who cut their wrists three times successively unsuccessfully, gave up and were forced to open antique stores where they thought they were growing old and cried,
this is such an interesting piece, however I do wonder what the author means by these people "thinking" they were growing old?
who hiccuped endlessly trying to giggle but wound up with a sob behind a partition in a Turkish Bath when the blond & naked angel came to pierce them with a sword,
the "hiccuped endlessly trying to giggle but would up with a sob" truly embodies what I think is the person who tries to drink away their sorrows but ends up evermore haunted by them.
returning years later truly bald except for a wig of blood, and tears and fingers, to the visible madman doom of the wards of the madtowns of the East,
the image of a "wig of blood"is so gruesome, it makes me wonder what image the author had in mind.
That stir the hidden depths of native life, Stray melodies of dim remembered runes. I shall return, I shall return again, To ease my mind of long, long years of pain.
It seems that the poet is at a crossroads but looks foward to a better time with these last few lines.
And realize once more my thousand dreams Of waters rushing down the mountain passes.
I wonder what the water symbolizes? Prosperity? LIfe?
Stealing my breath of life, I will confess I love this cultured hell that tests my youth.
It seems like the author could be speaking about her mother and possibly a disagreement in values, traditions. However, the poet still loves her culture and her mother despite the harm it may cause her.
I want to feel the surging Of my sad people’s soul Hidden by a minstrel-smile.
You can tell that the poet empathizes and stands wit her people, especially in these ending lines. She sees the pain behind their smiles, the perseverance.
Sun-baked lips will kiss the earth. Throats of bronze will burst with mirth. Sing a little faster, Sing a little faster, Sing!
Such a powerful ending to a beautiful poem. The words are so rich and luscious that you can see the brightness in this poem. Bronze, baked and sun and burst. They are all filled with light.
And there are those who feel the pull Of seas beneath the skies,
These couple lines are so powerful with the elements of nature and the person. There is a force between the two, a sensitivity to each other. The feeling is so tangible in these lines.
And far into the night he crooned that tune. The stars went out and so did the moon. The singer stopped playing and went to bed While the Weary Blues echoed through his head.
This is such a powerful set of lines. The poet really drove this dreary feeling down through the ending. I'm questioning if the singer is actually dead of if there is a sad kind of stillness?
He made that poor piano moan with melody. O Blues!
This is such a beautiful metaphor to describe the dreariness in blues and also the sorrowful song this man is playing on the piano. I like the idea of personifying the instrument in this poem, it brings a sense of liveliness.
Besides, They’ll see how beautiful I am And be ashamed— I, too, am America.
This was such a beautiful way to end this poem. It is strong and challenging but very hopeful.
They furnish a wealth of colorful, distinctive material for any artist because they still hold their own individuality in the face of American standardizations.
This excerpt was so powerful because I think that the author captured this group of people so perfectly because it rang so true.
She does not want a true picture of herself from anybody. She wants the artist to flatter her, to make the white world believe that all negroes are as smug and as near white in soul as she wants to be.
Wow, I found this painfully powerful. I think it is so beautiful here that the author emphasizes the distaste for one's own blackness. It is profoundly true in other communities as well so to read this was very relatable.
For racial culture the home of a self-styled “high-class” Negro has nothing better to offer.
I like that the author makes the point that it doesn't matter how much money a black person has, the heart of what the author is saying lies within their racial integrity and pride.
Most various Man
i wonder what she means when she calls this man a "various" man?
I might be driven to sell your love for peace, Or trade the memory of this night for food. It well may be. I do not think I would.
I think that the fact that she says "food" instead of riches or wealth or whatever really focuses on the matter of whether or not one would trade love for their own livelihood.
knowing that most things break;
I love how loaded this line is and without dwelling on it too much. The poet kind of let it do its damage on the reader seamlessly.
And you that ache so much to be sublime, And you that feed yourselves with your descent, What comes of all your visions and your fears?
This is a very beautiful few lines, I love when the poet kind of breaks down the wall and asks the question to the reader themselves.
Choose your own good and call it good.
I really loved this line! The concept that everyone's idea of "good" and "bad" is subjective is something we don't often consider. Especially today, everyone's morals are expected to align in the same direction.
It takes life to love Life.
I thought this was such a moving conclusion. Such a quick pace during the poem with so much winds and turns then to finish with that line is very emotional.
It is so pleasant to be out in this great room and creep around as I please!
I love how free the narrator is in this quote, although she's thoroughly gone insane. It seems like this is the first time in the text where she feels at liberty to do as she pleases.
I would not be so silly as to make him uncomfortable just for a whim.
Through out the text, it shows how uncomfortable she is to cause even the slightest inconvenience to John which is something one would usually feel okay with in a relationship.
I get unreasonably angry with John sometimes.
For me, now that I've read this story multiple times over a couple years, it seems that the narrator does not believe this herself but it is actually John that has made her believe that any emotion she feels that is slightly inconvenient to him, is considered "unreasonable".
The result of a year’s work depends more on what is struck out than on what is left in; on the sequence of the main lines of thought, than on their play or variety.
This is interesting, you find that today, most people value more what is left in than what is struck out.
Society regarded this victory over sex as its greatest triumph, and the historian readily admitted it, since the moral issue, for the moment, did not concern one who was studying the relations of unmoral force.
Is this "victory over sex" the idea of only having sex for the purpose of reproduction?
but in America neither Venus nor Virgin ever had value as force–at most as sentiment. No American had ever been truly afraid of either.
When he speaks of the force of Venus, I'm confused as to what he means? I understand the force of the virgin represents religion but does the force of Venus represent atheism then?
From the oak turned to a wall, they Lion, From they sack and they belly opened And all that was hidden burning on the oil-stained earth
This is such a powerful couple of lines, they are so vivid as a whole. I think it's so beautiful to actually get to see the resolution after what is a very suspenseful and tense poem. I wonder what made the author feel as if he needed to speak for these people in the poem.
They Lion grow.
I think it's so interesting and powerful that he would use a lion as this internal animal these people carry inside of them, building and building up inside to one day be unleashed.