This week, we were introduced to a new form of analyzing poetry. I thought this method of looking deeper into poetry was very useful and brought new interpretations to our minds as we were read the poems aloud. Dr. Campbell had us close our eyes and listen to the poems read aloud. As we listened, we were instructed to draw what we envisioned the poem looking like in our minds. As for me, I saw different aspects of the poems come to life through my imagination that I did not consider while I was reading it silently to myself. As they were read aloud, I noticed and caught on to the haunting the poems carried through the voices of the speakers. I noticed a lot more nature in the poems instead of focusing on what I thought the main points were. This was a very interesting way to teach poetry and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Today in class, we read two poems from our course packs. The White Man’s Burden by Rudyard Kipling and The Black Man’s Burden (A Reply to Rudyard Kipling) by Hubert Harrison. In class we touched on the possibility that Harrison was sort of mocking Kipling, and I agree. In my personal opinion, I think although there may have been issues in the white society in that day and age, whites had very little to no right to voice their struggles, and make it sound like no one had it worse than them. Harrison says, “Take up the Black Man’s burden--/ Reach out and hog the earth,/ And leave your workers hungry/ In the country of their birth;” This spoke to me because I felt like Harrison was mocking Kipling in saying “oh no, don’t let your poor men go hungry!” While his family and ancestors have suffered years of enslavement and starvation. I really enjoyed reading these two poems back to back and seeing the injustice brought to light.
Also, in class we were to research a topic in our blog groups. Ruben and I picked education, as we are both going to be teachers in the next few years we thought it would be interesting to see how education was dealt with in the 19th century. I researched African American education in the 19th century, and found a few interesting facts. Education for African Americans was thought of by whites to be a bad idea. They thought if they extended an education out to African Americans it would lead to them rebelling. Until, something called the Freedman’s Bureau was introduced to southern states. This bureau enforced schooling for African Americans from grade school to high school level classes. We are excited to hear everyone else’s presentations next week, as well as share the rest of our own!
Tara Nolan
Ruben and Tara, I'm excited to hear the rest of the presentations, too! I am glad that you liked the poetry exercise. This way of teaching the poem brought out different insights from the class than I had heard in early classes when teaching it.
ReplyDeleteI also had the exact same feeling about these two pieces. And how indeed Harrison was sort of mocking Kipling. I think The White Man’s Burden by Rudyard Kipling was a huge disrespect too every slave of the past and during that time because Kipling is making his race feel that they too are going through a similar struggle as blacks. Its mind blowing how some people are blind too see what they are doing is wrong, I mean I feel like its human nature to know when something is wrong and right, it’s a gut feeling. But in reality the white “Burden” is a joke because in reality there is no white burden it’s all coming from Kipling’s ass, it’s all bull shit and he knows it. I don’t even understand how he has the dignity to even write this piece. I think I wouldn’t have the courage or braveness to write something against this work like Harrison did but instead I would use more violence it took a lot of courage to fight back with words instead of punches.
ReplyDeleteBut that makes Harrison ten times cooler and in a way made me respect him more. Taking a class on racism now, I can understand how some races make themselves seem full of burden too even though they haven’t been in the shoes of other races that have dealt with slavery or discrimination. In American today we like to think ourselves as a melting pot but there is still more that we have to do to get to that point, were still melting. Majorities and minorities are still separated by “class” were still labeled differently. I don’t know I guess this is just my opinion.
(Litqueens123) ANNA SOPHIA AND SAMM