Rita Dove And Yusef Komunyakaa

1. Gwendolyn Brooks and Amiri Baraka were both significant voices in the Black Arts Movement that touched on an array of subjects ranging from identity, society, and martyrdom. Perhaps the leading participants of the Movement, their poetry—though written in their own respective styles—share many comparisons that honor the legacy of fallen heroes such Malcolm X, and that critique mid-century America’s cultural norms. In Brooks’s poem “For Malcom” she writes, “He had the hawk-man’s eye. We gasped. We saw the maleness. The maleness raking out and making guttural the air and pushing us to walls.” The word choice in this stanza is incredibly revealing because for Brooks, Malcolm and his maleness were inseparable. His forwarding-thought mind and

commanding tone created waves and inspired passion and emotion. His masculinity is reinforced in the conclusion of the poem where she writes, “He opened us — Who was key. Who was a man.” I read Brooks’s poem as somewhat of an elegy and saw the underlying message of her writing as Malcolm X’s character and “masculinity” as pedestals for African-American manhood. Similar to Brooks, Baraka’s team “For Black Hearts” is an important explanation of the qualities/actions that made Malcolm X so lovable and threatening. Malcolm—in Baraka’s eyes—is a martyr to the Black Liberation Movement and the title likely refers to the sadness and mourning of Black following his assassination. He refers to Malcolm’s eyes, hands, and words—similar to Brooks—as tools for Black empowerment. He writes that Malcolm is a “black god of our time” and “prince of the earth” further alluding to his martyrdom. I believe both poets highlighted Malcom’s courage and commitment in an effort to reclaim and redefine African-American masculinity and character.
Further comparisons between the two poets are seen in “In Memory of Radio”, “Sadie and Maud”, and “the vacant lot.” Baraka writes “In Memory of Radio” in free verse and employs a humorous voice to recount the speaker’s memory of radio (one of nostalgia and loss), and how the medium created an alternate reality for those listening. Similarly, Brooks’s “the vacant lot” is a memory written in a humorous yet keen tone that sheds light on urban displacement. Two incredibly significant subjects that highlight loss and pain, yet presented in such a lighthearted manner. This detail further convinced me of the similarities between the two poets. Barka’s poem offers a critique on society’s acceptance of technology and popular culture. In “Sadie and Maud,” Brooks tackles the socially constructed guidelines that women are expected to follow. Two women are presented in the poem: Sadie and Maud. Sadie lives an unapologetic life and breaks all barriers set forth by society has bears two babies out of wedlock. She raises these two babies as a single mother, further demolishing the societal expectations of women. Sadie leads a rebellious lifestyle and ends up very content with her situation, though she is shunned and ridiculed by her parents. Maud, on the other hand, adheres to societal pressure and embarks upon a path with strict gender guidelines. She attends college and ends up living alone and unhappy. The story of the two sisters demonstrates the incredibly impractical standards society sets for women—no matter what path you choose, you’ll either end up looked down upon or alone and unhappy. The poems mentioned in this paragraph all highlight subjects that relate to each respective poet, and highlight the diversity in their writing. Both champions of the Black Arts Movement, Gwendolyn Brooks and Amiri Baraka were united in their writings on Black resistance, liberation, thought, and empowerment, yet diverse in their critiques on society due to their own respective upbringings and identities. United in their themes of death, despair, and social corruption; diverse in their means of explaining such matters.

2.

Pulitzer-Prize winning poets Rita Dove and Yusef Komunyakaa explore issues broader than rural black America. In “Parsley”, Dove canvasses the issues of inequality and oppression in Haiti; whereas in “Facing It”, Komunyakaa examines the Vietnam War from the perspective of a black solider and the post-traumatic stress he endures. What unites the two poets is their utilization of lyricism and rhythms to articulate personal narratives and create complex images of life through observations and experiences. Both Dove and Komunyakaa stress their individuality in their poetry by using words like “we” or “I” and employ imagery to express the emotions of the speakers in their poems. In “Parsley”, Dove writes, “we lie down screaming as rain punches through and we come up green. We cannot speak an R…” Though Dove has is not recounting personal experiences in the “Parsley”, her individuality in the poem illustrates her broad scope on the subject of racial inequality (for her, the discrimination and terrorization of Blacks in America and Haiti are intersectional); and ultimately it is racial inequality she seeks to destroy. Further touching on the theme of individuality, Komunyakaa’s “Facing It” is about the terrible traumatic experiences of Vietnam Veteran. The speaker is for some reason repressing his emotions when recounting on memories of the war at the Vietnam War Memorial. Komunyakaa writes, “I said I wouldn’t, dammit: No tears. I’m stone. I’m flesh.” These lines deepen the sense

of individuality because this person told himself before arriving to the memorial that he would not show emotion. Written in first person from the perspective of a black man, we see an image made directly in the first two lines of the poem, “My black face fades, hiding inside the black granite.” These lines convey that the individual’s reflection is disappearing in granite, the thicket and toughest rock known to man. We also see an image of a bird of, that serves to represent the way the individual is looking into himself to gain some sort of awareness or insight into his state of mind. Continuing on with the theme of imagery, we go back Dove’s “Parsley”, where a parrot is one of the most important symbols in the poem. The parrot is symbolic of beauty (or the irony of beauty for that matter—that no matter what the situation, beauty persists). Though it is symbolic of beauty, it is also symbolic of slavery, given that is caged up, and Dove uses a simile to compare it to “we”, the Haitian workers. The individuality and imagery presented in both poems are but some of the uniting factors of Dove and Komunyakaa.

In Dove’s “Daystar” and Komunyakaa’s “Banking Potatoes”, imagery is employed to express important details of the poems.

Additionally, the absence of rhyme and the writing form of free verse create a more personable feel to the poems. In “Daystar”, Dove writes of a woman who plays the role of both a wife and a mother. Her day to day existence depends on caring for her children, yet she strives to move past this life and embark on a more exciting life. Her tiresome life is expressed in the third line where Dove writes, “A doll slumped behind the door.” This imagery paints a picture of a woman/mother that has lost the will to carry on with her day-to-day routine; one that has lost the sense of purpose and meaning—a mere individual sagging on a closed door. The free verse of the poem allows for any mother or wife to connect with the character in the poem, given that many mothers have similar situations. Imagery in Komunyakaa’s “Baking Potatoes” is seen immediately in the title and eventually in lines 11-12, where the speaker says, “Like flesh-colored stones along a riverbed/Or diminished souls beside a mass grave.” Here, Komunyakaa uses the light-heated imagery to highlight a very disturbing memory the speaker remembers. The similarities between both poets can be seen through their individualist poetic voices that are primarily concerned with identity, crippling emotions, and individualistic sensibilities relating to the African-American

culture.