Thursday, February 26, 2009
A Death Song by Paul Lawrence Dunbar
This poem was very interesting , because although it was short, it kept me enterrained the whole time I was reading it. I had to read the poem twice i order to grasp the full meaning of it, because even though I knew the name of the poem was a Death Song , I still could understand what it was talking about. After careful thought, I realized he was talking about death in many ways. The language of the piece led me to believe that either the author was not very well educated or they were trying to convey the poem in the diction of the past. The diction used was very colloquial, however, this made poem come alive and have deeper meaning to it. The piece made me belive that the author was talking about the treatment of blacks during the Jim Crow South where poeple were hanged, killed, and discriminated against in horrible manners.
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I think the comment before was a fair assessment of Dunbar's poem, but nothing about death is entertaining. Death is sad. Death is grief and loss. African-American through out the history of this country are painfully aware of these elements. They are prevalent in our writing. Death can sometimes be a sort of manumission. A flight of leaving all the racism and discrimination behind. The poem is written in black vernacular and Dunbar was criticized for this. BUt why can't a black male poet talk about nature; and love, and family and not be explicit? I think are just as diverse as anyone else. Our voice are just as varied. I started reading Dunbar for the historical angle and began to read more oif his work and could not stop.
ReplyDeleteI made this comment during my freshman year of college. After re-reading the poem, my comments and yours, I have to agree with your assessment of the piece. I appreciate your feedback and thank you for your insight.
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