American Literature II

The first time I ever heard of Allen Ginsberg was when I saw in Bob Dylan’s music video for “Subterranean Homesick Blues.” Allen Ginsberg is a difficult poet to like, the initial response to his poetry is usually an eyeroll. Throughout his career his writing process was aided by a lot of psychedelic drugs, especially the poem “Howl.” “Howl” has been criticized as romanticizing mental illness, crime, and a lot of terrible things that seem difficult to ever portray in a positive light. However, I think Allen Ginsberg actually liked the seedy underbelly of the city. What most people saw as tragedy I think he saw as poetic. The rejected members of society are a team, and they have each other’s backs. But those that went to college, got jobs, got married and moved into suburban homes were robots, sellouts and they could never understand what it means to truly be human. Yeah I think Allen Ginsberg has moments where he’s really annoying. Going to college, getting a job, getting married and providing for your family is awesome, and ideal. Simultaneously, I agree with Ginsberg that for some people there’s a different road than that. Following a roadmap even if it’s a good one leads to the terrifying notion of everyone thinking the same, society can’t function like that. The best societies, the richest ones, operate on human differences. That’s why I really like the poem “Howl” it’s about all the things happening below the surface.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The title Malest, Cornifici, tuo Catullo is taken from the poem Carmen 38 written by Catullus, a Latin poet of the late Roman Republic, who died around 54 BC.

Malest, Cornifici, tuo Catullo

malest, me hercule, et laboriose,

et magis magis in dies et horas.

Quem tu, quod minimum facillimumque est,

qua solatus es allocutione?

Irascor tibi. Sic meos amores?

Paulum quid lubet allocutionis,

maestius lacrimis Simonideis.

 

Things are bad for your Catullus, Cornificius,

Things are bad, by Hercules, and painfully so,

and more and more so as days and hours pass.

With what word of comfort, which is the least

and the easiest, have you comforted him?

I am angry with you. Is this how you treat my love?

Give me a tiny bit of comfort,

sadder than the tears of Simonideus.

 

Structures of the both poems (by Catullus and Ginsberg) are very similar, as well as the lives of the both poets. Catullus was an avant-garde poet of his times, who rejected traditional social and literary norms and refused to write in conventional style about gods and heroes. In the same way Ginsberg and his fellow poets from the Beat Generation opposed existing literary conventions and openly expressed their views on homosexuality and drugs in their poetry.

In the Malest, Cornifici, tuo Catullo Ginsberg tells Kerouac that he has found a new boy “your madman Allen’s finally made it: discovered a new young cat.” Ginsberg is happy (even excited) about his love life and he is very open about it. However, he realizes that his openness about it might not be particularly pleasant to others, so his tone switches “Yore angry at me. For all my lovers?”. In this way he attacks socially acceptable morals and norms. In the 50’s, when homosexuality is still punishable by law, Ginsberg protests loudly and audaciously by writing this poem.

I see how Ginsberg, being a part of the Beat Generation, in this short poem tries to adhere to the new avant-garde style; however, I personally find it difficult to fully understand, accept and like this style of writing. I do, on the other hand, enjoy doing a research, learning about the both poets and comparing their writing styles.

For your fifth response paper, please propose a topic and a thesis for your major essay.  Identify the questions that you intend to focus on and offer a tentative thesis statement.  Indicate 2-3 passages from the text (or, if you are focusing on poetry, several lines) that you plan to explore and say why.  Finally, in a couple sentences explain why you have chosen this topic.  Why does it matter to you?

 

1-2 Pages, double spaced.  Due Tuesday April 17.

I, Too

 

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.

They send me to eat in the kitchen

When company comes,

But I laugh,

And eat well,

And grow strong.

 

Tomorrow, I’ll be at the table

When company comes.

Nobody’ll dare

Say to me,

“Eat in the kitchen,”

Then.

 

Besides,

They’ll see how beautiful I am

And be ashamed-

 

I, too, am America.

 

Langston Hughes’ I, Too is a statement about racial equality, a declaration of pride in African American’s progress, and a hopeful look into America’s future. The poem opens with a reference to Walt Whitman’s I Hear America Singing – an extraordinarily patriotic poem that glorifies individuals of all occupations and genders in America. And to Whitman’s claim for America love, Hughes says: “I, too, sing America.” By establishing his stance with Whitman’s audience, the speaker reveals that he is an outsider to a majority. Evidently, the poem raises a strong sense of self by starting with the word “I”. However, this sense of self cancels out when paired with “too” since it shows the speaker’s desire to be part of the masses. The peculiar image of singing a nation is exceptionally well-crafted when that nation is America. For a large part of history, America was regarded as the New World, a place that accepts all and is defined by all. Similarly, a song accepts all for it can be sung by all. More correctly, perhaps Hughes plays with Whitman’s phrase as this is the America that he aspires to: a nation that rejects none. Then, the speaker reveals himself as “the darker brother”. By this point, it has become quite apparent that the speaker is no longer one individual but rather is a representative of the African American population. The speaker has greatly shortened the distance between the majority and him when he calls himself their brother – a blood relative but more significantly, an equal. Unfortunately, the speaker is faced with a very different reality. He is sent to the kitchen whenever the family is joined by company. Now, the speaker does not seem like a brother in the family anymore, but rather like a servant of the house. Instantly, readers are taken back to the slavery era, when the kitchen was the dining area for slaves and animals. As much as it is a historical truth, the kitchen is also a symbol of warmth and prosperity. So, even though it is used as a way of oppression, the speaker still “laugh[s], / and eat[s] well, / and grow[s] strong.” Ironically, it works against the white owner’s intention. The tone here seems daring, provocative, as though he is challenging them to throw their best effort at him and still he will bloom and thrive. This is also Hughes’ recognition of the progress African Americans have made against all adversity. They not only grow stronger under oppression but also are still able to retain joy in their lives as they thrive for more. In the third stanza, Hughes looks to the future and sees equality as the speaker looks to “tomorrow” and sees his seat “at the table/ when company comes.” Not only he has claimed a seat, but also he has their respects for he is able to “dare” them to say “Eat in the kitchen,” The end of the third stanza is painted with slight sorrow by one word only – “then”. Similar to “tomorrow” at the beginning of the stanza, “then” indicates a point in time and stands on its own in singularity. But unlike “tomorrow”, “then” suggests an unknown point in time, while “tomorrow” seems more hopeful, specifying a closer future and showing a stronger certainty. So, the speaker knows that this future will come but is uncertain of when it will come: in his lifetime, in his children’s lifetime or in his grandchildren’s lifetime. The speaker turns away from this melancholic note with a casual “besides”.

Besides,

They’ll see how beautiful I am

And be ashamed-

 

Finally, his beauty will be recognized and they will turn shameful of the past. It is absolutely amazing how the speaker is still able to see his own beauty (while living in such horrible time and being told differently repeated times) and believe so strongly that one day, he will be seen too. And then, yes then, he will be the bigger one as they will look back and look down. The last stanza is like a loud declaration at the faces of all the racist and ignorant white Americans. As though the speaker, after holding his breath for years have finally been able to scream from the deepest depth of his lung: “I, too, am America.” At last, he has not only joined in the choir to sing the tunes America sings but he has become America. Like them, he is the nation too.

When I first read this poem, I read it from the perspective of the housewife’ husband. At first, it didn’t make sense and then I realized this was written from the view of a stranger. When I read it from that vantage point I was a little unnerved. This, to me, sounded very much like a man stalking his prey. When I read the line “I pass solitary in my car” I imagined someone slowly driving by, studying and surveying their interest. There were three words in this poem that made the overall tone dark and threatening: “solitary”, “noiseless”, and “smiling”.

The imagery that played through my mind was a man driving his car by slowly, once, twice, or more. Until the woman comes out of the house for the “ice-man”. He then looks her over, from her hair to her clothing. When she catches him looking, he bows his head and gives her a toothy smile.

This can be the beginning of a psychological movie…

Reading “Story In Harlem Slang,” couldn’t help but make me chuckle.  Although I cannot personally relate to the main character, Jelly, who pimps himself out in order to make money to eat, I certainly could understand the banter that he and Sweet Back were engaging in.  Jelly, who is from Alabama, embellishes his ability to pick up women.  He apparently changed his name from Marvel to Jelly after a month of living on Lenox Ave. because when he pleased a woman they knew that, “It must be Jelly, ’cause Jam don’t shake.”  I thought this was particularly amusing, because even in current times I could imagine a braggadocios man making a similar comment to his friends, and imagined how amusing it must have been when he said it himself.  I could even envision this conversation being carried out in a high school gym class, which made it even funnier in my eyes.

Reading Langston Hughes poem, “Note on Commercial Theatre,” reminds me of current Hip Hop and Rap. I’ve been told that Rock has roots in black America, but to me that seemed almost impossible to imagine. I listened to rock growing up and there weren’t any black bands I knew of. I may not have been looking for it, but I certainly didn’t come across any. All the bands I knew were either predominately white or all white. I asked my 55-year-old uncle and even he hardly remembers the black bands he listened to, although he told me black artists started or helped start rock-n-roll.

In the first stanza, “You’ve taken my blues and gone-/…You sing ‘em in Hollywood Bowl/ And you fixed ‘em/So they don’t sound like me.” I’ve cut out a few lines, but this parallels a lot of the conversation I have with my friends about current rap and its future. My best friend asked me “Will our children be able to image a time with only black rappers?” This of course isn’t to say other races can’t rap, only that the erasure of its roots and vastly different opinion on rap (Hip Hop and Rap were looked down on when I was growing up) are misleading and disrespectful.

He says in the last stanza that someday, someone will write about him (whoever the speaker is). Hopefully with current music that won’t be necessary and we can find an inclusive harmony and not erasure.

Langston Hughes is a poet whose timeless words continue to speak volumes from the start of the Jazz era, which was soaked in the blues of the deep south, to today’s African diaspora. His poems are filled with a creative truth. Within the selection of poems that we had to read for class, “Song for a Dark Girl”, really stood out to me. Most of his work focuses on the perceptions and thoughts of the black men and women who endured the hardship of racism at the time. This poem is of no exception as it seemingly tells the story of a young woman who has lost her “black young lover”, most likely to lynching which was a common occurrence at the time. The poem was short, yet powerful. What stood out even more was when I read his poem, “Silhouette”, and immediately felt a connection with the two.

I started to wonder if this poem was another perspective of the event. Also, when the speaker says, “How Dixie protects its white womanhood, Southern gentle lady, Be good! Be good!”, I began to question if the lady was a white woman in “Songs for a Dark Girl”, and although the song should be for a black girl given the views at the time, that it was potentially from a young white southern lady who was in love with a young black man. Reading this poem completely threw me off into different possible scenarios of the relationship between the two poems. “Silhouette” could possibly still be about the black girl, but why mention white womanhood? Hughes poems are powerful nonetheless, as its deep words expose the soul within his work and shows how it “has grown deep like rivers.”

 

I chose to write about Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird by Stevens. The format is what stood out to me the most. There are 13 different interpretations of what a blackbird could be, represented by 13 short poems. All of these combine to make one poem. The blackbird is an ever present thing. It exists in all environments and in all forms. Sometimes the blackbird is an all seeing eye, sometimes it is an omen, sometimes it is part of you, and other times it is just a blackbird. My favorite was the 6th way to look at a blackbird stating ” The shadow of the blackbird crossed it, to and fro, The mood traced in the shadow an indecipherable cause.” This goes into Stevens belief that there is no meaning, and if there was he is blind to it. Overall I think this poem shows that there are many ways to look at one thing, wether it be an object or even an event. Everyone experiences something in their own way.13 people can look at a blackbird and see 13 different things and one person can see a blackbird in 13 different ways.

 

I was always captivated, not by the moral of Icarus’ story, but his ambition, his wanting freedom and acting on it. To me, it was never his failure, or his destructive enthusiasm, but rather his attempt that mattered. I believe that even by not actually stating it, Williams is trying to imply something similar, that it’s the action that went unnoticed, in the poem and Brueghel’s painting which is most important. After all, for however briefly – Icarus did fly.

William Carlos Williams chose the title of, “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus” unaltered from the title of Brueghel’s painting, indicating Williams is not trying to alter it’s meaning but to delve into an interpretation of Icarus’ drowning. It begins with “According to Brueghel”, the use of according could be meant in the sense of in accord with, an agreement. The use of only the painters last name and not his self- decreed title, yet he did not use only his first name but chose his surname, a lineage that this painter carries on, however, it is a history which is lost, and therefore can simply relate to all of humanity. Or, it could simply be chosen for its style. The landscape is of spring, a beginning, yet the actions of these people in the forefront of the painting are banal. The farmers who plow and the man who (I think) fishes, has probably done so for years. The pageantry, the ceremony of cultivating their fields is an event without any true meaning. This is also connected to time, their lives and possibly the lives of their ancestors who have always done the same meaningless menial work. Yet they, like the sea, which sweats under the sun, are ignorant of Icarus’ suffering. In their spectacularly vivid lives, they’re empty; their toiling is irrelevant, only of importance to them and it’s the only thing that is important to them, not the drowning Icarus. It is unclear whether the “edge of the sea” is where it meets the land upon which the farmers stand or where the horizon joins it to the sky. But whether it is near these people or beyond them, it is not connected to the height Icarus fell from. The sun is a force greater than man, more powerful than Icarus, than his mechanism, only interacts with Icarus’ wings, in the story and poem, however, it seems to be far from Icarus in the painting. While Icarus is deemed “unsignificant”, not ‘insignificant,’ although I’m not sure why this word is preferred, and “unnoticed”, – his “splash”, his impact is ignored. The people who are not ambitious are never affected, their cycles never altered and ultimately they meet death, as the mortal Icarus does, but theirs is not from the burning glory not depicted in the poem or painting.

Now, what is most confusing is that the first letter of the poem and names are capitalized and there are no punctuation marks at all in the poem (its why I chose to place commas outside of the quotations). It has no pauses, no end, only the beginning is given importance, which is truly the end of the event. Its as if the poem is unfinished, even with Icarus’ death.

If you’re interested, there’s another poem which references the painting, the subject matter is the unnoticed suffering of men – Musee des Beaux Arts, W.H. Auden.

This poem and “The Ivy Crown” by Williams are probably my favorites. The other reminds me of a cheesy (but amazing) quote by young adult writer, Bardugo “Love speaks in flowers. Truth requires thorns.”

Although I want to continue on William Carlos Williams as well as Wallace Stevens, I’m sure this post has been long enough, however, I will say – Stevens’ poetry, in a way different from Williams’, is unhinged, unapologetic and yet, something that is understood in one form or another.