Dove describes how chocolates are easily melted when they are touch and the consumer have to pay attention to them, in the third stanza, which is similar to a situation between two people who are in love pay close attention to each others. This makes the readers thought of their love life; the intimacy between them and their partner when they are alone. Another way that Dove portray the felling of love is through gustatory imagery. In the fourth and fifth stanza, Dove describes the taste of chocolates; its bitter-sweet tastes, how the tastes can keep the eater consuming it. Just like the taste of chocolate, a person can never get enough of the emotion of love; how people keep falling in love over and over with another person. -Nam Nguyen
I agree with your analysis in that Dove uses chocolate as a metaphor for love. The way I interpreted it, is that love has both its beneficial and detrimental sides, but it is always worth the risk. Dove shows that chocolate, or love, melts, or disappears if you let your chance go. This meaning that if you don't take chances in love and jump in, then you'll miss your chances for fulfillment and enjoyment. She encourages the risk of love, finishing the poem with "I am ready / to fall in love!"
In the poem “Meditation at Fifty Yards, Moving Target,” Rita Dove uses different of points of view to give different perspectives on the use of guns. The first part, “Safety First,” is about the necessity of safety when handling guns. Dove uses second person to directly address the readers because the message of this part is more relatable to the common reader at home than someone such as an active soldier on duty. For example, when Dove writes “You could wound the burglar and kill your child / sleeping in the next room, all with one shot.” (11-12), readers may have experienced or may experience burglars in their homes and/or they have children in their homes. Because these situations are so relatable to the common reader, readers can understand the danger of firearms in their homes. Furthermore, Dove stresses to “never point your weapon,” “keep your finger off the trigger,” and “assume a loaded barrel,” because even though people may have instances where they need to use guns for protection, safety for others in the surrounding environment is essential; the pulling of a trigger can be done in a single moment by accident, but the consequence of the loss one’s child can be killed is eternal. In contrast to “Safety First,” the fourth part “Bullet,” is written in first person to represent the bullet’s perspective. Even though she is personifying the bullet with the usage of “I,” she does this only to emphasize that the bullet is merely an object without any emotions. Her message in “Bullet” is bullets can’t choose to shoot or kill something; some person has to pull the trigger. This idea is supported by the lack of capitalization, punctuation, and coherent thought. By having no capitalization, especially for the word “I,” “Bullet” gives the sense that it has no will or importance as a person does. The lack of punctuation and coherent thought also emphasizes the point that bullets cannot think. For example when Dove writes “dark dark no wind no heaven” (38), there are only separate words that do not structurally join together or make sense. A person would never speak like this, but it is easier to imagine that objects would.
I loved your analysis of this poem, especially the part about the bullet itself. I liked when you said that the lack of capitalization and punctuation in that part showed that the bullet has no sense of self or direction or free will. Do you think this connects to the whole "guns don't kill people, people kill people" idea? Do you think maybe Dove has had experience with guns in her lifetime? I liked your perspective on the syntax of the "Bullet" section- the way the words are ordered and spaced doesn't reflect how people think/speak, but how an object might.
Chocolate has built up a prominent reputation over the years as something associated with love and comfort. In the poem “Chocolate,” Rita Dove uses visual imagery and second person point of view to create an intimate feeling with the reader and further investigate the feeling of love. Throughout the poem Rita Dove also shows both the beneficial and detrimental sides of chocolate, displaying in the end which side prevails. Using visual imagery, Dove writes “If I don’t eat you quickly, / you’ll melt in my palm” (lines 6-7). These lines display the disadvantageous part of chocolate– you take too long, and the goodness goes away. This also relates to love in a way, showing that if you don’t take chances and go for it, your connection will wither away. Dove also appears to relate chocolate to a lover by using the second person. For example, “for a taste of you / any woman would gladly / crumble to ruin”… “I am ready / to fall in love!” (12-16). In both of these excerpts, Dove uses the second person to treat chocolate as a beneficial thing, as something to desire. The second person also helps in creating the intimate feeling that draws the reader into the poetry and develops a feeling of love. Along with this, in lines 10-11 Dove writes “dark punch / of earth and night and leaf …” These lines show the difficult side of chocolate (love), saying it is a “dark punch.” Overall, Rita Dove compares love to a difficult ride, but something that is worth the risk and should definitely be pursued (showing this in the last line).
Everyone has felt it at least once: the feeling of isolation because of a distinction from the mainstream. In the poem “Brown”, Rita Dove uses dance analogy and color diction to emphasize an individualistic theme. Starting in the middle of the poem, Dove writes, “For once I was not the only / black person in the room” (13-14). From this, Dove alludes to the fact that, as an African-American, she is used to being a minority in a group of people; which attracts unappreciated staring. Yet contrary to the belief that staring is bad, in dance, staring is seen as a compliment as the dancer has succeeded in entrancing the audience. With that said, the beginning of the poem reads, “I stepped onto the parquet / for a waltz” (3-4). Here, Dove uses dance as a subtle analogy to life; that when stepping into the world, there must be an eye catching feature, like when on the dance floor. Later, the poem reads, “I’ve always loved / my skin, the way it glows against / citron and fuchsia…” (19-21). By saying that she likes herself in ‘citron’ and ‘fuchsia’, which are bright and captivating colors, Dove suggests that she has accepted what makes her different. Additionally, Dove closes the poem with the line, “The dress in question was red” (28). Since red is a color associated with grabbing a person’s attention, Dove once again hints at the fact that she has become fond of standing out. Lastly, Dove writes that, “I prefer grand entrances- / especially with a Waltz…” (24-25). This connects to the analogy of dance to life; that she wants to be noticed, just like when dancing. Through dance analogy and color diction, Dove conveys an individualistic theme that shows the importance of embracing your differences.
I agree with your idea that Dove’s message in “Brown” is to accept one’s differences. Something I found interesting was that Dove writes a lot about accepting her differences as an African American woman such as her skin color, but she prefers “grand entrances--- especially with a Waltz / that European constipated swoon.” (24-27). I think she purposely uses this contrast between her African American heritage and the European setting/history to show that she has embraces her differences enough to have confidence to dance and “glow” in something that is not culturally hers. This idea builds upon your point because the idea that accepting and embracing one’s differences are not only important, but it also helps to override limiting cultural, social, and other boundaries. Because Dove was confident to go against social standards and social conformity, she was able to disintegrate cultural divides by being the center of attention of a traditional European dance.
In the poem, “American Smooth,” Rita Dove uses dancing diction, repetition, and alliteration to display certain elegance of dance to the reader and further express her personal attachment to dancing. Poetry could be similar to dancing, as thoughts can glide across the paper as a dancer would across a stage. Not only that, but a dancer expresses their emotions through their art, and poetry does the same. In this case, Rita Dove uses dancing diction to show her passion towards the art of dancing. For example, she uses “a foxtrot or a waltz,” along with “frame” and “two measures.” All of these words relate to dancing, and help illustrate the setting of the situation in the poem. Along with these words, Dove writes “ecstatic mimicry / being the sine qua non / of American Smooth.” Sine qua non means “absolutely necessary” or “essential.” So in this poem, Dove claims that dance movement is sort of imitating something, or not being yourself as you are dancing– and that is essential to be able to dance. Dove uses repetition in the line “the leftward lean, head turned / just enough to gaze out / past your ear and always / smiling, smiling” (18-21). The repetition of smiling hear further emphasizes the importance of energy and putting on that mask as a performer. This line relates to the previously mentioned “ecstatic mimicry,” as you smile to show energy but also must maintain that expression, seemingly mimicking someone (not being yourself). Finally, Dove uses alliteration to display the elegance of dancing to the reader. Dove writes, “achieved flight, / that swift and serene / magnificence” (lines 26-28). The repetition of the “s” sound is fairly passive, and illustrates the grace involved in dancing. Overall, Dove intends to demonstrate the beauty of dance in the poem, “American Smooth.”
I agree with your analysis regarding how Rita Dove demonstrates the elegance of dance in “American Smooth”. However, in addition, I would argue that through natural diction, Dove implies that there is a side of dance that allows self expression and liberation. In the closing stanza Dove writes, “-achieved flight, / that swift and serene / magnificence, / before the earth / remembered who we were / and brought us down” (26-31). The natural diction in this stanza, words like ‘flight’, ‘swift’ and ‘serene’, express the characteristics of a bird, an animal often associated with freedom, that in turn connects to the freeing aspect of dance that allows self expression.
The poem I chose to do from American Smooth is "Fox Trot Fridays" by Rita Dove. In this poem, Dove uses anaphoras, simile, and visual imagery to describe the fox trot dance. In the first and second stanza, lines 1-4, Dove tells the reader that people go to the disco every Friday to help them forget about every bad thing that happened earlier in the week by dancing. In stanzas 2 and 3, lines 3-6, Dove uses anaphoras, "stride" and "quick", to describe the dance and the movement or rhythm of the dance. Also, in stanzas 3 and 4, lines 5-8, Dove uses a simile, "Smooth / as Nat King Cole's / slow satan smile, //", to also describe the movement or rhythm of the dance. But she does this by referencing Nat King Coles. Nat King Coles is, Nathaniel Adams Coles, an American singer, the first leading jazz pianist, and one of the first African Americans to host a national television variety show. I was confused as to why she described his smile as "slow satan smile". In stanza 5, line 10, Dove uses an anaphora, "one", to also describe the dance as easy. In stanzas 6-8, lines 11-16, Dove uses visual imagery, "one man and / one woman, // rib to rib, //...// just the sweep of Paradise / and the space of a song /", describing the dance as two people start to dance to it, giving it a romantic structure. The poem also has a kind of rhythm that follows the rhythm of the dance, by using enjambments on most of the lines.
I agree with your analysis in that there's a certain rhythm to the poem, as if the words make up a dance. Rita Dove does this by keeping lines short and quick, using caesura to create this feeling. The lines are short and quick, similar to the movements in the foxtrot dance– quick steps, constantly moving around.
As for the confusion on the "satan smile," you actually had a spelling error– the word is "satin," which is a smooth, silky fabric. So, in this context, Nat King Cole's "satin" smile is smooth and effortless.
The heart is widely accepted as the symbol of love. However, many of the sayings and perceptions about the heart are not actually true of the real human heart. Rita Dove contradicts many of these popular sayings about the human heart using allusion and symbolism in her poem “Heart to Heart”. Throughout all of the three stanzas, the author makes frequent references in the form of allusion to popular sayings regarding the heart. We can see this in lines like “It doesn’t melt / or turn over, / break or harden, / so it can’t feel / pain, / yearning, / regret” (lines 3-9) and “but I can’t open it: / there’s no key. / I can’t wear it / on my sleeve, / or tell you from / the bottom of it / how I feel” (22-28). These lines allude to popular sayings about the heart and love such as “my heart melted” from “It doesn’t melt” (3), “Key to my heart” from “but I can’t open it: / there’s no key” (22-23), and “From the bottom of my heart” from “or tell you from / the bottom of it / how I feel” (26-28). In addition, we can also see the use of symbolism throughout the poem to represents ideas that relate to the heart. Rita Dove writes “I feel it inside / its cage sounding / a dull tattoo: / I want, I want” (18-21). This line shows how the author is using the “cage” as a symbol of the metaphorical restriction that a heart can sometimes endure and the “dull tattoo” as a symbol of the heartbeat.
In “Lullaby,” Rita Dove uses an allusion to the poem, “Canción Tonta” or “Foolish Song” by sh the Spanish poet and playwright Federico García Lorca. “Canción Tonta” is a poem about the close relationship between a mother and her child. It is a very simple poem that is often read to children and memorized by children as a song. In “Lullaby,” Dove uses a similar format to structure her poem as Lorca used for his; she writes as if two people, the child and the mother, are directly speaking to each other. The poem starts with the child saying “Mother, I want to rest in your lap again / as I did as a child.” (1-2). Immediately, the reader is able to infer that the child is actually not a “child,” or rather a little kid; it known in the second to last stanza that the child still goes to school so he/she must also not be an adult yet. With these two clues, it can be safely assumed that the child is probably a teenager in high school. Because the child is looking for comfort, a teenager as a child is fitting for the poem because teenagers in high school go through a difficult time in life from stress from school, changing social groups, the finding of one’s identity, and more. Throughout the conversation between the mother and her child, it is apparent that the teenager seems confused and naïve like a baby, but he/she seems to be forcing him/herself to grow up and act mature. For example, the teenager says “Mother, I want the birthday supper of my childhood, / dripping with sauce,” (17-18), but after the mother invites him/her to do so, the child replies “I can’t. The school bus is coming. / She’ll be waiting at the corner.” (21-22). Despite the teenager’s struggles, the mother is always providing comfort and advice. To demonstrate this, Dove specifically uses comforting diction and language whenever the mother is speaking such as “how it floats,” “bed,” “day of rest,” “never hurt,” “lie down,” and “pillow for your back.” Dove’s message about the relationship between a mother and her child is that mothers are always watching, providing, and caring for their children even when they are growing up and leaving their mothers’ arms. However, no matter how supportive mothers are, it is always disappointing and heartbreaking to see their children growing up before their eyes; one moment children seem to depend on their mothers and the next, they seem to be leaving their mothers behind. In the last line, the mother says to her leaving child, “Already? So soon!” (23). This line provides a bittersweet ending for the poem as the mother seems reluctant and unready to let her child go, but is forced to do so anyway.
The poem, Mother Love by Rita Dove, the author describes Demeter roaming the Earth to find Persephone. The first stanza described Demeter roamed to a city and was pitted by a family and they took her in. She saw the family baby and cuddle it the moment she saw it. The author described how a mother can't help but to cuddle a baby or feeling to do so because of a mother instinct, in line one to three. Dove also started to described how a mom can never stop loving her baby no matter how much pain they can bring her, in line four to seven. Then Dove talked about how a mother fear that once the baby reach the age where they starts dating she cannot control what will happen. The second stanza describes how Demeter wanted to make the baby immortal by burning him in fire, but the mother asked Demeter to stop. Dove showed how Demeter grief when she does not know Persephone whereabouts. -Nam Nguyen
I agree with your analysis of this poem but I would also add any literary devices that Rita Dove includes in this poem to convey the grief that Demeter contained when Persphone was gone. For an example, in the second stanza, lines 26-27, Dove uses a simile, "bent over a baby sizzling on a spit / as neat as a Virginia ham... //". This is saying that Demeter had wanted to make the family's baby immortal and to do that she had to put the baby over a fire. I would've used this literary device to back up this detail you discovered in the poem.
I agree with both of your ideas about the last few lines of the poem “Mother Love” by Rita Dove. Dove writes “I laid him on the smoldering embers, / sealing his juices in slowly so he might / be cured to perfection” (lines 22-24). These lines can be connected to how a mother might push her child academically or in other aspects of life in order for the child to succeed. Next, the author writes “Poor human - / to scream like that, to make me remember” (27-28), which can relate to how sometimes parents feel sad for their child who is struggling to try to succeed in life, as it is not easy.
Please initiate your comments about the poetry in the section "Historical Figures"--due by 11:00 pm Thursday 10/29.
ReplyDeleteI'm posting this for Nam
ReplyDeleteThe poem that I picked to blog about is, Sonnet in Primary Colors, written by Rita Dove. The first and second line stated, "This is for the woman with one black wing/ perched over her eyes: lovely Frida, erect". These lines described an artist known as, Frida Kahlo. Dove's descriptions was of her unibrow, the dark-black eyebrow that was above her eyes that was so thick that it looked like the pair of wings of a bird in the sky. This could be label as a visual auditory. In the next line,"... in the stern petticoats of the peasant", meaning her status as a daughter of an immigrant; peasant usually means a low status which led to my thought of her father that immigrated from Germany. The fifth and sixth line of the poem,"...plaster corset/ ... Romance of mirrors", suggested the accident that Kahlo has when she was young, which left her bedridden and unable to have child. "Mirrors" in this line represents Kahlo's illusion of trying to have a child but failed to have any. The seventh line suggested she was in pain for a very long time and was hard for her to sleep at night. The eighth and ninth line tells the fact of her time being in a state of war. The 10th all to the last line suggested the love Diego had for her even though they were on and off. The last line could also be interpreted that Diego loved Kahlo eyes and her unibrow.
I agree with your statement regarding “one black wing / perched over her eyes…” as a reference to Frida Kahlo’s unibrow. However, to add on to your analysis of “Sonnet in Primary Colors”, I think Rita Dove used words like “Beloved Dead” and “skull” to allude to Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. Since Frida Kahlo was very proud of her Hispanic culture, it is certain that she celebrated the holiday. So, “Beloved Dead, / Lenin and Marx and Stalin arrayed at the footstead” and “Diego’s / love a skull in the circular window” refers to the altars made in order to commemorate those that were near and dear to her heart. And by adding aspects of Mexican culture to her poem, Dove was able to give the reader more insight on Frida Kahlo’s character.
DeleteThe poem I chose in this unit is "Canary" by Rita Dove for Michael S. Harper. The first quatrain stanza states, "Billie Holliday's burned voice had as many shadows as lights, a mournful candelabra against a sleek piano, the gardenia her signature under that ruined face". In this stanza, Rita Dove uses drug symbolism in the first line, "... burned voice...", meaning that after injecting herself with heroine so many times, her voice began to coarse and didn't sound very well when she sang. Also in the next line, Rita Dove describes Billie's voice using contrasting diction, "... had as many shadows as lights...", describing how her voice sounded like an angel but after she decided to follow a dark path, her voice wasn't as good as it was when she first started her singing career. The second quatrain stanza states, "(Now you're cooking, drummer to bass, magic spoon, magic needle. Take all day if you have to with your mirror and your bracelet of song)". Rita Dove also uses drug symbolism in this stanza when saying, "... You're cooking... magic needle." The "cooking" is the way that Billie Holliday made the heroine; either she made it or she had a dealer that made it for her. Also, "magic needle", which is the way Holliday injected herself with the heroine and Dove describes the needle as magical because Holliday did drugs to make herself feel more.happy and not have to feel depressed. In the last stanza Dove wrote, "If you can't be free, be a mystery". I think that Dove is saying that, since her childhood, Holliday hasn't been a very happy child. She's gone through tough times as a kid and one can not ignore the bad things that happened and forget about it. So Dove is saying that, if one can't escape the past, live life freely and however one wants to live their life.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your idea of Rita Dove’s message with Billie Holiday’s struggles in life. I also think that Dove employed an interesting device in terms of stanza length. Starting from the second quatrain stanza, the length of each stanza begins to decrease. The first two stanzas focus more on Billie Holiday and her life. Then in the third stanza, Dove expands the subject of the poem to all women, writing “Fact is, the invention of women under siege has been to sharpen love in the service of myth” (line 9). Then, in the last stanza, Dove presents a moral or notion of wisdom in one line, writing “If you can’t be free, be a mystery” (11). The use of this technique allows the reader to relate to the life of Billie Holiday, as well as learn from it.
DeleteThe poem I chose to analyze is “Nestor’s Bathtub” by Rita Dove. This poem describes the havoc wreaked by Nestor’s wife, Eurydice, as well as her misbehavior, while Nestor, King of Pylos, is away fighting in the Trojan War or “counting the jars of oil in storeroom 34” (line 8).
ReplyDeleteDove uses a lot of visual imagery throughout the poem in lines such as “jug upon jug of fragrant water poured until the small room steamed” (4) and “blasted by the force of olive oil exploding in the pot” (16) to describe the setting of destruction that Eurydice caused. She knocked down pots and bathed in fragrant water while her husband was away. The use of visual imagery throughout the poem helps to establish a dominant feeling of immersion for the reader inside Nestor and Eurydice’s home, as well as the destruction that occurs.
In addition, the author uses caesurae in lines 6, 16, and 31 in order to initiate a break before going into a list. The lists consist of a lengthy description of events that contribute to the immersion of the reader. The lists are also drawn out with few breaks or pauses to show the longevity of the mischievous acts done by Eurydice. Also, Dove uses personification with line 33, “clay pots screamed” to add human emotions and actions to the destruction.
Also, in this poem, Dove did not want to associate Nestor with his home. Rather, she wanted to show how Eurydice was actually the one who indulged in the amenities of the home. The author uses repetition by mentioning in each stanza that “legend got it all wrong” (1), “Legend, as usual, doesn’t say” (14), and “For the sake of legend only the tub stands” (26) to argue against legend and how it incorrectly depicted Nestor’s life.
I agree with your analysis of "Nestor's Bathtub", especially the part when you talk about the repetition of how the legend got the story of his wife all wrong. The background information on Nestor's life helped give insight when reading this poem. Also, Rita Dove added symboism. I analyzed lines 12 and 13, "while his wife with her white hands scraped the dirt from a lover's back", as, the "white hands" referred to how spoiled Nestor's wife was while he was away even though she, "scraped the dirt from a lover's back", which signifies that, while her husband was away fighting in the war, she succumbed to the feeling of loneliness and had an affair. This is showing how the legends and the real story are so different from each other when discussing Nestor's wife.
DeleteIn the poem “Catherine of Siena”, Rita Dove portrays the story of Catherine’s strenuous life in the church through hyperbole, religious diction and natural imagery. First, in the line, “You walked the length of Italy”, Dove alludes to Catherine’s hard work and exhausting life. By taking her situation in Siena and over exaggerating her language, Dove uses an arduous trek through Italy to represent the period in Catherine’s life where she tended to the sick, helped the poor and began missionary work in her church. Next, by using religious diction, Dove was able to connect her poem to the religious aspect of Catherine’s life. Through the words “fate”, “heaven” and “prayed”, it is suggested that Catherine was very religious and played a large role in the church. After further investigation, it is concluded that Catherine was a patron saint of Italy, named Doctor of the Church by Pope Paul VI and later declared a patron saint of Europe by Pope John Paul II. Lastly, natural imagery was used to show her relationship with the outside world. Through words like “boulder”, “roadside”, “star”, “cedar”, “sky” and “path”, Dove digs deeper into Catherine’s character. By this, it is deduced that in addition to her work in the church and with other people, Catherine also had a profound love for the earth, and traveled near and far to spread her views. Through her use of hyperbole, religious diction and natural imagery, Rita Dove gave insight on the taxing and religious life of Catherine of Siena.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your idea that “fate,” “heaven,” and “prayed” suggests that Catherine was very religious and played a large role in the church. I also think that Dove uses diction relating to the heavens such as “fate,” “star-washed dome,” “heaven,” and “sky” to symbolize Catherine’s connection God. According to history, St. Catherine was said to have had mystical experiences called “spiritual espousals” (a mystical marriage). Basically, the mystical marriage is a vision in which Christ takes a soul as His “bride.” According to New Advent Encyclopedia, with the completion of this “marriage,” the person who underwent the spiritual espousal is said to receive “sudden augmentation of charity and familiarity with God… ” and the mystical spouse is more involved in God’s sufferings. I think that Dove represents this in her poem through the usage of heavenly diction to show Catherine’s familiarity and connection with God, and through the last two stanzas “No one stumbled across your path./ No one unpried your fists as you slept” (5-6) represents Catherine’s pains and suffering that she now shared with God after her spiritual espousal.
Delete(Source: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09703a.htm)
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ReplyDeleteIn the poem “Tou Wan Speaks to Her Husband, Liu Sheng,” Rita Dove uses light and dark language to represent Tou Wan’s essential role as Liu Sheng’s wife. Liu Sheng was a prince and a very successful ruler in China during the Han dynasty. However, the poem portrays Tou Wan, the faithful, devoted, and subservient wife who serves Liu Sheng, as the protagonist rather than Liu Sheng, the celebrated ruler of China in history. In the first stanza, Tou Wan is already serving her husband by “building a house,” or a tomb, full of wealth for Liu Sheng. Tou Wan, knowing that that wealth is not enough, not only acknowledges that Shiu Leng is unsatisfied or “bored” (19), but she also uses dark language such as “stench of your/ own diminishing” (24-25), “darkness/ oppresses” (34-35), and “shape of your death” (44) to show that Liu Sheng is actually not the hero he is celebrated to be. Alone, Shiu Leng is helpless and weak, trapped by darkness that he cannot overcome. Dove emphasizes this idea by juxtaposing Tou Wan who is represented by light and Liu Sheng who struggles with darkness. When Liu Sheng is in the “stench of his own diminishing that drives him to air” that he cannot find (19-27), Tou Wan immediately appears with an incense burner (28) to rid of his “stench”. When “darkness/ oppresses” Liu Sheng (34-35), Tou Wan promises to set him a lamp in stanza 36 to ward off the dark. Finally, when Dove writes about Liu Sheng’s death in line 44, Tou Wan promises to encase in a “brilliant envelope” (42) of jade and gold to protect him from the darkness of death. Just as how dark cannot exist without light, Liu Sheng cannot rest without his wife serving him even after his death. Dove purposefully used darkness and light to represent the Liu Sheng and Tou Wan in order to emphasize the theme of women’s importance in world history despite women being overlooked. Although Tou Wan is not very well known, especially compared to Liu Sheng, this poem depicts and recognizes Tou Wan as the true hero. She is characterized as a faithful, selfless, and devoted woman who selflessly carries out her duties to serve her husband.
ReplyDeleteIn the poem “Catherine of Alexandria,” Rita Dove portrays the intimate relationship St. Catherine of Alexandria had with Jesus, though the saint is praised as a martyr and virgin in Christianity. St. Catherine, in her life, claimed that Jesus was her spouse and that her virginity belonged only to him. Dove uses irony, in that she implies throughout the poem that St. Catherine is having relations with a man, “in your bed— / and what went on / each night was fit / for nobody’s ears / but Jesus’” (Lines 6-9), though she in reality is pure. Later in the poem Dove also hints that she could be pregnant: “Each morning / the nightshirt bunched / above your waist— / a kept promise” (Lines 12-15). However, these lines could also signify her faithfulness in that she exposes her stomach to advertise that she had not become pregnant. Though Dove uses diction conveying that St Catherine is having relations with a man, it is meant to show the concrete relationship that she maintained with Jesus. In the lines 6-9, Dove also uses a hyperbole, stating that nobody was fit to hear St Catherine but Jesus— further portraying the intimate relationship the two had, and how influential Jesus was in her life.
ReplyDeleteI believe Rita Dove was attempting to show in this poem that though St Catherine of Alexandria was powerful, independent and influential, she still showed weakness to men. She appears submissive in the first line, seemingly having no choice in her life (due to the power of men in that era): “Deprived of learning and / the chance to travel, / no wonder sainthood / came as a voice” (Lines 1-4). St. Catherine did not have access to education in life, and sainthood simply appeared to her– suggesting she had no choice. Furthermore, Dove portrays the saint as vulnerable in describing how Jesus came over her at night. This poem relates to the others as well, in that a strong, influential woman in history is brought to have another side to her, one that is exposed and having weakness.
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ReplyDeleteThe poem I'm going to talk about is The House Slave by Rita Dove. The poem talked about the view of an African-American, or as he/she were called slave at the time during the civil war. The first through the sixth line described a white man went to war to defend the South. The imagery in the first line of dew and sound of horn in the morning stated the time of day that the battle started or when they had to prepared for am the battle. The forth line described how rushed the man was to get breakfast and get to the battlefield. The sixth line described the man leaving his wife while she was asleep and I thought that the man did not want to say goodbye because he probably knows he might not survive. The seventh to the eleventh line described the others around the African-American person, especially his/her sister, praying and I assumed that they are praying for their safety. The twelfth through the last line described the battlefield, the white men running and fighting. The imagery, "...they spill like bees among the fat flowers" (line 14), described how much blood were spill in the battle and the simile compared the blood spilling with how nectar get spill when the need remove their mouth from the flower. The last line show the person weeping and that he/she cannot believe that the battle isn't over, yet.
ReplyDelete-Nam Nguyen
I had a very similar analysis of this poem as you did but between lines 7-11, "...At the second horn, // the whip curls across the backs of the laggards-- // sometimes my sister's voice, unmistaken, among them. // "Oh! pray," she cries. "Oh! pray!"...", I had a different interpretation. I thought that Dove was talking about the slaves that were being brought out onto the battlefield by their owners, being forced to help fight the war. And that his/her sister was saying "Oh! pray", for those that were going out to help fight the war.
DeleteThat's a very interesting analysis, I didn't seem to directly connect the civil war to the poem as much. Rather, instead of the man leaving his wife and going to fight the battle, it was about a house slave who felt sympathetic to their fellow slaves who had to work before it was daylight. It was a very emotional poem, and Rita Dove's visual imagery throughout the poem aided the reader in developing these emotions. Perhaps you are right though, I simply took a lighter approach to the harsh time period!
DeleteThe poem I chose to discuss about is “David Walker (1785-1830)” by Rita Dove. David Walker was born a free man but he grew up in a slave society. Disliking the sadness and misery where he was living, he decided to travel the world.The first stanza, lines 1-8, Dove uses similes and personification. In lines 1-3, “...They strip and beat and drag us about / like rattlesnakes…”. In these lines, Dove talks about how the slaves were being treated by their owners and how lucky Walker was to be born free. Being born free, Walker was able to travel the world and so he decided to travel away from where he was once living and came upon Brattle Street in Boston. There, he established a second-hand clothing business. Walker was also an author and an abolitionist. In the second and third stanza, lines 9-24, Dove uses vivid imagery and anaphora describing what had happened after Walker published his first pamphlet “Walker's Appeal in Four Articles; Together with a Preamble, to the Coloured Citizens of the World, but in Particular and Very Expressly to Those of the United States of America”. Walker urged slaves to stand up for themselves and fight back. After his first pamphlet was published, many people were reading about it and smuggling it to show other people. This pamphlet caused an uproar and the legislature enacted consequences if anyone were to teach a slave how to read or write. In the fourth stanza, lines 25-31, Dove uses vivid imagery. Walker had successfully gotten his second and third edition published. The press was appalled by what was happening. In lines 29-31, it states, “his person (is that all?) found face-down / in the doorway at Brattle Street // his frame slighter than friends remembered //”. I interpreted these last few lines as Walker’s death. When I looked up Walker’s background, it said that 3 months after his third edition was published Walker had died but his death was a mystery. Some people believe that he was poisoned as a reward from Southern slaveholders.
ReplyDeleteMy interpretation of “David Walker” was very similar to yours. After research of my own, I came to the same conclusion as you regarding Walker’s death being a mystery, possibly poison. However, what struck me as interesting was the last line of the poem, “his frame slighter than his friends remembered” (32). The way I interpreted this was that Walker had worked so hard on the pamphlets that he had inadvertently let himself go on his fight for abolition, causing his body to weaken. And while there is debate whether his death was an accident or murder, I think Dove put this line in her poem in order to hint at the fact that there was a suspicious aspect to his untimely demise.
DeleteIn the poem “The Abduction”, Rita Dove uses auditory imagery and stanza length to foreshadow Solomon Northrup’s abduction. To begin the poem, Dove writes in the first five-lined stanza, “The bells, the cannons, the houses black with crepe, / all for the great Harrison!” (1-2). From this, although it is referring to the death of president William Henry Harrison, Dove sets a happy mood through words like ‘bells’ and ‘cannons’. Flowing into the second stanza of four lines, the poem reads, “pigs squealed invisibly from the bleachers and I fiddled” (9). Here, the pigs squealing and Northrup playing his violin emphasize the joyful scene. It isn’t until the third stanza that Dove changes the mood of the poem in three lines. “I remember how the windows rattled with each report. / Then the wine, like a pink lake, tipped. / I was lifted- the sky swiveled, clicked into place” (10-12). Through the words ‘rattled’, ‘tipped’ and ‘clicked’ a sense of disorientation is recognized as Northrup’s life is shaken and turned upside down. The following two-lined stanza is mute in regard to auditory imagery, where Northrup is floating on water and sleeping on a pillow of stone. The last stanza of one single line is the same, where Dove writes, “I woke and found myself alone, in darkness and in chains” (15). Through the silence of the last two stanzas, a grim mood is set that strongly contrasts with the opening stanzas. By using auditory imagery to create a mood shift and eliminating a line in each consecutive stanza, Dove foreshadows the abduction of Solomon Northrup as his life will go from lively to tragic; and how his life will be lessened by slavery.
ReplyDeleteI thought that your analysis of the decreasing stanza length was very accurate. It is amazing to see how something as simple as decreasing stanza lengths can have on the poem as a whole. I also noticed that in addition to decreasing stanza length, the author also employs decreasing line length as the end of the poem nears. Short sentences and phrases like “Then the wine, like a pink lake, tipped” (line 11) made it seem as though Northrup barely had any energy to utter these sentences as he was succumbing to the tainted liquor. The next line “I was lifted – the sky swiveled, clicked into place” (12) continues this idea of short sentences and makes it seem as though he thought that his fate was sealed forever.
DeleteI chose to analyze “The Transport of Slaves From Maryland to Mississippi” by Rita Dove. This poem centers around an attempted escape of slaves who broke free from their chains while in a wagon. The slaves then proceeded to kill two white men. However, they did not escape because one slave woman helped a black driver mount his horse to look for help.
ReplyDeleteIn this poem, Dove makes some of the sentences in the poem italicized. She uses this technique in lines such as “I don’t know if I helped him up / because I thought he was our salvation / or not” (lines 1-3) and “I am no brute. I got feelings. / He might have been a son of mine” (12-13). These italicized sentences represent someone’s thoughts. Although most of the thoughts are the woman’s, in the fourth stanza of the poem, the line “Some n*****’s laid on another one’s leg” actually refers to the thoughts of Baggage man Petit, one of the white men killed. The audience can experience the woman’s thoughts as they are happening which adds to the immersion of the poem. Also, the use of colloquial language within these italicized lines helps to enhance the feeling of the time period and the way slaves spoke, such as in “I got feelings” (12) and “You ain’t supposed to act this way” (29). Also, if you only read the italicized lines of the poem, you get a very brief and general description of what happened. This can relate to how this event happened so fast and how the woman made quick judgments on what to do.
In addition, the author uses caesurae in lines 8, 9, and 11 to separate thought from description. This creates the illusion of a second narrator other than the woman. Dove also uses a lot of similes in lines such as “…dust hovering around the body / like a screen of mosquitoes” (4-5) and “The skin across his cheekbones / burst open like baked yams” (7-8). This allows the reader to make connections to a sight that may be more familiar to him or her than the image of a distraught, bruised slave lying on the ground.
I agree with your idea that Dove italicized parts of her poem to represents someone’s thoughts. I also thought that Dove further emphasizes the change in narrator by switching from first to third person. The italicized parts of the poem uses first person “I” and refers to the reader as “you.” However, the rest of the poem is in third person. I think Dove does this because first person is usually easier for readers to connect with than with a narrator speaking in third person. Furthermore, the italicized part of the poem contains more language relating to emotion. For example, the italicized part in the first stanza, which is in the point of view of the woman who helped the driver and thus prevented the escape of the slaves, Dove writes, “I am no brute. I got feelings. / He might have been a son of mine.” (12-13). By writing in first person and using emotional language, readers are able to connect with and understand the slaves more rather than just learning and knowing that slavery was a terrible institution in history. One of Dove’s purpose of this poem is to convey not only the history of what happened to the slaves, but also the emotions and the thoughts of the slaves because it is the understanding of what slaves had gone through that is the true lesson of learning the history of slavery.
DeleteIn the poem “The Abduction,” Rita Dove uses literary consonance or sibilance of the ““s” or “sh” sound to create an ominous and evil tone. Each stanza contains a plethora of sibilance. Even though there are only 5 lines in the first stanza, there is a total of ten instances of the “s” sound including “bells,” “houses,” Solomon,” “Saratoga Springs,” and more. In the second stanza, there are only four lines, but there are eight instances of the “s” should including “should,” “squealed,” and “invisibly.” The remaining stanzas also all have a large number of sibilance especially compared to the small number of lines. The constant appearance of the “s” and the “sh” sound, especially when read aloud, gives the poem a sinister tone because the sound is often associated with the sound of snakes. Snakes often symbolize evil, so by utilizing sibilance, Dove is able make readers feel tense and apprehensive of what is to happen to Solomon Northup despite the seemingly cheerful beginning of the poem.
ReplyDeleteRita Dove also uses an anaphora with the word “I.” By constantly repeating the word “I,” Dove emphasizes that Solomon Northup is a person, not a simple “object” that slaves were equated to at the time. In fact, in the first stanza, Solomon says “The citizenry of Washington / clotted the avenue- I among them, Solomon Northup / from Saratoga Springs, free papers in my pocket…” (2-4). Solomon Northup starts the poem by emphasizing that he is a citizen of Washington with the phrase “I among them.” He further emphasizes this point by stating his name and the fact that he has his free papers. Because the poem started with Solomon’s declaration of his freedom and humanity, the constant repetition of “I” creates a familiarity and personal connection between Solomon and the readers. This makes readers become more affected and pained when Solomon Northup is tricked by Brown and Hamilton. In fact, the last line of the poem, which is: “I woke and found myself alone, in darkness and in chains.” (15), is arguably the most powerful line of the poem because this is when Solomon Northup, the free man with whom the readers had connected to, is unfairly captured, imprisoned, and alone.
In the poem “The House Slave,” Rita Dove expresses the emotions of a house slave as they watch other slaves begin their day of work even before daylight, while they sleep comfortably within the house. The visual imagery throughout the poem is what projects this intense emotion from the house slave to the reader, as the reader is able to picture exactly what is occurring. For example, Dove writes, “At the second horn, / the whip curls across the backs of the laggards—” (lines 8-9). These lines arise discomfort in the reader and make them feel deeply sympathetic for the slaves. Rita Dove also includes an oxymoron, writing, “I lie on my cot, shivering in the early heat” (line 12). This literary device shows the nervousness and fear the house slave has for the fellow slaves, as although it is warm they are still shaking. The house slave feels guilty as well, as they are under the warmth of the house while the rest of the slaves must wake before dawn and begin working. In the final line, they express this: “I weep. It is not yet daylight” (line 15). Not only is the sadness simply from watching others go through pain, but the house slave must listen to their sister’s cries as well, amplifying it even more. Overall, this poem is extremely emotional and causes the reader to connect with the house slave, visualizing how horrible it was for the many slaves that worked in the fields.
ReplyDeleteDuring the 1950s, riding the bus for a white person was a simple, everyday task. However, for a person of color, the experience was completely different. In the poem “Climbing In”, Rita Dove alludes to the fairy tale “Little Red Riding Hood” to give the reader deeper insight on what it was like for a black individual to ride the bus over 50 years ago. To begin, the opening stanza describes teeth as “metallic”, “lie-gapped” and having “not a friendly shine”. These descriptions connect to the big bad wolf as he persuades Little Red Riding Hood to stop and pick flowers on the way to her grandmother’s house. In the poem, the big bad wolf is the bus driver as he greets the passenger with a fake and unwelcoming grimace. The following lines read, “like the dime / cutting my palm” (4-5). The passenger’s bus fare is representative of the basket Little Red Riding Hood carries in her hand for her grandmother; acting as a form of payment to get into the grandmother’s house. In the middle of the poem, Dove writes, “teeth of the wolf / under Grandmother’s cap” (10-11). This is a direct reference to “Little Red Riding Hood”, showing how the bus driver was hiding behind a grin, like the wolf was hiding behind the grandmother’s clothes. Lastly, the closing stanza reads, “as the bright lady tumbles / head over tail / down the clinking gullet” (14-16). From this, the fairy tale allusion comes to an end as the coin falls into the bus driver’s pay meter and Little Red Riding Hood is swallowed whole, ending up in the big bad wolf’s stomach. By alluding to a popular fairy tale, Dove was able to convey the struggle of black bus riders to a larger audience.
ReplyDeleteThe poem I chose to discuss in this unit is “Rosa” by Rita Dove. As everyone knows, Rosa Park was an activist and a slave who had refused to surrender her seat to a white person on a bus. This refusal had inspired members of the NAACP to organize a boycott in Montgomery, thus beginning the Montgomery boycott.
ReplyDeleteIn the first triplet stanza, lines 1-3, Dove discusses how Rosa Park decided to sit down in a section marked for “colored” people and had refused to give up her seat when asked to move; because she was done giving in to what “colored” people were telling her to do. In the second triplet stanza, lines 4-6, Dove uses symbolism when saying, “... dream of a bench/”, this is saying that Rosa Park had a strong desire for desegregation. In the third triplet stanza, Dove uses paradox when saying, “Doing nothing was the doing://”, meaning that just by sitting in that seat, Rosa Parks was making a loud statement saying, “Yes, I’m black but that doesn’t mean a thing”, by not doing a thing. Dove also uses alliteration in this stanza using a hard “c” sound, letting the reader realize how serious Rosa Parks was about doing this. Also when saying, “the clean flame of her gaze / carved by a camera flash”, Dove is describing her mug shot when she got taken in by the police, saying that it is serious and stern. In the fourth stanza, lines 10-12, I thought that lines 1 and 10 was the denotative meaning and the connotative meaning, “How she sat there, // How she stood up / “ (lines 1 and 10). Rosa Parks didn’t stand up in the bus but she stood up for all the other African-Americans that didn’t have the voice to stand up for themselves. I also realized that each stanza is only 3 lines each and each line is very short and I thought that this represented her personality because Rosa Parks was a very humble and quiet person and before the whole bus ordeal, no one really knew who she was.
I agree with your idea Dove uses the paradox in line 7 to illustrate that Rosa Park’s sitting down was the way she stood up to society on not only her behalf, but also every other discriminated African American. Because of Rosa Park’s courage and inspiring boldness, Dove reveres Park as one of the greatest historical figures and a living legend. In fact, Dove uses kinesthetic imagery to visually place Rosa Parks in a superior position than those of the policemen. In the third stanza, Dove writes, “How she stood up / When they [the police] bent down to retrieve her purse.” (10-12). By juxtaposing Park standing up with the policemen bending down, readers can immediately envision Park as above the policemen which gives Park a powerful aura that readers can admire. Another reason why Park may have used opposite actions for Rosa and the policemen is to attract reader’s attention. Since readers can often lose focus at the end of the poem, having contrasting actions can spark reader’s interest and curiosity.
DeleteI agreed with your analysis of the poem, Rosa. I also thought that 10th line to the last was an interpretation of the African American praising for the braveness and strong personality of standing up for their rights. She was their hero and the action of picking up her purse is a symbol of them being less brave than her.
DeleteNam Nguyen ^^^^
DeleteIn the poem “Lady Freedom Among Us,” Rita Dove uses worn down and tired language to describe the statue of Lady Freedom in order to emphasize the great significance Lady Freedom holds in the history of freedom in the United States. Historically, the Statue of Freedom was one of the most famous and significant symbol as it was the representation a freedom, the basis of the United States Constitution. In fact, it crowns Dome of the United States Capitol in Washington D.C. However, freedom was a huge struggle for many people in the United States especially in for the African Americans. By using worn down and tired language throughout the poem such as “leaden,” “drenched gaze,” “shining brow,” and “weathered plumage,” Dove is able express the idea that the Statue of Freedom is the embodiment of not only freedom, but also the struggle to attain freedom. Dove also uses determined language to show that the Statue of Freedom, as weathered as it may be, will continue to stand and symbolize freedom no matter what. For example, Dove writes,“ [she] will not retire politely,” “bigboned resolute,” and “she’s not going to budge.” Dove includes these descriptions to further emphasize the idea that the great importance of freedom is everlasting. I think Dove writes this poem with the focus on the history of the struggle for freedom because freedom is not as big of an issue in current America so many people today take freedom for granted. To bring more attention to this matter, Dove uses an anaphora of the command “don’t” throughout the poem to command her readers to not to just pass by the Statue of Freedom and regard it as a mere “tourist’s agenda” (18). She further writes “don’t think you can ever forget her / don’t even try” (27-28). By bringing attention to the statue, Dove hopes to revive interest in and appreciation for freedom, an idea that is now often overlooked.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your analysis recognizing Dove's use of tired and determined language to describe the Statue of Freedom. However, the first thing I noticed about "Lady Freedom Among Us" was the absence of capitalization and end punctuation. I think Dove purposely left those grammar elements out of her work in order to show how each word adds the same amount of value to the poem; that they all have the same worth. This represents the belief that all people are equal regardless of age, gender or skin color. By excluding some grammar elements, Dove subtly conveys the fact that the Statue of Freedom also stands for equality.
DeleteWhen I realized that all of the words and letters in "Lady Freedom Among Us" were all lower-cased, I interpreted it as a different reason. Since Lady Freedom is a staute of a woman dressed up in warrior-type clothing and holding a weapon, I thought that the absence of capital letters was pertaining to the fact that the statue was a statue of a woman. Since women weren't that significant in that time period, I thought that the all of the lower-cased words and letters were referring to the fact that women weren't very significant in that time period.
DeleteThough the Declaration of Independence claims “all men are created equal,” segregation appears everywhere and Rita Dove sought to bring this to light with her poetry. In the poem, “Freedom Ride,” Dove makes references to fallen civil rights activists, such as John and Robert Kennedy (Dallas and Bobby), Malcolm X (Malcolm), and MLK Jr. (Memphis). All of these activists were murdered or assassinated for their beliefs, and these references in the poem serve to display how severe the consequences were for protesting. The poem describes a bus ride, showing how African Americans could only get off at one stop to avoid persecution. The first stanza describes a nicer neighborhood, Dove writing: “the view would veer onto / someplace fresh: Curaçao, / or a mosque adrift on a milk-fed pond” (lines 3-5). Mosques are considered holy or sacred, and this could refer to the African Americans being unable to set foot on the land. Further in the poem, Dove shows the consequences of getting off at the wrong stop– “stop too soon, and / you’ll find yourself walking / a gauntlet of stares” (lines 12-14). If an African American were to stop in the nicer neighborhood described earlier, the white population would harass and glare at them, hence “a gauntlet of stares,” meaning a heavy stare. Dove also writes, “Daydream, and you’ll wake up / in the stale dark of a cinema, / Dallas playing its mistake over and over” (lines 15-17). This also displays a consequence of getting off at the wrong stop, as “Dallas” or John F. Kennedy was potentially assassinated for his views and support of the black community. Throughout the poem, Dove also speaks of “fire,” almost indicating that it is the persecution itself. The last lines, “where you sit is where you’ll be / when the fire hits” (lines 29-30), tells that hate and persecution is unavoidable. No matter what you believe, the “fire” will always hit you. This poem takes a very pessimistic view, reminding the reader of the murders of several civil rights activists, and that hatred is unavoidable.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your analysis of Dove’s allusion to famous civil rights activists such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Another technique that I noticed Dove made use of in this poem was visual imagery. In the first stanza, Dove writes “But there’s just more cloud cover, / and germy air / condensing on the tinted glass, / and the little houses with / their fearful patches of yard / rushing into the flames” (lines 6-11). I believe that this second part of the first stanza describes an uncomfortable and dangerous environment for African Americans. We can see this idea through phrases like “germy air” (7) and “fearful patches of yard” (10).
DeleteThe poem I chose to talk about in this blog is "The situation is intolerable" by Rita Dove. The poem talked about the Selma to Montgomery March during the civil rights movement. The stanza describe, giving a visual imagery, of the march. It talked about their clothing, how they worn the best cloth and pants; evidence,"... Shoes shined" (line 2). In the fifth and sixth line was a metaphor between the civil war and the march. During the Civil war, the soldiers would march toward the battlefield and the same with the marchers, they march toward Washington D.C to fight for their freedom. I interpreted the second stanza as a description of their hopes. Dove kept talking about the darkness around the marchers, which represented the dark time they were in and losing hope because of how they were mistreated. Then she talked about the stars, how they were "missionary". The stars represent the little hope people had left and those hopes fuel the march. The third stanza talked about their feelings of wonder why they were mistreated and taken advantage off. The fifteenth to eighteenth line talked about their utility, how dirty it was, and this was a way of giving an image of how poor they were and that even if they were poor why were being mistreated. The nineteenth to the last line told that they no longer have any patience for the nation to change and they must march for their freedom.
ReplyDelete-Nam Nguyen
I can't seem to reply to MaLeane's post for some reason, so I'll just comment about it:
ReplyDeleteMaLeane,
Your analysis really cleared everything up for me– I didn't even correlate the Little Red Riding Hood fable with the poem at all. Now that I think about it, the wolf could be related to not only the bus driver, but the rest of the white community as well. I'm sure the white people in that time were indeed "big" and "bad," as they had a higher status and access to much more power, and treated the African Americans poorly. As for the bus fare relating to the basket, your comparison seems spot on! Dove writes, "like the dime / cutting my palm” (4-5). Maybe the dime cutting into the person's palm could also express anger or fear in the person, as they are tensing their fists?
I'm still amazed I didn't see the connection to the Little Red Riding Hood before!
Kaelin
Although Rosa Parks is considered to be the icon of the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955, Claudette Colvin, a pioneer of the African American Civil Rights movement, was actually the first to be arrested for resisting bus segregation in Alabama. Colvin was arrested nine months before the Rosa Parks incident. This poem follows Claudette Colvin and her experience going to work, as well as the prejudice that she faces along the way.
ReplyDeleteThe first two stanzas of the poem “Claudette Colvin Goes to Work” by Rita Dove describe the nighttime of Lexington, and how Colvin leaves for work as everyone else is coming home. Dove uses visual imagery in lines such as “Menial twilight sweeps the storefronts along Lexington” (line 1) and “lightbulbs coming on / in each narrow residence, the golden wattage / of bleak interiors…” (4-6) to describe the tranquil and dark setting of Lexington. Also, the visual imagery used in line 10-11 “I like the sugary / look of things in bad light” describes a visual idea with gustatory imagery, which helps to give a different description of something instead of using basic, visual descriptors. When Dove writes “Sometimes I wait until / it’s dark enough for my body to disappear;” (13-14), she really emphasizes the prejudice that Colvin faced and how she felt that only when it has turned dark can she can go to work.
Also, the tone of the poem changes as it progresses. In the beginning, the tone of the poem is calm Dove writes in a very composed voice. Then, around line 20, the tone of the poem picks up and becomes more passionate. We can see this effect in lines such as “So ugly, so fat, so dumb, so greasy” (24) and “and I’m the crazy girl of the bus, the one / who wrote in class she was going to be President” (28). This shows how Colvin began to question society and begin to have thoughts that might have sparked her decision to resist bus segregation. However, the last stanza shows the more acquiescent side of Colvin as she doesn’t “curse or spit / or kick and scratch like they say I did then” (31-32). This can represent a return to reality as Colvin remembers that she lives a life of prejudice.
Through the repeating reference of the 'r' sound in the poem “Parsley” by Rita Dove, the circumstances in the excerpt from "The Farming of Bones" by Edwidge Danticat are better understood and give the reader more insight on the 1937 Parsley Massacre. In the beginning of the excerpt, a Haitian girl refuses to speak the word ‘perejil’, as handfuls of parsley are shoved down her throat. The reason for her silence is not specified; however after reading “Parsley” her motive becomes clear. To begin, an important line in the poem reads, “El General has found his word: perejil. / Who says it, lives” (13-14). This refers to the Dominican dictator General Rafael Trujillo, who let those who could properly roll the 'r' in ‘perejil’ live. With that known, Dove makes reference to the 'r' sound many times throughout the poem, writing that, “we cannot speak the R” (8), “the Haitians sing without R’s” (54) and “even / a parrot can roll an R!” (59-60). From this, it is understood that the Haitian sugar cane workers were unable to say ‘perejil’ with accuracy; and as a result, many of them were killed. This connects to the excerpt, as the Haitian girl recounts her time in the local market and how, “…the trill of the r and the precision of the j was sometimes too burdensome a joining for my tongue”. Using both the poem and the excerpt, it is deduced that the girl refused to say ‘perejil’ because she knew that mispronouncing it would result in her death. The reference to the 'r' sound in “Parsley” by Rita Dove both connects to and explains the excerpt from "The Farming of Bones" that gives the reader a more comprehensive understanding of the Parsley Massacre.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your idea that the girl refused to say the word “perejil” because she couldn’t trill the “r.” However I also found another meaning in lines 59-60 of “Parsley” by Rita Dove. In the lines, “Even / “a parrot can roll an R!” (59-60), Trujillo dehumanizes Haitians by placing a parrot above them solely on the basis that the parrot can trill the “r” when the Haitians cannot. I think this is a key part in the poem because this subtly shows Trujillo’s thinking process behind the Parsley Massacre. Most people cannot even fathom the thought of killing another human, but dehumanizing others makes killing it so much easier. Furthermore, in the eighth stanza, Dove writes, “As he paces he wonders / Who can I kill today. And for a moment / the little knot of screams / is still.” (30-33). Through these lines, readers can understand that Trujillo’s grief over his mother’s death can only be soothed by thinking violent and destructive thoughts. This is why every time he feels sadness, he turns it into rage and violence, and it is through this rage and dehumanization of the Haitians that Trujillo is able order the massacre of over 20,000 people.
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ReplyDeleteIn the poem “Parsley,” Rita Dove uses a parrot to represent the Haitian genocide that occurred during General Rafael Trujillo’s reign. In 1937, Trujillo ordered the Parsley Massacre, a genocidal massacre against the Haitians in the Dominican Republic. Because Trujillo was notorious for disregarding Haitians’ civil rights, I think that Trujillo may have seen killing Haitians as a “cleansing” of the Dominican Republic, and thus making it “beautiful.” This idea is apparent in the poem “Parsley” through the anaphora “a parrot imitating spring.” The repetition of this phrase is used to constantly remind readers that spring and parrots are beautiful things. However, the word “imitating” is purposely used because the parrot, or the genocide, is trying to be beautiful, but it can never be a real beauty. Also, in the sixth stanza, Dove uses an enjambment in the lines “For every drop of blood / there is a parrot imitating spring.” (17-18). By omitting punctuation, Dove is able to connect the blood and the parrot in the same sentence making the parrot represent the Haitians massacre. Furthermore, these lines emphasize the idea that for every drop of blood or for every Haitian killed, the parrot is trying to be beautiful by imitating spring. However, once again, the parrot is merely a false idea of beauty. Dove also writes that the parrot is “practicing / spring” (35-36). Like the word “imitating,” the word “practising” shows that the parrot, which represents the genocide, is not something truly beautiful like spring. No matter how much Trujillo strives to create a “beautiful” Dominican Republic by exterminating the Haitians, it will never be beautiful. In fact, in the twelfth stanza, the parrot has a “blackened tongue” (63), which shows that the parrot has an imperfection. Black represents both ugliness and death. Despite having a beautiful outside appearance, the blackened tongue shows that the parrot in the inside is actually something ugly, frightening, and deadly.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your analysis regarding Dove’s use of anaphora in the poem “Parsley”, however I interpreted an additional meaning behind the significance of the parrot. In a variety of literary works and national emblems, birds are used to represent freedom; for example, the eagle on the United States seal. I think in “Parsley”, Dove uses a parrot in order to symbolize the Haitians longing for freedom from General Trujillo’s dictatorship; their desire to fly away from their oppression. By using a parrot to symbolize the Haitians hunger for liberty, Dove gives the reader more insight on the brutality of the Parsley Massacre.
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ReplyDeleten the poem “Parsley” by Rita Dove, Dove uses the motif of wealth to help the readers see more into General Trujillo’s personal life. In the first two lines of the first stanza, “There is a parrot imitating spring / in the palace, its feathers parsley green.” (lines 1-2). Right off the bat, Dove lets the reader know that this is taking place in a palace, a place in which people with great wealth live in. Also she describes the parrot’s feathers as “parsley green”. When I think of the color green, I tend to think of money, pertaining to wealth. In the 7th stanza, lines 24-26, "... he planted her walking cane at the grave / and it flowered, each spring stolidly forming / forming four-star blossoms... /", Dove uses personification when saying "it flowered," because a walking cane can't flower into blossoms. Dove also uses symbolism when saying, "four-star blossoms". When I think of four-stars, I think of hotels, restaurants and generals, which all also pertain to wealth, being able to own a business, and also someone that is higher up in importance; royalty. Also in the 9th and 10th stanza, lines 40-42, Dove says, "He orders pastries / brought up for the bird; they arrive / dusted with sugar on a bed of lace. ". The parrot is very spoiled because the General brought the bird pastries, on literally, a silver platter. Again the only people able to spoil their bird with pastries brought on a silver platter are wealthy people. In the 12th stanza, lines 58-59, Dove says, " she / could roll an R like a queen." Dove is talking about the General's mother who was half Haitian, could still roll her "r". He had thought of his mother as perfection, there was nothing wrong with her even though she was Haitian. Which is also ironic because he ends up massacring many Haitians in the end.
ReplyDeleteI agreed with your analysis on the poem pertain to the wealth of the general. I want to also add to your analysis that Rita Dove is also giving a hidden thought in her poem. The hidden thought is of Trujillo, how he was spoiled and the power he possess have consumed him and led him to think he can do whatever he wants.
Delete-Nam Nguyen
I found your analysis very interesting of how the “four-star blossoms” (26) can be connected to expensive luxuries like hotels and high-class restaurants, and how this idea connected to The General’s life. I believe that this idea of the wealth of the General can also be related to his display of power in this second part of the poem. Lines such as “Who can I kill today” (31) and “He will / order many, this time, to be killed / for a single, beautiful word” (70-72) display General Trujillo’s power and how he could decide how lives and who dies so easily.
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ReplyDeleteI chose to talked about the first half of the poem, Parsley, written by Rita Dove. The whole poem talked about the massacre of slaves in the Dominican Republic when Trujillo was the dictator. The first part of the poem is named, The Cane Fields, and this is referenced to the sugarcane fields where the slaves worked. The first stanza described a green parrot, which is a symbol for wealth because the "green" referred to money. The third line down to the fourth line give the readers a visual imagery of the workers on the field. The second stanza mentioned "El General" which is a pseudonym for the dictator, Trujillo. The author told us the general is looking for a word, and the word, from later of the poem, is a metaphor for Trujillo judgement on the slaves, whether they will die or not based on how they pronounce the word (if the can't pronounce the "R" in the world then they are killed). The third stanza give us an auditory imagery of the slaves' screams before they are killed. Dove described, "... as rain punches through / and we become green..." (line 7-8). The rain here is when after the slave died, their body will decompose and weathered into soil which become the nutrients for the plants (which is the "green" in this line). The fourth stanza talked about the "mountains" which meant they could escape Trujillo's grasp if they were over the mountain, but the mountains also symbolizes freedom. The fourth stanza also described the feared that was put into children's mind; their teeth grind together meant the reflex when humans experience nervousness and fear. The fifth stanza shows the cruelty of the general; he picked the word "perejil" which has an "R" and the workers cannot pronounce it. The last stanza of the first part of the poem describes the blood that was spill.
ReplyDelete-Nam Nguyen
I agree with your analysis of the first section of the poem "Parsley" but in line 12 when Dove talks about the mountain, "and then the mountain we call in whispers Katalina." It is originally called Katarina but since the Haitians couldn't pronounce their R's they pronounced it as Katarina. I also wonder why Trujillo picked the word 'perejil'. He could've chosen another word that contained an 'r' that the Haitians couldn't pronounce but he decided to choose 'perejil'.
DeleteI agree with your analysis of the first section of the poem "Parsley" but in line 12 when Dove talks about the mountain, "and then the mountain we call in whispers Katalina." It is originally called Katarina but since the Haitians couldn't pronounce their R's they pronounced it as Katarina. I also wonder why Trujillo picked the word 'perejil'. He could've chosen another word that contained an 'r' that the Haitians couldn't pronounce but he decided to choose 'perejil'.
DeleteThe poem “Parsley” by Rita Dove is divided into two parts, named “The Cane Fields”, and “The Palace”. With this division of the poem, we can see a difference in the language of the two parts, the first part being more abrupt describing the life of the workers from their perspective, and the second part describing the life of the dictator, Trujillo. The poem writes about an event in 1937 in which a dictator named Rafael Trujillo ordered the execution of nearly 20,000 workers because they could not pronounce the word “parsley” in Spanish correctly.
ReplyDeleteThe author uses visual imagery in the first part of the poem to describe the fear and oppression of the workers in the sugarcane fields. We can see this effect in lines such as “Out of the swamp the cane appears / to haunt us, and we cut it down” (lines 3-4) and “we lie down screaming as rain punches through / and we come up green” (7-8). The work “haunts” the workers, as doing this type of labor was not an easy task at the time, especially with the possibility of death looming over. In this first part of the poem, Dove also uses repetition with phrases like “Out of the swamp the cane appears” to emphasize how the sight of the cane appearing from the swamp can represent a symbol of the workers’ oppression.
In the second part of the poem, we are given insight into General Trujillo’s life. From lines “36-40”, we know that his mother had passed away while baking sweets. I believe that much of the anger of Trujillo that was taken out on the workers was due to his mother’s death. We can see this in lines such as “God knows / his mother was no stupid woman” (57-58), “Someone / calls out his name in a voice / so like his mother’s. a startled tear / splashes the tip of his right boot” (63-66), and “My mother, my love in death” (67). These lines show The General’s deep love of his mother and her connection to the word “perejil” or “parsley” in Spanish motivated him to order the executions of the workers.
I agree with you that Dove seems to use repetition to emphasize certain concepts. Along with using repetition of "out of the swamp," she also uses repetition of the phrase "a parrot imitating spring." It is repeated four times through the poem, and this is probably the most significant form of repetition. The parrot is owned and respected by the general– it imitates language, as it "imitates spring." The Haitians, on the other hand, imitate the Spanish language but do not earn the respect of the general. Their speech is not authentic, as the parrot appears to be. It is really an interesting metaphor, one that explores a new aspect to the massacre of the Haitians.
DeleteRita Dove takes on a heavy topic in her poem, “Parsley,” visiting the genocide of Haitian slaves in the Dominican Republic during General Rafael Trujillo’s rule. “El General,” as referred to in the poem, sentenced to death all those who could not pronounce the “r” sound in the Spanish word for “parsley.” This is expressed in the poem: “El General has found his word: perejil. / Who says it, lives” (lines 13-14). This line serves as an allusion to the massacre of the slaves in the Dominican Republic. Dove presents two perspectives in her poem, the first of the Haitians and the second of the general himself. The excerpt from “The Farming of Bones” by Edwidge Danticat, however, focuses solely on one slave’s point of view and better develops an emotional reaction from the reader. The excerpt takes place in the midst of action, as three slaves are shoved to the ground awaiting the general to determine their fate. They were forced to attempt to say “perejil,” and the narrator reveals the difficulty of simply speaking a single word: “the trill of the r and the precision of the j was sometimes too burdensome a joining for my tongue” (Danticat). Further into the excerpt, the author uses visual imagery to display the cruel and horrific actions the soldiers did to the slaves, for simply having an accent. This visual imagery, describing the soldiers shoving parsley into the mouths of the Haitians, stirs the reader’s mind, spiraling into disbelief that this situation could ever happen. How could a man decide that the inability to speak a single word results in death? And for what reason did the man choose the word “parsley?” Perhaps it could have been meant to remind them of their status, to show that those slaves were the ones responsible for farming the parsley. If they cannot even speak the word of their work, then they deserve to die? It is an interesting concept, and certainly not one I would hope to see in the future of any countries today. Dictatorship still exists, so we can all hope that there are not any presently that murder groups of people.
ReplyDeleteIn the poem “Persephone, Falling”, Rita Dove uses symbolism and allusion to Greek mythology to send a message about conformity. The opening lines read, “One narcissus among the ordinary beautiful / flowers, one unlike all the others!” (1-2). Immediately, the allusion starts as ‘narcissus’ is a character from Greek mythology who falls in love with his own reflection. However, in this case, the narcissus is a flower used to symbolize Persephone; the ‘ordinary flowers’ symbolize other children. This comparison is representative of the traits that characterize Persephone as unique and different, and make her stand out from the other kids. Unfortunately, her individuality catches the eye of a stranger and, “…sprung out of the earth / on his glittering terrible / carriage, he claimed his due” (4-6). This man in a chariot is Hades, who came out of the Underworld to abduct the lovely Persephone. The closing line of the first stanza reads “…She had strayed from the herd” (8). From this, Dove touches on the idea that being unlike everyone else is what put Persephone in the wake of danger and outside the reach of assistance. The second stanza opens with a message that every young boy and girl has heard, “(Remember: go straight to school. / This is important, stop fooling around! / Don’t answer to strangers. Stick / with your playmates. Keep your eyes down)” (9-12). Through this message, Dove shares that isolation is the key to safety in both mythology and the real world. Dove uses symbolism and allusion to Greek mythology to inform readers about conformity; that to avoid a fate like Persephone, one must follow the crowd.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your thorough analysis and background research on Persephone. Usually, most parents tell their children that it's a positive thing to stand out and be unique, however Dove doesn't seem to agree with that scenario in this poem. Do you think this could have to do with human nature and the inevitability of people conforming to society eventually in life? That what Dove was trying to say is that reality is too overpowering for our desires/intentions sometimes?
DeleteThe poem I chose to discuss in this blog is "Wiederkehr" by Rita Dove. I looked up the title and found its meaning which is "someone who occasionally return to the same place". This narrow my thought to the story of Persephone in the Underworld, how she ate six pomegranate seeds and result in her coming back to the underworld during fall to the end of winter. The first line to the seventh of the poem describes Hades wanting Persephone as his wife because he wanted to be happy. The lines also give visual imagery of Hades being please with himself after capturing Persephone. The eighth line to the tenth give the perception of Hades's sexual urges of wanting to sleep with Persephone, but she refuses to sleep with him. "I sat to hold the rain untouched / inside me..." (line 10-11). The rain here represent/symbolizes Persephone's purity/virginity because rain was the most purest form of a liquid that is drinkable during the time period of the story. The eleventh line to the last described Persephone's choice of staying or living Hades, but it is an irony because she never had a choice due to Hades tricking her into eating the pomegranate seeds resulting in her misery and the seasons. The theme of this poem is the yearning of wanting love and the lesson is that it is impossible to force someone into loving a person. Another theme is inequality, how women are treated as a sexual object rather than a human being because it was described that Hades wanted to take Persephone's virginity and did not treat her as someone he loves. The final theme, maybe, is that in every abusive relationship, there is always a choice to get out of it like how Persephone could have gotten out if she had not ate the pomegranate, but also it is hard to get out because sometime people believe that no one would care for them and that is why they stay with the abusive partner. To put it in short, it is a trickery thing to get out of an abusive relationship.
ReplyDelete-Nam Nguyen
Your analysis connecting "Wiederkehr" by Rita Dove to the story of Persephone and Hades was very accurate and insightful. However, what I found awfully interesting was how Dove was able to allude to the Greek myth without explicitly mentioning any names or places specific to Greek mythology. By avoiding the use of proper nouns in her poem, Dove is able to connect to a wider audience; not only those who are in an abusive relationship like Persephone, but those who are not. As a result of using only pronouns in her poem "Wiederkehr", Dove puts the reader in Persephone’s shoes and subtly sends a message about domestic abuse.
DeleteIn the poem, “Exit,” Rita Dove uses language that gives mixed feelings to the reader, being both sad and hopeful. The poem describes a woman leaving her childhood home, going off to lead her own life. The theme behind this is opportunity, and Dove characterizing this as a sad, yet encouraging aspect of life. In the second stanza, Dove uses somber diction to describe the appearance of the house, and to help display how the woman is feeling. For example, “The windows you have closed” … “Here it’s gray;” and “this suitcase, / the saddest object in the world” all have language indicating sadness. This stanza shows the hard part of leaving behind what you’ve always known, and how sad it can be. In the third stanza, Dove shares the other side of opportunity, the encouraging half. Dove writes, “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” (lines 11-14). These lines describe the joy involved in opportunity, using the word “blush” contrasting with the “gray” mentioned in the previous stanza. Stanzas two and three contrast with each other, but stanza one has contrast within itself. In line one, Dove writes, “Just when hope withers, a reprieve is granted.” That when you no longer have hope, you are spared of consequences. It is an interesting concept, but seems to contrast with itself as often hope brings good things. Relating to this context, the woman’s “hope withers” when she must leave her home, but “a reprieve is granted” when she looks ahead at the opportunities that are to come.
ReplyDeleteI thought that your analysis of this poem was very insightful. I would like to add on something that I also found in this poem, which was the use of symbolism. I found that in line 9-10, Dove writes “This suitcase, / the saddest object in the world.” This serves as a symbol of the depressing and average life of someone who works a desk job in a cubicle. Although it might be the dream job for some, many other people would want to do something greater in life. Another example of symbolism is in line 3, where “your street” represents your path in life.
DeleteIn the poem “Used” by Rita Dove, the author displays social commentary on how society forces us to be a certain way. Dove uses visual imagery and rhyme to describe the challenging life that comes with trying to be “cool”. In the first quatrain stanza, we can see Dove’s use of visual imagery in line 2 with “skirts ballooning above twinkling knees”. This emphasizes the idealized image of what beauty is and how it was “every man-child’s preadolescent dream” (3). In the third septet stanza, Dove uses another example of visual imagery, writing “We couldn’t hang on, slipped / to the floor and by morning the quilts / had slid off, too” (11-13). This line represents how it is very hard to maintain this image of beauty and perfection, and how they “couldn’t hang on” to this lifestyle. Also, this line describes how this beauty does not last long and how “by morning the quilts / had slid off, too.” This can be connected to how fashion trends are always changing and it is difficult to keep up with what is hip or in style.
ReplyDeleteAnother literary device that the author makes use of in this poem is rhyme. Throughout all three of the stanzas, we can see rhyme in pairs such as “threes” (1) and “knees” (2), “grief” (5) and “brief” (6), “quilts” (12) and “guilt” (13), and a few others. The use of rhyme with these pairs of words help to connect these words to further emphasize their underlying meaning. For example, “quilts” and “guilt” can represent how trying to fit in and obtain a perfect image can cause guilt or resentment. Another example is with “zip” and “slipped”, which represents how money is lost when you invest in trying to fit into society.
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DeleteI agree with your analysis of the poem "Used" by Rita Dove. But I would also add how society has also corrupted every women to thinking that skinny is the best thing ever. In lines 1-2, "The conspiracy's to make us thin. Size threes / are all the rage,...". Women and teenagers have been so corrupted by society that every girl/women believes that being skinny is the best thing ever. Well hello, it's not! Being curvy, a little bit bigger, or even a combination of both is perfectly fine. Women let society change them to become people they aren't; to become a part of the "hip" or "cool" people.
DeleteI agreed with your analysis on the poem, Used. I would like to add the theme that Rita Dove was trying to portray here is the fact that how women clothes reveals their body and that this could have also connect with Persephone, how she might have worn revealing clothes that made Hades abducted her.
DeleteThe poem I chose to discuss about is “Demeter, Waiting” by Rita Dove. Throughout this collection of mothers and daughters, Rita Dove writes a lot about the greek goddess and her daughter, Demeter and Persephone. In this poem, Dove uses vulgar diction to display a theme of sadness and grief, being without her daughter, and hatred Demeter has towards her daughter’s kidnapper. In the second stanza, lines 6-11, Dove says, “...I will drag my grief through a winter / of my own making and refuse / any meadow that recycles itself into / hope…”. Being the goddess of harvest, Demeter refused to let any crops grow, creating a drought, during the time her daughter was away, down in the underworld. Also, since Hades has Persephone during this winter time, Demeter refuses to let the crops grow but also Demeter uses winter as this depressing time for her and spring as a happy time to restart with her daughter. Lines 11-14, “...Shit on the cicadas… / finicky butterflies! I will wail and thrash until the whole goddamned golden panorama freezes / over…”. In these lines, it shows how Demeter is frustrated with Hades for taking her daughter and making her stay there in the Underworld for most of the year.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your idea that Demeter uses winter to express her depression over her taken daughter. To expand on this point, I think that Dove uses violent language and diction to show the theme of a mother’s obsession and possessiveness over her daughter is actually harmful not only to others, but also to herself. With the words “drag my grief through a winter of my own making,” “wail,” and “thrash,” readers can clearly visualize the mother’s rage, frenzy, and even insanity in her destruction. Even though it is understandable that any mother would be heartbroken if her daughter were taken away, we know through Greek mythology that Persephone was taken for a season and was unharmed, so Demeter’s actions can seem very extreme. I think that Dove portrayed Demeter as this violent character to represent mothers who are too attached to their daughters for their own good.
DeleteIn the poem “Primer,” Rita Dove uses caesura, enjambment, and group diction to show that bullies work in groups because alone, they have little or no power. The poem starts with visual imagery with “I was chased home by / the Gaitlin kids, three skinny sisters / in rolled-down bobby socks.” (1-3). Dove uses both caesura and an enjambment to isolate “three skinny sisters” to show that they were bullies when the three of them were together, but alone, they would merely be skinny girls, powerless much like the narrator. Throughout the poem, Dove always refers to them as a group rather than one person or “she.” For example, the narrator was “chased by / the Gaitlin kids” (1-2), “they trod my heel” (4), “they’d beat me up” (8), “their shoves” (9), and “shake them down” (11). This emphasizes the theme that bullies, when alone, are often powerless as their victims, but when together, they act in order to get a sense of superiority, dominance, and power. Dove also uses an onomatopoeia when she writes, “Hissing / Brainiac! and Mrs. Stringbean!” (3-4). The word “hissing” has a similar sound to a snake, which is often associated with evil. By using onomatopoeia, readers can experience the bitterness and harshness of the bullies’ words that the narrator experienced.
ReplyDeleteDove also uses end-stops and caesurae to show the narrator’s resolve to “grow up” and fight for herself. Previously, she “never thought to retort” (6) despite her bullies’ taunts, but after her mother saves her, the narrator cannot help but feel resentment and perhaps shame that she could not fend for herself. In the lines “Nothing could get me into that car. / I took the long way home, swore / I’d show them all : I would grow up.” (12-14), the end-stops and caesurae make each thought short. This is fitting because anger and resentment can cause people to talk in short sentences. She also said that she would not get into the car because she resented the fact that her mother was the one who fended off the bullies rather than her own self. This spurs her to swear that one day, she will grow up and “show them all” that she is capable of protecting herself to, including her mother.
I agree with your analysis– another thing to note is that the narrator uses a sarcastic tone to describe the scene when her mother shows up: "I survived / their shoves across the schoolyard / because my five-foot zero mother drove up / in her Caddie to shake them down to size" (8-11). It is ironic, in that the mother is "shaking them down to size" when she in fact is only 5 feet tall. This moment is what wakes up the "narrator's resolve to 'grow up,'" as you say.
DeleteAs a result of many medical studies, it has been deduced that eating chocolate can help prevent cardiovascular problems as well as relieve stress. In the poem “Chocolate”, Rita Dove uses an extended metaphor complete with sensory words to convey the idea that a lover is as valuable to life as chocolate is valuable to health. The opening stanza reads, “I hold up to sniff / between finger and thumb- // how you numb me” (2-4). Here, Dove uses the olfactory and tactile words of ‘sniff’ and ‘numb’ to compare the scent of chocolate to the way this person’s aroma makes her feel senseless and stress free. Later, visual words like ‘melt’ and ‘liquefy’ compare the nature of the chocolate when heated to the way her intense feelings for this person makes her heart soft, warm and happy. The following lines read, “for a taste of you // any woman would gladly / crumble to ruin” (12-14). Through the gustatory word of ‘taste’, Dove conveys the way that this person is desirable and irresistible, similar to the flavor of chocolate, as well as how a woman’s affection for a lover is fatal. Lastly, the poem ends by saying, “Enough chatter: I am ready // to fall in love!” (15-16). By using the auditory word ‘chatter’, Dove shows that she does not need to have a conversation with her lover, as she falls in love with their being, not their words; similar to the way chocolate speaks through taste. By using sensory words and an extended metaphor to compare a person to chocolate, Dove alludes to the idea that a lover will lead to a happy, healthy heart; just like chocolate does.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your analysis of the poem, Chocolate. I had a different view on the poem when I read it. In the line that talk about chocolate melting, I thought that it was a metaphor for the moment of intimacy between two people and they would keep staring or paying attention to each other.
DeleteI agree with your analysis of this poem. But I would also add that in the second and third stanza, Dove shows a bad side to chocolate; love, when saying "If I don't eat you quickly // you'll melt in my palm //". This is saying that if one doesn't grab onto who they love, that person could lose interest in them and leave. So, not only does Dove use chocolate as a positive metaphor to love, but also a negative one.
DeleteThe poem I chose to discuss is “Cozy Apologia” by Rita Dove, for Fred. Fred Viebahn is a German writer and is also married to Rita Dove, probably why she wrote this poem for him. In this poem, Dove uses metaphor, allusion, and sarcasm to display her affection for her husband. In the first stanza, lines 1-10, Dove uses an allusion, “Astride a dappled mare… / … / There you’ll be, with furrowed brow / And chain mail glinting, to set me free: //” (lines 6-9). This is, in any princess or romance movie, the typical hero or prince that goes to rescue their princess. Dove is saying that whenever she feels trapped, Fred, her husband, helps her feel safe and protected and not trapped anymore. In the second stanza, lines 11-20, Dove uses metaphor, “... Today a hurricane is nudging up the coast, // Oddly male: Big Bad Floyd, who brings a host of daydreams… /” (lines 13-15). In saying this, Dove is saying that, like Hurricane Floyd brought bad weather on the Atlantic coast, it is bringing back bad and awkward memories of her when she used to have silly crushes on worthless boys. She is trying to forget all of her crushes and just stay focused on the one lover she has and intends to keep. In the third stanza, lines 21-30, Dove uses sarcasm, “Who’s satisfied simply with what’s good for us, // When has the ordinary ever been news? //” (lines 26-27). The poem is called “Cozy Apologia” which translates to “Comforted Apology”. Dove is apologizing, in a sarcastic manner, that she’s not ordinary like everyone else but at the same time she questions why anyone would want to be ordinary. She is comfortable, hence the title of the poem, with being different from everybody else.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your analysis of the poem, “Cozy Apologia” by Rita Dove. Other literary devices that I noticed the author using in this poem were iambic foot and rhyme. Although not all lines in the poem were using iambic foot, many lines did. Because iambic foot includes an unstressed followed by a stressed syllable, it follows the rhythm of a heartbeat, which can relate to Rita Dove’s deep love for her husband, Fred Viebahn. We can see this technique in lines such as “Astride a dappled mare, legs braced as far apart” (lines 6). Also the use of rhyme in lines like “I could pick anything and think of you - / This lamp, the wind-still rain, the glossy blue” (1) in conjunction with iambic foot further emphasizes the repetitive heartbeat pattern as well as connects two lines of poetry even though said lines might not always end with an end stop.
DeleteI agree with your idea that Rita Dove is sarcastically apologizing for being different from others. Another example that supports this idea is the changing rhyme scheme throughout the “Cozy Apologia.” In the first stanza, each line has an end rhyme including “you” (1), “blue” (2), “page” (3), “age” (4), “heart” (5), and “apart” (6). The second stanza (lines 11-20) has a similar pattern of end rhymes as the first stanza, but the pattern stays the same only until the 16th line. Lines 17-20 do not have any end rhymes. The third stanza (line 21-30) has a very different rhyme scheme. In fact, there is no clear “rule” or consistent pattern. Rather, it is very random such as “mine” (22) and “Divine” (24), “news” (27), “blues” (29), “do” (28), and “you” (30). I think Dove consistently kept the same rhyme scheme in the beginning to represent “ordinary” people. Also, many people often think the poems must rhyme or have a consistent pattern, but towards the end, Dove deviates from the pattern to represent her being different for ordinary.
DeleteThe topic of gun control and safety is a very controversial subject, with passionate support on both sides of the argument. Some believe that people should have the right to own a gun; some believe otherwise. Rita Dove makes social commentary on this issue in her poem “Meditation at Fifty Yards, Moving Target”. The author also uses visual and tactile imagery to create a dominant effect of immersion for the reader.
ReplyDeleteThe first stanza of this poem describes the dangers of firearms, and we can see this in the last two lines, “You could wound the burglar and kill your child / sleeping in the next room, all with one shot” (lines 11-12). This line highlights the dangers of guns and how collateral damage is a definite possibility if firearms are not used properly. However, in the second stanza, Dove describes the pleasure of shooting a gun and the power it grants. This is evident in lines 13-17 where the author writes “Fear, of course. Then the sudden / pleasure of heft – as if the hand / had always yearned for this solemn / fit, this gravitas, and now had found / its true repose.” These lines show in spite of the possible danger, firing a gun is an almost fulfilling experience.
We can see Dove’s use of visual imagery in lines such as “tin cans swing-dancing in the trees, / the paper bull’s-eye’s tidy rupture at fifty yards” (31-32) and “thunk-and-slide of a blunt-nose silver Mossberg, / or double-handed Colts, slugging it out from the hips.” (26-27). The use of visual imagery here helps to enhance the difference between men and women and how they handle firearms differently by creating images to which the reader can connect and relate. Also, the author uses tactile imagery to contribute to the dominant effect of immersion by allowing the reader to relate to the feel of the guns. We can see this technique with lines like “Glocks are lightweight but sensitive; / the Keltec has a long pull and a kick” (4-5) and “Don’t pull the trigger, squeeze it - / squeeze between heartbeats. / Look down the sights. Don’t / hold your breath. Don’t hold / anything, just stop breathing.” (18-22). The reader attempts to recreate these tactile senses in his or her mind as he or she reads these parts of the poem.
I agree with your analysis regarding Rita Dove's use of visual and tactile imagery to immerse the reader in her poem. However, to add, what I found intriguing about "Meditation at Fifty Yards, Moving Target" was the final stanza titled "The Bullet". It was unique from the other three stanzas as it was from the perspective of the bullet and lacked capitalization and punctuation. By omitting capital letters, I believe Dove was trying to highlight the fact that the bullet is an inanimate object; that it can't control its actions or know right from wrong. In addition, I think Dove did not punctuate this stanza in order to set a fast pace. By reading what is more or less a run on sentence, Dove emphasizes the speed and severity of the bullet; that it doesn't stop or pause for anything but its target.
DeleteThe poem, Chocolate by Rita Dove, Dove uses visual imagery and gustatory imagery to create the dominant effect of love in the readers. The subject of the poem is love and comparing love with chocolates. Dove describes how chocolates are easily melted when they are touch and the consumer have to pay attention to them, in the third stanza, which is similar to a situation between two people who are in love pay close attention to each others. This makes the readers thought of their love life; the intimacy between them and their partner when they are alone. Another way that Dove portray the felling of love is through gustatory imagery. In the fourth and fifth stanza, Dove describes the taste of chocolates; its bitter-sweet tastes, how the tastes can keep the eater consuming it. Just like the taste of chocolate, a person can never get enough of the emotion of love; how people keep falling in love over and over with another person.
ReplyDelete-Nam Nguyen
I agree with your analysis in that Dove uses chocolate as a metaphor for love. The way I interpreted it, is that love has both its beneficial and detrimental sides, but it is always worth the risk. Dove shows that chocolate, or love, melts, or disappears if you let your chance go. This meaning that if you don't take chances in love and jump in, then you'll miss your chances for fulfillment and enjoyment. She encourages the risk of love, finishing the poem with "I am ready / to fall in love!"
DeleteIn the poem “Meditation at Fifty Yards, Moving Target,” Rita Dove uses different of points of view to give different perspectives on the use of guns. The first part, “Safety First,” is about the necessity of safety when handling guns. Dove uses second person to directly address the readers because the message of this part is more relatable to the common reader at home than someone such as an active soldier on duty. For example, when Dove writes “You could wound the burglar and kill your child / sleeping in the next room, all with one shot.” (11-12), readers may have experienced or may experience burglars in their homes and/or they have children in their homes. Because these situations are so relatable to the common reader, readers can understand the danger of firearms in their homes. Furthermore, Dove stresses to “never point your weapon,” “keep your finger off the trigger,” and “assume a loaded barrel,” because even though people may have instances where they need to use guns for protection, safety for others in the surrounding environment is essential; the pulling of a trigger can be done in a single moment by accident, but the consequence of the loss one’s child can be killed is eternal. In contrast to “Safety First,” the fourth part “Bullet,” is written in first person to represent the bullet’s perspective. Even though she is personifying the bullet with the usage of “I,” she does this only to emphasize that the bullet is merely an object without any emotions. Her message in “Bullet” is bullets can’t choose to shoot or kill something; some person has to pull the trigger. This idea is supported by the lack of capitalization, punctuation, and coherent thought. By having no capitalization, especially for the word “I,” “Bullet” gives the sense that it has no will or importance as a person does. The lack of punctuation and coherent thought also emphasizes the point that bullets cannot think. For example when Dove writes “dark dark no wind no heaven” (38), there are only separate words that do not structurally join together or make sense. A person would never speak like this, but it is easier to imagine that objects would.
ReplyDeleteI loved your analysis of this poem, especially the part about the bullet itself. I liked when you said that the lack of capitalization and punctuation in that part showed that the bullet has no sense of self or direction or free will. Do you think this connects to the whole "guns don't kill people, people kill people" idea? Do you think maybe Dove has had experience with guns in her lifetime? I liked your perspective on the syntax of the "Bullet" section- the way the words are ordered and spaced doesn't reflect how people think/speak, but how an object might.
DeleteChocolate has built up a prominent reputation over the years as something associated with love and comfort. In the poem “Chocolate,” Rita Dove uses visual imagery and second person point of view to create an intimate feeling with the reader and further investigate the feeling of love. Throughout the poem Rita Dove also shows both the beneficial and detrimental sides of chocolate, displaying in the end which side prevails. Using visual imagery, Dove writes “If I don’t eat you quickly, / you’ll melt in my palm” (lines 6-7). These lines display the disadvantageous part of chocolate– you take too long, and the goodness goes away. This also relates to love in a way, showing that if you don’t take chances and go for it, your connection will wither away. Dove also appears to relate chocolate to a lover by using the second person. For example, “for a taste of you / any woman would gladly / crumble to ruin”… “I am ready / to fall in love!” (12-16). In both of these excerpts, Dove uses the second person to treat chocolate as a beneficial thing, as something to desire. The second person also helps in creating the intimate feeling that draws the reader into the poetry and develops a feeling of love. Along with this, in lines 10-11 Dove writes “dark punch / of earth and night and leaf …” These lines show the difficult side of chocolate (love), saying it is a “dark punch.” Overall, Rita Dove compares love to a difficult ride, but something that is worth the risk and should definitely be pursued (showing this in the last line).
ReplyDeleteEveryone has felt it at least once: the feeling of isolation because of a distinction from the mainstream. In the poem “Brown”, Rita Dove uses dance analogy and color diction to emphasize an individualistic theme. Starting in the middle of the poem, Dove writes, “For once I was not the only / black person in the room” (13-14). From this, Dove alludes to the fact that, as an African-American, she is used to being a minority in a group of people; which attracts unappreciated staring. Yet contrary to the belief that staring is bad, in dance, staring is seen as a compliment as the dancer has succeeded in entrancing the audience. With that said, the beginning of the poem reads, “I stepped onto the parquet / for a waltz” (3-4). Here, Dove uses dance as a subtle analogy to life; that when stepping into the world, there must be an eye catching feature, like when on the dance floor. Later, the poem reads, “I’ve always loved / my skin, the way it glows against / citron and fuchsia…” (19-21). By saying that she likes herself in ‘citron’ and ‘fuchsia’, which are bright and captivating colors, Dove suggests that she has accepted what makes her different. Additionally, Dove closes the poem with the line, “The dress in question was red” (28). Since red is a color associated with grabbing a person’s attention, Dove once again hints at the fact that she has become fond of standing out. Lastly, Dove writes that, “I prefer grand entrances- / especially with a Waltz…” (24-25). This connects to the analogy of dance to life; that she wants to be noticed, just like when dancing. Through dance analogy and color diction, Dove conveys an individualistic theme that shows the importance of embracing your differences.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your idea that Dove’s message in “Brown” is to accept one’s differences. Something I found interesting was that Dove writes a lot about accepting her differences as an African American woman such as her skin color, but she prefers “grand entrances--- especially with a Waltz / that European constipated swoon.” (24-27). I think she purposely uses this contrast between her African American heritage and the European setting/history to show that she has embraces her differences enough to have confidence to dance and “glow” in something that is not culturally hers. This idea builds upon your point because the idea that accepting and embracing one’s differences are not only important, but it also helps to override limiting cultural, social, and other boundaries. Because Dove was confident to go against social standards and social conformity, she was able to disintegrate cultural divides by being the center of attention of a traditional European dance.
DeleteIn the poem, “American Smooth,” Rita Dove uses dancing diction, repetition, and alliteration to display certain elegance of dance to the reader and further express her personal attachment to dancing. Poetry could be similar to dancing, as thoughts can glide across the paper as a dancer would across a stage. Not only that, but a dancer expresses their emotions through their art, and poetry does the same. In this case, Rita Dove uses dancing diction to show her passion towards the art of dancing. For example, she uses “a foxtrot or a waltz,” along with “frame” and “two measures.” All of these words relate to dancing, and help illustrate the setting of the situation in the poem. Along with these words, Dove writes “ecstatic mimicry / being the sine qua non / of American Smooth.” Sine qua non means “absolutely necessary” or “essential.” So in this poem, Dove claims that dance movement is sort of imitating something, or not being yourself as you are dancing– and that is essential to be able to dance. Dove uses repetition in the line “the leftward lean, head turned / just enough to gaze out / past your ear and always / smiling, smiling” (18-21). The repetition of smiling hear further emphasizes the importance of energy and putting on that mask as a performer. This line relates to the previously mentioned “ecstatic mimicry,” as you smile to show energy but also must maintain that expression, seemingly mimicking someone (not being yourself). Finally, Dove uses alliteration to display the elegance of dancing to the reader. Dove writes, “achieved flight, / that swift and serene / magnificence” (lines 26-28). The repetition of the “s” sound is fairly passive, and illustrates the grace involved in dancing. Overall, Dove intends to demonstrate the beauty of dance in the poem, “American Smooth.”
ReplyDeleteI agree with your analysis regarding how Rita Dove demonstrates the elegance of dance in “American Smooth”. However, in addition, I would argue that through natural diction, Dove implies that there is a side of dance that allows self expression and liberation. In the closing stanza Dove writes, “-achieved flight, / that swift and serene / magnificence, / before the earth / remembered who we were / and brought us down” (26-31). The natural diction in this stanza, words like ‘flight’, ‘swift’ and ‘serene’, express the characteristics of a bird, an animal often associated with freedom, that in turn connects to the freeing aspect of dance that allows self expression.
DeleteThe poem I chose to do from American Smooth is "Fox Trot Fridays" by Rita Dove. In this poem, Dove uses anaphoras, simile, and visual imagery to describe the fox trot dance. In the first and second stanza, lines 1-4, Dove tells the reader that people go to the disco every Friday to help them forget about every bad thing that happened earlier in the week by dancing. In stanzas 2 and 3, lines 3-6, Dove uses anaphoras, "stride" and "quick", to describe the dance and the movement or rhythm of the dance. Also, in stanzas 3 and 4, lines 5-8, Dove uses a simile, "Smooth / as Nat King Cole's / slow satan smile, //", to also describe the movement or rhythm of the dance. But she does this by referencing Nat King Coles. Nat King Coles is, Nathaniel Adams Coles, an American singer, the first leading jazz pianist, and one of the first African Americans to host a national television variety show. I was confused as to why she described his smile as "slow satan smile". In stanza 5, line 10, Dove uses an anaphora, "one", to also describe the dance as easy. In stanzas 6-8, lines 11-16, Dove uses visual imagery, "one man and / one woman, // rib to rib, //...// just the sweep of Paradise / and the space of a song /", describing the dance as two people start to dance to it, giving it a romantic structure. The poem also has a kind of rhythm that follows the rhythm of the dance, by using enjambments on most of the lines.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your analysis in that there's a certain rhythm to the poem, as if the words make up a dance. Rita Dove does this by keeping lines short and quick, using caesura to create this feeling. The lines are short and quick, similar to the movements in the foxtrot dance– quick steps, constantly moving around.
DeleteAs for the confusion on the "satan smile," you actually had a spelling error– the word is "satin," which is a smooth, silky fabric. So, in this context, Nat King Cole's "satin" smile is smooth and effortless.
The heart is widely accepted as the symbol of love. However, many of the sayings and perceptions about the heart are not actually true of the real human heart. Rita Dove contradicts many of these popular sayings about the human heart using allusion and symbolism in her poem “Heart to Heart”.
ReplyDeleteThroughout all of the three stanzas, the author makes frequent references in the form of allusion to popular sayings regarding the heart. We can see this in lines like “It doesn’t melt / or turn over, / break or harden, / so it can’t feel / pain, / yearning, / regret” (lines 3-9) and “but I can’t open it: / there’s no key. / I can’t wear it / on my sleeve, / or tell you from / the bottom of it / how I feel” (22-28). These lines allude to popular sayings about the heart and love such as “my heart melted” from “It doesn’t melt” (3), “Key to my heart” from “but I can’t open it: / there’s no key” (22-23), and “From the bottom of my heart” from “or tell you from / the bottom of it / how I feel” (26-28).
In addition, we can also see the use of symbolism throughout the poem to represents ideas that relate to the heart. Rita Dove writes “I feel it inside / its cage sounding / a dull tattoo: / I want, I want” (18-21). This line shows how the author is using the “cage” as a symbol of the metaphorical restriction that a heart can sometimes endure and the “dull tattoo” as a symbol of the heartbeat.
In “Lullaby,” Rita Dove uses an allusion to the poem, “Canción Tonta” or “Foolish Song” by sh the Spanish poet and playwright Federico García Lorca. “Canción Tonta” is a poem about the close relationship between a mother and her child. It is a very simple poem that is often read to children and memorized by children as a song. In “Lullaby,” Dove uses a similar format to structure her poem as Lorca used for his; she writes as if two people, the child and the mother, are directly speaking to each other. The poem starts with the child saying “Mother, I want to rest in your lap again / as I did as a child.” (1-2). Immediately, the reader is able to infer that the child is actually not a “child,” or rather a little kid; it known in the second to last stanza that the child still goes to school so he/she must also not be an adult yet. With these two clues, it can be safely assumed that the child is probably a teenager in high school. Because the child is looking for comfort, a teenager as a child is fitting for the poem because teenagers in high school go through a difficult time in life from stress from school, changing social groups, the finding of one’s identity, and more. Throughout the conversation between the mother and her child, it is apparent that the teenager seems confused and naïve like a baby, but he/she seems to be forcing him/herself to grow up and act mature. For example, the teenager says “Mother, I want the birthday supper of my childhood, / dripping with sauce,” (17-18), but after the mother invites him/her to do so, the child replies “I can’t. The school bus is coming. / She’ll be waiting at the corner.” (21-22). Despite the teenager’s struggles, the mother is always providing comfort and advice. To demonstrate this, Dove specifically uses comforting diction and language whenever the mother is speaking such as “how it floats,” “bed,” “day of rest,” “never hurt,” “lie down,” and “pillow for your back.” Dove’s message about the relationship between a mother and her child is that mothers are always watching, providing, and caring for their children even when they are growing up and leaving their mothers’ arms. However, no matter how supportive mothers are, it is always disappointing and heartbreaking to see their children growing up before their eyes; one moment children seem to depend on their mothers and the next, they seem to be leaving their mothers behind. In the last line, the mother says to her leaving child, “Already? So soon!” (23). This line provides a bittersweet ending for the poem as the mother seems reluctant and unready to let her child go, but is forced to do so anyway.
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ReplyDeleteThe poem, Mother Love by Rita Dove, the author describes Demeter roaming the Earth to find Persephone. The first stanza described Demeter roamed to a city and was pitted by a family and they took her in. She saw the family baby and cuddle it the moment she saw it. The author described how a mother can't help but to cuddle a baby or feeling to do so because of a mother instinct, in line one to three. Dove also started to described how a mom can never stop loving her baby no matter how much pain they can bring her, in line four to seven. Then Dove talked about how a mother fear that once the baby reach the age where they starts dating she cannot control what will happen. The second stanza describes how Demeter wanted to make the baby immortal by burning him in fire, but the mother asked Demeter to stop. Dove showed how Demeter grief when she does not know Persephone whereabouts.
ReplyDelete-Nam Nguyen
I agree with your analysis of this poem but I would also add any literary devices that Rita Dove includes in this poem to convey the grief that Demeter contained when Persphone was gone. For an example, in the second stanza, lines 26-27, Dove uses a simile, "bent over a baby sizzling on a spit / as neat as a Virginia ham... //". This is saying that Demeter had wanted to make the family's baby immortal and to do that she had to put the baby over a fire. I would've used this literary device to back up this detail you discovered in the poem.
DeleteI agree with both of your ideas about the last few lines of the poem “Mother Love” by Rita Dove. Dove writes “I laid him on the smoldering embers, / sealing his juices in slowly so he might / be cured to perfection” (lines 22-24). These lines can be connected to how a mother might push her child academically or in other aspects of life in order for the child to succeed. Next, the author writes “Poor human - / to scream like that, to make me remember” (27-28), which can relate to how sometimes parents feel sad for their child who is struggling to try to succeed in life, as it is not easy.
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