Part 1: POETRY STUDY GUIDE

Read the section on Poetry in Chapter 5, paying attention to any italicized terms. Those
terms that you will need to know are repeated in this file and listed directly below. This is both
your outline and your reading for the poetry unit.
Terms:
alliteration repeated consonants, beginning of words
consonance repeated consonants, can be inside words
assonance- repeated vowel sound
meter-number of syllables
stressed syllables-syllables that are accented, creating the beat
iambic pentameter-lines of 10 syllables with accent on every second syllable
rhyme, end-rhymes, internal rhymes-words rhyme if vowel sound and end consonant sound
are the same.
caesura- a pause in a line
kennings- used in Old English poems, metaphorical renaming of common thing or person
personification- treating a thing or animal as if it were a person
sonnet form- Shakespearean or Italian, 14 lines with definite rhyme patterns, iambic pentameter
turn or volta- usually in a sonnet, a change of mood near the end
Shakespearean Sonnet- see below for structure, meter, rhyme schemes and stresses
quatrain- 4 lines unified by rhyme, meter or theme.
couplet- 2 lines unified by rhyme, meter or theme.
heroic couplet- favored by the Neo-classical poets, 2 rhymed lines in iambic pentameter.
metaphors- general term for all figures of speech that compare one thing to another, can be a
general term for all figures of speech – by which new implication or meaning is given to
words.
allegory-characters and things work together as a whole symbolic system that usually carry a
message
conceit- extended, often complicated, metaphor
Outline of Styles and Poets
(there are 7 poems in bold, be able to recognize these and know the author if there is one
and the general time period/style)

Old English or Anglo-Saxon (608-1000)

Know the stylistic traits
“The Wife’s Lament”
Before the Norman Conquest, in language very different from English
Sad themes/ riddles
Middle English (approximately 1150-1500)
Understandable form of English
Chaucer, the Pearl Poet
Elizabethan Period
Shakespearean Sonnet (know the form of the sonnet- see below for rhyme and meter)
Sonnet 29 When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes
Metaphorical density- strict form with lots of figurative language
Metaphysical Poets (1600s)
John Donne’s “Holy Sonnet Number 5”
Stylistic Traits- use of complex metaphor, conceits
Neo-Classical (late 1600-1800)
Strict form, attempt to be like the Greek and Roman poets
Age of Reason- warning against passions, belief in man’s ability
Phillis Wheatly (American) “Elegy for General Wooster”
Romanticism (approximately late 1700s- 1900)
Focus on the individual
Nature becomes very important, especially for the English
Relationship of the “I” to nature, the world
Intuition is very important, feelings, spiritualism
Language becomes less formal
Walt Whitman (American)- excerpt from “Song of Myself” -rambling unrhymed lines,
very long poems, “democratic”
Modernist Poetry- Imagists
William Carlos Williams (American) “The Red Wheelbarrow”
Emphasis on concrete imagery
Loose structure/modern diction
Post-modern
Rita Dove’s (America) “Persephone Falling”
Part 2: Poems and context, stylistic traits explained

Analyzing Poetry
Literal: What is it about, face value.
Thematic: What is the main message- allegorical, moral, spiritual?
Stylistic: Word choice, metaphor, rhyme, repeated elements.

Old English/Anglo Saxon- The Earliest English Poetry

Poetry of the Old English period is hard to date. For instance, estimates of the date of Beowulf
range from AD 608- AD 1000. Anglo Saxon poetry exits in a small number of manuscripts, 4
major codices remaining from the late 10th- early 11th centuries. The subject matter and form in
these codices are broad, including the well known epic of Beowulf, much religious verse,
devotional works, biblical paraphrase and elegies, proverbs, riddles and charms.
Anglo- Saxon or Old English was the dominant English language before 1100 CE. The form
taken by poetry in Old English is highly Alliterative, with a definite pattern of 4 stressed
syllables and a break or pause in the middle of each line.
Anglo-Saxon poetry was performed, was high entertainment. Common themes and bits of
stories the audience would recognize and enjoy along with strong repetitive elements made the
recitation or singing of these poems, some long, some very short, an exciting diversion from an
otherwise dangerous and hard existence. Themes the audience craved: heroes, bravery, battles,
loyalty, feuds, mediations on life and fate, death, exile, God’s grace.
Stylistic Traits
Alliteration: repeated first consonant sounds, linking stressed words in first half of line to stress
words second half of line. Assonance: repeated vowels.
Caesura: break or pause in a line, in the Anglo-Saxon written texts, this is visually evident.
Poetic diction, kennings: two-word poetic renaming of things or people. Ex: whale-road
(Beowulf)
Repeated phrases to help memory- performances were from memory.
Personification: treating a thing or animal as if it were a person, giving it human traits, actions,
emotions.
The Wife’s Lament (from the Exeter manuscript, held at Exeter University.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eEwo9iuSHM (link to a lecture on this poem.)
This translation by Ann Stanford

I make this song about me full sadly

my own wayfaring. I a woman tell
what griefs I had since I grew up
new or old never more than now.
Ever I know the dark of my exile.
First my lord went out away from his people
over the wave-tumult. I grieved each dawn
wondered where my lord my first on earth might be.
Then I went forth a friendless exile
to seek service in my sorrow’s need.
My man’s kinsmen began to plot
by darkened thought to divide us two
so we most widely in the world’s kingdom
lived wretchedly and I suffered longing.
My lord commanded me to move my dwelling here.
I had few loved ones in this land
or faithful friends. For this my heart grieves:
that I should find the man well matched to me
hard of fortune mournful of mind
hiding his mood thinking of murder.
Blithe was our bearing often we vowed
that but death alone would part us two
naught else. But this is turned round
now . . . as if it never were
our friendship. I must far and near
bear the anger of my beloved.
The man sent me out to live in the woods
under an oak tree in this den in the earth.
Ancient this earth hall. I am all longing.
The valleys are dark the hills high
the yard overgrown bitter with briars
a joyless dwelling. Full oft the lack of my lord
seizes me cruelly here. Friends there are on earth
living beloved lying in bed
while I at dawn am walking alone
under the oak tree through these earth halls.
There I may sit the summerlong day
there I can weep over my exile
my many hardships. Hence I may not rest
from this care of heart which belongs to me ever
nor all this longing that has caught me in this life.
May that young man be sad-minded always
hard his heart’s thought while he must wear
a blithe bearing with care in the breast
a crowd of sorrows. May on himself depend
all his world’s joy. Be he outlawed far
in a strange folk-land— that my beloved sits
under a rocky cliff rimed with frost
a lord dreary in spirit drenched with water
in a ruined hall. My lord endures
much care of mind. He remembers too often
a happier dwelling. Woe be to them
that for a loved one must wait in longing.

This is a mysterious poem. Some scholars believe it is a riddle poem. See the link for Angllo –
Saxon riddle poems in the Exeter Book: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Anglo-
Saxon_Riddles_of_the_Exeter_Book Some suggest there is no proof that the speaker is a
woman. Others take the “earth hall” to be a grave, the speaker having been killed by her
husband. There is little extra-textual evidence to confirm any definite theory about the story or
the narrator. Focus on the language, style and mood of the poem. Be able to recognize a
kenning and understand the use of repetition, alliteration, caesura and the stressed syllables.

Anglo-Saxon poems contain a lot of concrete imagery. Be aware of this and the possibility of
double meanings. Think about who the “lord” might be, if he is not the speaker’s husband.

Middle English

The Norman Conquest brought the Norman language to England. Anglo-Saxon mixed with
Norman French and the result was Middle English. This is the language of the Middle Ages in
England, and with some effort, English readers can understand a good deal of it. Geoffrey
Chaucer wrote his Canterbury Tales in Middle English.

This link will take you to the University of Calgary database of original texts and specifically the
manuscript of the Pearl Poet, which includes the poem “The Pearl” and the longer “Sir Gawain
and the Green Knight. Follow the link and look at the illustrations.

http://contentdm.ucalgary.ca/cdm/search/collection/gawain/searchterm/pearl/mode/all/orde
r/nosort/page/1

This link is to the poem “Pearl” in Middle English

http://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/stanbury-pearl
Elizabethan Poetry: The Shakespearean Sonnet

This English poetic form is based on the Italian Sonnet form of Petrarch (Italian Renaissance.)
Shakespeare is not the first to use this form, but he is the most famous.

The Sonnet is traditionally 14 lines, written in iambic pentameter- lines 10 syllables long, with
accents on every second syllable: ^ / ^ / ^ / ^ / ^ / ^ / ^ / ^ / ^ /^ /

The Elizabethan or Shakespearean Sonnet is divided into 3 quatrains, rhymed ABAB, and a
closing couplet, rhymed CC.

Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets which cover themes such as the passage of time, love, beauty and
mortality. They were published in one volume in 1609 (7 years before his death), with a
dedication to a Mr. W.H. who remains a mystery.

Shakespeare’s Sonnet 29

When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes, A

I all alone beweep my outcast state B
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries A
And look upon myself and curse my fate, B
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope, C
Featured like him, like him with friends possess'd, D
Desiring this man's art and that man's scope, C
With what I most enjoy contented least; D
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising, E
Haply I think on thee, and then my state, F
Like to the lark at break of day arising E
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate; F
For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings G
That then I scorn to change my state with kings. G

Shakespeare’s sonnets can be fairly direct, like this one, or present a series of metaphors as in
the one below. Notice the “turn” of mood that occurs at the beginning of the 3rd quatrain. This
turn can be an answer, a solution, or simply an explanation of the preceding lines. Shakespeare
wrote the first 126 sonnets to an unnamed young man of aristocratic birth(known as the “fair
youth”), 26 concern a “Dark Lady”, and the 2 remaining are allusions to mercury baths, the
contemporary form of treatment for the pox.

Look for examples of metaphors, similes, personification in Sonnet 29. Look for examples of
alliteration, changes in the rhythm that may intensify the meaning or mood, parallel structures
or phrases.

Sonnet 18 (Fair Youth)

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

(Link to the Dark Lady Sonnets http://allpoetry.com/The-Dark-Lady-Sonnets-%28127---

154%29)

Metaphysical Poets (see page 297)

Metaphysical poetry is a term coined by the poet and critic Samuel Johnson to describe a loose group of
English poets of the 17th century, whose work was characterized by the inventive use of conceits and by
speculation about topics such as love or religion. These poets were writing in the Baroque period, and like
the art, music and art of this period, their poetry exhibited a very self-conscious use of dramatic contrasts
and often a combination of highly intellectual use of poetic figures of speech with deeply emotional or
spiritual subject matter.
Read the paragraph on metaphysical style:
use of paradox
intellectual analysis of emotion
blend of emotion and intellectualism
forced juxtapositions,startling metaphor and extended conceits
A “conceit” is a metaphor in which the things compared may be very unlike
each other- often extended for the length of the poem or a good portion
of it

John Donne (1572 –1631) was an English poet and a priest in the Church of England. He is
considered the pre-eminent representative of the Metaphysical poets. He wrote in a variety of
poetic forsm and is also known for his sermons. He wrote poems that questions the “true faith,”
secular poes as well as erotic and love poems. He is known for his mastery of metaphysical
conceits. He took orders and became the Dean of St. Paul’s in England, under the order of
James I. He is known for erotic poems, also for poems that explore spiritual matters. The
Baroque period was an age of discovery, both in science and in world exploration. You will
notice that Donne makes use of contemporary events and the expanding conception of the world
and the heavens.

John Donne, Holy Sonnets: I am a little world made cunningly (number 5)

              I am a little world made cunningly

             Of elements and an angelic sprite,
              But black sin hath betray'd to endless night
              My world's both parts, and oh both parts must die.
              You which beyond that heaven which was most high
              Have found new spheres, and of new lands can write,
              Pour new seas in mine eyes, that so I might
              Drown my world with my weeping earnestly,
              Or wash it, if it must be drown'd no more.
            But oh it must be burnt; alas the fire
            Of lust and envy have burnt it heretofore,
            And made it fouler; let their flames retire,
            And burn me O Lord, with a fiery zeal
            Of thee and thy house, which doth in eating heal.

What is the major conceit of this poem? To what does Donne compare himself?
What is the meaning of “My world’s both parts?”
Who is the narrator addressing in line 5?

This poem is in the Italian Sonnet form, with the octave (8 lines) following the rhyme scheme of abba,
abba and the sestet (6 lines) following the rhyme scheme of cdcd ee. Just as in the sonnet by
Shakespeare, there is a “turn” in Donne’s sonnet, a change of subject or mood. Where does this “turn”
occur?

Donne juxtaposes the discoveries of science and exploration with higher spiritual matters: “new spheres,
and of new lands,” “Of thee and thy house.” Donne’s poetry is not easy. His forcing together of images
and ideas, both sacred and worldly, communicate his intense personal struggle between living
passionately in this world and living passionately for God.

Neo-Classical Poetry (Neo-new + Classical- as in Greek and Roman poetry)

Neo- classical poetry (late 1600’s-1800) – dominated the Enlightenment period, an age of scientific
discovery and belief in progress. Neo-classical poetry attempts to curtail the passions within a strict and
reasonable form, attention to argument, careful and precise word choices and a generally “sober” mood.

Alexander Pope lead the English in this style. His rather dry poems maintain an elevated subject matter
and often call readers to a higher purpose. Pope placed great faith in our ability to reason and to organize
our world for the better. See page 307 for an example of Pope’s poetic style. Pope and other Neo-
classical poets inspired the American poet, Phillis Wheatly, to write in a similar manner. See the
discussion on Wheatly in Chapter 5.

This letter from Phillis Wheatley to Mary Wooster

written on 15 July 1778 contains an elegy on the death
of Mary's husband, General David Wooster, who died in
battle at Ridgefield, Connecticut, 27 April 1777.  This
poem is known for its lines concerning slavery in the
hero's prayer at the end:  "But how, presumptuous shall
we hope to find/ Divine acceptance with th' Almighty
mind -- / While yet (O deed ungenerous!) they disgrace/
And hold in bondage Afric's blameless race..."  Gen.
Wooster was an acquaintance of Phillis who had
previously written to him in 1773 about generating sales
of her book, Poems on Various Subjects.

Madam,

I recd, your favour by Mr. Dennison inclosing a paper contain

ing the Character of the truely worthy General Wooster. It was with the
most sensible regret that I heard of his fall in battle, but the pain of so
afflicting a dispensation of Providence must be greatly alleviated to you and
all his friends in the consideration that he fell a martyr in the Cause of
Freedom --

From this the muse rich consolation draws

He nobly perish'd in his Country's cause
His Country's Cause that ever fir'd his mind
Where martial flames, and Christian virtues join'd.
How shall my pen his warlike deeds proclaim
Or paint them fairer on the list of Fame --
Enough, great Chief -- now wrapt in shades around
Thy grateful Country shall thy praise resound --
Tho' not with mortals' empty praise elate
That vainest vapour to th' immortal State
[Inly?] serene the expiring hero lies
And thus (while heav'nward roll his swimming eyes)
Permit, great power while yet my fleeting breath
And Spirits wander to the verge of Death --
Permit me yet to point fair freedom's charms
For her the Continent shines bright in arms
By thy high will, celestial prize she came --
For her we combat on the feild of fame
Without her presence vice maintains full sway
And social love and virtue wing their way
O still propitious be thy guardian care
And lead Columbia thro' the toils of war.
With thine own hand conduct them and defend
And bring the dreadful contest to an end --
For ever grateful let them live to thee
And keep them ever Virtuous, brave, and free --
But how, presumptuous shall we hope to find
Divine acceptance with th' Almighty mind --
While yet (O deed ungenerous!) they disgrace
And hold in bondage Afric's blameless race;
Let virtue reign -- And those accord our prayers
Be victory our's, and generous freedom theirs.
The hero pray'd -- the wond'ring spirit fled
And sought the unknown regions of the dead --
Tis thine fair partner of his life, to find
His virtuous path and follow close behind --
A little moment steals him from thy sight
He waits thy coming to the realms of light
Freed from his labours in the ethereal skies
Where in succession endless pleasures rise! --

You will do me a great favour by returning to me by the first copy

those books that remain unsold and remitting the money for those that
are sold -- I can easily dispose of them here for 12/Lmo. each --
I am greatly obliged to you for the care you show me, and your
condescention in taking so much pains for my Interest -- I am
extremely sorry not to have been honour'd with a personal acquaintance
with you -- if the foregoing lines meet with your acceptance
and approbation I shall think them highly honour'd.
I hope you will pardon the length of my letter, when the rea-
son is apparent -- fondness of the subject & -- the highest
respect for the deceas'd -- I sincerely sympathize with you in
the great loss you and your family sustain and am sincerely
Your friend & very humble servant,

Phillis Wheatley.

Queenstreet
Boston July --
15th. – 1778

Phillis Wheatley was the first African American, the first slave, and the third woman in the
United States to publish a book of poems.

Kidnapped in West Africa and transported aboard the slave ship Phillis to Boston in 1761, she
was purchased by John Wheatley as a servant for his wife. Young Phillis quickly learned to
speak English and to read the Bible with amazing fluency.

Because of her poor health, obvious intelligence, and Susannah Wheatley's fondness for her,
Phillis was never trained as a domestic; instead she was encouraged by the Wheatleys to study
theology and the English, Latin and Greek classics. She published her first poem in 1767, and six
years later, she published a book, Poems on Various Subjects. That same year, John Wheatley
emancipated her.

Wheatley achieved international renown, traveling to London to promote her book and being
called upon as well as received by noted social and political figures of the day -- including
George Washington, to whom she wrote a poem of praise at the beginning of the war.

Wheatley lived in poverty after her 1778 marriage to John Peters, a free black Bostonian.
Although Wheatley advertised for subscriptions to a second volume of poems and letters, she
died before she was able to secure a publisher. Her final manuscript was never found.

Wheatly, like Pope and other Neo-Classical poets, use heroic couplets (rhyming pairs of lines
in iambic pentameter), which give her poems an elevated and serious mood.

Romantic Poetry

Romanticism was a world wide movement in all the arts that stressed the feelings of the
individual and explored the relationship of the individual to nature. Romantic poetry is
characterized by first person narrators (or at least the view point of an individual), an
appreciation of all things wonderful and strange, and in some cases, a relaxing of the strict
formal rules of poetry. William Wordsworth, the English Romantic poet, brought diction closer
to natural speech (see page 323) and expanded the poetic form to allow for an organic unfolding
of the speaker’s thoughts. But perhaps no writerof the early modern period did more to bring the
language of ordinary people into the realm of poetry than Walt
Whitman.

Walt Whitman is not always grouped among the romantic poets, but
his poetry exhibits a similar focus on the individual. He brought to
poetry the unhampered style of free verse, which has no set rhythm,
set line length or rhyme. Whitman wanted to write in a style
appropriate for the largeness and spirit of American, in an ever
expanding form that could encompass all of the variety in American
experience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3xRdhYmIms

(Documentary on Whitman)

Read the first two Stanzas of Whitman’s Song of Myself, from Leaves of Grass

Pay attention to the form his stanzas take, the making lists, the use of rough or graffic or
commonplace language. Whitman is considered a poet of democracy. He presents rambling
lists of objects, people, scents and sights- all of them filtered through his own enormous “I.”
Song of Myself

1
I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

I loafe and invite my soul,

I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.

My tongue, every atom of my blood, form'd from this soil, this air,
Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their
parents the same,
I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin,
Hoping to cease not till death.

Creeds and schools in abeyance,

Retiring back a while sufficed at what they are, but never forgotten,
I harbor for good or bad, I permit to speak at every hazard,
Nature without check with original energy.

2
Houses and rooms are full of perfumes, the shelves are crowded with
perfumes,
I breathe the fragrance myself and know it and like it,
The distillation would intoxicate me also, but I shall not let it.

The atmosphere is not a perfume, it has no taste of the

distillation, it is odorless,
It is for my mouth forever, I am in love with it,
I will go to the bank by the wood and become undisguised and naked,
I am mad for it to be in contact with me.

The smoke of my own breath,

Echoes, ripples, buzz'd whispers, love-root, silk-thread, crotch and vine,
My respiration and inspiration, the beating of my heart, the passing
of blood and air through my lungs,
The sniff of green leaves and dry leaves, and of the shore and
dark-color'd sea-rocks, and of hay in the barn,

The sound of the belch'd words of my voice loos'd to the eddies of

the wind,
A few light kisses, a few embraces, a reaching around of arms,
The play of shine and shade on the trees as the supple boughs wag,
The delight alone or in the rush of the streets, or along the fields
and hill-sides,
The feeling of health, the full-noon trill, the song of me rising
 from bed and meeting the sun.

Have you reckon'd a thousand acres much? have you reckon'd the earth much?
Have you practis'd so long to learn to read?
Have you felt so proud to get at the meaning of poems?

Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess the origin of
all poems,
You shall possess the good of the earth and sun, (there are millions
of suns left,)
You shall no longer take things at second or third hand, nor look through
the eyes of the dead, nor feed on the spectres in books,
You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me,
You shall listen to all sides and filter them from your self.

Modern Poetry

Modernist poetry started in the early years of the 20th century with the appearance of the
Imagists. The Imagists wrote in concise language with an emphasis on imagery and concrete
description. A number of Imagists were writing in England in this style, joined by the American
poet, Ezra Pound. Pound did much to promote imagist poets and to formulate the views of this
new school of poetry. In 1912, Poetry magazine publish a number of imagist poems, along with
the following statement of the group’s views:

1. Direct treatment of the "thing", whether subjective or objective.

2. To use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation.
3. As regarding rhythm: to compose in sequence of the musical phrase, not in sequence of
the metronome. (a metronome is a mechanical or device that keeps a steady beat for
musicians.)
4. Complete freedom of subject matter.
5. Free verse was encouraged along with other new rhythms.
6. Common speech language was used, and the exact word was always to be used, as
opposed to the almost exact word.

Ezra Pound wrote some really long poems, but he is also known for some very short ones, like
this:

In a Station of the Metro

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;

Petals on a wet, black bough.

Or this:

Alba
 As cool as the pale wet leaves
       of lily-of-the-valley
She lay beside me in the dawn.

Included among the Imagists was William Carlos Williams, known for his short poem, “The
Read Wheelbarrow.”

Williams’ poems have a close relationship to paintings and they often do not seem to do more
than describe an image. Like Ezra Pound’s short poem above, however, Williams’ poems
suggest a mood and even a relationship between narrator and scene, narrator and an unnamed
person (Plum poem.)

Williams was a physician in Patterson, NJ. Many of his longer poems feature scenes familiar to
him in his neighborhood and reflect his day to day practice as a doctor, not yet the prestigious
vocation it is today. Williams has a great and intense love for the physicality of the world,
especially the humble mundane objects of everyday life.

This Is Just To Say (1934)

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

The Red Wheelbarrow

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain

water

beside the white

chickens
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/learning/guide/178804 link to a discussion of Williams.

Contemporary/Post-Modern

I have chosen poet Rita Dove as my example of post-modern poetry. Dove’s poems often treat
historical events or allusions to myth (as in the poem below) in very personal ways.

Persephone, Falling

One narcissus among the ordinary beautiful

flowers, one unlike all the others! She pulled,
stooped to pull harder—
when, sprung out of the earth
on his glittering terrible
carriage, he claimed his due.
It is finished. No one heard her.
No one! She had strayed from the herd.

(Remember: go straight to school.

This is important, stop fooling around!
Don’t answer to strangers. Stick
with your playmates. Keep your eyes down.)
This is how easily the pit
opens. This is how one foot sinks into the ground.

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/rita-dove discussion of Dove.

Extra

Raza Ali Hasan is a Pakastani-

American poet. In a 2006 interview
with the Syracuse Daily Orange,
Hasan noted, “I am not interested in
protest poetry or activist poetry. My
 aim is to draw a more accurate, full picture of the world. In order to have the whole picture, you
need to bring the whole world in.”

In that Part of the World

By Raza Ali Hasan

The sky here is American like the blue of your eyes;

the folds of your eyelids the Hindu Kush mountain.

The rich vein of the Hindu Kush only a stony ridge

cutting across the parched soil of Afghanistan

on which the primal play of progress comes to pass.

II

Locked in, its people:

nomadic, peasant or simply pleasant,
green-eyed, blue-eyed, brown-eyed or simply wide-eyed.

Its great teacher: Noor Mohammad Taraki,

the proud translator of great works
into Pashto, Dari, Turkic and Uzbek.
Its cities: Herat, Kabul, Kandahar.

III

Assuredly, the pilgrims descend the emerald-strewn

Panjsher valley. They have come to water and tend

a young tree. Time is at hand, for the unhurried

descent of the Western offering,

whose yellow parachute will slow its fall.

And this tree, which will grow underneath the cluster bomb,
will hold up the pomegranate to the blue sky.

IV
The tick tock and whirr of metal and material
in the hidden azure vault of the air

has so far unleashed the American ahistoricality

upon the two tall Bamiyan Buddhas.

Ordained stone must give way to bared rock face.

Grieve not. Rejoice, for the spirit triumphs here.

When Kabul was as beautiful as Leningrad,

when our hearts hadn't grown weary,
when Taraki could take a stroll down
the streets of Kabul with a confident smile,
when he could still be Afghanistan's Maxim Gorky,
when our erstwhile bachelor could enjoy
the company of dancing girls like a mogul emperor,
when the way forward was the way forward.

VI

The uncertain exile is never to Rome—

no picture postcards of the coliseum to send home—

but to a mud hovel among other mud hovels

by the edge of the city of Islamabad.

For the uncertain exile has nothing to do

with the divine or with any other kind of comedy,

but with what has remained or with what reminds:

with the trace of terror that persists.

VII

In this part of the world the children know and have desires
to be a martyr, to enter paradise, to leave this life.

Of the twenty-nine different names for the garden,

they know all twenty-nine by heart.

For this part of the world began with a garden and

will end as an open ditch piled up with bodies.

VIII
Grant me Antigone's strength to forbear
for the sun has come unstuck from a blue sky gone black,

stolen for effect, and the veiled moon stands in,

for the mourning women standing next to platters of rice,

signifying the historically sound end of forgetfulness,

returning our agency to mourn

the collaborations of the merchant capitalist class

with the unlistening, ahistorical God.

IX

If only Gandhi's spinning wheel had spun

a million yards of cloth

we would have covered all our war dead.

And as for tents, we would have built

cities upon cities of tents to keep the rain out

for all our refugees. And then and only then

would we have mourned our war dead,

mourned our war dead.

Raza Ali Hasan, "In that Part of the World" from Grieving Shias. Copyright © 2006 by Raza Ali Hasan.