"Constrained to honor (PoemTalk #71) Claude McKay, 'If We Must Die'" (original) (raw)
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POETRY’S COMMITMENT AGAINST WAR or A HELPLESSNESS THAT IS VOICELESS, SPEECHLESS, WORDLESS
There are two levels of denunciation of any war in this poem. First the plain level of capitalism, business in wartime, to make a profit from death. But also a denunciation of the brother, of all human beings, even if they are only thirteen (what a number!), who are so manipulated by the war itself and the survival instinct of theirs that they turn collectors of tokens of the repetitive death of human beings in the same uniforms. Marshall McLuhan said clothing was an extension of the skin. But in this case it is the skin and the body it contains that become the extensions of the uniform. This kind of irony is close to Daniel Defoe's black humour about the rearing, raising and fattening of Irish babies for the English meat market, except that here we are not dealing with procreating in order to make a profit, but with killing in order to make a profit, or to collect colours and medals and buttons. This is what the moral duty of all poets, and artists, and intellectuals, is in such circumstances: to use their art, their intellectual and artistic abilities to build an artistic voice for the voiceless crowds in order to rebuild their moral sense and ability to finally say no to what should not have been started in the first place. But three years later can we say the poets have been heard, the poets have been effective? I will not commit myself on this issue. But I would understand some people may doubt it.
This paper aims to study the notion of Death in Claude McKay's "If We Must Die" on the philosophical, existential and contextual levels. Indeed a thorough analysis following a sociocriticism and a psychoanalytic perspective reveals that this poem may be at the same time a philosophical poem, an existential poem and a contextual poem thanks to the notion of Death it deals with. As a result, we observe obviously that beyond the Black American people to whom this poem was intended (the circumstantial or contextual level), it concerns every human being. Because "we" as human beings are already alive and it is possible that sooner or later "we" will reflect on Death (the philosophical level), and also "we" are already alive therefore no one will escape this human finitude which is Death (the existential level). So the problem of Death concerns us all and is universal. 1. Introduction The American social context and the circumstances which preceded the publication of "If We Must Die" having for so long time covered the general meaning of this poem, we observe that the important theme of Death [1] which covers this entire poem and raises the following central question: what should we do if we must die? [2] seems to be more or less ignored. Thus, in a thorough analysis, we observe that there is a philosophical dimension, an existential (natural) dimension and a contextual (circumstantial) dimension of Death in this poem of McKay that make it a universal one. And thanks to these three dimensions, this poem goes beyond the borders of time, space and people [3] to adapt itself to all the times, all the spaces and all the people [4]. These three dimensions of Death covering this sonnet awaken in any reader a perceptive awareness of Death which pinpoints at the same time a certain originality of the poem. That is why the central question in this paper is therefore to know: how this important theme of Death develops itself all along the sonnet to encompass a philosophical dimension, an existential dimension and a contextual dimension? The theoretical background that will be used in analyzing the philosophical, existential and contextual dimensions of Death in this poem will be theories such as sociocriticism, psychoanalytic criticism, symbolism, and stylistics and as approach; it will be a hermeneutics analysis of "If We Must Die". It is important to precise in terms of theoretical background that symbolism is really important because McKay's poetic power resides in the frequent use of several symbols and images which are rich in impressions and suggestions, and also in the frequent use of several "correspondences" between the concrete world and the abstract world. Therefore we cannot neglect this theory of symbolism because according to Erol Kayra : «l'important, c'est de
"And death shall have no dominion" A new (June 2022) in-depth examination of one of Dylan Thomas's most popular, captivating, but strangely bewildering poems. A new (June 2022) in depth analysis of this brief, much-admired, absorbing, but mystifying poem. This study identifies the poem's essential viewpoints and tries to answer the question: "What, precisely, is it about?" It also examines the poetics employed by Thomas. Stanza by stanza, the review puts forward the writer's personal interpretation and explores the poem's various, and sometimes contradictory, 'meanings' that have been proposed over the years. The essay also studies, in detail, the poem's origins, syntax and overall prosody together with examining Thomas's 'sound' techniques and his distinctive choices of vocabulary. It closes by assessing some published, critical reviews of this truly remarkable poem.
Hearts And Minds; The Good of Poetry in Times of Crisis and War
2023
No poem ever stopped a tank. Such are the words one can hear not only in poetry seminars. This opinion, though true, merits questioning. Despite its apparent harmless nature, poetry can be used as a powerful tool of propaganda, galvanization, an instrument of contest or a call for peace. It is one of the goals of this paper to uncover different uses – and the good or bad – of poetry (Heaney 5) and literary texts, may it be in reality or fiction, but always in the context of conflict and/or war. Poetry can have a political function of which various examples arise. Some of Seamus Heaney’s poetry serves as a way of remembering and or giving closure to various tragic events, Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko’s2 works carried a nationalistic meaning and have gone under a certain resurrection in the contemporary conflict between Russia and Ukraine, more precisely in the Ukrainian propaganda system. Thus, not only will this paper try to list and exemplify the good of poetry in the context of crisis, but also compare different authors regarding their use of poetry. One main source which will be used to compare various works is; Seamus Heaney’s “100 poems”, and more precisely, the “poetry of fire” which it contains. “Poetry of fire” is a concept which will be used to define Heaney’s poems that share similar aspects. Those aspects are as follows: The poems are about a historical catastrophe – sometimes fictional or legendary –, they are a response to those events and their shared themes are heroism, hope and justice. Thus, this essay will also look for literary responses to violence and/or conflict. One can notice that the use of poetry regarding conflictual events can widely vary in its functions. Poetry can itself take sides in a conflict, can be used or deformed for a political purpose, it can help to immortalize tragic events and make people come to terms with difficult past situations.
2011
In the 1930s African Americans faced three distinct historical crises that impacted the lives of African Americans directly—the Great Depression, the existential-identity crisis, and the Italo-Ethiopian War, with its threat of a race war. A sizeable body of black poetry was produced in this decade, which captured the new modes of autonomy through which black Americans resisted these social calamities. Much of it, however, including the most influential protest poems, was dismissed as “romantic” by major, leftist critics and anthologists. Anthems, Sonnets, and Chants: Recovering the African American Poetry of the 1930s, by Jon Woodson, uses social philology to unveil social discourse, self fashioning, and debates in poems gathered from anthologies, magazines, newspapers, and individual collections. The first chapter examines three long poems, finding overarching jeremiadic discourse that inaugurated a militant, politically aware agent. Chapter two examines self-fashioning in the numerous sonnets that responded to the new media of radio, newsreels, movies, and photo-magazines. The third chapter shows how new subjectivities were generated by poetry addressed to the threat of race war in which the white race was exterminated. The black intellectuals who dominated the interpretative discourses of the 1930s fostered exteriority, while black culture as a whole plunged into interiority. Anthems, Sonnets, and Chants delineates the struggle between these inner and outer worlds, a study made difficult by a contemporary intellectual culture which recoils from a belief in a consistent, integrated self.
Anti-Slavery Rhetoric in English Poetry from 1780 to 1865
The major problem of this study is the English anti-slavery poetry rhetoric from 1780 to 1865 that leads to abolishment of slavery, slave trade and racial discrimination in the United Kingdom, its domains and America. Accordingly, this thesis focused upon ten antislavery poets. The researcher has used the formalistic and deconstructionist approaches to analyse and interpret their poems: William Cowper, Hannah More, by William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Phyllis Wheatley, Laurence Dunbar, Claude McKay, Countee Cullen and Langston Hughes. This research has found that the bone of contention of slave trade and racial discrimination is colour and that only the whites who introduced and abolished slave trade and racial discrimination. In addition, Africans have proved being faithful believers in the God’s decision and fates because they did not resist slavery, slave trade or racism but show tolerance, piety and forgivingness and endurance of every mistreatment and oppression.