I would consider an excerpt from, The Walls Do Not Fall, by Hilda Doolittle one of the most intriguing poems I have read by far. As the title suggests, the poem is quite literally about different walls that refuse to fall no matter what seems to happen. Very straightforward and not much to find interesting in that particular aspects. What makes this particular poem so interesting, though, are the actual walls. “Pompeii has nothing to teach us, we know crack of volcanic fissure, slow flow of the terrible lava”, this quote suggests two very important points:

1. Pompeii was destroyed by lava. Lava causes anything that it touches to burn. While most things fizzle away never to be seen again, other things are preserved. For example, human bodies are sometimes preserved along with the skeletons of structures…or the walls. These items are preserved through the lava cooling and hardening in to a rock like substance.
2. The second point ties directly into the first point. Th poem is entitled, “The Walls Do Not Fall”, in Pompeii there were and are walls that did not and will not fall.

This quote was the beginning of a narrative that seems to stress the importance of walls within the human body, structure, society, everywhere. Hilda Doolittle impressed upon the notion that walls are the backbone of everything and seem to be even more important than what’s in and on them. But the question is, why write a poem about a wall? Yes, they are important to the structural foundation of a home. And yes they can become important when speaking about psychology and how people sometimes build walls to keep certain things in and other things out. What could possibly be so important about a wall?

World War II began in the year 1939 and ended in 1945. Hilda wrote this poem in the beginning of the 1940s, during the time when World War II was just getting started. From September 1940 through May 1941, Germany performed bombing raids, called Blitz, on London during the night. Hilda Doolittle lived in London during this time so she saw the devastation that the bombs did to London first hand which is what this poem is about. This poem is about the death and devastation that London experienced during this time. People that went to bed thinking that they would wake up the next day didn’t, “the bone frame (flesh) was made for no such shock knit within terror, yet the skeleton stood up to it”. For the people that parishes during the raids, all that was left was their bones.

Going back to the earlier quote, armed with historical background, a new analysis can be made. The quote, “Pompeii has nothing to teach us, we know the crack of volcanic fissure, slow flow of terrible lava”, means quite literally, the history and destruction of Pompeii cannot help with the destruction that was happening at this particular time. Scientists began to understand how volcanoes worked and could predict when they would erupt so a catastrophe like Pompeii would hopefully not happen again. But how do you predict when a country will randomly bomb you at night? If caught early enough, one can escape lava, but how do you escape a bomb?

But, although all of this went on, Hilda still held a sense of hope, “yet the frame held; as we passed the flame: we wonder what saved us? what for?”. This speaks about the perseverance of man but the inevitable pain and suffering that will come from it. No one came out of this situation unaffected, unbothered, or unscathed. Although there was hope, there were some wounds that would take a lifetime to heal. In this particular part of the quote, “we wonder what saved us? what for?”, it is almost as if she is saying that it it better off to be dead.

Rita Dove specifically chooses these writers to be featured in her book because of the impact that they left on society. Each of these authors influenced American Literature one way or another. Not only having a great impact on Literature, but the time period as well. Showcasing an accurate description of life during the time period in which these authors were alive and active

James Weldon Johnson was an author, civil rights activist, educator, lawyer, diplomat, and a songwriter. Born June 17, 1871 in Jacksonville, Florida. Interesting fact, June 17 is two days before Juneteeth which is the day the slavery was officially abolished in all states. It is ironic that James Weldon was born two days before then, because he would later go on to write the Black National Anthem,  Lift Every Voice and Sing in 1900. The song was originally written as a poem by James Weldon Johnson, but his brother John Rosamond Johnson put the music behind it. James Weldon Johnson also was a leader in the NAACP. In 1920 he was chosen as the first black executive secretary of the NAACP, and served the role through 1930. Also noted that he has an honorary doctoral degree from Howard University. In 1933 he recieved the W.E.B Du bios prize for Negro Literature. James Weldon Johnson was a very influential writer, especially during the Harlem Renaissance.

Paul Laurence Dunbar was born June 27, 1872 to freed slaves from Kentucky. Dunbar became one of the first influential African American poets in American Literature.  He was internationally acclaimed for his analytical verses in his works such as Majors and Minors, written in 1895 and Lyrics of Lowly Life in 1896. Paul Laurence Dunbar went to Howard University as well. After relocating to the city of Chicago, Dunbar got in contact with Frederick Douglas who then helped him get a job as a clerk and also arranged him to read a selection of his poems. By 1895 Dunbar’s poems began to be featured in major national newspapers and magazines such as the New York Times. Dunbar’s work is known as an very intriguing bodies of work that accurately represented Black life in the turn of the century America. 

Each of these writers not only heavily influenced American Literature, they also made their footprint during the times that they were wriitng and publishing. Each other shedded light on important issues in society which is why Rita Dove choose to put them in her poetry book. The writing styles are unique, but the works are deeper than just another poem. The touch on very infuential topics. 

In the introduction we are afforded the opportunity to witness the various reasons chose to

The Introduction to “The Penguin Anthology of Twentieth Century American Poetry,” written by Rita Dove and criticized by Helen Vendler in a response entitled “Are These the Poems to Remember,” listed names of black and white poets which Rita Dove sensed they were important to list to which Helen Vendler didn’t quite share the same beliefs, henceforth the criticism by Helen Vendler. The introduction speaks of time during American industrialization, such as World War 1, World War 2, The Civil War, the Great Depression, etc. and how the art poetry during these times gave hope and/or changed perspectives and views, also how these times changed poetry. She also jumps back and forth between the 19^th century and the 20^th century speaking of past poets, their works, their writing styles, and achievements.

                She begins sections in her introduction with a line from a poem then displays who wrote the quote. For instance, she began one of the sections by quoting Delmore Schwartz, a poet, Caucasian, from Brooklyn, New York who won the Bollingen Prize. His quote makes the statement, “The scrimmage of appetite everywhere.” This statement by itself could have more than one meaning. It could mean everyone is so hungry, metaphorically, to get “theirs” or what they want during a time of suffrage for the Americans. Or, secondly, it could mean a hunger struggle or people battling against their own hunger. After penning this quote, Dove gives us the names of poets who served in the Second World War in the army, navy and air force such as, Kenneth Koch, Robert Bly, and James Dickey, to proclaim these poets to have been “conscientious objectors.” A conscientious objector is a person who, for reasons of conscience, objects to following a particular requirement, especially serving in the armed forces (google dictionary). In other words, it is an individual who refuses to serve on the grounds of religion, conscience, and freedom of thought.

Dove remembered these poets because the aftermath “opened American consciousness” to concepts such as, absurdism (the belief of human existence being meaningless) and nihilism (the belief of life being meaningless). This, in my opinion, is written down by Dove to explain how poets began to develop their own style of writing because of the opened consciousness during this time of despair and hope. Coming to a breakthrough of no longer being held back or “indebted to the old British school of articulate reasoned oratory and less beholden to social, ethnic, or regional confines…” She then jumps to metaphorical characteristics and traits to describe the new and “fresh” style of other writers such as Langston Hughes, claiming he moved from the “decorous pronouncements of his Harlem Renaissance poems” to his poems now being infused with a jazz and bebop rhythm. Dove then compares Margaret Walker’s poem For My People to a black sermon and stating her achievement as the first African American poet to win the Yale Younger Poets Prize. Obviously, she was also the first African American female poet to win the prize as well. Soon after, Dove pens about another African American female poet who won the 1950 Pulitzer Prize, and the first huge recognition of a nonwhite poet, with her second book entitled Annie Allen, Gwendolyn Brooks. Dove declares, Gwendolyn Brooks not only won a Prize for her second book, but Gwendolyn’s first book, “confirmed that black women can express themselves in poems as richly innovative as the best male poets of any race.”

There were events happening in the African American community surrounding the 1950’s time period. Other than Gwendolyn Brooks winning the Pulitzer Prize, Supreme Court case justices ruled racial segregation of children in public schools was unconstitutional with the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Supreme Court case on May 17, 1954. A year later, on September 6, 1955, the funeral of Emmett Till took place in Mississippi, the state where he was killed. It was during this 1950 time period Dove suggests African American influences were increasingly permeating mainstream life and art. I am suggesting this means, the African American culture influenced the mainstream of poetry. In other words, the influence of African American culture was penetrating the American culture of life and art and changing it. Jazz and blues went North, scat singing evolved into bebop and the “musical innovation and improvisation loosened screws on other traditions as well…” Possibly, also in my own opinion, influencing the writing style in Howl written by Allen Ginsberg which Dove describes the personal style stood as an “unabashed antiestablishment stance and confessional rawness” ultimatum. The African American culture around this time seemed to have their own style of writing and a bit of confessional rawness because of the voice they were then trying to have. In Dove’s words the Black Arts movement was “a necessary explosion.” Dove goes on to elaborate, the Black Arts Movement was hitting targets they did not aim for. White students were wearing dashikis and crooning to Marvin Gaye. Could this have been the start of culture appropriation? This success inspired feminist poets, Native Americans, Hispanics, gays, and Asian Americans to use their neglected voices. Though the Black Arts movement was making an influence on other cultures, Dove states there was a lack of African Americans in poetry establishments. Though how could this be if African Americans made an impact with their art and style and rhythm in their poetic pieces? Are black poets in 20^th century appreciated as an influence in poetry, or are they only appreciated in the black community for influencing and new black aesthetic, or way of writing?

In the introduction, we are afforded to opportunity to witness the various reasons Rita Dove chose specific artists as well as the way she lists their work in her book. She opens the introduction with a letter that seems to be written to a close friend and or colleague. In this letter, she outlines five reasons why she has chosen to produce this book. Among these reasons was the influx of creative writing programs which gives young writers a place to exist as they develop the necessary skills to advance in the area of creative writing. This is extremely important, especially to young black writers who may often find themselves in a space where they are not treated equally or have access to the same resources as their white counterparts while striving to advance their writing ability. Given the history of non-white and female writers whose voices were not heard as much; the reshaping of African American poetry is highly regarded as a tool to further those who fall into spaces of not being treated fairly. Dove also includes poetry that over time has made a major influence on American history. Some of the works follow major occurrences that impact people of different races and cultural still today. This is important because as time goes on many people began to forget major things that have happen in the past. Especially during the new millennium age where the past has truly become the past. By forgetting the past we may find ourselves forgetting those who came before us and opened many doors for us to be able to live the lives we are living. People may also find themselves taking things for granted that were fought for many years ago. This is quite dangerous to black people especially. These are the cases when we run into things like political issues because people take voting too lightly. Dove states “We begin to wrap up things before the end arrives.” These reminded me of how often times white people would quickly try to silence black people when talking about slavery. Too many times white people try to sweep slavery under the rug as though it was not a big thing and in a way suggest black people should get over it since it has been over for years. Funny how fast they forget that black people still suffer from the awful days of slavery. America has been shaped based on the white hierarchy of white supremacy. Unfortunately, the world’s views of black people have not totally changed since and even some black people fall victim to the harsh reality of their ancestors once being enslaved. The structure of the world has been systematically set up to keep black people feeling inferior to white people and for generations, this has influenced the way many black people feel towards themselves and even other black people. Poetry has become a great avenue for blacks to freely express and share many of the hardships once forced upon them. As Dove mentions, some people either experienced slavery first-hand or from a relative and it impacts them tremendously. However, as the new century dawned, some people who could afford wiggle room were able and motivated to start fresh, do things differently, and embrace the new which helped them in overcoming some of the trauma many still dealt with.

In Rita Dove’s, The Penguin Anthology of Twentieth Century American Poetry, she introduces her readers to the most noteworthy and captivating poems of the past hundred years. In the introduction, Dove enlightens her readers with the history of the authors that are featured. After reading the introduction, I was excited to learn that I would be reading and interpreting poems by arguably the greatest poets of the time period. The introduction is important because it provides readers with not only insight into the history of the literary movement but also why Dove decided to include works that she did. 

Within the pages that my group and I were assigned, first introduced Robert Frost. Despite the constant neglect and criticism Frost received, he reputation remains as being one of the most celebrated poets of his time. Specifically, many saw Frost as being different from other writers and also questioned his writing style. As Dove states in the introduction, “One could explain away the phenomenon of Robert Frost with the adage “He who dies with the most toys wins”, but that would be unfair and, in fact, optimize the dismissive attitude characterizing the Frost-bashing of the 1970s and 1980s.”, I didn’t know what exactly “Frost-bashing “was and wondered about the extent of the adversity he faced during the time. Despite the misfortune, Frost is known as being of the most respected poets of the twentieth century. 

Moreover, the next featured poet is Wallace Stevens who essentially was one of the writers to develop modernism during the literary movement. As I was reading the introduction, I noted the part where Dove emphasize that readers must first understand the Victorian Era in order to even begin to why modernism was so important. I then did research about it and found that modernism developed due to writers wanted to differentiate themselves from Victorian Era which primarily focused on political reform and religion. Wallace became known as “the poet of the mind” because of the way in which his poems sought to be cerebral or analytical. As I continued to read I learned that during the end of the nineteenth century, the Victorian Era began to be questioned by theorist or as Dove states “begun to show cracks”. This is when the revelations of Darwinism, as known as the theory of evolution derived. From my understanding or interpretation, I began to develop that modernism essentially influenced the idea that the truth can be anything and that nothing necessarily has one meaning. This realization is of course what ignited the new literary movement. I began to think the theoretical approaches such as New Criticism coined by John Crowe Ransom which actually focuses on the importance of close reading and also discourages the use of outside sources or evidence in order to interpret the work. I was thrilled to have made a connection of this prior knowledge I had prior to reading the introduction. The fact that this same literary device was developed during the early twentieth century is what led me to make the connection. Other poets that were mentioned such as Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, and E.E. Cummings also add to the discussion of the literary movement and how it progressed during the time period. 

As I read the I noticed how a timeline was somewhat formed, I was not certain but personally, as I read, I saw as things feel into place as the literary movement progressed. Ultimately, the introduction made me excited to continue to read the remainder of the book and learning about the history or the time period in which the featured writer wrote allowed me to obtain a greater understanding of what’s to come and prepare myself for it.   

Introduction Blog Post

After reading the introduction I began to understand more about what Rita was going to be talking about. In class during our group discussion, I was now able to comprehend her reasoning as to why she chooses the poets/poems in the book. Based off the sentence “To which I inwardly cringed, for your email arrived just as I find myself so deep inside this enterprise as to be hopelessly blinded by the trees in the forest, the forest, the forest,” you can conclude that her introduction is a reply (to someone named “T”) to this mystery person. As you dig deeper you notice she begins using alterations when referring to the forest. It was discussed that this can be compared to “a family tree” and I agree. It is describing the forest to be the realm of literature and/or poetry and the poets seem to be the trees or foundation that sets it up. This also happens to be her using metaphors in this same sentence to illustrate the dynamic she upholds this anthology to. Rita pretty much remains stern in her literary references and what they provide to the art world today. “…after we have reconciled ourselves to owning this scary new millennium by looking forward before we have begun to forget,” is Rita implying that moving forward and progressing is as equally important to knowing and understanding your history, in order to prevail. “The king of is dead; long love the king,” is an example of accepting the present but still remembering the legacy left behind. In these artistic ways, Rita is telling us that it is crucial to understand our past and history to understand the times we live in today and even more years from now. It is understood through her rhetorical questions that sometimes artists are marginalized, non-represented, or even falsely represented. This includes minorities, women, as well as the LGBTQ community because the times weren’t as accepting as today (which hints to the depression and heavy burden of sorrow within poetry). Slavery (including systematic oppression), The Great Depression, World War I and II are some examples that can be explained for these troubling poetry times. This further emphasizes her other commitment to shedding light on these issues and poets who actually went through these similar experiences. They will come into fruition once reading their actual poetry and using similar references and literary elements alike Rita’s in her own introduction. Rita seems as if she’ll touch on controversial forms of morality when referring to the “dreaded monster of morality with an exalted sense of purpose and doom.” Sounds to me like saying things that are undeniably going against the grain can end up being a blessing (the poetry) and a curse (the mental struggles like depression and suicide which ended up being common in these times). She refers to northerners as the “involuntary population of freedmen struggling to create an identity for themselves in hostile environments.” To me this sounds like slavery to freedom trauma meaning it was hard to adjust to the “free” life after being shackled and controlled for so long. This is a part of the same trauma I touched on earlier. It left some of these poets in troubled times of not knowing who they are or what place they have in the world. Reasons like this make me look forward to reading more of Rita’s anthology because I feel like people in my generation often do not consider how certain trauma shapes and affects our culture, not just then, but even the times of today. There is a saying that “history repeats itself,” but if you are informed of that history that your ancestors hold, you can at least look out for the mistakes and find ways to solve issues and be better than what was.

 In the final pages of the introduction including the epilogue, Rita touches on black poets and female poets who didn’t receive as much publicity as white male writers received. With the civil rights movement at it’s peak, the pain and long for justice embedded in these young black poets’ souls was revealed. Feminists poets began to embrace their differences and discover their similarities. They had cracked the code to receive the recognition they deserved, essentially changing the game. Analyzing the excerpts from poems in this section will reveal such a subtle nod to the discrimination not only from the literary world but from reality as well. For the first time so far in the anthology, Dove gives some insight about how she felt while writing and choosing the outline this project and the difficult decisions that barred her from allowing every poet she longed for into this book.

            The civil rights movement and the Vietnam war were the two historical effects associated with the uprising of black, hippy, female, and gay poets. The feminists and the blacks had much in common in terms of disobedience. Black people were marching on Washington and infiltrating places where they were not wanted all in the name of equal rights. Feminists on the other hand, were doing that on their pages. They wrote unapologetically areas they strayed away from in the past. The Black Arts movement empowered anybody who had a soul during the 1970’s. Mainstream approval was no longer necessary. It wasn’t unusual to see white students wearing dashiki’s and blacks were claiming their uniqueness by proclaiming the mantra “Black is beautiful”.

            Rainer Maria Rilke encouraged other poets to “go into yourself” and not to shy away from images that the rational mind may not be able to comprehend. Nikki Giovanni wrote a self-empowering poem called ‘Ego Trippin’, in which she compares herself to the seven wonders of the world and truly embodies the beauty and greatness that she possesses. It was not common for black women to be so openly confident about the things they have been ridiculed for in the past. I loved how she utilized the style that the white poets were being praised for and winning awards for and spun it in her favor. Adrienne Rich lead the growing women’s movement with the paper she delivered to the Modern Language Association Commission on the Status of Women in the Profession. She stated, “until we can understand the assumptions in which we are drenched we cannot know ourselves”. This was the beginning of the women getting their seat at the table, even if that meant they had to pull one up themselves.

            Toward the end of the century, is was encouraged that these writers explore universities, creative writing workshops, and technical training to enhance their writing styles and expose them to different forms of poetry and expression. This movement that was intended to educate and strengthen writers resulted in writers conforming to a standard way of poetry and made it hard for readers to decipher which poets were which. When all of them were taught the same, they lost their unique creativity and began to morph into one person.

Rita inserted an excerpt from a poem by Leslie Marmon Silko entitled Indian Song: Survival. “It is only a matter of time, Indian. You can’t sleep with the river forever.” This poem was at the header, yet the paragraph flowing it had nothing to do with Silko nor native Americans. I began to question why Dove would put an irrelevant poem in to the introduction that she wasn’t going to address. It dawned on me that she was indirectly exposing the prejudice we have against people of color and indigenous when it comes to telling their story. When educating those on the history of native Americans it is only in connection to white people’s history. Our stories are only mentioned, only considered, but they are not the main topic. Hence why the poetry is the header and there is no other acknowledgement of it after that.

I feel like Rita Dove’s introduction to The Penguin Anthology of Twentieth Century American Poetry was incredibly detailed and helpful, useful background information to the book. I think it’s important for readers to read it before reading the book. And it’s also useful because while reading the book you can go back through and reference it for details. It’s amazing that she was able to summarize all that information into around twenty pages. I find it crazy that she was able to study and analyze all that took place in a hundred years because so much took place. Throughout the era that she studied and wrote about many things took place such as women fighting for equality, the civil rights era, world war one, world war two, and the cold war. Not only was there many social and economic reforms but there were also many creative revolutions and evolutions throughout the time such as the harlem Renaissance. And throughout all this time the art and styles of poetry changed tremendously. So Rita Dove had an abundance of things to learn, write about, and include in her book. She talks in the intro about her struggle with writing the introduction and says “I thought the forward would be the easy part… and I should have written right then, before rereading, discovering, misplacing notes; before tracking down copyright dates, crunching numbers-” So I completely realize how much of a struggle it must’ve been to write this introduction and I admire her work. 

In class when we split up into groups to analyze and do close readings of the different parts of the introduction, something that stood out to me in the section we read was the change in style of how poets were writing over the years. There was a big shift in style. Poets were switching it up because they were “no longer indebted to the old British” way of writing. Also African American influencers were become mainstream, blues and jazz turned into scat and howl became present changing poetry as well. Howl changed the presentation of poetry.

Another part that stood out to me in this introduction was the inclusion of Rita Dove mentioning the amount of poets committing suicide. And I don’t know if it was related to the things that the poets had  been through because like I mentioned earlier there was a lot that went on throughout that era but I just thought the similarities were interesting. Something else I found interesting was that Rita Dove could not include certain poets in her book because of copyright on their work and at the same time I wonder if that changed the message she’s giving in the book. But I like how she gave an explanation as to why she couldn’t include those people.

I liked how Rita Dove wrote the introduction by making every different section short and sweet but at the same time because she covered so much information it was also confusing and some parts. Something else that confused me is that it wasn’t in chronological order by the years because she was talking about the different moments in history one at a time. But I like how she included quotes to start off each section I feel like because every quote related to the text beneath it, it kind of gave you an insight of what the next section would be about. 

And in conclusion I liked how Rita Dove wrote the entire thing like she was talking to you and how the introduction started and finished like she was personally writing you a letter. I am looking forward to reading the rest of the book.

Rita dove in the opening of her book The Penguin Anthology of Twentieth Century American Poetry, discussed a bundle of information in regards to poetry and the ever changing society. The book scrutinizes how as new movements in the world arise, new writing styles emerge as well. Dove supplying a crucial background is important for the audience to comprehend the reason why she chose the poems she did and the significance of the writing style during this timne period

As continued today, most artists use poetry as an artistic outlet to express their own personal ideology on society. Rita Dove reviews how historical movements caused poets to shift gears in their writing. Second way feminisim, gay awarnwss, hippies, the student protests are all distinct crusades in which aided in progressive writing styes.

One specific coalition was the Black Arts Movement. An art campaign lead by African American to create new cultural institutions and illustrate a message of black pride. Dove quotes, “The nascent Black Arts movement entered a jew phase; unlike their counterparts of the Harlem Renaissance, African- American poets now were not only describing and reflecting upon the pecularities of their place at America’s table–they were upturning the benches and walking off to eat by themselves.” Artists apart of the Black Arts Movemen generated politically captivating work to explore the African American experience, both culturally and historically, in addition to changing the way African Americans were portrayed in literature and the arts. 

In 1965, after the assaination of Malcom X artisit were angery with the slow progession of the civil rights movement. As the Dove goes more in depth into the new phase that the New Black Asthetic had become, she mentions, “The old Euro-American literary standards were rejected, and African Culture…and its derivatives this side of the Middle Passage became the rallying cry of the New Black Asthetic.” Blacks were no longer accepting the portrayal and histroy of their culture their White American. Defining cultural experiences on their own terms. Poetry written during this time period focused solely on unity and pride within the Black community.

The Black Arts movement and the New Black Asthetic reclaimed the power that had been taken from the Black community. Giving blacks a sense of pride known to them in the 1920’s. Living by the “Black is beautiful” motto, which eventually became mainstream. White folks wearing dashikis and tuning in to black artists music such as Marvin Gaye gave the African American community a sense of hope. Not only was hope instilled in the Black Community, but also in other minority struggles. The Black Arts Movement became the blueprint for other communities and encouraged them to speak up. Neglected voices such as Feminists, Native Americans, Hispanics, gays, and Asian Americans spoke up and united due to the similarities and differences discovered. However,  self segregation also brought white washed poems to the table as well.

Poetry became an important part of cultural, especially when it came to political movements. As I mentioned before, poetry is an art that people still to this today feel comfortable voicing their experiences weather it be personal, cultural, or historical. Understanding the background of poetry and its connections to these is very pivotal when it comes to modern poetry. By recognizing the importance of the past of poetry, it brings you to the current and even the future of poetry. Rita Dove wrote this introduction to make sure the audience resonates with how particular styles of writing came to be, and also understanding why she chose the poets she did. By educating us on the history, it gives us room to interpret the works of arts in a new light.