DOCSLIB.ORG

The Dreams of Daughters

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Dreams of Daughters The Dreams of Daughters A dissertation submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Cincinnati in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of English of the College of Arts and Sciences by Elizabeth Harmon Threatt M.A. University of Cincinnati 2008 Committee Chair: Don Bogen, Ph.D. Abstract ³7KH'UHDPVRI'DXJKWHUV´LVDFROOHFWLRQRISRHPVWKDWH[SORUHVWKHFRQQHFWLRQV between family, domesticity, death, love and grief. Organized into four sections, the creative portion of my dissertation follows a trajectory that explores internalized and externalized grief and familial relationships. With a nearly consistent female narrator, the manuscript begins by looking at highly personal interactions between mothers, daughters, and sisters. As the sections progress, the narrator moves from the dreams of daughters, to those of lovers, husbands and wives, and fathers, ultimately returning to the moment that sparks the entire book ± the PRWKHU¶V death. Together, these poems provide a creative look at what happens to individuals and families when death alters the perspective of every relationship. This dissertation also includes a critical essay that focuses on the poetry collection Domestic Violence by the Irish poet Eavan Boland. The essay argues that these poems work to critique and dismantle mythologies of women that nationalist rhetoric often creates. Through a close examination of several poems in this collection, I show how Boland poetically subverts the woman-as-muse trope and strives to create a new and empowered space for women. ii iii Acknowledgements Aurorean : ³:KHQ:H5HDOL]H,W,V$XJXVW´ ³+HPPLQJ´ ³*LUORQD6ZLQJVHW´ Big Muddy : ³:KDW<RX:DQW´ Booth: A Journal : ³7KH'UHDPVRI:LYHs´ Cold Mountain Review : ³,I,t Brings Down Limbs´ ³-XQH+RXU´ ³.HPSHU&RXQW\´ Meadow: ³$IWHU6HHLQJ-RKQ:D\QHDQG0DXUHHQ2¶+DUD:KHQ,:DV7HQ´ Mississippi Review : ³The Danger of Being a Sister´ ³7KH'UHDPVRI'DXJKWHUV´ Poet Lore : ³/\LQJ1H[WWR<RX,)HHO´ RATTLE : ³$0XVW-Have for the Holidays´ The Rectangle : ³/LWWOH6LVWHU´ I would like to thank Dr. Don Bogen, who worked with me through multiple drafts of these poems, and who was always available with words of advice. I would also like to thank other faculty members of the University of Cincinnati, who had a part, knowingly or unknowingly, in the creation of this manuscript: John Drury, Dr. Danielle Deulen, Dr. Jana Braziel, Dr. Beth Ash, and Dr. Amy Elder. I would also like to thank my undergraduate mentor, Dr. Richard Lyons, from Mississippi State University, for sparking within me a love for poetry. I would also like to thank my friends and colleagues at UC for their friendship, proofreading, encouragement, and needed distraction: Mary Jo Tewes Cramb, Lisa Ampleman Warren, Rebecca Morgan Frank, Ruth Williams, George Potter, and Nick Chuha. My family is also deserving of appreciation, for their inspiration, love, and humor. Thanks to Bob and Frank, who kept my head out of the academic clouds. Special thanks to my sister, Debby, who has always been my best friend, and my father, who had to be much more. Finally, and most importantly, I thank Patrick, whose constant love and support helped me persevere. iv Table of Contents Part I Section I The Dreams of Daughters 2 Winter Birth 3 Hemming 4 Bedroom 5 Kemper County 6 Yellow Jackets 7 Girl on a Swingset 9 Adolescence 10 Little Sister 11 What We Leave Behind 12 The Dreams of Sisters 13 Insomnia 14 The Danger of Being a Sister 15 A Must-Have for the Holidays 16 Dear Mother 17 After the Burial 18 The Moonlit Branch 19 The Cat Outside the Window 20 Dream Life 21 Section II The Dreams of Lovers 24 Couple in the Far Booth 25 What You Want 26 Yet Another Want 27 When We Realize It Is August 28 Nightsong 29 Your Current Fantasy 30 Filming Your Script 31 Your Love Is a George Foreman Grill 32 Lying Next to You I Feel 34 Midnight Porch-Sitter 35 According to Society, This Is a Masculine Poem 36 Section III The Dreams of Wives 38 If It Brings Down Limbs 39 This November 40 v After Seeing John Wayne and MDXUHHQ2¶+DUD:KHQ,ZDV7HQ 41 June Hour 42 What She Would Have Required 43 Being Woman 44 Ode to My Appendix 45 Noah Moons His Wife 46 Debating with My Husband 47 The Dreams of Mothers 48 Seeing Myself as a Widow 49 Grandchild 50 A Son¶s 40th Birthday 51 The Brief Story of Our Life Together 52 Section IV The Dreams of Fathers 54 The Man Driving a Tractor on the Interstate 55 The Saw Mill 56 Forester 57 Feller Buncher 58 Outside the Chicken Coop 59 Carpenter 60 The Man Who Paints Nudes 61 On Hearing of Your Cancer 62 Meditation on a Nebraskan Landscape: Loess Plains 63 Part II Critical Essay: The Maternal Paradox: Nationalism, Gender, 64 DQG:RPHQ¶V6SDFHVLQ(DYDQ%RODQG¶VDomestic Violence vi I The Dreams of Daughters I have had dreams where you are alive again as if you were never dead in the first place, dreams where you are alive but I dream-know that you will be dead again when I wake up, dreams where I see you in the grocery store because you have faked your death and run away, dreams where you cheat on my father with lots of men, dreams where you eat ice cream and watermelon on the Fourth of July in a red-striped shirt, dreams where you shave your head and arms to learn how to sweat, dreams where your smell becomes the whole dream ± of tampons and baby powder in a blue space with my head lying next to your stomach, dreams where you are still my mother but younger than me and Japanese with a white face and purple flowers in your black hair, dreams where I can remember what your voice sounds like again, dreams where you touch my shoulders shyly and your hands become small birds brushing against my skin, dreams where we both know that I am dreaming, and so you are nothing more than you, and many, many dreams where all of your dream-lives exist together, but I have never had a dream where I ask you why you have been dead, why you are still dead, why you are dead in the first place, or why the memory of you is always like sticking my tongue in a vastness of sand instead of the simple taste of honeysuckle I grew up believing it would be. 2 Winter Birth ,DOZD\VWKLQNRIP\PRWKHU¶VGHDWK 3 Hemming She slices black thread above the daughter's knee picking out ends like burrs from purple cloth, one licked thumb against the new bare width, a brief glance at the edges, almost giving up her mouth's corner-death-grip on three pins, her lips¶ white dandelion fray, her hands as strong as buttons. 4 Bedroom There was some secret war here, deep-hidden 5 Kemper County What I remember is her smell of dust, musty in the dark, his blank face hoary against the rough wind. Nothing else comes first, except the unpredictable, wary sigh of dishes shifting in the cabinets. The room ached to know what strong glue held the kitchen stairs in place, their ancient fret- work sagging like wet sweetgum leaves cradled in a gutter. He picked a knife from the drawer and threw it into the floor; its handle rattled. She plucked it out with two fingers, more curious than angry. Within the lull, I watched it slip beneath kitchen sink soap, its shadow waving thin, briefly unstopped. 6 Yellow Jackets 1. My face was stung. And stung; 7 (Yellow Jackets, cont.) 8 Girl on a Swingset In her emerald-studded globe, she kicks up a fine cloud of gold, rubs her face into blistered hands. Pulling on her ropes, she tilts her head toward the sun and throws back her hair, nuzzling effortlessly into sky. 9 Adolescence The little girl is not 10 Little Sister That small ridge on your nose you think looks like the foothills of the Smoky Mountains and once compared to the hump on the back of the man who works down at the BP on weekends, UHDOO\LVQ¶WVREDG It houses you, not the you with big feet, or the thirteen-year-old you with small breasts, but the you with teeth and hair and flakes of skin that scatter with every whooshing step and sigh. ,QVLGHWKDW³OLWWOHVNLVORSH´RXUGHDGPRWKHU lives and breathes, doing calisthenics and shouts for grandkids, peeking out through your pores, with gray eyes, onion-paper skin, and scars on both wrists. 7KH\RXZLWKDF\QLFDOVPLUNKDVQ¶WEHHQERUQ\HW The sneer and grimace still lie dormant in your cartilage, flexing their muscles. Those hearts you draw on your science notebooks DUHQ¶WWKHKHDUWVRIWRPRUURZZKHQ\RXZLOO stare blankly at an ivory-tinted wall wondering where your husband is, and whether you brought his suit back from the dry cleaners, and if he will bother to come back to get it. When you look at me with my eyes and her eyes, we will sit together, humming tuneless songs, WKH³%DWWOH+\PQRIWKH5HSXEOLF´RUPD\EH some Frank Sinatra. 7KHQZH¶OOEDNHUDLVLQFRRNLHV DQGWKH\¶OOVLWRQWKHVKHOI between layers of waxed paper, cementing into small planets composed only of crystallized sugar and ice. 11 What We Leave Behind for my siblings 1. I watched the moon suck honey from the ocean 12 The Dreams of Sisters Tonight you have wasted no time 13 Insomnia In the encyclopedia of monotonies, 14 The Danger of Being a Sister I am not obsessed with your hair. It is your right front tooth that enthralls me. Little square thing WKDWZDVMXVWOLNHRXUEURWKHUV¶ I am sure there is some of me in there somewhere.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • What Is Genius of the Kazakh Poet Abay Kunanbayuly by Rashida
    Shahanova Rozalinda Ashirbayevna Professor Head Department of the Philological Specialties Institute of Doctoral Studies Akademic of the International Academy of the Pedagogical Educational Sciences Almaty, Kazakhstan Shokanova Rashida Visiting Professor, Kazakh Language Jamia Millia Islamia New Delhi [email protected] What is genius of the Kazakh poet Abay Kunanbayuly? This article is about the great poet, philosopher, thinker, composer, educator of Kazakh people in the nineteenth century AbayKunanbay. Depite nor the era of colonial oppression, nor feudal-bourgeois system with all its shortcomings, when spread rot and humiliated people, as well as hid in prison, he was able - in spite of all the abominations being and destiny - to raise an unprecedented height resistance of the national spirit, singing and introducing into the consciousness of their fellow tenacity and boldness instead cowardice, focus, instead of a loss, the pursuit of knowledge, rather than ignorance and miserable careerism The acts instead Abay Kunanbay was born (July 29) August 10, 1845 in Chingiz Mountains Semipalatinsk region, in the family of a feudal lord Kunanbai Uskenbaev. His family was aristocratic, that is why Abay received a broad education. He attended a madrassa - Islamic school, is a both a high school and seminary. In addition, Abay was a disciple of the ordinary Russian school.The true figure, genuinely caring about his people, seeking and finding the way to new vertices. Today the name of Abay for many people on all continents should flush with the names of Shakespeare, Goethe, Pushkin and Moliere. Abay is the founder of Kazakh written literature. In the history of Kazakh literature Abay took pride of place, enriching the Kazakh versification new dimensions and rhymes.
    [Show full text]
  • National Symbols of Pakistan | Pakistan General Knowledge
    National Symbols of Pakistan | Pakistan General Knowledge Nation’s Motto of Pakistan The scroll supporting the shield contains Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s motto in Urdu, which reads as “Iman, Ittehad, Nazm” translated as “Faith, Unity, Discipline” and are intended as the guiding principles for Pakistan. Official Map of Pakistan Official Map of Pakistan is that which was prepared by Mahmood Alam Suhrawardy National Symbol of Pakistan Star and crescent is a National symbol. The star and crescent symbol was the emblem of the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century, and gradually became associated with Islam in late 19th-century Orientalism. National Epic of Pakistan The Hamza Nama or Dastan-e-Amir Hamza narrates the legendary exploits of Amir Hamza, an uncle of the Prophet Muhammad, though most of the stories are extremely fanciful, “a continuous series of romantic interludes, threatening events, narrow escapes, and violent acts National Calendar of Pakistan Fasli which means (harvest) is derived from the Arabic term for division, which in India was applied to the groupings of the seasons. Fasli Calendar is a chronological system introduced by the Mughal emperor Akbar basically for land revenue and records purposes in northern India. Fasli year means period of 12 months from July to Downloaded from www.csstimes.pk | 1 National Symbols of Pakistan | Pakistan General Knowledge June. National Reptile of Pakistan The mugger crocodile also called the Indian, Indus, Persian, Sindhu, marsh crocodile or simply mugger, is found throughout the Indian subcontinent and the surrounding countries, like Pakistan where the Indus crocodile is the national reptile of Pakistan National Mammal of Pakistan The Indus river dolphin is a subspecies of freshwater river dolphin found in the Indus river (and its Beas and Sutlej tributaries) of India and Pakistan.
    [Show full text]
  • Search and Find: National Poetry Month
    SEARCH & FIND APRIL- NATIONAL POETRY MONTH Non-Picture - Page 1 ■ ■ 1. Dante Alighieri. 2. Aref Qazvini. 3. Voltaire. Clue: Dante Alighieri was a poet Clue:Aref Qazvini was an Iranian Clue:Voltaire was a French and prose writer from medieval poet and musician. Often cal led philosopher, writer, and poet of Florence, Italy, who profoundly a National Poet of Iran, he was a the Enlightenment. He was one impacted European literature. revolutionary during the Iranian of the most versitile poets and He is most famous for authoring Constitutional Revolution and wits of his time. He is shown the Christian epic poem La made many political and here holding a red lamb, a divina commedia. Dante is pro-revolutionary songs. reference to his 1759 satirical credited with inventing the novella Candide. poetic form used in The Divine Comedy, known as terza rima. 4. Laozi. 5. Ralph Waldo Emerson. 6. Maqamat-ut-Tuyur. Clue: Laozi was a philosopher in Clue: Ralph Waldo Emerson was Clue: "The Conference of the ancient China. He is the author an American writer, poet, and Birds," or "Maqamat-ut-Tuyor," of the Tao Te Ching, an import­ leader of the Transcendentalist is a poem completed circa 1187. ant text from Chinese history Movement, which argued that The poem concerns a congrega­ consisting of 81 short, poetic people were essentially good tion of birds, led by a wise sections. He is a central figure and capable of self-improve­ hoopoe, that embark on a both in philosophical and ment. journey. Through their experi­ religious Taoism. ences and the hoopoe's parables and counsel, the birds are cleansed of their egos and attain enlightenment.
    [Show full text]
  • A Note on the Origins of 1914-18 'War Poetry'
    A note on the origins of 1914-18 ‘war poetry’ Dominic Hibberd Biography Dominic Hibberd, was a biographer, editor and critic who taught at universities in Britain, the USA, and China. He wrote biographies of two poets, Harold Monro and Wilfred Owen, as well as the critical study Owen the Poet (1986). He edited Poetry of the First World War in the Casebook series (1981), and with John Onions, compiled and edited The Winter of the World: Poems of the First World War (2007). Abstract The sort of work that has often been thought of as typical British First World War poetry – realistic, often angry poems about the actualities of the front line, written from the point of view of the ordinary soldier and aimed at the civilian conscience – was in fact not typical at all. And it was not begun by soldiers in the aftermath of front-line horrors, as is often supposed, but by two civilian poets very early in the war. Harold Monro and Wilfrid Gibson deserve to be recognised as the first of what modern readers would call the ‘war poets’. Résumé Les œuvres qui sont souvent considérées comme tout à fait caractéristiques de la poésie britannique de la première guerre mondiale, — réalistes, souvent des poèmes d’un style cru, traduisant la réalité du front, telle qu’elle est vécue par le soldat de base, pour en faire prendre conscience aux civils, ne sont en réalité en rien conformes à ce modèle. Les premières œuvres relevant de ce genre n’ont pas été le fait de militaires revenant de l’horreur du front, comme on le croit souvent, mais de deux poètes civils qui les ont écrites au tout début de la guerre.
    [Show full text]
  • ASTRA Salvensis, Supplement No. 1/2021 105 POETIC AND
    ASTRA Salvensis, Supplement no. 1/2021 POETIC AND LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF POETRY OF ZHUBAN MOLDAGALIEV Zinulla Zh. MUTIYEV1, Murat B. SABYR2, Marat K. AZHGALIYEV2, Aigul A. RAMANOVA2, Ganmirkun G. TURGANALIEVA1 1Department of Kazakh Philology, M. Utemisov West Kazakhstan University, Uralsk, Republic of Kazakhstan 2Department of Pedagogy, University of Innovation and Technology of Western Kazakhstan, Uralsk, Republic of Kazakhstan Abstract: This article deals with local history issues. The study of the creative heritage of poets and writers of the Ural region of the West Kazakhstan region is one of the actual problems of modern literary criticism. This article studies the work of the Kazakh poet Z. Moldagaliev. The scientific, literary analysis of thematic-ideological, poetic-linguistic features of the poetry of the poet was carried out. The novelty of the poet was investigated in the method of describing lyrical heroes, creating an image. Attention is drawn to the fact that the works of the poet are harmonious with time, epoch, and are closely related to the life of society. Keywords: a major epic, spiritual poet, national character, lyrical thinking, war and peace, friendship of nations, the image of contemporaries. A talented representative of Kazakh literature, a major epic, militant poet, awardee of the USSR State Prize, awardee of the Abai Kazakh SSR State Prize, People’s Writer of Kazakhstan Zhuban Moldagaliev was born on September 5, 1920 in the area of Zhylandy, Ulenta-Saykuduk village, Taypaksky district, West Kazakhstan region. He studied at the seven-year school, then at the Ural Agricultural College, on military-political courses. In 1940-47 he served in the army, participated in the Great Patriotic War.
    [Show full text]
  • America Singing Loud: Shifting Representations of American National
    AMERICA SINGING LOUD: SHIFTING REPRESENTATIONS OF AMERICAN NATIONAL IDENTITY IN ALLEN GINSBERG AND WALT WHITMAN Thesis Submitted to The College of Arts and Sciences of the UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for The Degree of Master of Arts in English Literature By Eliza K. Waggoner Dayton, Ohio May 2012 AMERICA SINGING LOUD: SHIFTING REPRESENTATIONS OF AMERICAN NATIONAL IDENTITY IN ALLEN GINSBERG AND WALT WHITMAN Name: Waggoner, Eliza K. APPROVED BY: ____________________________________________________ Albino Carrillo, MFA Committee Chair ____________________________________________________ Tereza Szeghi, Ph.D. Committee Member ____________________________________________________ James Boehnlein, Ph. D. Committee Member ii ABSTRACT AMERICA SINGING LOUD: SHIFTING REPRESENTATIONS OF AMERICAN NATIONAL IDENTITY IN ALLEN GINSBERG AND WALT WHITMAN Name: Waggoner, Eliza K. University of Dayton Advisor: Mr. Albino Carrillo Much work has been done to study the writings of Walt Whitman and Allen Ginsberg. Existing scholarship on these two poets aligns them in various ways (radicalism, form, prophecy, etc.), but most extensively through their homosexuality. While a vast majority of the scholarship produced on these writers falls under queer theory, none acknowledges their connection through the theme of my research—American identity. Ideas of Americanism, its representation, and what it means to be an American are issues that span both Whitman and Ginsberg's work. The way these issues are addressed and reconciled by Ginsberg is vastly different from how Whitman interacts with the subject: a significant departure due to the nature of their relationship. Ginsberg has cited Whitman as an influence on his work, and other scholars have commented on the appearance of this influence. The clear evidence of connection makes their different handling of similar subject matter a doorway into deeper analysis of the interworking of these two iconic American writers.
    [Show full text]
  • Poetry for the People
    06-0001 ETF_33_43 12/14/05 4:07 PM Page 33 U.S. Poet Laureates P OETRY 1937–1941 JOSEPH AUSLANDER FOR THE (1897–1965) 1943–1944 ALLEN TATE (1899–1979) P EOPLE 1944–1945 ROBERT PENN WARREN (1905–1989) 1945–1946 LOUISE BOGAN (1897–1970) 1946–1947 KARL SHAPIRO BY (1913–2000) K ITTY J OHNSON 1947–1948 ROBERT LOWELL (1917–1977) HE WRITING AND READING OF POETRY 1948–1949 “ LEONIE ADAMS is the sharing of wonderful discoveries,” according to Ted Kooser, U.S. (1899–1988) TPoet Laureate and winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. 1949–1950 Poetry can open our eyes to new ways of looking at experiences, emo- ELIZABETH BISHOP tions, people, everyday objects, and more. It takes us on voyages with poetic (1911–1979) devices such as imagery, metaphor, rhythm, and rhyme. The poet shares ideas 1950–1952 CONRAD AIKEN with readers and listeners; readers and listeners share ideas with each other. And (1889–1973) anyone can be part of this exchange. Although poetry is, perhaps wrongly, often 1952 seen as an exclusive domain of a cultured minority, many writers and readers of WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS (1883–1963) poetry oppose this stereotype. There will likely always be debates about how 1956–1958 transparent, how easy to understand, poetry should be, and much poetry, by its RANDALL JARRELL very nature, will always be esoteric. But that’s no reason to keep it out of reach. (1914–1965) Today’s most honored poets embrace the idea that poetry should be accessible 1958–1959 ROBERT FROST to everyone.
    [Show full text]
  • Walt Whitman Quarterly Review
    Walt Whitman Quarterly Review http://ir.uiowa.edu/wwqr Louis Simpson and Walt Whitman: Destroying the Teacher Hank Lazer Volume 1, Number 3 ( 1983) pps. 1-21 Stable URL: http://ir.uiowa.edu/wwqr/vol1/iss3/2 ISSN 0737-0679 Copyright c 1983 by The University of Iowa. Louis Simpson and Walt Whitman: Destroying the Teacher Hank Lazer Abstract Discusses the “complex, intelligent, skeptical playing out of affinities with and differences from Whitman’s poetry” found in Louis Simpson’s work, especially in At the End of the Open Road, where ”Simpson follows Whitman’s lead in exploring the texture and variety of individual lives, but . parts company with the mystical or sublime side of Whitman.” LOUIS SIMPSON AND WALT WHITMAN: Destroying the Teacher HANKLAZER WITH REGARD to recent American poetry, it is easy and fruitful to trace the influence of Walt Whitman. Particularly with the revo'lution in style that began in the mid-fifties with Allen Ginsberg's Howl and Other Poems and that continued in the early sixties with Robert Bly's Silence in the Snowy Fields, Whitman has been seen as a congenial poetic mentor and model for a wide range of American poets. Ginsberg, for example, was drawn to Whit­ man for a number of reasons: Whitman's metrics and use of the long line; Whitman's commitment to a bardic, prophetic function for poetry; Whit­ man's example of a national poet who can speak to (and about) all of America; Whitman's frank sexuality and homoeroticism; and Whitman's fresh use of Biblica1language and form.
    [Show full text]
  • The Poetry of Nazim Hikmet
    THE BELOVED UNVEILED: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN MODERN TURKISH LOVE POETRY (1923-1980) LAURENT JEAN NICOLAS MIGNON SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL AND AFRICAN STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF LONDON THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF PHD ProQuest Number: 10731706 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10731706 Published by ProQuest LLC(2017). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 2 Abstract The thesis explores the ideological aspect of modern Turkish love poetry by focusing on the works of major poets and movements between 1923 and 1980. The approach to the theme of love was metaphorical and mystical in classical Ottoman poetry. During the period of modernisation (1839-1923), poets either rejected the theme of love altogether or abandoned Islamic aesthetics and adopted a Parnassian approach arguing that love was the expression of desire for physical beauty. A great variety of discourses on love developed during the republican period. Yahya Kemal sets the theme of love in Ottoman Istanbul and mourns the end of the relationship with the beloved who incarnates his conservative vision of national identity.
    [Show full text]
  • Hayden, Robert
    Hayden, Robert Hayden, Robert Christopher Buck and Derik Smith Subject: North American Literatures Online Publication Date: Sep 2017 DOI: 10.1093/acrefore/9780190201098.013.485 Keywords added; sections expanded; notes added. Updated on 26 April 2019. The previous version of this content can be found here. Summary and Keywords Robert Hayden was made poet laureate of Senegal in 1966 and ten years later became America’s first black poet laureate. He was acclaimed as “People’s Poet” early in his ca­ reer, but he was largely ignored by the American literary establishment until late in life. In his poetics of history and his nuanced representations of black life, Hayden’s art showed that the African American experience was quintessentially American, and that blackness was an essential aspect of relentlessly heterogeneous America. As he figured it in his late-in-life poem, “[American Journal],” national identity was best metaphorized in “bankers grey afro and dashiki long hair and jeans / hard hat yarmulka mini skirt.” Hayden’s archetypal efforts to demonstrate the kaleidoscopic quality of both black and American identity produced an art that transcended propagandistic categories of race and nation, and pathed the way for a large cadre of late 20th and early 21st century poets who, like Hayden, understand themselves to be simultaneously black and American, but ultimately human. Keywords: Robert Hayden, poetry, poet laureate, Black Arts Movement, national identity, African American, Bicen­ tennial, Baha’i Life and Work Legally, Robert Earl Hayden was never born. He had no birth certificate to show that Asa and Ruth Sheffey (born Gladys Finn), who separated before his birth, were his natural parents.
    [Show full text]
  • The Secret Behind the War of Independence and the Subsequent Success Was “Unity”
    SELECT NEWS TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu: THE SECRET BEHIND THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE AND THE SUBSEQUENT SUCCESS WAS “UNITY” This year marks the centenary of the creation of our National Anthem and the Constitution of 1921, which is accepted as the first modern-age Turkish constitution. This article will allow us to see just how precisely proper both undertakings were, considering the conditions of the time. Here, we will look back at how the will of a unified nation during and after the War of Independence saved that nation and help found this country. 021 marks the centenary of two particularly The Treaty of Sevres was the act; it stemmed from the nation led by Mustafa 2 important milestones in Turkish history; final step in the downfall Kemal. It was also extremely significant that the acceptance of our National Anthem and the At the end of the WWI, the Ottoman Empire legitimacy of the National Resistance came from Constitution of 1921, which is the first modern- was on the losing side, and it was clear that the a free and elected Parliament. age Turkish constitution. The importance of these Empire was on the verge of dissolution. Four two milestones becomes even clearer when we corners of the country were occupied by foreign The suffering of a nation think of the conditions of the day. As our founding forces; the army was dissolved, the economy could not be told any clearer. leader Mustafa Kemal Atatürk had said in “The had routed, the production had stopped. Sultan Mehmet Akif Ersoy, our national poet, Great Speech”; the group that the Ottoman Vahdettin was not able to stop the occupation, understood every second of the War of Empire fought alongside had lost at the World including that of İstanbul and of İzmir, and Independence and felt the idea behind it in the War I, the Ottoman army faced great defeats at decided to follow a completely submissive deepest way possible, which helped him write every front, and a rather overwhelming truce policy in the hopes of protecting his throne.
    [Show full text]
  • The Literature of Oregon by Williams G
    The Literature of Oregon By Williams G. Robbins The earliest published writing in the Pacific Northwest was the work of the fur men and explorers, including the journals and travel accounts of Alexander Ross, Ross Cox, Peter Skene Ogden, Osborn Russell, David Thompson, David Douglas, and Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. It was a literature that described the people and the landscape of Oregon and recorded information about the region’s climate, topography, and river systems—establishing the facts of place. The journals, travel accounts, reconnaissance reports, and the later federal surveys gave the region and state an identity for the rest of the nation. Most of the literary efforts that followed—prose, poetry, memoir, fiction, and history—engaged larger interpretive themes that linked events and circumstances over time. When regional literature comes of age, literary historian Harold Simonson contends, “both artist and the region come alive through the transforming power of imagination and spirit. Person and place are wedded to each other.” William Lysander Adams, a schoolteacher with an eccentric, sarcastic wit and a sharp pen, wrote Oregon’s first literary piece, A Memodrame Entitled “Treason, Stratagems, and Spoils” in Five Acts, under the pen name Breakspear. First published in the Oregonian in 1852, the play skewered Oregon’s Democratic Party, especially its public voice, the Statesman and its editor Asahel Bush. Adam’s play, historian Edwin Bingham writes, was “local literature with a vengeance.” In 1854, Margaret Jewett Bailey’s, the first women writer to appear in print in Oregon, published Grains, or Passages in the Life of Ruth Rover, the region’s first novel.
    [Show full text]