The Narrative Poem
Narrative poetry is as old as we are as a race. This week we will be looking at and thinking about story telling. THink about the ways in which story telling is a part of your life. How do you tell your stories? What are the stories that have influenced you–either books or in the oral tradition of your family? What stories will you keep telling?
As you approach the poems of this week “Home Burial” and “Theme for English B” consider your own relationship to story and storytelling. Then look at the poems–two very different poems. Home Burial has two voices and is noticeably long. Theme for English B is a single voice speaking to someone but in monologue fashion, through the screen of the essay theme, it is a short poem. Both use the tools of poetry but for the purpose of telling a story.
I’m not going to include the text of these two because they are significantly longer than the other poems we’ve looked at. Use your book to read them and then comment on either one.
March 2nd, 2008 at 7:16 pm
When I think of story telling, it always reminds me of my grandfather. He loves to tell stories and his stories are an important part of my life. I think that I will one day love to tell my children stories about my grandfather and maybe even share some of the stories he tells.
The poem “Home Burial” struck me as very dramatic. It was a change to read a poem that actually had a dialogs between the two characters. The words are filled with such emotion and you can sense the characters feelings spilling off the pages. This poem can certainly touch reality on many different levels. The couple has lost a child, a sure tragedy for anyone. And then we also see the possible beginning of a strained marriage falling apart at the hands of this loss. I feel like it really addresses issue that face many people everyday, grief and relationships. Throughout life we are faced with many people who react to different situations differently. Here we see this same issue. The husband and wife both cope with the loss of their child differently. The wife is still grieved by the loss of her child calling it ” the world’s evil.” She doesn’t want to take the step of going back to normal life, because in doing so she finalizes the child’s death. The husband reaches acceptance of his child’s death and knows that he must go on with life. Each person fails to recognize the others way of coping and grieving, simply viewing it as the wrong way to deal with a death. Ultimately, their communication breaks down and they fail to completely open up to one another. Even today, the communication patterns and the different ways men and women deal with situations is evident.
March 3rd, 2008 at 1:32 pm
I really enjoyed “Theme for English B” by Langston Hughes. I thought it was a great poem because of where it came from, and also because of what it stands for. I like where it came from because it was quick, he did it in one night, and because it was an open assignment that let him put himself on the page. I think that the honesty that comes out of that is the best part of the poem, as I very much believe that honesty is the best part of any art. Also, I love what this poem stands for. It stands up against slavery but from a different angle than most other work I’ve seen. This poem was written before the civil rights movement and to see the advanced way in which he was thinking about the issue is amazing to me. In a time when most people were saying that it is possible for blacks and whites to get along, that it is possible for us to co-exist and to share the same stores and bathrooms and schools, Hughes was saying something that was both very much more profound and very different. He wasn’t saying that it is possible for us to co-exist, he is saying that we NEED to co-exist. We are all a part of each other, one interdependant being. We are a part of each other and we can’t survive without each other. To have that message in a time when a much lesser message was being torn to pieces is an amazing thing.
March 4th, 2008 at 12:21 am
The poem “Home Burial” by Robert Frost explores the various dynamics and issues that arise in conflict within the institution of marriage. In this poem, the couple has recently experienced the loss of a child. Early in this poem through their back and forth dialogue, it becomes very evident that this couple simply does not understand the position that each other are in. When family crisis occurs, individuals often act in ways that have never been seen before. It is too hard to predict how even those that we know best will react when a major crisis occurs. The best medicine when crisis hits the family is clear and honest communication. This couple struggles throughout the entire poem to get anywhere with their dialogue because they simply do not know how to communicate well with each other. If they learned how to communicate better, they would learn more about each other and gain a better understanding of what the other person was feeling in response to the death of their child. They spend much of the time running in circles with their discussion reflecting on the past and by getting more upset with each other. Sitting down and explaining their true feelings and thoughts openly with each other would be a great start for towards progress with this couple. They also need to learn how to take responsibility for their individual actions in the past. This must be followed by forgiveness from both individuals. Accepting that neither of them is faultless and that both have and will mistakes in throughout their relationship is another important part of the foundation that their marriage can be built upon. These characters in this poem accurately display real-life situations and conflicts that arise among married couples today. The saddest thing is that all of this is preventable if just a few of these simple tips for conflict resolution are introduced early in a marriage.
March 4th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Storytelling is something that reminds me of my family on my mother’s side. This part of my family is full of a bunch of pack-rats that keep everything from generation to generation in boxes, picture frames, and display cabinets. They also keep things alive by telling them over and over again. My mother has so many things all over the house that tell stories about our family lineage, and I have heard stories over and over again, but yet they never get old. My mother was a huge Dr. Seuss fan, and one of the stories she told us, because she had it memorized was “The Pale Green Pants with Nobody Inside of Them.” This parable had nothing to do with my family, but influenced how I treated others who were different from me. Storytelling has taught me lessons, but yet has also helped my family express itself.
After reading and watching the “Home Burial” in class, I really learned how narrative poetry can be such a great way for people to express feelings, situations, and actions to others, and also themselves. The emotion that was going on was intensified through the poetry. The fact that there were two different voices brought the emotions to life, because instead of the “he said/she said” it was conversation, and interaction. But, just like the Dr. Seuss story, this narrative poem teaches a lesson as well. Many people face loss, frustration, conflict, anger, pain, sadness everyday, and on some level people can relate to either one or both of the characters in this poem. Some may be angry and sad like the wife, and feeling like there is no one to talk to, or they could relate to the husband, feeling unheard, desperate, and frustrated. Storytelling is a vital part to expression, and without it, people would be at a loss.
March 4th, 2008 at 10:35 pm
The narrative poem “Home Burial,” by Robert Frost, is a poem whose theme is death. The poem is set up as dialogue between two people, in this case a husband and a wife. There is no rhyme scheme or regular stanza formation. In this poem, the married couple has lost a child and they are each going through the grieving process. However, in this poem there is not much connection between this couple. They seem to be on different levels and they are not being able to communicate their feelings. The mother seems to not be able to let the death of her child go. She is unwilling to move on and continue with her life. The husband, on the other hand, seems ready to move on and continue with his life. Because they are on different levels of the grieving process, they cannot understand why the other feels the way they do and they cannot talk about it. “You don’t know how to ask it.” This loss is causing their marriage to break and their communication to fail.
March 4th, 2008 at 11:21 pm
The wife in the narrative poem Home Burial by Robert Frost is obviously extremely grief stricken from her child’s death. I thought it was strange how she was portrayed as overly fearful throughout the poem. Is she afraid of her feelings of unbearable sadness, or is she afraid of letting her husband see her in such a vulnerable state? I love the husband’s plea to her, how he just wants her to talk to him, how he offers to not talk about their lost child to get her to stay with him. Line 53, “A man must partly give up being a man with womenfolk,” is so true, because in order to communicate with the other sex, we must think outside ourselves. He really hits the nail on the head when he says, “I do think, though, you overdo it a little.” What makes us want to hold onto the grief of losing someone, as if we honor them by never moving on in their absence? I agree that neither the husband nor the wife understands what the other is going through.
March 5th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
The poem, “Home Burial”, I felt was so moving and so filled with different and varying tones. There was, of course, the tone of anger and threatening, as noted by the very last line. The part in which the husband said that he will bring his wife back by force if she does not come back willingly. There is also the sort of tone in which the husband is yearning and wanting to work on the relationship between him and his wife. He has a caring tone about him, in addition to the anger and sarcasm noted in the poem, as well when he talks about looking over his wife’s shoulder. He uses the words, not once, but twice - “Oh. Oh.” The first “Oh” is conveyed in a sense that he does not see much and then the second is very sarcastic and somewhat mocking. The wife’s tone throughout the poem is one in which she has given up. She feels as though since their child passed, there is no possible way to rekindle their marriage. Even though their child dying is a pivotal point in their lives, it also seems as though their relationship was on life support prior. This situation has just helped her to feel as though she can pull the plug. This may just be part of a scapegoat and another excuse for the wife to leave this relationship. The wife also is setting standards by which she feels the husband must react to the loss of their child exactly how she is reacting. She does not allow him to even speak of the loss of the child possibly due to her insecurites with the whole situation. The husband gets quite upset and then just says a phrase along the lines of “So this is what it has come to? A man cannot even speak of his child that has died?” I think that line in and of itself is powerful and really conveys the tension in the relationship between the man and his wife.
March 5th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
Home Burial
In this poem there is a conflict between a husband and a wife. Their son died, and the couple have two very different ways to view and get over the grief of their loss. To make matters worse, the couple’s differing ways of coping with the loss conflict. The husband wants almost to moan about it and the other things going wrong in his life such as the fence rotting, and the wife wants to simply sit and morn the child’s death. When the father moans, the mother views that as being sarcastic and gets infuriated with the husband. To sum it up, this narrative poem shows the conflict that exists between type male and female relationships.
Theme for English B
Alright well looking at the title and references, it seems like this poem was possibly written in the 1930’s and actually published in 1951. This would have been during the time in American history were great racism and prejudice was taking place against minorities especially black people. In this poem, it almost seems like the student is trying to make peace with his instructor. Possibly his instructor is quite the racist and Langston is pleading with the instructor to give him a fair chance and accept him for who he is.
March 5th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
Home Burial was presented as a drama today in class, and I feel that it was an effective way of conveying the emotions and frustration throughout the poem. This piece is categorized as a poem, I feel, because of its iambic pentameter, imagery, metaphors, and mostly because Robert Frost wrote it : )
I have noticed, especially in reading and analyzing this piece, that lyrical poetry has more depth and breadth, mainly due to the fact that it has the option of being written with two or more speakers. This offers even more emotion, different points of view and aspects than shorter poem with only one speaker.
The theme of general martial miscommunication carries itself throughout Home Burial, and is especially evident in lines 96 through the end. This is the climax of their argument. The wife is pissed because she perceives that her husband is treating the death as casually as a broken fence, while she is suffering badly from grief.
Amy goes into a long speech about death, as if her husband has no idea what it is. Finally, at the end, he cannot stop her from leaving her, and ends the poem by saying the only thing he has left in order to try to stop her. His desperation is a sign that he really does care about her, and really does want to sit down and trying to understand her, and her him.
March 5th, 2008 at 8:42 pm
Story-telling is something that has been very important to me. When I was younger I would always as my mother or father to tell me a story, and usually they told me stories about my family or when I was younger. Sometimes I find myself retelling the stories to myself and searching for better ways to frame sentences and make the story more clear. I am not sure how I would turn these stories into narrative poetry (maybe I could try for our final project!)
Out of the two poems that we are focusing on this week, the one that I enjoyed reading the most was Frost’s poem, “Home Burial”. I thought that Frost put a lot of development into the characters of the two people talking. There is the man or husband and the woman or wife, and they are both coping over the loss of their child. The character that I pitied the most was the man because I get a sense that the man is upset about his child’s death, but gender roles call him to get on with his day without shedding a tear. He is constantly trying to find the words to say to connect with his wife’s emotions, and it could be that he is just trying to end the argument, but I think that he is trying to tell his wife that he is not the man he seems to be. “He sat and fixed his chin between his fists” is the statement that makes me believe that the man is suffering. Instead of standing strong and upright he is sitting and curled up as if he is going to start crying.
March 5th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
The poem The Raven talks about the death of a wife. The poem uses a lot of repetition to describe the speaker’s feelings of sadness over losing his wife. The word that gets repeated the most is nevermore, which symbolizes the reality that the speaker will never see his wife Lenore again. The speaker is now lonely; therefore he has a raven as a companion. As I read deeper into this poem the only person that the speaker had a relationship with was Lenore so after she died, he used the raven to fill his emptiness of not having any relationships in his life. The speaker is still grieving this death, and describes his wife as an angel. He says that his wife is a ghost on the floor and a radiant maiden. He is hearing someone knocking on his door, which symbolizes his hopes that his wife could come back to life. Once he opens the door he says that all he can see is darkness, because he knows that Lenore isn’t coming back to life, and he is depressed without her. This poem mentions many dark colors and the darkness of night to symbolize the speaker’s depression over loosing his wife. He just wants to die so he can be with his wife.
March 6th, 2008 at 11:15 am
“It’s not easy to know what is true for you or me” is a line from Langson Hughes poem: Theme for English B; which I believe is key. This poem has to do with racial issues between whites and blacks, yes, but I think there is more to it; it had to do with discovering what the word truth meant.
I liked this poem because it was encouraging. This man knew what he was dealing with, being the only black boy in class and living in Harlem. He knew that his chances of success and opportunity in this world were at that time going to be more difficult; but he persevered. I feel like in lines 18-20 he is being questioned by his community, the town is against or questioning him, and I think this because in 21 he says “Well,” and usually people respond with Well,after a question maybe or being on the defense of a conversation. And he is saying well, i like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love; what person living in America does not like that? He is saying he is just like everyone else, and than he says he likes to work, read, learn and understand life, just like a successful person would, which is what he is trying to become. So really there are no differences between a black male and a white male. But because his professor is white and has to read his paper, they are coming together over this paper,and that is what America is about: coming to together no matter what ethnic background or race. I think he knew what truth was all about before he wrote this paper, he just didn’t know it, but it was revealed through his actions.
March 6th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
“Theme for English B” was one of my favorite poems we’ve read so far. At first, it seems like a writing assignment where the author writes about himself. I bet in his mind, Langston Hughes had a very thoughtful approach towards such an task.
He begins by writing about himself, talking about what I presume to be his daily routine of going to class, walking home, describing that he likes ‘to eat, sleep, drink, be in love,” etc. He also discusses how he is different, because of where he lives or what he likes. But what I find most striking is that he stops talking about just himself, and he extends his scope to everyone, regardless of race or color or whathaveyou. He talks about his “likes” being identical to those of most, if not all, people. This theme of interdependence and community (Yeah, I know… Many people who have taken “Created and Called” may groan at hearing that word yet again) is woven throughout the entire piece. Lines 19-20 talk about hearing and being Harlem and New York. Moreover, lines 25 through 40 (the end of the poem) say that regardless of race and whether or not we choose to be, we are all a part of each other. Absolutely a phenomenal way of discussing unity, especially during the pre-Civil Rights movement when racism was extremely present.
As a closing remark, the part I liked the best was line 33 (and I suppose the lines leading up to it). “That’s American.” One thing that I like to think about is that when all socio-economics, skin color, height, and whatnot are stripped away, what I have most in common with my neighbor is that we are both Americans. Too often do people take for granted being American.
March 6th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
I felt very fortunate to have Home Burial as my Poet’s Choice poem, because I got to go very much in depth about this poem and to really look at the symbolism and the themes of the poem.
I feel that while this poem is about childloss (and Frost lost four children himself so it might be apparent why he chose to center his narrative around this kind of tragedy), it is more so about the differences in how we as people deal with grief, and how a lack of ability to realize that we all handle things differently can result in the failure of a relationship. The man and woman in this story are clearly both grieving over the loss of their child, but they can’t empathize with each other and end up hurting each other through how they mourn. The woman wants to busy herself in grief while the man is trying to move on. Both are entirely valid but neither of them understand that. We can learn a lot about gender differences through reading this poem as well.
March 6th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
Reading these narrative poems really impacted me. I think that these have been the most influential to me out of all of the poems we have read so far. Stories make huge impacts and can convey such deep and important messages in an entertaining and thought provoking way. While I presented on Home Burial, and found much valuable information from that poem, I would like to comment on Theme from English B, since I didn’t get a chance to talk too much about it yet. When I read this poem, I couldn’t believe how profound it was. I felt as if Langston Hughes had just poured his heart out in the poem, and it was as if I knew him personally. While I am a white, middle class, student, and so in many ways cannot relate to the struggles Hughes wrote about, I still felt like I could relate to it in some way. The rhythm of the poem especially affected me, more than any other that we have read. When reading it aloud, I felt his emotion, felt his culture, and appreciated the beauty of the sounds and flow of the words. All of the questions and repetitions of you, me, who, etc., gave this impression of the complicatedness of his topic, and of the confusion of society on how to treat each other. Hughes seemed to be caught in the middle of two cultures and classes, and the poem seemed to go back and forth between the two and discussed how they related. I could probably write forever about all of the implications of this poem and the messages that came through this story of writing a page for a class, but I will conclude by saying that Hughes did a remarkable job at capturing his subject in a profoundly touching story. I don’t know that I could have been quite as impacted by his message if not told in the way he told it.
March 6th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
As a history major, I love studying different time periods and the effects those periods had on the people who lived through them. As such I’m really struck by Langston Hughes’ poem “Theme for English B.”
Here, the speaker is a colored college student in an era where blacks and whites were all too often considered unequal to one another. In his class, English B, his instructor assigns the class to “Go home and write a page tonight. And let that page come out of you - Then, it will be true.” When reading this poem, I’m really struck by the professor’s assignment. He wants the class to write a page that comes out of them. When I first saw this in the poem, I wondered to myself as to what exactly this assignment means. …Write a page that comes out of you? I struggled with this stanza of the poem for a while, and then decided that perhaps the poem is alluding to what poetry is and means. Poetry is a form of deep human expression. It’s a way to almost put yourself on paper, and if written well, it can express an extraordinary amount of truth about human identity and experiences.
The speaker then goes on to let his page come out of him - he talks about where he was born and grew up, what he’s currently doing, and the like. He also brings up the color of his skin. In this day of age, the color of one’s skin is somewhat irrevelent. But this was not so in the age of the poem’s speaker, who lived in a very different cultural zeitgeist. He is mindful of his race, as deemed so noteworthy by society.
I really like this poem because I think it’s about human identity as expressed through history. It shows readers just how much a given time period can affect people. The speaker wrote his page for English B, and indeed, Hughes wrote a poem about humanity, and much of it was based on skin color, as emphasized at the particular historical era.
March 6th, 2008 at 10:24 pm
In class I thought the discussion on “Home Burial” was very interesting. I liked analyzing the reason why this poem was written in the narrative poetry form as opposed to a different form of poetry, or as a prose piece. As a prose piece I feel that the poem would not have the same force or drama than it does as a poem. The structure and mechanics of the poetic language give the lines of this poem added meaning. The positions of both speakers’ lines add dramatic pauses and added emphasis that wouldn’t be able to be achieved if written in prose. Also, using the various line and stanza arrangements this poem doesn’t have to disrupt the flow of the narrative with many “she said”, “he interrupted”, etc. I think it is fascinating to see how the mechanics of poetry can be utilized to such a dramatic effect that is otherwise non-existent in prose writing.
March 6th, 2008 at 11:06 pm
Story telling is what most all of us, as a people, can come together to love and think about. If you think about it…no matter what your passion is, story telling is everywhere - even the most masculine of men love to indulge themselves in the “story telling” of last nights football game.
As a person that is studying theatre, I couldn’t help but to ask myself why a “poem” like “Home Burial” was written. It has every element that a scene would have in a play – including two “voices” (characters) as well as dialogue between the two. Something that I just couldn’t get past is why this was considered a poem at all. Understanding that the lines have a meter to them, other than that…it could be right out of a play if the lines were simply put into a script form.
However I did find it extremely refreshing to conduct a literal reading and leave it at that. Everything is laid out for you to take in and understand. There is no need for outside thought or interpretation.
I also couldn’t help but to wonder if Frost used this “poem” as a coping mechanism for his own life. It is known that in his lifetime, he lost 4 children overall. Now nothing is known in terms of his marriage and if it survived through 4 deaths, but one couldn’t help but to think that something as tragic as that could be stressful on the relationship.
The poem could be looked at one of two ways – the first is the struggle between a husband and wife when a child passes away and the second is how detrimental miscommunication can be in a relationship. Doesn’t really matter what way you look at it, the “poem” was deep and moving.
Wasn’t TOO thrilled about the ambiguity with the ending, but ill manage to look past that!
March 6th, 2008 at 11:18 pm
This unit on narrative poetry has been very interesting, and has struck me in a certain, reminding me why I have chosen to be a History Major. Narrative poems tell stories and it is the responsibility of the historian to record stories from the past, whether those stories pertain to an individual or an event. In a way, an historian keeps these stories alive, reading and re-reading them so that future generations can understand their pasts and thereby maintain some kind of identity. Not only are stories to be remembered, but they are to studied and analyzed so that they provide meaning and some type of relevant lesson.
The two poems we have focused on in class describe two different stories, but between these two I want to focus on “Theme for English B” by Langston Hughes. The lines that interests me are numbers 17 and 18, which state, ” But I guess I’m what I feel and see and hear.” The speaker’s identity develops from what he feels, sees, and hears. I had to take some time to try and figure out exactly what this meant to me, and all the factors that have fed into who I am. My identity is shaped from what I feel, what I’ve seen, and what I’ve heard; it is based in part on my experiences. Experiences shape the individual and I suppose it can work the other way around, depending on who the person is can effect the outcome of a situation.
The external conflict described by Hughes deals with racism, and his personal struggle against this cruel, and horrific practice. The final lines, beginning with number 29 or so reveals the exchange that will take place between his “black” writing and his “white” instructor. The two will meet and exchange ideas and enable personal perspectives to be shared. The final line is simple, but a powerful statement, “This is my page for English B.” The contents of this page reflects upon the personality and identity of the writer, and by the tone of the piece, the speaker is more than content with the contents of his page. It is who he is and he hopes to reveal “himself” to his instructor.
March 6th, 2008 at 11:49 pm
Each of us can reflect and think of ways in which storytelling remains a part of our lives. I also think about my great-grandfather telling my cousin and I stories when we were young. He always told us the most fascinating stories (most of them not true) about things like the crooked old man and the worm that made him squirm. Within these stories he used such captivating words and his voice was full of enthusiasm. This made them all the more interesting. I also think of the way in which I tell stories; I reflect him in many ways by elaborating my stories as well as using a lot of enthusiasm.
I loved both poems we had to read for this week. The poem “Home Burial,” is a narrative poem that clearly tells a story of a married couple whose child passed away. Because of their personality and gender differences, they react and respond differently. Although when read on paper it appears as a poem, we are able to gain such a powerful feeling from it because it reads as a poem. When read aloud, this intense and emotional poem has a great deal of passion. I love this poem and feel as though it puts poetry on a different level; very different from lyrical. It is more dramatic yet includes a dialogue of real life situations.
March 7th, 2008 at 11:16 am
The first thoughts that came to me after reading about narrative poetry were the youth conferences that I used to go to when I was in high school. Any speaker that ever spoke at one of these conferences used narrative to make their points. If you work with youth ministry, this is one of the best ways to influence young people, and it is because of this that I think narrative can also be very dangerous. Narratives do not always tell a good, moral story, and yet they still have the same power behind them. After going to a movie that had an immoral message in it we might say, “It’s just a story.” But it is exactly because it is a story that makes it so dangerous. A story put a concept into a context and allows us to relate to it and interact with it physically, mentally, and emotionally. Narratives are powerful ways of influencing people, which we have seen throughout history, especially through Jesus. But a word of caution needs to be made, because narratives can influence us in a positive way, but they can also have a negative effect.
March 7th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Some friends and I had an interesting discussion about the poem “Home Burial” by Robert Frost. A friend of mine asked what made the difference between this poem and a piece of theatre. It is mostly dialogue and the parts of the poem that aren’t could be read simply as stage directions. At the same time the piece is full of imagery, repetition, and alliteration. So, is this poetry or a short play? What I love about that question is what I believe the answer is – both! When Shakespeare wrote soliloquies in iambic pentameter in his plays, was he writing a monologue or a poem? I think that poets and playwrights are sometimes one in the same. I am a firm believer in the poetry of theatre, and although a lot of that is lost in today’s big money making Broadway shows, I think some playwrights are still writing poetry on stage. Robert Frost’s “Home Burial” is a great example of how a poet can access the dramatic as well. As someone who is very interested in both poetry and playwriting, I see this poem as an excellent combination of the two.
March 7th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
After reading and listening to these poems this week i have developed a better sense of what a story can be. Coming into this week, if i would have been asked to give an example of a story i would not have picked any of these two poems. They did not seem like stories to me at first, they appeared to be just like any other poem that we read. “Home Burial” was like a story in the sense that there was somewhat of a plot but overall it didn’t seem any different to me than for example, Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”. “My English Bee” did not seem at all like what a story was to me. My preconceived idea of a story was something with a finite start a plot and an ending. Each of the poems we read started off with a lot of already assumed information from the past. After thinking about it though these poems do what any other story does though. They brought us into a new place, with new scenes and feelings and let us experience them. That is the beauty of a story that these two poems indefinably had. It was a nice breath of air reading these parts of history, both were very good and enjoyable poems.
March 7th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
Reading and listening to stories was one of my favorite things to do growing up. I can remember being really young and having my mother come in every night and read to me. As I grew up I always had a book in my hand, and was constantly challenging myself to read new genres and works by different authors. My passion for stories has greatly impacted the manner in which I live my life today as well. To me, it is almost as if each day is a new chapter that is being written in our lives. We are constantly making choices that shape who we are and what we’ll become - this is exactly what life is. It’s a collection of experiences and choices that make up our story. Like Langston Hughes, we can often use our stories to address certain issues around us. “Theme for English B” is a powerful poem in which Hughes addresses the social and political inequalities of his time. After reading several commentaries on the poem, my attention was drawn to a particular metaphor that some critics highlighted. The assignment, which was written on white paper with black ink, is a perfect symbol of the issue at hand - racism. It’s easy for us to see the distinction between the bright white paper and the dark bold letters, but the assignment would not have been able to be completed without both elements. They depend on each other, need each other in order to be of use in society. In the same way, we are interconnected to each other despite our differences and were created to live in harmony with each other.
March 7th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
In reading Home Burial and then watching and listening to Bryant and Steph give such a powerful and moving presentation, i was struck with how real that poem is. The way that the couple were arguing and misunderstanding each other’s needs is quite similar to the way i see real couples arguing all the time. It is really wonderful that Frost gave us the opportunity to read this and be able to understand the aspects of an argument from both angles. I found the presentation of the argument to be very heartfelt and moving. It demonstrates how different we are as human beings and how those differences can so deeply affect our interactions with those whom we love and are close with. I think that this poem can speak to all people, not just those who have lost a child, but to everyone who has had a misunderstanding with a significant other and struggled to understand why they did or said the things they did.
March 7th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
My family always read stories before bedtime when I was growing up. There was no television before bed, no music, nothing that could distract the mind. Instead there were words spoken softly and lovingly, teaching and guiding our (my brother’s and my) developing minds.
Today I think one of the most powerful stories for me is the story of Christ. It is the ultimate story of love, humility, power, righteousness, loss, and glory. This is the story I will keep telling; how Christ changed the world; the world was taken hostage and God arranged a trade of himself.
Home Burial is a story of miscommunication and love. It is evident that both the parents loved their child, and that they (at least at one point) cared for one another. The poem speaks to deep issues, and I wonder if the main point is really about the death of the child. Maybe it is about how even when we try to understand others with extreme effort, we may never be able to. And it is not merely a disconnect between the sexes. It is a sheer inability to get past ourselves. We can never truly place ourselves in another’s shoes, because our experiences are filtered through the lens of our lives. Maybe this poem is about the inability of humans to form relationships in which we are fully understood (no matter what the subject matter–in this case it is grief and the loss of a child, but it could also be fear once diagnosed with a terminal illness). We cannot be understood by humans because we are all broken. And likewise, we cannot ever fully understand.
March 7th, 2008 at 5:46 pm
Upon first glance, Theme for English B seems like a silly little poem written by an amateur that doesn’t mean much. I hadn’t begun to explore the depths of its subtle meaning until we discussed it in class, and I’m fortunate to have a forum in which to discuss poetry and its interpretations—alone, I never would have come to these conclusions.
I love the contrast between the simplicity of the instructor’s rhyming sing-song words and the harsh realities of the poet’s free-verse experience. Hughes even indented and italicized the instructor’s four lines to draw our attention to the seriousness and weightiness of them. Only at the end of the poem (lines 37, 39 and 40) does Hughes return to a simple rhyme, as if to recall the rhyme of his teacher’s instructions.
I’m also fascinated by the off-setting of the last line: “This is my page for English B.” If it had been included in the previous stanza, it would not have held as much weight. When we read the last line, our attention is brought back to the title of the poem—Theme for English B—and though they are not identical, the implication is clear: this poem is the poet’s homework, but this tension and racism will be the theme for the class for the entire semester.
March 7th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
When I initially read “Home Burial” several weeks ago I was very much struck by both its style and message. It’s narrative style was very different from the other poems we had been reading. It also struck me as unusual for Robert Frost, given the fact that the theme was not nature, but rather a conversation between two people. The poem brings to light fundamental elements of interpersonal communication which often lead to conflict.
The husband and wife in the poem both have drastically different ways of dealing with their grief for their dead child. While the man is able to use his work to help him move past his son’s death, the women does not wish to “move on” as he has. Their perpectives on this are vastly disimilar, and throughout the poem, while they do no truly resolve their differences, I do think that they both make valid points. The man is willing to acquiesce and discuss it with his wife while not being offensive to her. At the same time he doesn’t understand why she views his actions as she does. In lines 96 through 112 the wife death and the evils of this world in way that is very poignant. She says “I won’t have grief so if I can change it.” However, it seems to me that we cannot change it. The evils of this world come at us whether we like it or not. The only thing we truly can control is how we react to them. “Death smiles at us all. All a man can do is smile back.”
March 8th, 2008 at 2:15 am
I really enjoyed both of these poems. As Marah mentioned earlier in the blog, the poem “home Burial” is a very dramatic poem. The dialogs in this poem create a tense atmosphere that the readers can bury themselves in. With including the dialog, that author makes is much easier for the reader to relate to the situation. Rather then just describeing the situation you are put right in the middle of the situation. I reall felt that the poem also did a great job at exploring gender roles and the reactions of the different genders to grief. The father seems diconected by the wife but the wife seems to over dramatic to the husband. But if you take eithers arguement speratly it makes sense. I feel that this is where the power of the poem is. It tries to sort out the feels of indviduals. Instead of forces emotions into catgeories or data but rather explores them and gives value to them.
March 8th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
While an individual’s race is an important asset of their identity, Theme for English B explores the possibility of there being more behind one’s concept of themselves. The central theme of this poem is the contemplation over whether one’s identity really is a simple concept. The speaker begins to identify himself by listing basic autobiographical details in lines 7-14; age, birth-place, school, race, and where he currently lives. He then however begins to delve deeper into the complexity of this topic. Is one’s identity found in merely what they enjoy? The speaker begins to spill off another list in lines 21-24, this time of interests. Yet again however, it comes back to the color of his skin pouring out onto the page when the speaker asks “So will my page be colored that I write”. I however feel that his tone upon this subject is positive. I believe that the speaker is joyous or at least content to come to the realization that his sense of self is most deeply linked to the Harlem he envelops and celebrates. His focus on the experience of Harlem illuminates the fact that his identity is somewhat created by his community. The speaker of this poem journeys to express and explore himself, only to find that he understands himself as an integrated part of his community, both giving to and receiving from it. This again, like jazz and Hughes’ poetry, personifies the community and city of Harlem bringing it a unique life and movement.
Hughes seems to seek to bring this sensory experience to life not only with rhythm but with strong sensory cues. For instance, when attempting to reflect on Harlem, he chooses not to reflect on an event or a place but the sounds, sights, and feelings that this community provokes. In addition, Hughes then personifies Harlem claiming “Harlem, I hear you; hear you, hear me—we two- you, me, talk on this page.” The way in which the speaker seems to be able to hold conversation with Harlem yet again seems to bring life to the city and the movement.
March 8th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
Being someone who enjoys theater, I think Home Burial is a particularly powerful piece. There was some discussion outside poetry class that really struck me. It has completely passed over my head how poets like Shakespeare and Frost combine the theatrical with the poetic.
In this case, Home Burial, it is a very beautiful combination. When looking at the text, its meter, forced rhyme, alliteration, and other tools used by the poet, one can tell that the melding of the two together forms an alliance that is quite powerful. It mixes the physical of the theatre with the emotional and metaphorical of poetry.
For instance, the use of imagery from lines 21-31 are something one would only be able to find in the most poetic of pieces. The alliteration and the wording used make the character’s argument even more convincing.
Another great aspect of writing for the theatre in poetic form is the fact that you can more effectively separate thoughts. The stanza’s used here keep a continious flow of conversation, but are able to solidify the main arguments of the piece from person to person. It is not as though the separate lines break up each argument. It is more driving and concise.
There is also a great ability to use metaphore enabled the author when using poetry. The characters themselves use it very well. In line 114-115 the male character states “Close the door. The heart’s gone out of it: why keep it up?”
March 9th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
I liked Hughes’ poem a lot. At first, I thought it a bit “easy” in concept; I mean, he just wrote about his processes of walking back to his room, documenting the places and the thoughts that he had throughout the travel. But, on second and third readings of the poem, I realized that there was much more depth than I had originally realized. The part that I liked most about the poem were these lines:
So will my page be colored that I write?
Being me, it will not be white.
But it will be
a part of you, instructor.
You are white—
After the first few stanzas of accounting for similarities between his character and the whites (the similarities between people in general), he then highlights the still undeniable and unchangeable difference between the two races; one is white, and one is black. Even if Hughes were to write the most “white” poem or feeling, his backgrounds and his life experiences would still provide the undertones of the work. That is why he writes that the paper would not be white; he does not say that it will be black though. Maybe the paper will be a blend of the two, as his character was obviously immersed in an atmosphere of white influence. At either rate, this stanza is a great account of observation. It states (for me at least) that one’s history will always be present in one’s work; it does not mean that people’s works will vary in negative and positive ways because of background. No, it just means that the works will differ from each other. That is why the character’s paper cannot be white, and the professor has to be a part of the paper too, because he assigned it. The two are different, not vertically, but horizontally; they are different, but on the same level.
yet a part of me, as I am a part of you
March 9th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
Home Burial is incredibly written. It is interesting because it clearly is nothing like a real conversation between people - it is much too well written for that. It is as if two amazing poets had an argument in purely poetic form, or maybe like a regular argument between people is dramatized and romanticized by a poet. The truth one can observe from this statement is that real arguments are not so beautiful and tragic, they are sometimes petty, stupid, and meaningless, stemming from the truly ignorant state of man. However, this poem also illustrates a few points about the way that men and women relate together in a relationship, and also the way that men and women deal with mourning.
It appears that in this poem, the woman is unsure how to approach her husband after watching him bury their son outside. She almost appears afraid of him, and it is as if she cannot yet understand that her son is dead. She combines the sorrow that she feels for her son’s death with the anger that she feels against her husband for not adequately expressing his feelings, and the combination almost makes her blame her husband for her son’s death. Interestingly, their argument is based on her being upset about the way he is dealing with his grief, as if he is pretending it never happened. Yet in action, he has dealt with the death in a physical way because he had to bury his own son. Perhaps the root of the problem is that he has come farther than she has in his grief because of how “final” a burial really is - especially if you are the one doing it. Meanwhile, even though the reader cannot surmise the whole story, it seems as if for the wife, the son was alive one day and gone the next. She hasn’t completely faced his death because she wasn’t responsible for putting him in the ground.
March 11th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
I always think its interesting when a poet ties in their real life emotions with a poem, it gives a much deeper connection to the reading, because if you can’t relate to it you can atleast imagine how the poet was really feeling. But I also believe that the Narrative Poem, had to deal a lot with the way men and women handles situations differently and with each other. When he doesn’t really want to talk about the death of their child, and he just wants to go on with life, the women takes that as if he is emotionally detached from the situation. However that doesn’t neccassarily mean he is. But a person might stereotypically put a man into that situation, and a women into the role of being over dramatic just like the woman was displayed in this poem. The level of emotion in this poem however feeling over bearing, the way the situation was set up sort of realistically allows you to sense the tension and anger, and put stress onto your shoulders as well. There is no need for a in depth description of the man and women because you only need to know what they are saying to imagine their facial expression and body language etc. The poem is an odd poem, but a good one.
March 12th, 2008 at 10:41 am
This poem by Langston Hughes is narrative and tells a story from his past. He writes as though he is twenty-two but really he is much older and looking back. He talks throughout this poem about the race situation and how it affects him. He even says that he is the only colored student in his class. I cannot imagine the kind of abuse and discrimination he must have gotten in that situation especially at the time when Hughes was in college. Today is it nearly impossible, although it still exists, to comprehend how rough it must have been for Hughes.
Well, I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love.
I like to work, read, learn, and understand life.
I like a pipe for a Christmas present,
or records—Bessie, bop, or Bach.
I guess being colored doesn’t make me NOT like
the same things other folks like who are other races.
I really like this part of the poem, because Hughes finds a simple way to inform people of how alike they are. He starts with eat, sleep, drink, and love which are things all humans beings not only want but need to survive. He then talks about the music he likes. The interesting part about that is how he mentions all different kinds of music, so that all humans are put in the same category. I really enjoyed this poem and I really like how clever Hughes was throughout.
March 14th, 2008 at 11:12 am
While listening to the presentation of this narrative during class, I realized that I had not had the experience of losing a child, but had encountered the loss of my father at a very young age. My mom and I were still living with my Grandmother at the time, and the tension that resulted in our household was similar to that in this narrative. I guess that I was never able to face the truth of the situation, and was not willing to do so. Hearing this narrative opened so many raw emotions for me. I know that this is a little late, but I still wanted to at least get this off my chest. The rhythm of this poem just drags you right into the suspense. The repetition makes the memories flash even faster. I was trying my best to understand this from the other perspective…the loss of a child. No one wants to put the blame on anyone else, but we as humans try to cover our own faults with the acknowledgment of everyone’s around us. Talking things through may be more difficult for some people- and that too reminded me of my particular situation. My mother and I never talked through the death of my father. I was young, and she felt as if I wouldn’t be able to mentally bare the full truth at such an early stage in childhood development. This experience was not what I had in mind when beginning the reading for this poetry unit, but it was nice to have a different, emotional connection to the work.
March 14th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
I come from a family who has lost a child, and after reading the poem Home Burial I realize how fortunate and blessed I am that the reaction captured in this poem was not the reaction of my parents. Miscommunication seems to be the most prevalent reason for an outbreak between loved ones. This kurfuffle between husband and wife came about from a difference in grief styles. The husband’s style is more subtle, and can be observed through his physical actions of letting go of his child by digging a grave. The woman, on the other hand, refuses to let go at this point and finds her husbands actions almost offensive. Neither correctly interpret the others intentions. And I doubt that either person intends on hurting their significant other. It just so happens that in a state of extreme pain and grief, its hard if not impossible to be considerate of another persons intentions when feelings become overwhelming and overbearing of a person’s normal for reasoning. There’s speculation though out the poem, reasonably so, of weather or not the woman is going to leave the house thisi time to go to another man or she’s leaving because the husband abuses her. Its inconclusive.
May 10th, 2008 at 9:21 pm
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