Fo’ miles on down, To New Orleans delta An’ Mobile town, When Ma hits Anywheres aroun’.
These are all places with a large black population, and references the low down folk, not like the ones trying to be Nordic as described in Hughes' essay “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain.”
When Ma Rainey Comes to town, Folks from anyplace Miles aroun’,
"Ma Rainey" is a poem about Ma Rainey's audience, it's not actually about her. Her concerts are a collective pleasure that exist within a place and time whereas poetry is solitary and timeless/spaceless.
We build our temples for tomorrow, strong as we know how, and we stand on top of the mountain, free within ourselves.
The mountain now symbolizes freedom. An accomplishment. Although the mountain is "rocky" there is a beautiful view on top when the summit is reached.
A very high mountain indeed for the would-be racial artist to climb in order to discover himself and his people.
Locke says that black folks cannot be equal with white people until they truly know themselves. Hughes seems to agree, and taking the "Nordic route" makes it that much harder to know yourself.
“I want to be a poet–not a Negro poet,” meaning, I believe, “I want to write like a white poet”;
I wonder if this question really means they would like to be white, but rather they would like to be a poet respected because of their poetry and not labeled in any way besides being a poet.
Or other testimony of summer nights. The nymphs are departed. And their friends, the loitering heirs of city directors;
Nymphs were common figures in Greek mythology as semi-divine beings associated with locations/landforms.
Tiresias
Another allusion to Greek mythology
The change of Philomel, by the barbarous king So rudely forced; yet there the nightingale Filled all the desert with inviolable voice
The first section included many German phrases. This section begins with two references to Greek mythology (Cupidon in the fourth line of this stanza)
“You gave me hyacinths first a year ago; “They called me the hyacinth girl.” —Yet when we came back, late, from the Hyacinth garden, Your arms full, and your hair wet, I could not Speak, and my eyes failed, I was neither Living nor dead, and I knew nothing, Looking into the heart of light, the silence.
This line reminds me of the lines after the first German phrase in the first stanza. In both sections, the speaker (perhaps the same speaker. Both are women) reminisces about times past.
What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow Out of this stony rubbish?
These lines parallel the opening, "breeding Lilacs out of the dead land... stirring dull roots."
Pink coral white coral, coral coral.
Paper peaches.
Electrics are tight electrics are white electrics are a button.
Wives of great men rest tranquil.
sent out at fifteen to work
Child labor, especially in the time of this poem was an issue.
mountain folk from Kentucky
The idea of "pure" being maintained by inbreeding. Often that is the reason behind inbreeding, which mountain people of Kentucky have been known to participate in.
bathed in filth
It also reminds me of the phrase (i'm paraphrasing), a pig is still a pig no matter how you dress it up
As regarding rhythm: to compose in the sequence of the musical phrase, not in sequence of a metronome.
Anything that is rhythmic in some way, even if not formally. The formalism of "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" creates a metronome effect in that the syllabic consistency creates an inherent rhythm. To compose in the sequence of a musical phrase, as Pound describes, would be more akin to Walt Whitman's use of free verse, wherein the musicality of the language serves to create a rhythm of speech despite not having uniform lines of meter. This would be closer to musical improvisation that does not conform to a strict beat, but still is in time with the rest of the music.
an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time
I took this phrase to mean an "image" is something (to use Pound's vocabulary) that procures an emotional/intellectual comment or picture. If you have vivid scene reproduced in your head as a result of the writing, the writer has created an "image."
To use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation.
This refers to a rejection of flowery language. Modernists aim for their writing to be straight to the point
All will be easier when the mind To meet the brutal age has grown An iron cortex of its own.
This notion of foul supplanting fair will be easier to understand when one learns self-preservation and develops a course exterior.
In that the foul supplants the fair, The coarse defeats the twice-refined, Is food for thought, but not despair:
The fact that the more aggressive being will replace the meeker one is not a horrible notion, but something of which to be aware.
does the rose regret The day she did her armour on?
Are you supposed to feel bad when you look out for yourself even at the expense of someone else?
yet that hour will come. . . And must, in such a spiny land.
One day, the unprotected will realize they need some sort of armor in such a dangerous world.
His stalk the dark delphinium Unthorned into the tending hand Releases
This seems to be a comment on self-preservation. One relinquishes themselves when there is no protection from harm.
Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink Nor slumber nor a roof against the rain;
This poem reminds me of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, a paper that essentially ranks human motivation in order of most importance for survival. Millay does not overly-romanticize love in this poem, she recognizes that there are things besides love that are important in life. We cannot survive on love alone. This poem seems to reject the romanticists by recognizing the value of the mundane necessities of life.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep,
In this line, the speaker seems to snap out of the mystical trance and remember his obligations. It is a comment on the ephemeral nature of sublime experiences. When one first has a sublime experience, the feeling is overwhelming, but this feeling fades. The longer one stands at the Grand Canyon, the sooner the awesomeness of that experience fades.
He gives his harness bells a shake To ask if there is some mistake.
The speaker is experiencing the woods and the feeling of sublime. The woods effect the speaker in a meaningful way, highlighted by the confusion of his horse. There is no reason for them to stop other than to indulge the feeling overwhelming the narrator, a feeling the horse is incapable of understanding.
His house is in the village though; He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow.
Again there is the theme of the village vs. the woods as in the poems of last week. The speaker is alone in the woods while the owner is in the village with everyone else.
I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I- I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.
The speaker will look back on their decision to live a more adventurous/esoteric lifestyle without regret and see that choice as a defining characteristic of them.
And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black.
The speaker seems to refer to the fact that once one decides to live their life a certain way, it is difficult to start over again despite one's best intentions.
And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Here the speaker decides which path to take, and eventually takes the less-popular route. This seems to refer to living a life not many others choose to live. The speaker wants to try new things for the sake of adventure.
And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could
It seems like this poem is about how one lives their life. The speaker wants to live in different ways but must choose a path to go down. It took the speaker a long time to make the decision but eventually has to decide.
There was not much that was ahead of him, And there was nothing in the town below–
There was "not much ahead of him" but "nothing in the town" because everyone has become a stranger. He seems to lament everyone else's desire for solitude within their homes, not being welcoming to strangers, yet he prefers his solitude as well, but his takes place in nature with birds etc. There also seems to be a lamentation of the disappearance of friends in his life. Perhaps the town is now filled with people he doesn't know anymore but used to.
The bird is on the wing, the poet says, And you and I have said it here before.
This poem feels like an homage to nature and the natural. Again he mentions the role of the poet as he did in the last poem. In this case he discusses his relationship to solitude. He is alone with nature where he is more comfortable.
Poets and kings are but the clerks of Time, Tiering the same dull webs of discontent
I Love this line because it compares poets and kings in ways we usually do not see. Kings are rulers who decide the fate of men and nations, while poets are creative people and not politically powerful, but are bastions of the soul
I am quite sure it is a woman. By daylight she is subdued, quiet. I fancy it is the pattern that keeps her so still. It is so puzzling. It keeps me quiet by the hour. I lie down ever so much now. John says it is good for me, and to sleep all I can. Indeed he started the habit by making me lie down for an hour after each meal.
It's interesting to note that the pattern is personified as a woman. The woman in the pattern parallels the narrator. She describes how the woman in the pattern is subdued during the day, and immediately after explains that her own days are often spent napping, something forced upon her by John.
This is an excellent synthesis of Adams and DuBois. The narrator is experiencing near-literal double consciousness, as she is seeing and being seen. Also, she has essentially moved to talking about herself in the third person, like Adams. The effect of all of them is in creating a narrative between subject and object.
He said we came here solely on my account, that I was to have perfect rest and all the air I could get. “Your exercise depends on your strength, my dear,” said he, “and your food somewhat on your appetite; but air you can absorb all the time.” So we took the nursery at the top of the house.
This passage contains a bit of irony, reminiscent of the writing styles of Adams and DuBois. In this instance, the narrator is recounting her husband's explanation of how they came to the house "solely on (her) account". John says her exercise depends on her strength and yet she isn't allowed out of the nursery in the attic. She can get fresh air by opening the window, but not from walking around outside.
Personally, I disagree with their ideas. Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good. But what is one to do?
Here we see a double-consciousness of sorts. The narrator sees herself one way; she believes that staying cooped up inside does not help her condition, but feels powerless to act. Despite her perspective, she is keenly aware throughout the story of how her husband and brother view her. This certainly relates to DuBois' idea of double consciousness where black people experience the consciousness of the individual in addition to a consciousness relating to how they are viewed by society.
Merely a concrete test of the underlying principles of the great republic is the Negro Problem, and the spiritual striving of the freedmen’s sons is the travail of souls whose burden is almost beyond the measure of their strength, but who bear it in the name of an historic race, in the name of this the land of their fathers’ fathers, and in the name of human opportunity.
DuBois feels that the oppression experienced by his people, serves to question our society and test its validity. The "Negro problem" also serves to strengthen those who are burdened by it and struggle through it in the name of advancement and progress and in honor of those who struggled more mightily before them.
Be content to be servants, and nothing more; what need of higher culture for half-men? Away with the black man’s ballot, by force or fraud,—and behold the suicide of a race!
Again, DuBois seeks to advance black people through education and inspiration. All the impediments experienced by black people act to discourage higher learning, because it is seen as irrelevant if the end result is still serving white people at the end of all of that education. But DuBois does not believe this to be true, and later advocates for better educational facilities.
Slowly but steadily, in the following years, a new vision began gradually to replace the dream of political power,—a powerful movement, the rise of another ideal to guide the unguided, another pillar of fire by night after a clouded day. It was the ideal of “book-learning”; the curiosity, born of compulsory ignorance, to know and test the power of the cabalistic letters of the white man, the longing to know.
DuBois seems to reference an enlightenment of African-Americans that began to take place. It became clear that all that was believed to contribute to the advancement of black people, was not actually to their benefit. Jim Crow laws like the Grandfather Clause and practices like share-cropping served to give the appearance of advancement without the actual experience. DuBois chose "book-learning" to combat the oppression he experienced. In addition, he founded the NAACP in order to truly "advance" in ways Jim Crow was not attempting.
The exchange was merry, till one girl, a tall newcomer, refused my card,—refused it peremptorily, with a glance. Then it dawned upon me with a certain suddenness that I was different from the others; or like, mayhap, in heart and life and longing, but shut out from their world by a vast veil.
In the video, Dr. Zuberi refers to the "negro problem" and DuBois' response to said "problem". DuBois felt that this problem was not with black people, but with the society in which blacks were treated as a problem.
This passage is an example of society treating him differently and causing the problem despite his following the cultural norms. He tries to exchange a visiting-card, as is a normal practice, yet the girl refuses the exchange without reason beyond what DuBois recognized as her problem with the color of his skin.
They approach me in a half-hesitant sort of way, eye me curiously or compassionately, and then, instead of saying directly, How does it feel to be a problem? they say, I know an excellent colored man in my town; or, I fought at Mechanicsville; or, Do not these Southern outrages make your blood boil?
These lines remind me of the video provided about "The Philadelphia Negro", which was written by DuBois. According to Dr. Tukufu Zuberi, it was "one of the first social-scientific texts written in the United States using advanced statistical methods of the time."
It makes me think that DuBois grew tired of these veiled racist questions and sought to use empirical methods to dispel the notion, scientifically, that black people are inferior to whites.
he would risk translating rays into faith.
this line accentuates the childlike freedom under which religion operates. Similar to the historian, a person of faith is unable to irrefutably confirm or deny any belief they may have, and as a result exists in a realm separate from that of the scientific. This line refers to an ignorance of the scientific. The concept of the dynamo is so huge and mysterious, it could not possibly be something other than divine mystery.
assuming in silence a relation of cause and effect. These assumptions, hidden in the depths of dusty libraries, have been astounding, but commonly unconscious and childlike
Adams is indicting the inductive approach that historians take to the "story" of the past. There is comfort in speculation because there is no definitive answer to the question. This differs from scientific thinking which leaves no room for error. We can speculate about historical events and their causes, but we will never really know one way or the other. If a child believes something about the world that we know to be false we praise their creativity proportionally to how different the truth of the matter may be. Scientists don't have this luxury.
and mixed himself up in the tangle of ideas until he achieved a sort of Paradise of ignorance vastly consoling to his fatigued senses.
The phrase "Paradise of ignorance" is a one that beautifully describes someone beholding this dynamo for the first time. Reading this line made me think about every time I board a plane. I experience a level of fear every time I take a plane anywhere. Sometimes that fear is more magnified than others, but deep down the fear comes from the same place of ignorance. I have no real understanding of how the pilot will manipulate the machine that will take us tens of thousands of feet into the air, but safely arrive back on the ground without injury. This lack of understanding is where the fear comes from, yet I have comfort in knowing that someone else understands how it all works and we will arrive safely as a result. However, when I get in a car that fear is not nearly as magnified because I know how to operate an automobile, even though statistically I am more likely to die in a car crash than a plane crash. The sheer power of a 747 is simultaneously frightening and comforting.
A historian who asked only to learn enough to be as futile as Langley or Kelvin, made rapid progress under this teaching,
This line feels a bit tongue in cheek. The historian does not truly understand the phenomenon, but has "made rapid success" as a result of their acceptance of ignorance on the subject.
Nothing in education is so astonishing as the amount of ignorance it accumulates in the form of inert facts.
This is an eloquent way of synthesizing the relationship between knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge is asking "what" while wisdom asks "why". Just because someone knows something doesn't make that thing worth knowing. In fact, too many superfluous pieces of data can muddle one's understanding of a topic.
From all my white sins forgiven, they feed,
This line refers to a historical consciousness. The metaphorical lion growing within the oppressed people of Detroit, specifically black people is fed if the oppression is no longer recognized, but normalized. When the perpetration of racial oppression is forgiven before it is fixed, it only serves to fuel the anger of those currently oppressed.
Mothers hardening like pounded stumps, out of stumps, Out of the bones’ need to sharpen and the muscles’ to stretch, They Lion grow.
The reference to body parts is seen throughout this poem. These lines refer to "mothers" and their "stumps". By using the word "mothers" Levine is juxtaposing our perceptions of how mothers should be caring, nurturing, or gentle, with how they are being effected by their horrid conditions, the result being mutilation. He uses harsh language like "bones' need to sharpen and the muscles' to stretch" to further accentuate this juxtaposition as well as the physical taxation these mothers are experiencing.