Rita Dove receives the 2011 National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama
Spotlight on Rita Dove
"I think the worst thing that can happen to a poet is to be self-conscious, to think, "I'm writing a peom," the moment that you're writing a poem. When you get that moment where things begin to click in a poem and you begin to go off in a direction that you didn't know you were going in, you'd better just ride that current as far as it'll take you."
~Rita Dove
Sunday, March 4, 2012
"Being Poet Laureate made me realize I was capable of a larger voice. There is a more public utterance I can make as a poet."~ Rita Dove
Source:
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/r/rita_dove.html#ixzz1oCqaxkQd
I try to show what it is about language and music that enthralls, because I think those are the two elements of poetry.
~Rita DoveSource:
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/r/rita_dove.html#ixzz1oCrhe1ma
Historical Context of "Parsley"
Dove's "Parsley" is based upon the event known as the "Parsley Massacre." Racial tensions abounded in the Dominican Republic during the 1930s and culminated in the declaration by the dictator, General Trujillo of 'Operation Perejil' in 1937. Perejil is the word for "parsley" and indicates the basis for a racially-based mass killing of 25,000 Haitians. Trujillo's soldiers isolated and killed anyone who could not correctly pronounce "perejil," instead saying "pelegil." The pronunciation was a method by which the troops could identify Haitians from those native to the Dominican Republic.
Source:
Perusek, Glenn. "Haitian Emigration in the Early Twentieth
Century." International Migration Review 18.1 (Spring 1984):
13. JSTOR. Web. 4 Mar 2012.
Source:
Perusek, Glenn. "Haitian Emigration in the Early Twentieth
Century." International Migration Review 18.1 (Spring 1984):
13. JSTOR. Web. 4 Mar 2012.
Historical Context of "Banneker"
Benjamin Banneker is an African American scientist born in 1731 who accomplished much in the areas of scientific and mathematic discovery until his death in 1806. Banneker is known for his intellectual prowess despite a lack of extensive schooling in the sciences--he was briefly educated in a one-room schoolhouse in his hometown of Oella, Maryland. He is credited for his help in a survey of land in Washington, D.C. to help in the construction of the city, but perhaps most famous for his extensive accomplishments in the mathematical construction of a clock, publications of yearly almanacs, and predictions of lunar eclipses.
Bedini, Silvio. "Benjamin Banneker." ANB Online. American National
Biography, Feb. 2000. Web. 4 Mar 2012.
Bedini, Silvio. "Benjamin Banneker." ANB Online. American National
Biography, Feb. 2000. Web. 4 Mar 2012.
Analysis on "Banneker" and "Parsley"
Scholar Ekaterini Georgoudaki
insists of Former Poet Laureate to the United States Rita Dove that, “instead
of an obsession with the theme of race, one finds an eagerness, perhaps even an
anxiety, to transcend—if not actually to repudiate—black cultural nationalism
in the name of more inclusive sensibility” (Georgoudaki 421). Dove is known for her championing of
the under- or misrepresented, often using her poems to enlighten her readers to
a new reality of racial equality. Her 1983 poem “Banneker” follows this
pattern. Dove isolates the poem’s protagonist and paints a portrait of him as a
reflective intellectual when she says “what did he do except lie / under a pear
tree,” yet this impression is alternatively contrasted with Dove’s
interpretation of the judgment given by “the good people of Baltimore” (Dove “Banneker”
1-2, 5). Tension rises as the poem continues until Banneker fights back. His
response is classic Rita Dove—“he penned in his mind / another enflamed letter
/ to President Jefferson” (Dove “Banneker” 15-17). Dove’s protagonist responds
to the underlying racial pressure that carries the poem just as Dove responds
in her own life: he writes.
This pattern of literary response
can again be seen in Dove’s work “Parsley,” a poem written in 1983 about
Dominican dictator Trujillo, a man who orders all those killed who cannot
correctly pronounce the word parsley. The test effectively uses language as a
means of racially dividing the population; the dialogue of Black Haitians
prevents them from the correct pronunciation of any word requiring a rolled
“r.” “Banneker” and “Parsley” are similar in that they both offer divided and
contrasting viewpoints of their varying subjects, but while “Parsley” ends with
the assumption of the horrific massacre that will soon follow in the name of
language, “Banneker” ultimately offers a solution to this despair with the
writing that Dove’s protagonist employs to articulate his plight.
In order to appreciate the subtlety
of Dove’s message on racial integration, the isolated setting she imagines for
her protagonist in “Banneker” must first be demonstrated in order to illustrate
the segregation that dominates the poem. The subject of her poetry in this
instance is Benjamin Banneker, a black scientist from the late 18th
century who studied astronomy and was the first black man to both successfully
predict a solar eclipse and create an almanac. That her subject is a historical
figure should come as no surprise—Dove ultimately wants to comment on the state
of race in society and what better way to do this than to analyze the
“reactions to this gifted black man who dared to cross social and racial
boundaries” (Georgoudaki 422). Her racially marginalized hero provides a
historical context that exemplifies the mindset Dove attempts to portray. Georgoudaki
explains that, “Dove’s focus on the underside of history, on the overlooked
events, on “things which no one will remember but which are just as important
in shaping our concept of ourselves and the world we live in as the biggies” (232),
is one way in which she expresses her distaste for conventional hierarchies and
interpretations” (Georgoudaki 421). The choice of Dove’s subject proves
essential for the context of her poem, one in which Banneker “meditate[s] on
the heavenly bodies” and “shot at the stars” (Dove “Banneker” 3-4, 37).
Dove’s work “Parsley” similarly
focuses upon a piece of history, in this case a historical event that
illustrates the broad scope of her attention. She writes not about America
within “Parsley” but instead about the terrorization of Black Haitians within
the Dominican Republic. In the context of Dove’s inclusiveness, Georgoudaki
explains of Dove the ability to showcase “an ever expanding range of reference,
the most acute distinctions, and the most subtle shadings of meaning”
(Georgoudaki 421). Both poems appear in Dove’s book of poems known as Museum and demonstrate the epitome of
the extensive inclusiveness portrayed within the work.
Returning to the protagonist of Banneker,
the subject’s portrayal is two-faced: on one side, he can be seen in the
innocent light of his actions while on the other, with a racial prejudice that
colors his every move. Even his impressive profession comes under scrutiny as
his observance of the stars spurs the “good people of Baltimore” to be “shocked
and more than / a little afraid” (Dove “Banneker” 5-7). They assume alcohol to
be his vice, wondering “why else would he stay out / under the stars all night
/ and why hadn’t he married?” (Dove “Banneker” 9-11). The combination of this
style and mindset persists throughout the poem, Dove alternatively chronicling
the personal musings of Banneker himself and the assumptions of his judgmental
surroundings.
Dove employs a similar, albeit more
obvious, style to “Parsley” by separating her poem into two works of dissimilar
length. In the first six stanzas, the terror of the persecuted Haitians
dominates the work and is titled “The Cane Fields.” The second part, “The
Palace,” encompasses the savage violence of the general and the alarming casualness
with which he decides to kill 20,000 people. Like with “Banneker,” this
portrayal lends itself to a demonstration of the misinformed and harsh nature
of racial judgment. In “Banneker” this judgment is based upon preconceived
notions and perceptions; in “Parsley” the general simply wonders, “who can I
kill today” (Dove “Parsley” 30 qtd. in Rubin and Ingersoll 221). He bases his
decision not on any informed choice but instead on his own demons, as can be
seen when he subsequently calms after his decision because “for a moment / the
little knot of screams / is still” (Dove “Parsley” 30-32 qtd. in Rubin and
Ingersoll 222). Indeed, throughout the remainder of the poem Dove emphasizes
the personal nature of the vendetta the general develops as he remembers “the
morning his mother collapsed in the kitchen while baking skull-shaped candies”
and subsequently looks out the window to see “fields of sugar cane” (Dove
“Parsley” 36-37, 49-50 qtd. in Rubin and Ingersoll 222). The Haitian workers
who man these fields have done nothing more than work within the eyesight of
the general, calling attention to the fact that it is the general’s
imperfection that has caused his prejudice and this divide. Dove thus subtly
creates a perspective in which she influences her readers to see the biased
nature of each racist incident but allows the reader to develop this opinion on
their own—there is no criticism of the “good people of Baltimore” (Dove
“Banneker” 5), and Dove humanizes the general with the inclusion that “it is
fall, when thoughts turn / to love and death; the general thinks / of his
mother” (Dove “Parsley” 21-23 qtd. in Rubin and Ingersoll 222). Yet the
implication is clear—both events epitomize the racial inequality that Dove
seeks to destroy.
Dove’s emphasis on the need for
racial integration stems certainly in part from her own personal experience.
The poet grew up in the midst of 1960s America and has written extensively on
the Civil Rights movement, in addition to cataloguing the experiences of her
maternal grandparents in arguably her most famous work to date, the book of
poetry Thomas and Beulah, as they live
in the midst of the turn of the 20th century. Yet Dove stresses both
poems’ ability to stand alone from her personal context by insisting that “when
I started Museum, I was in Europe,
and I had a way of looking back on America and distancing myself from my
experience…I found historical events fascinating for looking underneath—not for
what we always see or what’s always said about a historical event, but for the
things that can’t be related in a dry, historical sense” (Dove qtd. in Rubin
and Ingersoll 230).
As Dove explains the separation of
her own narrative history from that of her poetry, the mention of the
“historical sense” of an event as detached from what’s said introduces a deeper
layer to the technical device she uses in both poems to involve different
speakers and opinions to narrate the work. Dove offers each reader the chance
to judge the poems on their own after influencing them by offering a more
complete version that what has perhaps been previously logged in history books.
In other words, each poem serves to create for its readers a new perception based
more all-encompassing accounts in order to serve judgment on each of the
protagonists. History, as Dove articulates, “is the way we perceive it, and we
do perceive it through words in a way that it’s presented to us in books. And
language does shape our perceptions…the way we perceive things is, of course,
circumscribed by our ability to express those things” (Dove qtd. in Rubin and
Ingersoll 229).
Perception thus lies at the heart
of both “Banneker” and “Parsley.” By changing her readers’ perception of varying
examples of racial prejudice, the poems attempt to alter the historical
perception of racism. Dove emphasizes the expression of history through books
and language in her interview within the Black
American Literature Forum to Stan Sanvel Rubin and Earl G. Ingersoll, but
this emphasis can be seen within her poetry as well. While “Banneker” and
“Parsley” are similar in their general structure and the effect of their
division, the conclusion Dove reaches in the end of “Banneker” distinguishes it
from the finale of “Parsley.” Within “Banneker,” the poem finishes with the
empowerment of Banneker, symbolized by the illustration of a man clutching a
rifle and shooting at the stars. This success comes at the culmination of his
hypothetical letter to President Jefferson and implies Dove’s approval at his use
of language and writing in order to invoke change.
In “Parsley” language also invokes
change, but in this instance it is of a much different nature. Here one simple
word decides whether or not an individual will face a death penalty of sorts.
As a result, the end of the poem concludes with the general’s decision that “he
will / order many, this time, to be killed / for a single, beautiful word”
(Dove “Parsley” 70-72 qtd. in Rubin and Ingersoll 230). Gone is the hopefulness
and empowerment that “Banneker” culminates with, instead leaving the reader
with a sense of dread for what will most certainly come next.
While both “Banneker” and “Parsley”
are similar in a myriad of ways from their divisive structure to their background
in events of historical importance and racial inequality, the variance in their
conclusions offers a final distinction necessary in an analysis of Dove’s work.
Georgoudaki explains that, “through subtle protest, irony, and her reassessment
of Banneker’s life and work, Dove rescues from oblivion and restores this black
man’s contribution to American scientific and social progress” (422). Progress
in America, it seems, Dove sees as possible. The image of hope that she paints
with the ending of “Banneker” lies in stark contrast to that seen in “Parsley,”
and the two works’ most glaring dissimilarity comes with the location of their
setting. The 1960s America in which Dove grew up was shaped by the influx of
imminent change, while the Dominican Republic was marred by civil war and
authoritarian rule during the time. Given Dove’s pattern of building upon the
historical nature of the events about which she writes and the importance of
perception in shaping this history, such context should not be ignored. America
has diversity woven into its foundation, and by first indicating the structural
and ideological similarities between “Banneker” and “Parsley” and then
deconstructing the motivation for their nationalized differences, Rita Dove
ultimately offers in “Banneker” her portrayal of hope for the future of racial
inclusiveness in America.
Works Cited
Dove, Rita. Museum.
Pittsburg: Carnegie Mellon University Press,
1983. Print.
1983. Print.
Rubin, Stan Sanvel, and Earl G. Ingersoll. “A Conversation
with
Rita Dove.” Black American Literature Forum 20.3 (Autumn, 1986):
227-240. JSTOR. Web. 28 Feb.2012.
Rita Dove.” Black American Literature Forum 20.3 (Autumn, 1986):
227-240. JSTOR. Web. 28 Feb.2012.
Georgoudaki, Ekaterini. “Rita Dove: Crossing Boundaries.”
Callaloo 14.2 (Spring 1991):419-433. JSTOR. Web. 27 Feb. 2012.
Callaloo 14.2 (Spring 1991):419-433. JSTOR. Web. 27 Feb. 2012.
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