When I Thought About Poetry

The poem I ama choosing to ask myself ten deep question about today is "Black Woman" by Georgia Douglas Johnson. This was my favorite of all the poems because I seem to be really partial to rhyme schemes. I think I like to read rhymes because I imagine that I am a slam poet in my head when I am reading them and making a lot of low flat hand gestures. I'm pretty sure this poem is about not wanting to bring a baby into the world. Or like the anxiety you might have when you pregnant because you are going to like give something life. And being alive and living in the world is kind of scary.

Number One.

The title of this poem does throw me off a little. I don't know why it would have to be the feelings of a black women, but even as I started typing that line I totally realized that it probably was way worse to be alive and be black back then. So I'm guessing that this poem is no the writers personal experience with being pregnant and having fears for her child. This poem is written from the perspective of a pregnant black women. If it didn't have this title it might be harder to tell who or what she was writing about. If it was like "Talking to My Fetus" then umm, well you'd probably think it was Johnson writing to her own child.

Number Two.

I know all of these words. I had to re-read the "of turning deaf-ear to your call" line a couple time through at first. It's just a hard cluster of words to grasp. Especially when the rest of the poem has such a flow.

Number Three.

Yep. I think this is really rhythmic. It seems like each verse is almost broken down into four lines and each one these has a definite flow. She also seems to end each verse with a really strong sentence. She uses an exclamation mark, so it's important.

Number Four.

So in this poem I think a women in talking to her unborn child. She seems to be having anxiety about bringing it into a "world that is of cruelty and sin." And since we know from the title that this women is African American she is probably having heightened anxiety because there were many more obstacles in the way. And I just realized that Johnson was half African American and half Black. I was going to go back and change what I wrote earlier before I knew that, but I figured it helped show the journey. Anyways. So the main character in this story very well could have been Johnson writing about her own personal experience or the ones of close family members. She actually wrote this peace after being accused of not being race conscious enough in her first collection of poems. Johnson had two sons. Even though we don't know if this women is Johnson or a fictional character, we do know that the two main characters are the black women and her unborn baby. This poem also talks about monster men inhabiting the earth, who I'm assuming would be most of the white population. I imagine this is happening in private, most likely in her head. It seems almost like a prayer.

Question 6.

She is a women.

She is black.

She is either pregnant or thinking about having a baby.

She doesn't have a very positive outlook on the state of the world.

She is fearing her child's future.

She is conflicted.

She is of child bearing age.

She is probably not wealthy.

She's had a hard knock life.

She is poetic and I know that probably seems like a no duh, but I mean if she is at a disadvantage she at least seems to have a way with words.

Question 7.

I think that her town is really full of love. At the same time there is this like desperate pleading and extreme sorrow. It seems to a little dark as well. She is not super excited about having a baby. This poem has a really simple element to it. It sounds like it could almost be a prayer or a lullaby. The words are easy to say and remember. At the same time I could also imagine this coming from a woman who is not pregnant and that takes on a whole different tone. Like it could almost be more powerful. If she was like, "I know this world is not a place to be having a baby. So i am just not going too." If I take it from that approach it does seem to be more like sassy. I imagine even then she would have some inner conflict about wanting to have a baby maybe and some anger towards the fact that society can't get its act together so she can do it.

Question 8.

Yes, I think it has a pretty formal structure. A couple times while writing about the poem I have written song. I don't know if that is because I usually talk about songs not poems or if it just really does remind me of a folk song. It rhymes but not in a "Cat in the Hat" book sort of way. It seems more complicated and I wonder if it has something to do with the syllables in each line. Hmm. Well I'm not a syllable counting expert, but I seem to be getting like a 8,6,8 pattern but sometime it will be 7 or 5. I think this structure helps carry it, if you will. It sort of makes it easy to read.

Question 9.

I think there is tension in this poem. There's definitely a conflict in the women's mind. There's sort of a panic in the tone that makes tension. She seems really confused about what to do. She doesn't want to bring a baby into a cruel world and she is obviously upset about it when she says, "Don't knock at my heart, little one, I cannot beat the pain of turning deaf-ear to your call, time and time again". But she is probably a kind women who would make a good caring mother. Or maybe not. Maybe she would make a terrible mother, maybe she's addicted to drugs. Regardless the tension lies in that baby (is most likely) coming and the mom wishes it would just stay in the womb forever. Right away this poem seems full of tension just the first line, "Don't knock at my door, little child, I cannot let you in." Just the words "don't" "cannot" are tension words. She is telling someone no, which is sort of like denying them something they asked (wow, that is a lot of words for one little idea). I feel like because this poem feels like a prayer to me it sort of has that natural tension of pleading. "You do not know the monster men inhabiting the earth. Be still, be still my precious child. I cannot give you birth!" This sounds like she is trying to will her energy and thoughts into her babies mind or something.

Question 10.

I picked to analyze this song because out of all the ones I read this one was the most moving in my opinion. Some of my favorite lines are, "Wait in the still eternity" I think that is a really neat way to express being unborn. I also really like the line, "Don't knock at my heart little one" I like the mental image of her little fetus knocking on her heart. I know that's not what she means, but its what I imagined. I also enjoyed the mental image that came with the line, "You do not know the monster men inhabiting the earth." I imagined a tiny globe with cave men dragging their fist all over it. Once again, not what she meant, but where my brain went.

The first time I read it "Black Woman" was just so like quick and mysterious. Now I feel like I could have a discussion about it. I still feel like it is about the same thing as the first time I read it. I think the most helpful thing was reading about Johnson's personal life. That really put the poem into context. This poem deals with several rather big deal issues. Such as race and motherhood. These were things that Johnson was very passionate about. I think that fact that she was mother of teenagers probably is where she drew the inspiration for this poem. I'm sure she worried about what her boys. It seems like her childhood might not have been so great. Her parents got divorced and little is known. Perhaps she faced a lot of obstacles in her lifetime and that's what has lead her to her glass half empty take on things. For having such a light easy flow to it, it sure has some real dark aspects.

Okay. So I think I got something figured out...

For my mid term paper I would like to discuss prompt seven which asks to examine the role of identity in multiple texts and then answer question such as "Is identity stagnate?" or "Is it something you can change?" I hope in my essay to show that throughout the semester we have dealt with several characters whose identity has adapted for certain situations. The wording of my thesis is a work in project but I have a pretty clear idea of what I hope to prove.

The first paragraph will be the introduction, but of course then I would like to discuss the following characters as page space permits:
1) Grandison- he played a part of a loyal slave, which ended up not being true
2)Dick- how his identity becomes a question at the end of the story for perhaps he was not as block headed as he seemed
3)Calixta - one paragraph focusing on her role as a wife and another focusing on her role as a women
4) Little boy in "Chickamauga"- he was a so timid at beginning of soldier but became a fearless leader
5) The soldiers in a "Private History"- They too had a similar experience with having to become the identity of soldiers even though they were just young men with no real clue.

I hope this works! This is my first time writing a literary comparison paper so I wanted to do something straight forward. It seems like this type of essay will use a whole different set of skills then your basic research paper. But I am excited to learn 'um!

Washington and DuBois

I think that Washington is far more conservative and DuBois is a militant. Washington's proposal that African-Americans should just work the fields because, "No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tiling a field as in writing a poem." He believed that the key to becoming a first class citizen was not too just demand the vote but educate themselves first and be nice to the white man and once the two sides developed a healthy relationship involving a lot of "bucket casting," the blacks would just get the vote. He urged his followers to simply " deport himself modestly in regard to political claims depending upon the slow but sure influences that proceed from the possession of property, intelligence and high character for full recognition of his political right."

DuBois on the other hand, well, he just straight up does not agree with Mr. Washington on anything. He is defiantly more militant. Militant means "vigorously active, combative and aggressive, especially in support of a cause" and the cause DuBois so surely supported was that of civic equality. The main focus of which is the right to vote and proper education for the youth. At the end of "The Souls of Black Folks" DuBois speaks this impassioned statement, "By every civilized and peaceful method we must strive for the rights which the world accords to men, clinging unwaveringly to those great words which the sons of the Fathers would fain forget,'We hold these truths......'" We all it know it from there. DuBois believed that getting the vote should be the first and foremost concern. He seems way more progressive in a stereotypical manor.

To me it seems like DuBois doesn't have as much of a plan as Washington. The two different takes on the situation remind me of my friend Heidi and I when we talk about political government things. I am Washington and she is DuBois. I'm always like, "Just work and be good and obey the law and pay your taxes and thats how things will change eventually." and Heidi is like, "FIGHT THE POWER!" and, "What, Kailie, you think one day 'they' (I have to admit sometimes I don't know who they is) will just hand you big old award for working hard your whole life." She's way more aggressive than I am, I feel like she thinks the government changing is its own reward, while I think working hard is its own reward. Heidi would defiantly call me conservative and herself proudly a militant.

If that last paragraph didn't give away the answer to whose plan I would get behind I'll go ahead and say it here, Booker T. all the way. Well, maybe not all the way, but I understand what he is saying about just getting the natural rhythm of life down and then start making demands. I agree with Washington when he writes, "It is at the bottom of life we must begin, and not at the top. Nor should we permit our grievances to overshadow our opportunities."

I do think that the upbringing of these two men contributed to their beliefs on how one should rise to power. I think Washington's upbringing as a slave may have made him a little more practical. Also having first hand experience in the South he maybe knew what was the most important issues pressing the former slaves. And in his defense there may have been bigger fish to fry than the vote. He was in no means against empowering his people as we can see in this excerpt, "There is no defense or security for any of us except in the highest intelligence and development of all, If anywhere there are efforts tending to curtail the fullest growth of the Negro, let these efforts be turned into stimulating, encouraging, and making him the most useful and intelligent citizen." To me Washington's first hand experience on the subject probably lead him to have a better idea of what should be done in the little picture, if you will. He knew what should be performed daily to get them on track. I tend to think conservative approaches are usually taken better by those in power as opposed to militant.

DuBois was raised in the North and from a young age was praised academically. To DuBois demanding something high and lofty (such as the voting right?) probably seemed like the only thing to do. He figured once that was taken care of everyday life would fall into place. Perhaps he had a sense of entitlement, which Washington lacked. It seems as though DuBois take on thing was almost opposite of Washington's work from the ground up plan. I think being raised in the North taught him what could be achieved in ones lifetime and then when he moved to the South and suffered injustices he decided to fight.

I agree with DuBois when he writes about how the white population responded to Washington's ideas. DuBois writes, "It startled the nation to hear a Negro advocating such a program me after many decades of bitter complaint;" and then when he continues not the next page with, "the radicals received it as a complete surrender of the demand for civil and political equality; the conservatives, as a generously conceived working basis for mutual understanding." I think that's part of why maybe Washington's plan appealed to me more. It seems like people wouldn't be so quick to write it off.

For example, you know that "Slut Walk" that happens in cities every so often to speak out against how that one dude got off on rape chargers for saying that the girl he rapped was asking for it based on how she was dressed. It also takes on a lot more issues about stuff. Awesome cause in my opinion. Light should be brought to this issue, but I can't help but feel like by calling it "Slut Walk" people will automatically dismiss it because the title has the word slut in it. Sometimes militance seems almost like too shocking or radical and the point (albeit a shocking or radical one) ends up getting lost.

Small Group Blog Discussing Irony

Like Whitney this week, I had a hard time finding verbal irony because of how situationally ironic the whole story was. As Whitney describes here, "I found the story entirely ironic because Dick Owens tried so hard to free Grandison and he appeared to be a faithful slave. It was not until the final paragraphs that we learn Grandison wasn’t content being a slave like the Colonel led us all to believe, and the joke was on him."

This story kept plunging deeper and deeper into irony. I found that I always thought I was one step ahead of the characters only to find out that were one step ahead of me. I thought I was so clever reading along and "knowing" what was going to happen. I too felt a little duped by Grandison and Dick, especially after last Friday's discussion.

Dennis on the other hand, seemed to be all over the verbal irony. I loved this line, which I had not even paid attention to before reading Dennis blog. "The funniest line to me is when the narrator tells of the way that Colonel Owens made his riches. '.... and had laid the foundations of his fortune by hard work.' This has a bit of sarcasm in it doesn't it? 'Hard work??'" Dennis then goes on weighing in his opinion of what makes this ironic, " From personal experience I do not believe that hard work would be under the definition of 'slave driver.'"

I feel like this was the main kind of verbal irony found in "The Passing of Grandison" in that most of the time the characters themselves weren't being ironic. However, based upon what we learned about Charles Chesnutt before reading the story it was east to pick up his sarcastic tone seeping through.

Isn't it Ironic? Yah, this time I actually do think.

"The Passing of Grandison" by Charles Chesnutt (what a name!) was oozing with irony in both of its forms. First off let's discuss verbal irony because it seems more specific as opposed to situational irony which seems to be more big picture.

The first time I recognized super blatant verbal irony was when the colonel went to talk to Grandison before he embarked on his North bound journey. Upon hearing that Grandison is very happy being a slave and has no intention of leaving, the colonel beams and think to himself regarding the abolitionist, "What cold-blooded heartless monsters they were who would break up this blissful relationship of kindly protection on the one hand, of wise subordination and loyal dependence on the other!"

Although this may be what the character is convinced of it's highly unlikely that Chesnutt a major advocate for ending racial discrimination felt this same way. Therefore, I believe this is a great example of verbal irony in which the author writes something he does not mean to be true. He's almost mocking this mind state with a sarcastic tone.

Another example I found is more subtle and even though I feel like there is a strong sense of sarcasm coming from the author, Dick the character speaking the line, firmly believes it. This line is found on pg. 240 of the text. Charity has just finished telling Dick that she will marry him because he clearly cannot make good decisions and needs to be taken care of (why I date all my boyfriends). Dick replies quickly, "It's the most remarkable thing that your views correspond exactly with my profoundest convictions. It proves beyond question that we were made for one another."

Once again I just really doubt that Chestnutt thought a union for this reason was a good idea. I think this line is Chestnutt showing how clueless Dick is and that perhaps Charity better run the other way from his proposal. But at the same time if Charity thinks a good reason to marry a man is his inability to take care of himself maybe they are made for each other.

This leads into one of the many examples of situational irony that I found in this story. Charity agrees to mary Dick only after he does something of value. Little does she know that all Dick did was leave Grandison in Canada. Poor Charity. When Grandison returns I wonder if she felt that feeling in your stomach that indicates, "I've made a huge mistake."

Grandison's return in this story in itself is extremely ironic. Dick finally thinks he has succeeded in ditching Grandison after months of giving him excessive access to freedom and even alerting the abolitionist in Boston with a letter reading, "A wicked slaveholder from Kentucky... had dared to insult the liberty-loving people of Boston by bringing his slave into their midst." He continues to encourage the abolitionist of the area to take this slave (Grandison) in the name of liberty.

Grandison, however, refuses to leave Dick and even talks about how crazy the abolitionist are. The fact that Grandison stays with Dick is ironic too. Dick takes Grandison on this trip hoping to loose him, convinced that once he taste freedom he will surely eat the whole feast. Grandison does not fall for it in turn creating situational irony with the gap between what Dick thinks is going to happen and what actually does.

So when Grandison returns, the reader (or at least) I thought, "Oh, how funny. Jokes on you Dick." But Grandison is not done creating situational irony with reversals of expectation. So when he returns the colonel is like, "YES! My slave does love me." And Grandison tells him of how he was kidnapped and taken to Canada where he was kept in a shack and fed bread and water for days. The colonel celebrates and rest well knowing in his heart that he treats his slaves way better than a free black man could ever treat himself. He expects Grandison never to leave his side.

However the poor colonel's "faith in sable humanity was rudely shaken" when one Monday he awoke to find not Grandison gone but also cherished member of Grandison's family such as his wife, sister, brothers, mother, father, uncles, and aunts. Grandison once again does the opposite of what one thinks he will do, creating situational irony.

Response to my small group blog

I feel like after reading "The Storm" I searched and searched for words to describe the overall message I was left with. Unfortunately I rarely sum up morals of the stories as eloquently as Whitney when she wrote that perhaps Chopin was trying to imply that, " Hey, two people “sinned” and the world didn’t collapse.”

I also agree with Whitney when she wondered if perhaps "Maybe this story spawned from the unequal responsibilities of men and women in marriage during the time this was written in 1898?" I feel as though Calixta was burdened with the obligation to constantly give and provide for her family, which I imagine was a common feeling for women then and now. When Alcee rode up during the storm she finally had something that was just for her. All in all, I think for being such a short little story it sure did say a lot.

I really think that Dennis nailed the main similarity between "Chickamauga" and "Private History" with this statement, "that the characters find out the harsh reality of war in about the same way." Aside from the characters finding out that war is not just a game that you can play with a wooden sword, these two stories really told how war affects people on an individual basis. Like we talked about in class, soon after the Civil War people began filing it away as a noble war that it was a tragedy but at the same time held a sense of glory. Both these stories kind of called the reader out on any false illusions they may have had. It is always easier to romanticize things, and both of these stories do a good job at reminding you of the plain gruesome truth.

What Happens in a Storm, Stays in a Storm.

"The Storm" by Kate Chopin is a super short, super sexy story and by far my favorite thing I read this semester.

I think that the last line of "The Storm"-- "So the storm passed and everyone was happy" -- means exactly what it says it means. I like the idea that something so big can happen between two people and they can keep it as their little secret. I'm sure for other people they would read this and think, "That's impossible! Surely they would feel guilty and nothing would ever be the same again."

When I was in fourth grade I stayed home from school and went to the mall with my Mom. Later on that evening while we were eating Mexican food I confessed that I felt a little guilty for staying home from school. My Mom told me that guilt was optional. It's true and I hope these two characters never really feel bad for what they did. What would be the point? They did it. They may never do it again. So why beat themselves for a selfish moment of passion. I don't think her sleeping with Alcee means she loves her family any less.

I don't think Chopin is advocating adultery. I don't think she's implying that marriage doesn't mean anything. Perhaps she just saying that infidelity doesn't have to. Regardless she must have known that this story was controversial for it's time because according to the text she never even tried to get it published. It suggest that readers would have been "outraged by other aspects of the story, from Calixta's frank enjoyment of her sexual encounter with Alcee to the fact that they suffer no consequences for their adulterous act."

I was also wondering if perhaps things weren't that great before the storm for Calixta and her husband Bobinot. When Bobinot and the son Bibi were walking home from the store after the storm Bobinot was worried that Calixta would be angry at how dirty the boy was. Maybe Calixta was super uptight and all she needed was little "me time" with another man. And Alcee and his wife were obviously having some problems since she was living away from him and "more than willing to forego" "their intimate conjugal life." Maybe after the heated affair Alcee and Calixta loosened up a little and they really were happier with their significant others.