If I Were A Bird

The song "If I Were A Bird" is about how Marsha Ambrosius whats to just fly away from the problems that she has to face in her life and to leave her pain. In the first verse of song the line "you got me caught in a stormy eye world of dreams and I beg to see truth and promises you made to me" the guy that met Marsha met her when her self esteem was down and she was having hard times, and he just said what she wanted hear and now she wants to see what he promised to give her in her time of sorrow. In the second verse she has met someone that said he loves her but he has changed who he was and she wants them to change back to what he was before. In the chorus of the song she wishes she could wash away all her bad experiences. The line "what made you turn around on me what did I do and when did love feel this way so much pain and misery where’s the you I once knew" talks about how when you believe you know someone they change their whole personality. 

Here are the lyrics.

"Under the Bridge"

The song that I am willing to defend as poetry is "Under the Bridge" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. This song was released as the second single from their album, Blood Sugar Sex Magik, in 1991. The lyrics were first written by the group's vocalist, Anthony Kiedis. He wanted to express his current feeling of loneliness. He also used the lyrics to look back on his use of heroin and cocaine and their effects on his life.
The speaker of the song is Kiedis himself. His tone and the overall song conveys regret and remorse. It shifts to one of greater emphasis highlighted by sorrow towards the end. The occasion, taken from the lyrics, is at a time when Kiedis has stopped to reflect and look back. During this moment, he is feeling a great sense of loneliness accompanied with his reflection on this time of his life.
The purpose of the song is for the audience, the general listener, to experience the true meaning of loneliness and also to realize the pain that comes with drug usage.
Although Kiedis convey's the city as his only friend at he beginning of the song, he later tells how he would go downtown to do drugs. The song goes, "Sometimes I feel like my only friend/Is the city I live in, the city of angels", and later he sings, " Under the bridge downtown/I gave my life away". This shows Kiedis' true loneliness because the one friend he has was the one that was enabling him to ruin to his life. That being the city. The shift in the tone of the song when Kiedis finally tells of his drug usage highlights sorrow and anger that is being released. This supports the idea of how painful drugs really are. Things become more serious and Kiedis tells of how he forgot his love and how he gave his life away due to drugs. The emphasis put on this part is what makes it key in highlighting the damage of drugs. This is something that is better heard than told. Also, when Kiedis sings, "Is the city I live in, the city of angels/Lonely as I am, together we cry", he highlights the idea that both he and the city are crying. This can mean that as the city is his friend, she is crying with him. This could also mean that in a city like L.A., people are leading superficial lives so the city itself is lonely also. This supports the loneliness that Kiedis is experiencing due to the lack of friendly people in the city.

The Nights

The Nights is a song by Avicii in the album So Fresh: The Hits of Autumn 2015. The central theme of the song is (fortunately) not hidden behind ambiguous language: our speaker's father wants his son to enjoy the rest of his young, care-free years to the fullest, because his own life is consumed with the desire to be go back to that time. The first piece of evidence appears on line 8.

Son, don't let it slip away.

 In this line, it, represents life, or more specifically, his son's life. He continues

When you get older
Your wild heart will live for younger days (10-11)

Again, fairly self-explanatory. The father (speaking from experience) is saying that getting older is accompanied  by an urge to go back to a time without responsibilities. He's gotten older, but his heart is still wild, and yearns for the spontaneity and excitement of his earlier years. He continues

One day you'll leave this world behind
So live a life you will remember. My father told me when I was just a child
These are the nights that never die. (13-16)

 The nights the speaker is living will never die, which implies that the nights he will experience in adulthood will quickly fade into obscurity. Make the most of the memorable time he has left. And then the song repeats, and we experience the whole thing one more time. Personally, I found the music very enjoyable, and the lyrics have an uplifting (albeit cliched) message.

"Youth"

"Youth" by Beach Fossils (an American Indie rock band) from their album Beach Fossils illustrates poetry within music. The song shares the experience of the freedom of youth and how it allows you to do what you want of your own free will with no strings attached.  The song itself is itself actually called "Youth", and the song's lyrics refer repeatedly to being able to cut off ties and doing things when you feel like it because you're young. When you hear the lyrics "Do you want to trim anymore off of our only truth" the use of metaphor is a great factor to help set up the idea of living fully and being present within our youth. "Our only truth" I think represents youth, and the idea that we shouldn't lose it while we are young. When the Beach Fossils sing, "It's not so worth getting all bent out of shape about" they make a great use of metaphor and diction by using the antecedent "It" as problems that we face during our youth and then saying it's not worth "getting all bent out of shape about" which tells the audience that these problems are unimportant and trivial because we'er so young. The use of diction also in this phrase signals a simpler approach to problems during our youth. Another great example of poetic language used in this song (in this case metaphor), is when the Beach Fossils sing "But that's because my heart's untied", indicating that in our youth we are not constrained or restrained in our love or lives which allows us to "feel brave" (the line before). Youth is an excellent example of how poetry uses its words to convey experience and the "zeal of life" that ordinary literature cannot.

Unfortunately there is no music video for "Youth" but you should listen to it! It's a great song!

Hymn for the Weekend

"Hymn for the Weekend" has got to be my favorite song from Coldplay's new album, A Head Full of Dreams. The song is slow, yet strong and features Beyonce's beautiful voice. This song is definitely a work of poetry. I looked up the definition of poetry on google and it said, "Poetry is a literary work in which special intensity is given to the expression of feelings and ideas by use of distinctive style and rhythm." I think "Hymn for the Weekend" fulfills this definition. 

"Hymn for the Weekend," sung by Chris Martin, is about finding the ability to do amazing things with someone whose impact on your life verges on the "angelic." In the intro, Beyonce sings, "Drink from me, drink from me / Then we'll shoot across the sky," "Symphony," and "So high, so high." Beyonce seems to be singing from the perspective of someone who is an angel in Martin's life. Angels are typically associated with living in the heavens, which are located up high in the sky. She wants him to "drink from" her and promises that if he does find his nourishment in her, that they will shoot so high across the sky. 

In verse one, Martin responds to Beyonce's call, "Oh angels sent from up above / You know you make my world light up." Beyonce's character is the kind of person who rescues people when they are down. Martin continues, "When I was down, when I was hurt / You came to lift me up." The angel has lifted his spirits from a melancholy state. Martin continues the imagery of going "so high" and sings, "Life is a drink, and love's a drug / Oh, now I think I must be miles up." He is in a state of ecstasy and happiness after being "hurt, withered, [and] dried up." The angel helped and supported him when she "came to rain a flood."

Martin and Beyonce sing several lines together. Together, they sing, "So drink from me, drink from me." They also sing "We.re on a symphony," and "Put your wings on me, wings on me." They are in harmony and singing these lines together suggests that they are both partaking in seeing what each other has to offer and that they are being angels for each other. The other parts of the chorus that just Martin sings are, "When I was so thirsty," "No I just can't get enough, "When I was so heavy," and "When I'm lower, lower, lower, low." All of these lines describe Martin's character as feeling defeated. He needed help from someone and Beyonce's character comes to save him. 

In the post-chorus, Martin sings, "Got me feeling drunk and high." He is confused, but feels alive at the same time. He feels a mix of emotions and although Beyonce's character is a positive force in his life, she is also a confusing one. This song speaks to me as poetry and it really lifts my spirits if I am ever feeling down. 

In Your Clouds

In Your Clouds by MNEK, British singer-songwriter, is from his first extended play Small Talk EP. The song describes the wanting that is associated with having a crush and how the crush makes on feel. The audience of the song is the crush.

This song conveys the light innocence of having a crush through it's use of language in the song. The speaker repeats "I just want to be all up in your clouds." The word cloud is multidimensional in the context of the song. On one level the speaker is getting at the atmosphere of his crush and by being in her clouds he is just around her. On another level clouds hold rain or snow making them at times unpredictable conveying how much he does not know about the person he is after. Clouds also give the illusion of being full and fluffy but in fact are just made up of water vapor. MNEK is speaking to how an idea of a person can be greater than who they are and by getting in their clouds he is able to sort out what's real and what's not.

There is a verse that says "Now we're in the clouds-Never seen anything so blue- It's ironic, if I'm honest- Cause I'm so happy with you." This is a pun on the word blue and how it is often used to connote sadness. Puns are such a low form of humor it suggests that the speaker is nervous about being around his crush. In the context of the song the pun is hard to catch indicating how this interaction is fumbling.

The speaker's struggles about whether or not to dismiss their feelings. The speaker's feelings throughout the song vary and reasons at one point "It's not that deep, it's just a crush-Not hard to figure it out." Crushes are usually thought of as frivolous and short-lived but the rest of the lyrics hint that his feelings are much stronger than that. The energy he describes from being around his crush and how she makes him feel hints at love. But the speaker does not admit it revealing a possible fear of loving the idea of someone.

In Your Clouds  is a song that should be considered poetry. MNEK is a really talented R&B fusion artist and the music video is also super cool.

Hallelujah

The song I chose is "Hallelujah" by Jeff Buckley from his album Grace. Leonard Cohen originally wrote and performed the song, which gained popularity after Buckley covered it.

The song broadens the definition of the word hallelujah by taking it out of its purely religious conflict. Buckley´s hallelujah is pain filled and reflects the damaged emotional state of the speaker. "Hallelujah" conveys the experience of falling in love and having the relationship turn sour as the speaker progressively loses power over the situation. However, the song ultimately conveys that the "hallelujah" is in experiencing heartbreak and still being able to see the grace and beauty in love.

There are biblical allusions in the song, but they are used to strengthen the theme and relate to love rather than religion. The lines "She tied you to her kitchen chair / And she broke your throne and she cut your hair / And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah" reference Samson and his loss of power when Delilah cuts his hair. These lyrics directly relate to the theme by showing how Samson lost his great strength to Delilah because of his love for her.

The theme becomes more clear with the lines "And love is not a victory march / It´s a cold and it´s a broken hallelujah."  I think these lines are important because, in addition to directly saying that the pain of love deserves a hallelujah as much as the times worth celebrating, they say that love is not something to win. Love loses its beauty when it is a pursuit or being controlled. The short sentence structure and simple diction make the point of these lines clear and straight forward.

Furthermore, the lines "Maybe there´s a God above / But all I´ve ever learned from love / Was how to shoot somebody who outdrew you" show that the message of the song is not religious. The speaker believes in the possibility of God, but comments more on love through the lyrics. The violent diction adds to the pain that love can bring, which the speaker clearly experienced. The speaker says that he only learned how to hurt those who try to hurt him first. I think these lyrics follow the previous lyrics in that they show the futility of love when it is about winning, especially when winning means causing each other pain.

The song is really sad, but offers hope that love can be beautiful even after all of the destruction and pain it can cause.

Acid Rain- Chance the Rapper

"Acid Rain" (lyrics) by Chance the Rapper is poetry because it provides experience. The song is about how Chance the Rapper, who is the speaker in this situation, misses things about the way his life used to be. The line, "I still miss being a senior and preforming at all those open mic events" shows that the speaker is nostalgic. Another thing the song conveys is violence and children dying because of it. The line  "Funerals for little girls is that appealing to you?" shows who the audience is. The audience in this song is the people who don't do anything to stop the violence that is killing kids. The speaker misses what it used to be like when he was a kid. Less violence and more fun. This transition and the pain it has caused has caused the speaker to turn to drugs to ease the pain. This is evident when Chance sings, "I trip to make the fall shorter." Another thing Chance the Rapper alludes also to the idea of wealth and economic classes. In the line, "the richest man rocks the snatchless necklace", he is referring to how people use jewelry to show their wealth, but truly wealthy people don't have anything to show. Chance once said "Some people are so poor, all they have is money." That is something that he was trying to get across with this song.

Sodom, South Georgia

I chose the song “Sodom, South Georgia” by Iron & Wine (Samuel Beam.) I think all of his songs are really poetic and beautiful. Most of the songs tell a complex story rather than writing generic ideas about love or something. The song is from the point of view of a son writing about his father who passed away. There are many ways to interpret the lyrics but I think it is about a town of people who live monotonously. I think it is also about the hollowness of unquestioned religious faith, which the speaker is struggling to maintain when his father dies.

Papa died smiling

Wide as the ring of a bell

Gone all star white

Small as a wish in a well

And Sodom, South Georgia

Woke like a tree full of bees

Buried in Christmas

Bows and a blanket of weeds

Beam utilizes metaphors here comparing the town to “a tree full of bees” and says the town is “Buried in Christmas/ Bows and a blanket of weeds.”

I think the town is sort of startled by the death of a good man, while they are buried in the cheerful holiday. “A blanket of weeds” suggests that the cheeriness of the holiday is somewhat artificial.

Later it says:

Papa died Sunday and I understood

All dead white boys say, "God is good"

White tongues hang out, "God is good"

The “white tongues” symbolize the gravestones and even though they are dead the white boys hold faith in God. I think this reflects the speaker’s criticisms of their relentless faith in God despite all of the terrible things that happen in the world.

The end of the song is:

Papa died while my

Girl Lady Edith was born

Both heads fell like

Eyes on a crack in the door

And Sodom, South Georgia

Slept on an acre of bones

Slept through Christmas

Slept like a bucket of snow

Papa died Sunday and I understood

All dead white boys say, "God is good"

White tongues hang out, "God is good"

This seems to reflect the speaker’s hopelessness in the cycle of life and death. I think his faith in God is sort of nonexistent at this point and he accepts the reality of life. There is a lot of interesting imagery here, especially when it says “Both heads fell like/ Eyes on a crack in the door,” though I don’t really understand what this means. There two more interesting metaphors used at the end. The speaker seems to separate himself from the seemingly hopeless and relentlessly faithful town.

"Walking in Memphis"

I chose the song "Walking in Memphis" on Marc Cohn's self-titled debut album to analyze as poetry. To me, this song reminds me very literally of walking down the streets of Memphis with my dad. He likes to match music to events or the mood, so as we were visiting family friends in Memphis, naturally we had to listen to this song.

In addition to the song's literal connection to the city of Memphis, Cohn presents a broader theme. Through his presentation of his first experience in Memphis, Cohn asserts that new experiences and personal growth
can be found in new places.

At the end of the chorus, Cohn sings, "Yeah I got a first class ticket/ But I'm as blue as a boy can be". In these two lines, Cohn appears to be ready for his trip, but he doesn't actually know what to expect. He conveys this idea by first referencing his first class ticket, showing that he is well off, but then claims that he is as "blue" or new as a boy can be. Throughout the rest of the song, Cohn details the events and experiences of the trip, including his trip to Graceland, the sermon he heard from Reverend Green, and singing in a bar with a woman named Muriel.

The song closes with the lines, "Touched down in the land of the Delta Blues/ In the middle of the pouring rain." Cohn clearly conveyed his feelings throughout his first visit to Memphis, gaining experience travelling and learning as a young adult. He was so overwhelmed by the experience that is felt like it was pouring rain.

Link to lyrics here.

Beck - "Debra"

For my music poetry, I chose the song "Debra" by Beck, the master lyricist of the 1990s. Now, before you stop and go "oh dan jenks this is such a joke go home" hear me out!

Speaker: Beck
Audience: "Jenny" from JC Penny
Meaning: Humans, in light of desperation, often hide their vulnerabilities and charade them with things like sexual advances.
Tone: Arrogant yet sad.

Beck shows us a scene of a man in search for love. So in search for love that he cold-steps to girls who work at JC Penny. But really we see someone who just wants human contact.

Beck sings:
I met you at JC Penny
I think your nametag said Jenny
I could step to you
With a fresh pack of gum

Now, things get complicated though -- the chorus is about how he wants to get with Jenny, but also her sister -- he thinks her name is Debra.

The chorus goes:

I wanna get with you (Oh girl)
And your sister
I think her name is Debra

While one might think "get with" means "let's go hook up" what it really is is a cry for human contact from Beck. Nobody would really tell Jenny that they wanted to get with her sister, it's rude and Jenny would never get with Beck after that.

So, no, the song is not about sex, but about genuine human interaction.

P O E T R Y

The full lyrics are located here.

"Strawberry"

I chose the song “Strawberry” by Paul Baribeau from his debut self-titled album to analyze as poetry. This song, or poem, conveys the truth that language is not enough to describe everything that a human being, or even a strawberry, is.

He starts by saying, “To say that you are cute / Would be like saying that a strawberry is sweet / Because a strawberry has secret flavors / That are sharp, and tart, and red, and deep.” He compares the subject of this song to a strawberry, in that they both cannot be described by what they might commonly be described as.

He continues, “And I would love to find you / Growing wild out by the woods / I would make a basket with the front of my t-shirt / And take home as many of you as I could.” He extends his comparison into a metaphor, that they are fact is a strawberry. He cannot describe them through words, but he can conclude that they are at least everything a strawberry is, if not more.

Moving away from strawberries, he then equates them with the ocean. He sings, “Because the ocean is filled with all kinds of colors / And I see all kinds of things when I look at you.” To him, his subject is at least every magical thing that the ocean is.

Going even further, he compares them with outer space. He adds, “And to say that you are funny / Would be like saying that the night sky is black / Because the night sky is filled with stars and comets / And planets that no one has seen yet.” As mysterious and surprising and unknowable as outer space is, his subject is even more so.

He concludes, “I'll try to take you all in at once / But you just go on and on and on.” His subject is more than the night sky, than all of space and time, and more than language could ever even attempt to describe.

You're Beautiful

The song You're Beautiful by James Blunt, from the album, Back to Bedlam is memorable for me. I recall hearing this song frequently on the radio a couple of years ago, in car rides to downtown Chicago. The lyrics, along with the music, create a meaningful experience, and I am willing to defend this song as poetry.

 Perrine in his article, "What is Poetry?' writes that a limiting approach to poetry is, "...to find poetry always beautiful" (4). You're Beautiful can be interpreted as a beautiful and heartfelt song. It is for sure beautiful, but the central experience that is created has more to offer. The song deepens the experience of seeing a former significant other. Listeners are bystanders to the psychological effects of seeing an ex that can lead to false hope for a reformed relationship, and to the harsh reality that follows.

Blunt writes, "I saw your face in a crowded place,". In one way, there is imagery of a crowded subway and unexpectedly seeing your ex. Psychologically, it is an example of how a person can consciously or unconsciously think about and look out for someone they care about.

Later in the song there is a line, "She could see from my face that I was,/flying high". I analyzed this line in two ways. First, Blunt is describing that his ex saw how happy he was to see her. Sort of "high on life". The more striking way I interpreted the line was Blunt was physically high on drugs. This line adds to the meaning of not knowing what state of mind a person will be in when they see someone unexpectedly.

In the last block of lyrics Blunt writes, "There must be an angel with a smile on her face,/When she thought up that I should be with you./But it's time to face the truth,/I will never be with you". The first part of the verse that references another angel (Blunt repeatedly refers to his ex as an angel) is interesting. Blunt believes a divine power thought he should be with the woman, and listeners experience this sense of false hope. However, the second half of the verse is Blunt dealing with the reality: not being with his other half and reconnecting. This verse has a quick transition to the harsh realities of relationships.

James Blunt creates an atmosphere of happiness, hopefulness, and finally, harshness. This song reminds me of existentialism. Blunt felt "his life was brilliant" at the beginning of the song, and then felt depressed with the truth. Is misplaced hope the cause for heartache?

Wake Up

When we are young we tend to believe that growing up means that we become more free and confident. However, this is not necessarily the case. The song Stressed Out by Twenty One Pilots is about a young adult who is realizing/ experiencing what growing up actually means. The singer takes on the personality of "Blurryface" (a part/ personality of the singer himself).  Blurryface reminisces about how much easier it was when he was young.

"Wish we could turn back time to the good old days"

Stressed Out is about how we think that growing up is a good thing when we are young. But, after we become adults we realize we have to take on new responsibilities and act differently compared to when we are young.

"Used to dream of outer space, but now they're laughing at our face/ singing 'wake up, you need to make money' "

Blurryface is commiserating with other young adults who, like himself, are just realizing that being an adult is not the great thing they had dreamed about. The song uses very similar contrasting statements to show the difference from being young and old.

"We use to play pretend, used to play pretend, money/ We used to play pretend, wake up you need the money"

Blurryface seems to have the job he dreamed off when he was a kid.  He is a musician.  But, that dream turned into the burden of a job that had pressures.

"I wish I found some better sounds no one's ever heard/ I wish I had a better voice that sang some better words/ I wish I found some chords in an order that is new/ I wish I didn't have to rhyme every time I sang."

Link to Lyrics: http://www.directlyrics.com/twenty-one-pilots-stressed-out-lyrics.html

The Emptiness of High School

After years of listening to his music, I can say that John Mayer has definitely grown on me. From his 2001 album, Room for Squares, the song "No Such Thing" has always been my favorite. You can see the lyrics here.

I believe the main theme of the song is that there is a certain hollowness to the high school experience and in order to escape it, one must step out of society. Mayer believes that the "real world" is simply a bunch of lies and that in order to find true happiness/knowledge, one must get off the conveyor belt of life (straight A's, prestigious college, grad school, marriage, ect.).

In the song, Mayer writes, "Well I never lived the the dreams of prom kings/And the drama queens/I'd like to think the best of me/Is still hiding/Up my sleeve." In those lyrics, Mayer sets himself up as someone didn't participate in the stereotypical high school experience. And he even ends by saying that despite not being in the high school bubble, he still has the potential; suggesting that high school can't measure a person's chances of success.

Another set of lyrics that embody the theme are, "They love to tell you/Stay inside the lines/But something's better/On the other side." At this point in the song, Mayer wants students to break out from the systematic way of life and experience something completely different. By stepping out of society, Mayer suggests that one will be able to find a life richer than the one lived within society.

The theme is also repeated in the chorus, saying, "I just found out there's no such thing as the real world/Just a lie you've got to rise above." In this lyric, Mayer claims that the real world is simply a bunch of lies and societal expectations, and that at the end of it all, one should chose the life path that is best for them. 

"They're All the Same"

There are a lot stories in Citizen about mis-identification. In the beginning of the book she tells us about when her childhood friend called her by the name of her housekeeper who was also of color. In this instance her friend did not acknowledge her mistake, and Rankine attributed it to an “all black people look the same moment” (7). Later in her life, a colleague calls her by the name of another black woman she works with. The author and the other black woman laugh out loud at this Cliche, remarking that she had a “fifty-fifty chance of getting it right.” However, unlike the first slip in her childhood, this is not the end of the story. This colleague mails her an apology referring to the slip as “our mistake” which makes the author feel as if the colleague is saying that Rankine’s “own visibility is the real problem causing her [colleague's] confusion”(43).

Although they are both stories of mis-identifying a black person for another black person, the responses to the errors show the problem of black identity in two different ways. By not correcting her mistake, the young girl who confused Rankine for her housekeeper represents the people who do not know or care about the racial disparity of identity. The second, who addresses the mistake, yet does not take full responsibility, represents those who believe that black lack-of-identity is the fault of black people. By extension, she represents the people who believe that not just identity, but that the fault of all the issues faced by black people in society -- violence, mass incarceration, achievement gap -- should be blamed on black people themselves.

The (Un)Sweetness of Society

The song I chose to defend as poetry is "American Candy" by The Maine from the album American Candy. This album came out in 2015 and a lot of the songs were responses to different parts of a person's life. 

"American Candy" is a response to the bubble that society tries to put people into. The band used the term "American candy" as a metaphor to the bubble of happiness that society tries to force people into. The song goes deeper into that, with examples of how the this bubble and pressure from society hurt people and make them compromise themselves. An example of this is "Try to think back to, back to a time when/You loved what you loved because you loved it/Before the sugar/And all the sweetness/Filled up your lungs now,". This is telling people to think about times when they liked things just for liking it and not because society told them to like it. The pressure can take over a person's life and make them see and feel things that they should not. The feelings can tend to take over every aspect of a person's life.

"Even if you wanted to/You couldn't stop it's just too sweet/But this American candy/it'll rot your teeth,". This specific line really catches the meaning of the song. Even if a person thinks that they are not giving into the pressures of society, they most likely are in some ways. A person can give so much of themselves until it eats away at their self and mind. It makes them change themselves and ends up doing more harm than good. 

Another line that fits in with the prompt is "Sometimes I feel as if I'm going mad when/I get a touch of saccharine on my lips". Using a word like "saccharine" really helps the reader understand what they mean in this song. Saccharine is an artificial sweetener. The usage of this word shows that a person can really tell when they have something that is not truly great or sweet, but a lot of times, people will just go along with it. The songwriter is denying this fake sweetness and not letting it become a part of his life.  

The song ends with the line "I don't fancy American candy". This line is telling people that it is not necessary or does it feel good to give into all of the pressures of society, even if it does mask itself as something great and sweet. Most of the time, people know that they are hurting themselves to fit in, and the songwriters want these people to know that they should not do that. As hard as it can be to try not to give into the societal pressures that America pushes on young people, it really does hurt a person more than it does help a person to give into them.

"The Best Lack All Conviction, While the Worst Are Full of Passionate Intensity.”-W.B. Yeats

Claudia Rankine’s Citizen is both frightening and fearless. Seemingly colloquial and monotonous at first, elucidating the “quotidian struggles against dehumanization every brown or black person lives in”, Rankine presents the pages with such poetic diction setting her readers face to face with the strong truth of the micro-aggressions committed in this world everyday. It’s almost as if she forms her poetry with such purpose as to have her readers not pay too much attention to certain things or stumble through some of her words, to reinstate through diction, the message of everyday racism/objectification/aestheticization that enough are guilty of over-looking.

But perhaps it’s not the lack of recognition, but action?

More than just acknowledging these “uncomfortable truths”, I believe Rankine and activist alike, strive to inspire action. With that being said, the reality of surrounding racism, beatings and murders can be hard to digest. It can be intimidating and/or difficult at times to engage in the hot button debates in today’s society--and even in your AP Col. English class. I think that Rankine’s poetry in Citizen both directly and indirectly shows awareness of this. Along with broaching the “strong truth” within our society, Citizen is responsible for bringing up the same concerns/questions in a more introspective/personal way. Allowing the reader

My hopes are that this book really sparks something special w/people in both classes and doesn’t get pushed aside after the papers are turned in, and exams graded. Just based on already had classroom discussions, and my reading of many classmate’s blog posts, Claudia Rankine’s Citizen is an important work to be added into our collection of contemporary literature.

Not So Funny Jokes

While reading Citizen, a line that stood out to me was, "You both experience this cut, which she keeps insisting is a joke, a joke stuck in her throat, and like any other injury, you watch it rupture along its suddenly exposed suture," (42). In the passage leading up to this line, the speaker, presumably a black female, has been addressed by a white female who is using "black language" to relate to the speaker. The white woman deems this accommodation necessary due to the stereotypes of the black community which is presented through the media.

The language in this passage is particularly rich. Through the language and use of words like "cut", "rupture", "injury", and "exposed", the passage gives the words that the white woman said a violent power. These words have now ended up hurting both of them instead of appealing to the speaker and creating a sense of familiarity. The joke being "stuck in her throat" stood out to me, it points out the fact that once something is said, it cannot be taken back. I think that it is stuck in her throat because she is still ruminating over the statement and the motives behind it, generally it would be stuck past her throat.

The words that humans exchange can take on different meanings when addressing different groups even if it is all the same language. If this language is the same for both parties of a conversation, why is this so?

Is Citizen Poetry?

Throughout my life I've grown accustomed to thinking that all the stereotypes Perrine pointed out in What is Poetry must be true to be considered poetry. Even now that I know better, I still can't shake the facts. When I picked up Citizen my immediate reaction was, "this isn't poetry". To me, it seemed like a regular book simply with run on sentences and a singsong background noise in my head. (My brain had already automatically categorized it into the poetry file- there was no going back.) It seemed to me that this was just a book and every couple paragraphs there would be a paragraph that didn't fit in with the others because it was more like classic poetry which left me confused about how this book could be considered poetry. There was an obvious lesson Rankine was trying to get across to her audience about racism, it did seem to me to be philosophical, and it can be considered beautiful. It seemed to be going against everything Perrine believed. But then I read over what poetry is... a universal language. Every race, religion, and gender can, probably (I'm looking at you white males), connect to some time in their life where they were held back from doing something because of an uncontrollable feature about themselves. Even though Rankine (so far) only addresses a racial issue in her poems we as readers can most certainly take these experiences and connect them to our own lives and our own hardships. Poetry is... condensed and concentrated. When Rankine was explaining Serena Williams' tennis matches, and the unfair treatment she received at them, she was straight to the point- in and out. She did not linger on describing the tension in the air, as an author of a book would have done but simply stated the facts. Poetry... conveys an experience. For one, I felt as though I was on that tennis court and I know I would not have been able to hold in my frustration. And at the beginning of the book I felt almost as I was the person in the uncomfortable position of listening to my friend speak of their hardships. Why? Because Rankine used the words you and I. She literally placed you in that moment in time and we reacted. So, even though it ticks off the marks on either side of the T chart, Citizen is poetry. Even if it is 200 pages long.