Poetry and Poetics–Lit 204

For this week’s blog post I chose to write about the poem “Incident” by Countee Cullen. I found that this poem carried themes of racism and messages regarding its negative and lasting impact. However, considering that this was my take away from the poem I found the structure of the poem and way one reads it to be very interesting. In the poem there is no mention of racism or even a suggestion that the significance of the interaction is related to race until line 8 when the child is called a racial slur. In addition, the poem begins in a very light hearted tone mentioning the child’s “glee” and “smile”. I also found it significant that when the child first sees the Baltimorean he only acknowledges his size and age (nothing about race). I found that these details in the beginning of the poem effectively capture the child’s innocence and reveal that at the start of the poem the child does not live everyday in a world where racism is present. However, this dramatically shifts when the child is called a racist slur in line 8.

In the final stanza of the poem the child mentions how during his 7 month visit he saw the “whole of Baltimore”. Both the length of this stay and the size of the city emphasize how big and eventful this experience must have been. However this feeling of largeness and weight is juxtaposed with the smallness of the moment when the child reveals that being called the slur was “all I remember”. Well to some it may seem that this moment was such a small detail as the juxtaposition insinuates, the comparison to the large city actually reveals how big this moment was for the child. I found there to be a dramatic shift in the final 5 lines of the poem. As I mentioned earlier the poem begins with a tone of innocence and joy but after the mention of the slur shifts to depressing and painful. I found this shift to be revealing of the gravity of this situation for the child. Well initially the child did not live everyday experiencing racism, this small moment has opened his eyes to the sad reality of racism’s presence. I found that this dramatic shift for a child so young is revealing of the heavy and long lasting impact of racism and how much it can alter one’s everyday life.

For this week’s blog post I decided to focus on the poem “The Second Coming” by William Butler Yeats. To completely understand the meaning of this poem I had to do some background research on it. I found that the poem was written just after the end of World War 1. This helped me to contextualize and understand the first stanza of the poem. The first stanza paints a picture of chaos and anarchy where a falcon cannot hear its caller and people have lost their way. Based on the time that this poem was written I came to understand that this state of chaos was referencing the war that had just occurred. I especially found this symbolism of the falcon to be very important. I thought that the line, “falcon cannot hear the falconer” might be a commentary on humans losing their connection to earth and nature. The image of things falling apart and “innocence is drowned” makes me think that the poem is arguing that humanity has lost its way and war has created a failed rather than successful society.

The second stanza then dives into a religious discussion that is alluded to in the poem’s title: The second coming of Christ. In Christianity the second coming of Christ is essentially the day that Jesus returns to judge his enemies, reward the faithful, and set up his kingdom. I found it very interesting that the title of the poem alludes to this event and then paints a very different picture. In the second stanza the speaker lets out calls of a second coming. However, in contrast to the biblical telling, the speaker describes an image of a “shape with lion body and the head of a man” coming out of the desert. The poem then says, “that twenty centuries of stony sleep Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle”. I believe that these twenty centuries are referring to humanity’s time on earth and that its “stony sleep” was interrupted by this brutal war that disrupted all progress they had made. I think that the purpose of this beast appearing in the re-envisioned second coming is meant to argue that humans have failed and this beast is coming as a way to punish them for their shortcomings.

I decided to write my second blog post on “She Walks in Beauty” by Lord Byron. I interpreted this poem as an ode to a particular woman’s beauty, perhaps the speaker’s love interest. I found that the poem describes the women’s beauty as rare and delicate. Byron employs a simile to compare the women to a night sky saying, “She walks in beauty, like the night//Of cloudless climes and starry skies”(1-2). A cloudless night sky where one can see the stars is both gorgeous and rare. I thought that this comparison revealed how the speaker views the woman’s beauty as just as perfect and rare as this intersection of cloudless and starry. I believe this view of the rarity of the woman’s beauty is also depicted when the speaker says, “One shade the more, one ray the less,//Had half impaired the nameless grace”(7-8). I interpreted this line to mean that any adjustment in any way would throw off the woman’s beauty. This woman’s appearance is just so rare and perfect that it balances the “shade” and “ray” perfectly before falling out of perfection.

Not only is the woman’s beauty perfect to the speaker, but I felt as though the speaker views the woman as heavenly. The speaker says, “Thus mellowed to that tender light //Which heaven to gaudy day denies”(5-6). The speaker is saying that this soft and delicate light/beauty is so rare that it is not seen often only in heaven. To the speaker the woman is so beautiful that she must come from heaven. There is something so serene and perfect about this woman that she is almost too rare for the earthly world. I think that this comparison and viewing of the women is meant to portray her as being above the speaker in the speaker’s eyes. The speaker views her in a way that is similar to religious worship. Overall I think this poem is also meant to show that the woman’s external beauty also makes her internally pure. The poem says, “A mind at peace with all below,// A heart whose love is innocent!” (17-18). I felt as though this last line tied the poem together, expressing that the woman’s external glow reflects the brightness and pureness within her.