Signing off

This post marks the end of the semester for English 210, Introduction to Literature with Ann Hostetler.  During our time together, the class has covered a wide range of styles and forms of poetic expression.  While the majority of the course focusses on how poetry, "makes things new."  With this emphasis, we have studied poets ranging from T. S. Eliot at the beginning of the century to Lyn Hejinian and Martin Espada who have used poetry to reflect on their past and future.  My essay below entitled, "Po·et·ry/ˈPōətrē/Noun" sums up my definition of poetry and its impact on me this semester.  After reading more contemporary forms of poetry, I would encourage others to work on continually expanding their definitions of poetry as it continues to change over time.  I look forward to seeing what poetry looks like in the years to come!  Thank you for reading my blog and who knows, I just might keep blogging about poetry :)

What is poetry to me?

Our last assignment in the class was forming our own definition of poetry.  This essay was challenging in many ways since poetry is such a broad form of literature and expression, but this essay did help to draw all our reading and assignments from the semester into one essay in our attempt to decide what poetry represents to each of us.  This essay is my attempt to define poetry building on the readings, papers, and class discussions.

Po·et·ry/ˈPōətrē/Noun

            While there are many forms of expression in literature, one of the most historically expressionistic forms is poetry.  Poetry is a complex concept and is not easily definable.  Not only has is changed greatly over time, it is different from country to country and poet to poet.  Poems cover subjects such as love and loss, joy and sorrow, war and peace.  They utilize a variety of forms and poetic devices that twist language in creative ways.  As Yusef Komunyakaa says in his Introduction to the collection of The Best American Poetry for 2003, poetry involves, “…calling into play all the senses, evoking both order and disorder,” (Komunyakaa, 14).  The qualifications for poetry are unclear; there are many definitions that have been applied in the past.  Regardless of how poetry has changed, one thing has been consistent: poetry is the art of manipulating language and structure in creative, unusual, and deliberate ways to challenge its readers to think critically about its content.

            When contemplating this definition of poetry, I am reminded of how many different purposes poetry can fulfill.  Poetry responds to conflict, informs readers of social issues, entertains, and expresses emotion.  Depending on the poet, a poem’s purpose varies.  For example, in A Cappella, edited by Ann Hostetler, there is a poem by Jeff Gundy titled, “The Cookie Poem.”  At first glance, this poem appears to be solely about cookies.  He describes all different kinds of cookies and their adornments. He uses images of cookies wearing bonnets and hats, cookies with overalls, cookies with lumps and bumps; the list goes on (Hostetler, 90).  After reading and analyzing further, it becomes apparent that the whole poem is one analogy describing different kinds of people and their backgrounds.  This poem is used to point out that no two people are alike.  It can be interpreted as a poem addressing a social conflict but it is also funny and entertaining as well.  Poetry can be used in a variety of ways to deliver different messages and spark different responses in the reader.

            In addition to poetry filling many purposes, it also demands a response.  A poem can make a reader feel empowered, depressed, confused, cheerful, or angry.  William Wordsworth once said that poetry is, “…the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings,” (Contemporarylit.com).  Poems like Randolph Nesbitt’s poem on the Poets Against the War website, “You Gotta Love War,” are written to call for a public response.  This particular poem was written to call attention to the common misconceptions of war.  He describes how many young men join war for the glory associated with fighting and are met with the harsh reality of injury and depression.  It is quite evident by the end of the poem that Nesbitt’s intention in writing the poem is to encourage Americans to think carefully about war and the role of the United States in other countries (Poets Against the War).  A poem similar to this one was included in another collection of poetry written in response to conflict; the book Against Forgetting includes a poem written by Jaroslav Seifert, “Never Again.”  This poem was written in response to World War II and its effect on Czechoslovakia and paints a picture of war’s inhumanity and begs for sympathy on the part of its audience (Forche, 420).  In these ways, poetry, regardless of its intent, calls for a response.

            Another factor in this definition of poetry addresses the common phrase, “form fits function.”  Form plays an important role in the creation of poetry.  There are many possibilities for the structure of a poem; each results changes the overall effect of the language.  Two example poems come to mind from the variety that has been analyzed this semester.  To begin, I studied Claude McKay and his poetry for my individual project.  The majority of his poems were very traditional in poetic devices and form, particularly, “If We Must Die.”  This poem is a sonnet with fourteen lines, each with ten syllables.  In the context of this poem, where McKay was hoping to inspire his fellow African Americans to stand strong against the oppression they were facing from whites, his poem was intended to deliver a strong message that could be easily followed and interpreted by many people.  In this case, the simple and predictable form makes is appropriate (McKay, 53).

            Another collection of poetry where form plays an important role is G. C. Waldrep’s Disclamor, which encompasses a wide variety of his work.  It is important to note that G. C. Waldrep is a Christian author who was raised Amish.  Many of his poems reflect his years in an Amish community and challenge his readers to think more critically about their lives and the people around them.  He is most well known for his battery poems that describe nine different batteries, or military forts up and down the coast.  Contrasted with McKay’s “If We Must Die,” these poems utilize very unusual and unpredictable forms.  Seemingly random lines throughout each poem are indented at different lengths, and Waldrep frequently changes his font.  These battery poems challenge the reader to think more critically about each poem and reflect on what inspired the words, spacing, and font in each.  In this way, Waldrep’s form fits his function: to motivate critical thinking and deep analysis of how the past affects the present (Waldrep, 69).  In these ways, it is evident that form plays a very important role in poetry and helps the reader discover its purpose.

            While these aspects of poetry are familiar and relatively simple to understand and follow, there is a large amount of poetry that is harder to comprehend and classify as poetry given these straightforward conditions.  After spending time studying more modern forms of poetry, I have discovered that poetry can be disguised in other forms of literature.  An example of this kind of poetry is Lyn Hejinian’s My Life.  This collection of poetry is disguised as a novel, with autobiographical and fictional elements.  At first glance, it appears as if there are chapters each headed by a line in italics such as, “A pause, a rose, something on paper,” (Hejinian, 7).  It soon becomes apparent that each “chapter” could very well be an individual poem in a collection of poems or a stanza in one long poem.  My Life represents a whole different category of poetry that is not commonly discussed, which includes more prose-like poetry where poetic devices and individual ideas are connected.  This collection of poetry challenged my view of poetry and forced me to consider a wider, more inclusive definition of poetry that accounts for longer, more narrative-like poems that manipulate language and poetic devices in creative and unusual ways.

            After analyzing these pieces of poetry over the last semester, it has become apparent that it would be much easier to define what poetry is not that what poetry is.  Poetry is a broad title that includes a very wide variety of “genres” that some readers may consider to be poetry and others may not.  Poetry is a form of literature written with intentionality by poets who wish to use language to deliver a specific message in a creative way.  Some poems end in laughter, others in tears or anger, and others in a creased brow of confusion.  Regardless of the emotion associated with poems, it is clear that they serve as a call for action.  Another aspect of poetry that has become apparent is that its definition changes over time.  In comparing works by McKay and Hejinian, it is clear that poetry has changed, is changing, and will change based on content and organization of ideas.  As cultures, societies, people and art change, so do their products.  As the definition of poetry changes over time as it has over the hundreds of years that it has already changed from country to country and poet to poet, the art will hopefully continue to surprise, entertain, and challenge its readers to think carefully about the content and its impact on the broader literature community.

Works Cited

Flanagan, Mark. What is Poetry? Contemporarylit.about.com, 2011. Web. 12 Apr. 2011.

Heijinian, Lyn. My Life. Los Angeles: Sun & Moon Press, 1987. Print.

Gundy, Jeff. “The Cookie Poem.” A Cappella. Ed. Ann Hostetler. Iowa City: University of Iowa

            Press, 2003. Print.

Komunyakaa, Yusef. Introduction. Yusef Komunyakaa and David Lehman, eds. The Best

            American Poetry 2003. New York: Scribner, 2003. 11-21. Print.

McKay, Claude.  Harlem Shadows. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1922. Electronic.

Randolph Nesbitt.  Poets Against the War, 2010. Web. 14 Apr. 2011.

Seifert, Jaroslav. “Never Again.” Against Forgetting. Ed. Carolyn Forche. New York: W. W.

            Norton & Company, Inc., 1993. Print.

Waldrep, G. C. Disclamor. Rochester: BOA Editions Ltd., 2007. Print.

Against Forgetting Project

The last major project in our English class involved poetry from yet another collection of poetry edited by Carolyn Forche, Against Forgetting.  The poets and poems in this collection all respond to major conflicts around the world.  The poet that I selected to study was Jaroslav Seifert from Czechoslovakia.  The project involves a biography and a poetry analysis of his works and literary influences.  After researching his life and most well known poems, I found Seifert to be a fascinating and inspiring writer and politician and I hope you do as well.

Jaroslav Seifert

Poetry in Czechoslovakia During World War II and the Communist Regime

Biography

Jaroslav Seifert was an influential figure in the history of poetry, in his hometown of Prague, Czechoslovakia as well as abroad.  He lived during tumultuous times for Czechoslovakia and the world, during the rise of Communism and the oppression of World War II.  From an early age, he used poetry to respond to conflict and encourage his countrymen.  At every stage of his career, he was revolutionary in his writing.  He experimented with proletarian writing, Surrealism, and anti-Soviet writing.  Seifert had a natural gift of poetic verse and maximized it to make his readers aware of the oppression and injustice that writers in Czechoslovakia endured during World War II and under the Communist Party.

Seifert was born in 1901 in a suburb of Prague, Czechoslovakia.  He attended elementary and secondary school and went on to attend a university at a young age.  During his time at the university, he discovered his talent in writing poetry.  He began studying and writing poetry and in 1921; he published his first collection of poems titled Mesto v sizach (A City in Tears).  After leaving the university, Seifert joined the Communist Party in Czechoslovakia.  At this point in time, Seifert’s primary occupation was journalism and he wrote poetry on the side.  Seifert’s early style of poetry exemplified “poetism”: according to the Encyclopedia of World Biography, Seifert’s style had, “…a sort of mischievousness in form and content and an almost overwhelming affection for life and beauty…” (“Jaroslav Seifert” World Biography).

            Seifert’s early style of writing involves an emphasis on imagery.  As mentioned above, he frequently described and discussed topics like love, romance, memories, and powerful emotions with unusual comparisons and many of the trademarks of the Imagism style of poetry; however, his poems did not follow a specific model each time.  Each poem involves a variety of unusual and predictable images.  Many of these poems ware song-like in nature.  In fact, Seifert’s poetry has been likened to the work of Mozart ("Seifert, Jaroslav - Introduction" Poetry Criticism).

In 1925, Seifert toured Europe and Russia and spent a large amount of time in Moscow.  During his time in Moscow, he witnessed Joseph Stalin assume control of Communist Russia after the previous dictator, Vladimir Lenin, died.  Seifert was shocked by Stalin’s use of force to eliminate dissent.  Any lingering supporters of Lenin were imprisoned or executed.  Seifert documented his observations as a poet and journalist.  Because of his controversial writing, he was kicked out of the Czechoslovakian Communist Party (World Biography). 

            In the 1930s, Seifert continued writing poetry and experimenting with different styles and techniques, including surrealist verse, which he was introduced to during his years of travel (World Biography).  According to “A Brief Guide to Surrealism,” surrealism is, “…pure psychic automatism by which it is intended to express, either verbally or in writing, the true function of thought.  Thought dictated in the absence of all control exerted by reason, and outside all aesthetic or moral preoccupations,” (Poets.org).  Surrealist poets experimented with the limits of reality and surreality, particularly in dreams.  Many used poetry to help interpret and analyze dreams (Poets.org 1).  In 1936, Seifert received the Czechoslovakian State Prize for Literature for his Surrealist works in Jabliko zklina, An Apple in the Lap, (1933) and Ruce Venusiny, The Hands of Venus, (1936) (World Biography).

Seifert’s poetry took another drastic turn when the Nazi army invaded independent Czechoslovakia in 1938.  The German occupation of Prague inspired many of Seifert’s most famous pieces, including “The Candlestick,” and “Never Again.”  His poems written during this era primarily served as responses to World War II on his homeland.  Josef Skvorecky, a fellow Czech writer, spoke of Seifert in a 1985 issue of a Czechoslovakian newspaper, New Republic, “In book after book full of both linguistic beauty and encoded messages—clear to the Czechs, impenetrable to the Nazi censor—the poet boosted the morale of his nation.  His poetry inspired fellow Czechs with love for their country.…” Skorecky reveals one of Seifert’s most powerful, influential tools that allowed him to write under the noses of Nazis for many years: during the war, Seifert used specific images and pieces of history that only Czechs would recognize and be comforted by.  In this way, Seifert was able to respond and help Czech’s respond to the worldwide conflict (World Biography). 

Towards the end of World War II, however, the Nazis caught on to Seifert’s tactics.  When Seifert’s writings initiated an uprising in Prague, Seifert and several other well-known Czech writers were captured by German troops.  They were shoved onto a train to be shipped out of the country, but when the train did not move, they were removed and lined up against a wall to be executed.  After standing pinned there for several hours, they were released, but all further publication of political works was suspended for all involved.  World War II ended soon after this incident (Slouka 35-36). 

            In order to make income, Seifert resorted to writing children’s literature for several years; however, the support of his fellow Czechs encouraged Seifert to keep writing for his people as he had done during the war.  This marked the beginning of a second conflict that Seifert responded to: the oppression of the Communist government in Czechoslovakia after World War II.  Due to the oppression of the Communist Party, Seifert and many other Czech writers were forced to write and publish in secret, also known as samizdat.  According to Martin Machovec in his article in Poetics Today, “The term "samizdat," now widespread, denotes the unofficial dissemination of any variety of text (book, magazine, leaflet, etc.) within "totalitarian" political systems, especially those after World War II,” (Machovec 1-26).  Much like the Nazis, the Communists in Czechoslovakia had specific restrictions and guidelines for literature.  Seifert refused to write about the simple, naïve, harmless, politically correct topics that Communist mandated, such as stories of animals, school children, or harmless romances.  Much of his poetry during this era called for political reform and social justice. Seifert wrote poetry during these years to prove to the Czech people how important his country and fellow citizens were to him and to keep the culture and art of Czechoslovakia alive (Benes 97-114).  He continued writing in secret until 1977, when one of Seifert’s works was smuggled into a German publishing house, where it was translated to English and circulated internationally (Forche 419).

            In 1981, Seifert finally received recognition from the Czech government for his years of oppression, determination, and talent.  Due to his increasingly worldwide fame and the high demand for his work, the Czech government was forced to make his work accessible and published special editions of his major works.  The culminating moment in his career was the award of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1984; he was the first Czech to receive a Nobel Prize (“Jaroslav Seifert” Britannica).  This event was celebrated around the world.  The Czechoslovakian government attempted to discredit the award, but the world recognized Seifert’s success as well as the oppression and violence that many Czech writers had worked through.  Seifert helped make the world aware of the conditions inflicted on Czechoslovakia by the Nazis and the Communist Party.  After his death in 1986, a book of Seifert’s favorite poems was compiled and published, The Poetry of Jaroslav Seifert (World Biography).

Poetry

During his literary career, Seifert wrote poetry to respond to two primary conflicts in his life.  The first was the Nazi regime in Czechoslovakia in World War II.  As discussed in the biography, Seifert’s style changed throughout his career as he was exposed to various conflicts and people.  One thing that remained the same, however, was his energy and passion.  Three of Seifert’s most well known poems represent a range of time periods from 1925-195: “Moscow,” “Sometimes We Are Tied Down,” and “Struggle With the Angel” (The Poetry of Jaroslav Seifert).  According to a review of this collection, the translations stay very close to Seifert’s actual style, “The poems are ably translated by Osers, who renders Seifert's easy, flowing style into seemingly effortless English while giving hints of the "inner rhythms" so many critics have said make Seifert impossible to translate…” (Clarence 113).  “Never Again” and “The Candlestick” are from the Against Forgetting collection of poetry from a wide variety of poets in different countries during times of conflict.  These five poems have different tones and forms, but all respond to conflict. 

Each of these poems was written during a different time in Seifert’s life, and the variety illustrates the changes in his style as he became more experienced in poetry.  The first in the chronological sequence is “Honeymoon,” written in 1925.  This is one of Seifert’s earliest poems and illustrates his “mischievous” and unique style.  The poem reflects on memories of his free years as a young man recently graduated from university when he was an independent charmer.  He loved being with women and remembering specific places and trips taken with them.  In this poem there are two repeated words: wagon-lits and wagon-restaurants, both examples of train cars that allude to romantic getaways.  The subject matter and obsession with the train from his memories reflect the playful writing of Seifert’s early career.

“Moscow” is from Seifert’s time in Russia when he witnessed Stalin’s violent and oppressive regime.  The opening stanza reflects on music that is no longer played or heard in the streets of Moscow.  People no longer drink wine and hold parties.  Stalin’s determination to assert control over all the people of Russia pulled all life and energy from city.  The reader can sense the loss of life in these lines from the first stanza of the poem, “The minuet has long ceased to be danced,/the harp has long lost its last audience./The display cases in the old palace/are tombstones of the dead.”  Seifert also shares images of battlefields and crushed crowns to illustrate the depressing results of Stalin’s dictatorship.  The poem is organized in list form with all of the pleasantries and notable traditions of Moscow that were abolished listed in stanzas.

            The next poem in sequence is “When in the history books…” written in 1936.  This poem marks a transition into the years leading up to World War II (which would start in 1939).  While there is a glimmer of Seifert’s early playful style with references to romance, he transitions into more serious content towards the end of the poem.  In the third stanza, Seifert says, “Alas, my rose-red mantle/was ripped by sharp barbed wire/and our nights re-echoed/the tread of marching feet.”  These lines show the political situation in Czechoslovakia at the time and foreshadow the eminent war.  The analogy of the history textbook throughout the poem provides a way to reflect on the future and how war will change Czechoslovakian society.

            “Never Again,” while the exact date is unknown, was written during World War II. Seifert uses poetry to describe the damage wrought on Czechoslovakia by bombs and troops.  He paints pictures of whole streets and families that were wiped out by planes dropping bombs overhead.  People were buried alive and dead under buildings.  Animals were wandering the streets, seemingly unaware of the damage.  Seifert uses a particular image of a rooster mocking his grief and the grief displayed on hundreds of faces, “The rooster looked at me/with its black beady eye/and burst into horrible laughter./He laughed at me/and at my pointless screaming.”  The rooster appears to represent the German army wreaking havoc on their country, amused by their destruction.  This image could also be a Biblical reference to the story where a rooster crows three times after denying Christ.  Either way, the creature of nature sides with the enemy.  The tone of this poem is more serious than the poems discussed previously.  This poem seems to mark Seifert’s transition to socially and politically oriented writing.

“Sometimes We Are Tied Down…” was written in 1965.  Seifert wrote this poem twenty years after World War II ended and most likely during the years where he was forced to write and publish underground.  In this poem, Seifert discusses how people are often immobilized by unpleasant memories.  With all the violence and social tumult that had occurred and was occurring in Czechoslovakia, Seifert wrote poems such as this to encourage his fellow writers and countrymen to learn from past experiences but move forward and hope for more peaceful times.  One aspect of the form that stands out in this poem is Seifert’s unusual spacing, such as in the last stanza:

The years moved with unsure, tottering step

and I with them.

                Years flying

till time stood still.

A various points throughout the poem, certain lines are indented, in this case to illustrate time.  This enhances the sense of disjointed years of violence and oppression.

            These five poems represent a small sample of Seifert’s extensive writing during the 20^th century.  They cover a broad span of years, conflicts, and styles during his career. Seifert wrote these poems with passion, conviction, and courage.  Each one represents a different time in Seifert’s life, but they all illustrate Seifert’s use of poetry to response to and process conflict, particularly World War II and communism and write poetry that was relevant and understandable to Czechs.  Seifert’s poetry was defined by these two eras and his poetry certainly reflects the sentiments of the times.

Works Cited

Benes, Hana. “Czech Literature in the 1968 Crisis.” The Bulletin of the Midwest Modern

            Language 5 (1972): 97-114. JSTOR. Web 21 Mar. 2011.

Clarence, Judy. “Book reviews: Arts & humanities.” Library Journal 123.10 (1998): 113.

            Academic Search Premier. Web. 10 Mar. 2011.

Forche, Carolyn. Against Forgetting. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1993. Print.

"Jaroslav Seifert." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia

Britannica, 2011. Web. 12 Mar. 2011.

"Jaroslav Seifert." Encyclopedia of World Biography. Vol. 25. Detroit: Gale, 2005. Gale

Biography In Context. Web. 10 Mar. 2011.

Machovec, Martin. “The Types and Functions of Samizdat Publications in Czechoslovakia.”

            Poetics Today 30.1 (2009): 1-26. JSTOR. Web. 12 Mar. 2011.

Seifert, Jaroslav, Osers, Ewald, and Gibian, George. The Poetry of Jaroslav Seifert. North

            Haven: Catbird Press, 1998. Electronic.

"Seifert, Jaroslav - Introduction." Poetry Criticism. Ed. David Galens. Vol. 47. Gale Cengage,

2003. eNotes.com. 2006. 22 Mar. 2011.

Slouka, Mark. “Arrow and Wound.” Harper’s Magazine 306.1836 (2003): 35-36. Academic

Search Premier. Web. 12 Mar. 2011.

Unknown author. A Brief Guide to Surrealism. Poets.org, 2011. Web. 12 Mar. 2011.

A Cappella Project

Recently in our English class, we read Ann Hostetler's collection of poetry entitled, A Cappella.  This collection includes poems written by Mennonite Poets; a variety of styles are represented.  Our assignment, after reading through the collection, was to mimic three of the poets by writing three poems of our own.  Here is what I created:


Poem that elaborates an image from rural life:

A Lesson from Cats and Mice (Inspired by “Chicken Guts” by Jean Janzen)

He waits among the weeds

unsuspecting, superficially innocent.

While others keep moving, he lies in waiting

for a small creature to pounce upon.

He slinks, slides, strategizes

consumed by one goal:

the little mole ahead,

quite unaware of the danger behind him

bathing in the sun and rolling in the dirt

digging up worms in the ground and moseying through the yard.

Who is more content:

the one dutifully waiting to reap his reward,

or the one risking life for the world around him?


Imitation poem:

Hands (Inspired by “Making the Rate” by Sarah Klassen)

His drive the locomotive responsible for providing produce to the east coast.  They work long hours and late into the night.  They maintain the radio, keeping him awake.  They lift the coffee to his mouth.  They turn the lights on and signal other drivers.

They also hold the barreling truck steady while we are close by…

What do yours do?

Hers dish out the pepper, salt, rosemary, garlic.  They dice up peppers, potatoes, and meat.  They deliver orders, wash dishes.  They refill coffee, collect tips.  They wave to the regulars and welcome the visitors.  They smell like onions.

They also ladle out soup and bread on the weekends…

What do yours do?

His make clean incisions.  They examine muscles, joints, mouths, insides.  They poke and prod, bend and stretch; they look in our ears, eyes, and mouths. They write prescriptions to help us feel better and perform operations if the medications don’t. 

They also hold our hands for comfort and stitch us up when we are broken…

What do yours do?

Hers raise the blinds in the morning to wake up her children.  They pour cereal and wash clothes.  They cook and clean the house.  They hem jeans and write the bills.  They push the stroller and drive the family taxi.

They also wrap up the wounds on little hearts and hands…

What do yours do?

Poem about music:

Noted Population (Inspired by “Learning to Sing in Parts” by Jean Janzen)

Note by note

            the dots and bars join to form one

            line of music

            movement of a symphony

Each one is different and new

            individually they sound basic, simple

            together unique, complex

Composers stumble upon them and assemble them

            like pieces of a puzzle where

            harmony and melody become one

            chords, sequences, measures build note by note

Musical compositions have short notes, long notes

            dotted quarter notes, whole notes lasting four beats

            sets of quarter notes arranged in row like books on a shelf

            each is different but together they make a line.

These masterpieces take time to practice and rehearse

            there are many unpredictable and tricky places

            with sharps, flats, and naturals thrown in

            there are varying movements and themes throughout

Music is expressed in many ways

            each note has a purpose and desired impact on the audience

            notes can wander and create dissonance

            stick out or blend in

Regardless, each holds a specific place in a composition

            much like you and I do.

Silverstein Remix

One of our recent English assignments was to take a familiar poem and change it using the OULIPO technique.  Following this method, all nouns in the poem are replaced with nouns 7 down in a dictionary.  I used Webster's Dictionary.  If the noun seven down from the original noun contains two parts, I continued until a single word noun.  Also, I skipped over any nouns that have the root of the original noun in the poem.  This technique can drastically change the intended message of the original poem.  I chose to use the technique on Shel Silverstein's poem, "Messy Room," and this is the result...

“Messy Rosemary”

Whosever rosemary this is should be ashamed!

His uniform is hanging on the land.

His rally is there in the overstuffed chalk,

And the chalk is becoming quite mucky and damp.

His world is wedged in the wine,

His sweetbriar's been thrown on the floss.

His scene and one skillet are beneath the tweezers,

And his panty hose have been carelessly hung on the dormitory.

His boors are all jammed in the cloture,

His vestry has been left in the halter.

A lobby named Ed is asleep in his beeper,

And his smelly old sofa has been stuck to the wallop.

Whosever rosemary this is should be ashamed!

Donald or Robert or Willie or--

Huh? You say it's mine? Oh, dear,

I knew it looked familiar!

Musings about My Life

The most recent assignment for our English class was to read a short book by Lyn Hejinian entitled My Life.  This book is a poetic autobiography written by a woman, for other women.  To quote the summary of the book on the back cover, "My Life is at once a poetic autobiography, a personal narrative, a woman's fiction, and an ongoing dialogue with the poet and her experience."  Throughout the book, Hejinian outlines her life from early childhood days to later on in her life.  Throughout her stories, it is difficult at times to determine whether the scene, image actually happened or if she is elaborating for the sake of fiction.  While there are definite narrative characteristics of the life story such as conversations and accounts in prose form, there are also some aspects that are poetic.  To begin, certain sections throughout the book read like stanzas.  While sentences are connected in paragraph form, they are disconnected and sound like they should be separated into different sections.  She is also brief with her descriptions and concise with her words.  My Life redefines poetry for me.  I am aware of various forms of poetry, traditional and non-traditional, but I had not read a form of poetry that read so much like a narrative, or fiction book before reading My Life.  Hejinian draws her readers in with relatable memories and images such as birthday parties, messy room, and horse rides as well as forces them to think critically about more complex ideas such as the role of women and their religious, social, and political influences.  She encourages her readers, men and women, to think about the lives of women and the things that contribute to who they are.  In this sense, My Life serves as an autobiography for all women.

Individual Poetry Project: Claude McKay’s Harlem Shadows

Paying Tribute to Jamaica, African Americans, and Trials

Claude McKay’s collection of poetry, Harlem Shadows, was written and published in 1922.  McKay found inspiration from his childhood in Jamaica, his experience of racism in the United States, and his years of travel and processing.  McKay, along with other African Americans and Harlem Renaissance writers, lived during a turbulent time in America and used poetry to respond to longing, conflict, and love.  In Harlem Shadows, McKay creates a collection of simple and memorable poems to connect heritage, racism, and love, and provide a model for others to process memories, injustice, and loss.

Francis Claude McKay was born in 1890 in Sunny Hills, Jamaica.  He was the son of two farmers and the youngest of eleven children.  From an early age, he learned the importance of an education.  He attended a school run by his older brother when he was young.  When his brother introduced him to volumes of poetry and short stories, McKay was inspired to write poems and stories of his own (Poets.org).  After completing elementary and secondary education, McKay looked to further his education under a mentor.  When he was a young adult, he immigrated to the United States with hopes of pursuing higher education.  While he entered a new phase in his life, his years in Jamaica would play an important role in his early poetry (Giles 1).

When McKay first came to America, he attended Tuskegee Institute in Alabama from 1912 to 1914 and Kansas State College in 1914 to study literature and poetry and soon began publishing poetry.  Two of his early collections of poetry, Songs of Jamaica and Constab Ballads, reflected his love for his homeland Jamaica.  During his early years, he wrote dialect poetry to retain his heritage and share the distinct Jamaican culture with his readers.  His style changed as he grew older and spent more time in the states as well as abroad, but the importance of homeland and heritage is apparent in his later collection, Harlem Shadows (Giles 1).

McKay was passionate about his heritage and identity, particularly as an African American.  After immigrating to the United States, McKay published several poems regarding race and diversity.  Poems like “The White House,” “The Lynching,” and “If We Must Die,” reflect a desire for respect and justice (Poets.org).  In his quest for a distinct African American identity, McKay joined forces with several other prominent African American poets in the 1920s such as James Weldon Johnson and Charles W. Chesnutt to found a new literature movement.  The Harlem Renaissance was established to distinguish African American culture and literature from that of white Americans.  Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, and Zora Neale Hurston soon joined McKay, Johnson, and Chesnutt.  Harlem Renaissance writers hoped to encourage African Americans to embrace their distinct culture and identity.  They called for a new age of blacks in America, those who were strong, perseverant, and determined to create a new image for themselves (Giles 1).

Through their writing, Harlem Renaissance writers hoped to encourage blacks in America to embrace their heritages and identity and to stand strong through the abuse they suffered because of their color (McElrath 1).  The early 1900s represented a time of turbulence, in the United States as well as in other countries.  The Harlem Renaissance developed between two World Wars, before the Great Depression and Civil Rights Movement, and during social rebellions such as the Red Scare of 1919, when violence would openly break out the American streets in the name of social justice.  Harlem Renaissance writers like Claude McKay used art and poetry to search for an appropriate response to conflict rising around them. 

The Harlem Renaissance was a brief literature movement.  It ended in the 1930s when the Great Depression forced many artists to pursue more predictable forms of income.  While the movement was brief, it was powerful.  Harlem Renaissance writers delivered hope to African Americans and provided a way of processing grief, oppression, and identity.  The movement also instilled hope that would last through the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.  Harlem Renaissance writers give readers today glimpses of black segregation and persecution as well as the intense pride and loyalty in African American history (McElrath 1).

After the movement, McKay continued to write and travel on his own. In 1930, McKay began a series of travels during which he gained inspiration for more literary works.  The period began with a move to Morocco, then on to Russia, France, Spain, and a brief time in England.  With exposure to other cultures and ideas, McKay became actively engaged in socialism and interested in Communism.  Both of these concepts proved to capture McKay with their focus on people and a people’s government.  McKay appreciated and admired the countries that promoted these philosophies and procedures for their courage to promote equality and independence (Britannica).  When he returned from Europe, McKay developed heart problems, forcing him to permanently reside in the United States and adopt a slower lifestyle.  He wrote a few pieces including his autobiography, A Long Way From Home, in 1937.  In 1944, while living in Chicago, McKay suffered from congestive heart failure and passed away, leaving a difficult position to fill.  McKay died a loved and respected artists and socialist.  His collections, particularly Harlem Shadows, would remain dear to his readers’ hearts as well as influence Americans during the Civil Rights Movement (Giles 1).

While McKay wrote a variety of poems, novels, and shorts stories in his life, this paper will focus on his collection of poems entitled Harlem Shadows.  This collection was written and published in the heart of the Harlem Renaissance, in 1922, and falls in the middle of seven volumes of poetry that McKay compiled and published.  The poems in Harlem Shadows directly espouse the primary focuses of the movement.  They describe McKay’s home in Jamaica, his family, his initial years in the United States, and the racism and prejudice he was subjected to as an African American.  There are three prominent themes in the collection: remembering one’s homeland, empowering African Americans, and revering love and loss.  The collection is divided into three sections with poems discussing these themes as well as searching for appropriate responses to conflict.

In his author’s note, Claude McKay discusses the lack of intentional rhyme or conventional poetic devices.  There is no specific poet who he tries to imitate.  McKay opens the note with this quote, “In putting ideas and feelings into poetry, I have tried in each case to use the medium most adaptable to the specific purpose.  I own allegiance to no master.  I have never found it possible to accept in entirety any one poet.  But I have loved and joyed in what I consider the finest in the poets of all ages.”  While he helped establish the Harlem Renaissance, he did so hoping to free other writers like himself to write as they chose.  Instead of a specific style, the Renaissance had a common purpose that united its writers and McKay found freedom in the flexibility (McKay xix).

In the first section of Harlem Shadows, McKay uses poetry to share images and memories from his homeland.  These poems describe the culture, families, and agriculture of Jamaica—the foundation of McKay’s identity.  An example of one of these poems is “The Tropics in New York.”  This poem is comprised of three concise stanzas, each with 4 lines.  He follows a strict rhyming pattern following ABAB CDCD etc.  In this poem, McKay reminisces about his years in Jamaica while living in New York.  He uses images of native fruits to share a bit of his heritage, “bananas ripe and green, and ginger roots/cocoa in pods and alligator pears.”  Reflections on pleasant memories from home are evident in the second stanza, “My eyes grow dim, and I could no more gaze;/A wave of longing through my body swept,/And, hungry for the old, familiar ways…”  McKay expresses his loss of family and home while drawing on the abundance of memories and family in Jamaica.  “The Tropics in New York” reveals McKay’s love for his homeland and desire to return to it but it also encourages other African Americans to positive memories as inspiration for pushing through difficult times.

The next section in Harlem Shadows contains poems searching for a response to injustice, racism, and conflict.  The poems in this middle section of the book tell the woes of oppressed slaves, stories behind lynching, and prejudices against blacks in America.  “If We Must Die” is one poem in particular that inspires African Americans to push through the years of racism and to hope for better days ahead.  This poem is a sonnet with twelve lines and a couplet grouped into one stanza.  There is not a specific rhyme scheme in this poem, but McKay’s repeated phrase, “If we must die…” provides unity.  The main poetic device used in this poem is personification.  McKay likens blacks to hogs and whites to dogs and feels that the dogs are picking on the hogs and laughing at them, “… round us [the pigs—blacks] bark the mad and hungry dogs, making their mock at our accursed lot.”  Likening the oppression of African Americans to barn animals illustrates how they felt like dirt, inferior to whites.  McKay ends the poem with a call to action, to stand confident and strong for respect and equality.

In the poem “Memorial,” which is close to the end of Harlem Shadows, McKay reflects on the third theme of love and loss.  While there are not many poems in McKay’s collection that are longer than two pages, “Memorial” is one of the longest.  In this Harlem Renaissance poem, McKay reflects on McKay uses structure, rhyme, unusual comparisons, and a song-like rhythm to acknowledge the power of love. Within “Memorial,” there are two metaphors.  One is in the third stanza, line two, “…my passion was a mighty wave.”  There is a simile in the fifth stanza, line two, “…peace that filled my soul like cooling wine.”  The comparison to wine further suggests romance.   The poem serves as a memorial to a source of McKay’s affection that either died or left him.  He processes his sorrow and love by writing this poem and remembering why he loved this significant individual in his life.

Even though McKay does not limit himself to a specific style and format for his poems, he still holds a fairly predictable pattern in this poem.  Most of his poems have regular end rhyme and common comparisons such as metaphors and similes.  McKay uses unusual comparisons to liken complex ideas to comprehensible ideas and images to help his readers understand his purpose.  Several of his poems include personification, particularly in those addressing racism inhumane treatment of African Americans.  McKay claims that any patterns that exist within his writing are there because they fulfill his intended purpose and sound.

These three poems are examples of McKay’s work from Harlem Shadows.  These poems illustrate the three sections in the collection that are closely connected to three important phases in Claude McKay’s life.  As noted, the Harlem Renaissance greatly affected McKay’s writing, but this collection also reveals how McKay was affected by many different experiences and people in his life.  Harlem Shadows, in turn, had a powerful effect on its readers.  Soon after publication, it was marked as “…the most compelling expression of the New Negro cultural renaissance…” (Lowney 1).  With this collection and the phases represented in it, McKay encourages others to process their memories and emotions.

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Bibliography of McKay’s Poetry Collections

McKay, Claude. Songs of Jamaica. Publisher unknown. 1911.

McKay, Claude. Constab Ballads. Publisher unknown. 1912.

McKay, Claude. Spring in New Hampshire and Other Poems. Publisher unknown. 1920.

McKay, Claude. Harlem Shadows. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company. 1922.

McKay, Claude. Selected Poems of Claude McKay. Chicago: Bookman Associates. 1953.

McKay, Claude. The Dialect Poetry of Claude McKay. Books for Libraries Press. 1972.

McKay, Claude. Complete Poems. Champaign: University of Illinois Press. 2004.