Culturally Relevant

A few times over the past 4-5 years, I've gone for trips over-seas to countries I never thought I'd travel to. I've always had an appreciation for traveling to different places around the world, and I love learning anything culturally different. I just never thought I'd have the opportunity to travel, or at least not until I was older and out of school. The interesting thing about my travels is that out of the 12 countries I've been to, I was only able to speak the language of 2 places, and I had to rely on translation for the other 10. I'd love to know everything about every culture and learn every language, but since I can't, I've gained a heavy appreciation for people who graft two different cultures together. Sylvia Plath and Hilda Morley both bring together two different cultures, benefiting anybody who comes across their poetry.

Hilda Morley, with her poem "Hanukkah", brings together my Christian, American culture with the Jewish culture in a way that I haven't experienced before. Here are the lines that caught my attention most:

One more on the seven-branched candlestick for

the seven days of the week,

But let it be seven in the sense of luck in dice,

seven of the stars in the constellations:

Orion, Aldebaran in the sky, 

lively over Jerusalem

By using these lines, Morley opens the eyes of an outsider to experience a culture in a way I normally wouldn't have seen. This reading brought me to a better understanding of a holiday I've known of all my life, but helped me to see it through fresh lenses. I love poetry like that. I love poetry that helps me learn something new as much as I love poetry that helps me relive a part of my past, and this poem by Morley helps me do that.

In the same way that Morley uses "Hanukkah" to enlighten my understanding of the Jewish culture, Plath uses her poem "Mother and Sphinx" to enlighten me to a part of Egyptian culture that I never knew of. Here are the lines that caught my attention most:

I know no king but my dark-eyed dear

That shall ride the Dream-Horse white;

But see! he wakes at my bosom here,

While the Dream-Horse frettingly lingers near

Grim is the face that looks into the night

Over the stretch of sands;

A sullen rock in a sea of white--

A ghostly shadow in a ghostly light,

This Egyptian folk-song, translated by Plath, opens my eyes in the same way as Morley's poem did, but for a different culture. I don't usually come across this type of stuff on my own, mostly because I spend more time on my heavy interests instead of pushing outside my boundaries. I love this poem for that very reason though. I wouldn't have normally read this poem if I didn't push myself outside of my comfort-zone for the sake of this blog, but I loved it. For that reason, I love poems and poets that can take two cultures and graft them together, so that people like me can see different cultures as culturally relevant.

Helpful poetry post of the week: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/247268