Exaggeration of Pessmism

Have you ever known somebody who won't watch a sad movie or listen to sad songs, just because they don't want to experience sadness? I know a few people like that, and I haven't ever been able to fully understand their mindset. I like experiencing different genres of art to see exactly how they will impact me, for better or for worse.

Now, why would I start a post with so personal? Well first of all, it's what I do. Second, I found that William Carlos Williams' poem "Memory of April" and Joanne Monte's poem "The Betrayal" are both poems that I personally found pessimistic, but the beneficial type of pessimistic. Both of these poems portray mankind in a dark light, and the nature of humans isn't much brighter for either author, though the degree is pretty exaggerated.

In "Memory of April", Williams discusses the idea of love. The poem reads:

You say love is this, love is that:
Poplar tassels, willow tendrils
the wind and the rain comb,
tinkle and drip, tinkle and drip--
branches drifting apart. Hagh!
Love has not even visited this country.

This poem paints a very pessimistic idea about love. At first, Williams is entering into the poetic discussion on what love is, and you can tell from the very beginning that he's going to state his own view at the end. Instead of the pleasant examples from poets past that Williams uses, Williams' own approach is the opposite. Love hasn't even visited the country, he says. Obviously, Williams is portraying a pessimistic view of love in this poem, but it's also obvious to see that he's exaggerating this pessimism. What I find interesting is that the poem ends there. There is no explanation provided for why love hasn't visited or how it hasn't.

In "The Betrayal", Monte uses a similar approach. Actually, all of her poems I read were very pessimistic in the same way that some of Williams' poetry were, but "The Betrayal" definitely shows some of the strongest pessimism. The last stanza of this poem reads:

The room abandoned
and the drapes drawn, but still clinging
to the one ray of light in the window
as though it could reach into those dark corners
and deflect the desire for vengeance.

This poem's style is more similar to other Willams' poems, but the main things that bring these two together is the dark overtones of the poetry. Williams has a dark overtone about love, and Monte has a dark overtone about vengeance. The darkness is symbolized in Monte's poem from the dark room, with only one small sliver of light coming through the blinds. The dark corners are where the desire for vengeance resides in the room. Both Monte and Williams exaggerate their pessimistic views into these two poems in a way where you know it's not completely real. I like poems like this, as long as I know the author isn't acting based on these views that they're penning.


Helpful post of the week: http://www.italianamericanwriters.com/monte.html

It's the Subtle Things

When speaking of voices, some people are naturally loud while others are quiet. Just the same, every person also has a voice of influence, and it should be no secret that some people are naturally loud while others are quiet. Are these volumes set in stone? Not in my opinion, and since this is my blog post, my opinion is all that matters until I hit "Publish" at the top. That being said, I prefer reading the work of someone who knows how to use their loud influential voice to speak softly and in a subtle tone. I'm not big into having someone throw their views in my face, and I don't think I'm very alone in that. Another quick side-note is that I prefer written work that enhances or changes a mindset vs. personal poetry, but that's also just me and only relevant until that orange button at the top gets clicked.

So why say all this? Well, for this post, I'm going to compare two loudly influential voices in the poetry of Muriel Rukeyser and Maya Angelou, but I only prefer the poetry of Rukeyser, because of the two reasons stated above. Both Rukeyser and Angelou are considered feminist poets, but to me, Rukeyser's poem "Myth" kicks the tail of Angelou's "Phenomenal Woman", though most people have never heard of "Myth".

Rukeyser's "Myth" is a poetic enhancement of the well-known story of Oedipus. It reads:

Long afterword, Oedipus, old and blinded, walked the
roads. He smelled a familiar smell. It was
the Sphinx. Oedipus said, "I want to ask one question.
Why didn't I recognize my mother?" "You gave the
wrong answer," said the Sphinx. "But that was what
made everything possible," said Oedpius. "No," she said.
"When I asked, What walks on four legs in the morning,
two at noon, and three in the evening, you answered,
Man. You didn't say anything about woman."
"When you say Man," said Oedpius, "you include women
too. Everyone knows that." She said, "That's what
you think."

Wow. First of all, I love mythology, and second, I love twist endings that are good. This poem has both, and also, it speaks to the mindset programmed in people for thousands of years without throwing the idea in your face. That subtle end reply by the Sphinx shows the misconception of people throughout all of history, but does so in a quieter tone than you would expect one of the famous feminist writers to use, and I heavily respect that.

Keeping that in mind, let's turn our attention to the poem "Phenomenal Woman" by Angelou. Now, don't get me wrong, this is a good poem too, but I don't have as much respect for the poem. Over and over, the poem repeats the following lines:

I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

The rest of the poem is the description of what makes this woman so phenomenal compared to the other "pretty women", though the phenomenal woman claims not to be cute. I like this poem, and I can see how the poem can be very empowering, but the problem for me is that the poem is personal. I've heard this poem quoted by women many different times, each claiming to be this "Phenomenal woman", even though none of them are Maya Angelou. Personal poems can't be quoted easily, and are prone to be quoted incorrectly and out of context. Angelou echoes the subtle voice, though her influential voice is loud, but the personal pronouns take away from my respect for the poem.

Both these poems are as great as the poets themselves, but my preference definitely lies with Rukeyser. It's a personal preference, and that has been admitted plenty of times, but for me, it's the subtle things that transform good poetry into great poetry.


Suggested poetry site of the week: http://poetryhunter.com

What Lies Behind

A few weeks ago, we looked at the poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar, focusing on his famous poem "We Wear the Mask". For Dunbar, the mask symbolizes the false face that African-Americans had to wear in the late 19th century and into the early 20th century. Though the man behind the mask is bleeding and hurting, the mask will always portray a smile and an optimism that isn't mirrored by the man behind the mask. Years later, now that Civil Rights movements have made a lasting impression that forever changed the way the world looks at race, poets can now shift their focus from the mask to what lies behind the mask. This concept is looked at more in-depth from the past-poet Langston Hughes, and the present poet Imamu Amiri Baraka.

In Langston Hughes' poem "My People", Hughes shifts the focus from wearing the mask to what lies behind the mask. Hughes writes:

The night is beautiful,
So the faces of my people.
The stars are beautiful,
So the eyes of my people.
Beautiful, also, is the sun.
Beautiful, also, are the souls of my people.

The illustration of the mask has been made clear by Hughes' time, and the question is no longer whether black people wear a mask or not. Instead, Hughes decides to use his expertise to pen down the idea of what lies behind the mask for those who have been forced to wear it for years. He illustrates a beauty of his people that has been hidden for as long as they've had to dawn the mask. He writes that his people are as beautiful as the night, with their eyes as beautiful as the stars in the sky and their souls as beautiful as the sun. This is an important shift in black history, to where now the mask has been removed to show the beauty behind it.

Imamu Amiri Baraka also constructs a very powerful poem that shares the same effect as Hughes'. The poem "Ka 'Ba" not only illustrates the beauty of a once-masked people, but the pride of their culture as well. Baraka writes:

We are beautiful people
with African imaginations
full of masks and dances and swelling chants

Baraka refers to a different type of mask...the physical mask traditionally worn by African tribes. Baraka wants to show the beauty of not only his people, but the culture as well. The entire poem is a call for black people to stop fighting each other, and a call to unity. He uses these words to highlight unity by tracing a similar background. The issue has changed to a point where we no longer need to see the mask worn by black people, but the beauty of the face and the culture that lies behind that mask.


Suggested poetry site of the week: http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/