Group 3: The Gulf
Discuss this poem using terms from the Poetry Primer handout. You needn't write about the entire poem, but choose an image or a rhythm device, et al. that catches your interest. Maybe find a challenging line or stanza and propose interpretations. Look up unfamiliar references and words. Be sure to read other students' responses to avoid repetition.
posted by Randy Barnett @ 8:51 AM
2 Comments:
As Sasha said, this poem is a description. This may sound rather cliche, but in the first section, I think that Walcott is reflecting on the fakeness and materialism of America. Zack kinda touched on this. In one stanza he lists "quarrels, new friendships, brown limbs nakedley moulded as these autumn hills memory penetrates as the jet climbs." These are things that are typically cherished and remembered fondly or as learning experiences. But as he leaves they lose their meaning. He speaks of a rose and how each of the thiings he gained in America "seems a petal shrivelling from its core." He is describing something that once was a thing of beauty, dying and losing its meaning because its meaning was once associated with its beauty. Does that make sense? Many people that have not been to America have a wonderful vision of it being a place of wealth and opportunity. However, when they arrive here they see our slums and the poverty that exhists and their visions are ruined. Wacott's vision is ruined. He hates America and wants to go home. The end.
Well... I agree with jazzy in that Walcott is maybe realizing that American does not live up to the foreign perspective as the "Land of Opportunity" and "Justice for All." Also, another aspect of the poem is that it makes a connection between isms (race and class) in American and in his native land. This aspect becomes evident after he speaks about how "the South felt like home." Not only did he find that there were physical characteristics similar to his home, he later says "But fear thickened my voice, that strange, familiar soil, prickled and barbed the texture of my hair, my status as a secondary soul. The Gulf, your gulf, is daily widening." The prickling and barbing of his hair connects him with African Americans via his hair texture. With this, he is relating his experiences in the US with what he has gone through in his homeland, especially the idea of living as a second-class citizen. He also ends this with the grim idea that the issues, which may include poverty, an imbalance of power within the socioeconomic system, and war, continue to grow, "is daily widening." This speaks on the reality that issues related to race and class in history do not simply disappear, but rather they tend to perpetuate into the future because of a nonchalant approach of those who are not directly affected by conditions in "The Gulf". This makes the idea of him being in an airplane, looking down at the gulf while being physically detached from, it very interesting...hmmm.
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