We have been reading Kettle Bottom and discussing the different poems. For this week's blog, choose one of the pieces we have read and discussed and write an analysis of the poem.
In writing your analysis, be sure to explain who the speaker is and how the speaker helps to provide insight into this world. You will also want to create a question you think the poem tries to answer in order to ascertain the theme. Be sure to include quotes from the poem to reinforce your analysis.
One of the poems in Kettle Bottom is the poem The Rocks Down Here. The speaker of this poem is a father who works in the mine. Throughout the poem the speaker is answering the question why working in the mines is less stressful and painful than having to face his family at home. The speaker opens up with describing how awful his mornings entering the mines are, “first hour of every shift down in the mine,/shakes and cold sweats worse’n in the grippe/that near took me last spring” (1-3). Entering the mine he feels gold and sick, it is so awful that he nearly died. This creates the illusion that he is going to be talking about how awful the mine conditions are. However that changes and he begins to talk about how it is a struggle to provide for his family. The speaker talks about how his family wishes to be somewhere else, “somewhere clean/ in clean leaves and sun, where she don’t/ spend her days wiping coal dust/ and scraping to feed youn’uns” (11-14). The speaker is talking about how his wife spends all her time cleaning up coal and trying to make sure she is fed. The speaker feels like all the burden is on his shoulders and that is failing his family, “seven/ is hard to feed” (14-15). He admits that it is a lot of work. The speaker then goes on to compare the rocks to the members of his family, “the rocks down here,/ they don’t expect nobody to love them,” (16-17). The rocks in the mine do not expect anything from him. While he is the mine he is trying to be a superhero for anyone. He is just doing his job with no one is looking at him, “all big-eyed and hungry” (19). The rocks are simply rocks, no feelings, no expectations, no mouths to feed. The speaker ends the poem with, a mountain on your back, hell,/ that ain’t nothing” (22-23). Being underground with the risk of a mountain collapsing at any minute is less stressful than having to face his family and disappointing them because they are cold and hungry. Which is shocking because the mine puts his life at risk but he has no expectations there.
ReplyDeleteOne poem from Kettle Bottom by Diane Gilliam Fisher is “My Dearest Hazel”. The speaker of the poem is Hazel’s sister, whose husband works in the mines, giving her personal experience and interactions with a miner. This makes her a valid source of information, which she is trying to give her sister advice on marrying Turley, who is a miner. A question posed throughout this poem is, “How do the mines negatively affect the miners and the people around them?”. Hazel’s significant other is an avid miner: “...telling how you are planning to marry Turley come fall and how he has gone in the mine up to Jenkinjones and has took it like a fish to water”(Fisher 2-5). The phrase “has took it like a fish to water”, shows how Turley is very compatible with mining and that he likes it very much, just as a fish is with water. It is a necessity to Turley, like water is a necessity for a fish. This is a concern for Hazel’s sister because she knows how consuming the mines are and she is genuinely worried for her sister’s sake. Therefore, Hazel’s sister compares alcohol to the mines: ”Drinking ain’t the only thing Hazel. / Some men, they get in the mine, and it gets them”(Fisher 12-13). The mines or coal can be compared to alcohol because it is an addiction. The miners are consumed by their work, which it “gets them”. This negatively affects Hazel’s sister, which she is warning Hazel about who she is marrying. The poem states, “Im telling you, Hazel, for the sake of your own / sweet soul, when Clayton kisses me now / I don't taste nothing but coal”(Fisher 21-23). Hazel’s sisters husband, Clayton, works in the mines, which he barely spends time with his wife. Everything in his life revolves around the mines, which is the reason to why she gives Hazel a warning. The job also is very poor for health, which Clayton’s lungs are filled with coal dust, but he refuses to quit. Hence why Hazel’s sister “tastes nothing but coal” when she kisses her husband. The mining job will not only affect her husband to be, but it will negatively affect Hazel as well.
ReplyDelete“The Rocks Down Here” in Kettle Bottom is narrated by a miner who has to support seven other people. The miner understands that life is hard not only for him, but for his family. He knows that, “...a woman’s eyes / follow after him, craving / to be somewhere else, somewhere clean…” and understands the suffering of the wives of the miners wanting to just leave but can not because they have nowhere else to go. And outside of the mine, “...them Baldwin-Felts gun thugs,” further forced together this situation and continues to elaborate on how poor the conditions are that the mines need people to enforce and force people to work which shows past dissent of the miners. And finally, after all this time, the miner begins to think, “The rocks down here, / they don’t expect nobody to love them…” and, “... a mountain on your back, / that ain’t nothing,” which both show that the miner has almost given up and actually enjoys mining now instead of having to deal with problems back at home. All in all, the speaker truly shows how this world is beginning to fall apart.
ReplyDeleteThe poem “Dear Diary” from Kettle Bottom depicts a young girl named Edith Mae who, upon receiving a new coat from a charity, comes to terms with her family’s financial shortcomings for the first time. Her diary entry begins by stating that a teacher has given her “this little book, for a girl, she says, has got lots of feelings she needs to get out” (Fisher 1-3). Already, the voice is young and innocent, suggesting that this girl may appreciate the kindness shown to her family but may not entirely understand it. As the family looks through charity boxes, she spots a jacket that she desperately wants but claims that she “didn’t say nothing, for it is wrong to covet,” a line of reasoning decidedly religious and humble for such a young girl (Fisher 20-1). This is further emphasized upon quoting her mother, “the first, she says, shall be last” (Fisher 26-7). She feels “like a queen” in her new coat, receiving compliments and basking in all of the attention (Fisher 32). There is a sort of divergence forming between Edith Mae and her family on the topic of the coat at this point, as if they have information that she does not. The family seems to react hesitantly to the coat and Edith Mae cannot seem to figure out why, seeing the free, brand-new coat as a no-brainer. However, this is all explained when she finds a letter inside of the coat from the original owner, a girl named Emily Lawson that did not know that “there are girls who do not have dancing lessons or a new coat every year” (Fisher 53-4). Emily Lawson, like Edith Mae, does not know of a world unlike her own, and her mother’s attempts to break this bubble are evident in the letter. It seems as though Fisher wishes to determine the point at which a person learns that they are different, and then goes on to investigate how that person reacts. In the case of Edith Mae, the poem’s speaker, she claims that the coat makes her “warm as pie. Which is true and not a lie, for it is only my heart that is cold” (Fisher 67-8). Through the use of this rhyme, a clear transition from blissful ignorance to cold, hard reality is seen in these last two lines of the poem. She is now aware of her situation and understands why her father reacted as he did towards the coat. His being “hateful of them mission boxes” had nothing to do with Edith Mae or how she looked in the coat, but rather the principle of the boxes themselves as a testament to his own inability to support the family financially (Fisher 35-6). This coat exchange is significant overall, not just for an underprivileged young girl to receive the coat given up by another, but for both girls to understand a piece of each other’s lives, learning what it means to value difference.
ReplyDeleteFrom the collection of poems in, Kettle Bottom, by Diane Gilliam Fisher, one poem shows a treatment of blacks in the time period this was written. The poem is titled, At the Colored Bathhouse, and shows the hardships two brothers go through while being a miner. The speaker and his brother are young black men who are never given the luxury of sitting with regular white people, “not riding/like the dagos, but out in front, timbering/and laying track…” (Lines 3-4).The speaker uses the word, “dagos,” to classify the white people with a provocative term. This shows that there is a segregation of people, and through the speaker’s eyes there is a strong resentment of both groups. At the end of them poem, the speaker shows that even when he feels safe, he is not safe. The speaker’s boss will always stop just before they go to bed and makes harsh comments and threats. Making a comment to their pants hanging up in the bathhouse, the fire boss makes a two way statement, “grinning and hollering/String’em up, boys. That’s the way” (Lines 14-15). During this time it was common for white people to have hangings of blacks. Although this statement is towards the speaker’s pants hanging up, it was meant to scare the blacks. The fireboss intended to shake them up with that comment. With this type of treatment towards the speaker, it is shown that the blacks have no way to fight back and just choose to deal with their torment instead of standing up for themselves.
ReplyDeleteOne significant poem within Kettle Bottom by Diane Gilliam Fisher is “The Rocks Down Here”. The poem speaks of a miner’s daily life through first person point of view. The narrator is a husband and a father to seven, struggling to provide for his family, as he says: “Seven / is hard to feed,” (lines 14-15). Because of this, the speaker sees the mine being a way to hide from his problems, a way to forget his responsibilities. The poem is included to allow an understanding of why miners endure their life-threatening job: it is an escape from reality. The narrator has the responsibility of multiple lives put upon himself that it becomes too much to bear. This idea is directly expressed in the poem: “You can bet your bottom dollar / them Baldwin-Felts gun thugs / won’t hound a man down into the hole / to devil him. Nor can a woman’s eyes / follow after him,” (lines 6-10). The pressure caused from this gives the justification to the speaker’s choice as to why he remains working at the mine, “The rocks down here, / they don’t expect nobody to love them / and they don’t never need shoes, nor get / all big-eyed and hungry, looking / at a man,” (lines 15-19). His choice to provide for his family, as well as neglect them, is stated in the last lines of the poem, as he says: “A mountain on your back, hell, / that ain’t nothing,” (lines 21-22). The simple hyperbole contributes to theme as well as allows the explanation of why most of the miners continue to work: for the money and the somewhat freedom their job gives them.
ReplyDeleteIn Diane Fisher’s collection of poems, Kettle Bottom, she includes the short but powerful poem “Pearlie Asks Her Mama What Poontang Means”. The poem is from the point of view of a young girl living in the 1920’s. This poem is different than the other poems in the collection because it does not focus on coal mining. Instead, this poem focuses on the struggles of women during this time. At the beginning of the poem, the young girl is walking by the store when a group of men sexually harassed her. She says, ‘[...] the one run up behind me, laughing, and lifted up the back of my skirt with a shotgun” (7-9). In the 1920’s, it was more acceptable to act inappropriately toward women, and especially easy when a shotgun was in the mix. Even though the young girl was sexually harassed, she handled it calmly and went home to tell her mother. She could not tell her dad because “[...] God only knows what would happen then”. The young girl did not want her father to act on the issue if she was completely capable of taking care of it herself. She wanted to stand up for herself in the name of being a capable woman in this time period. Her mother told her she could not go to the store any more but she did not listen and instead went and bought a knife. Fisher ends the poem with the lines “I have tried so hard to be so good, and now it is all for naught, for them men, them men has put murder in my heart” (16-18). The young girl realises that the only way to make a difference in the world is to do it herself, so she breaks the social rules of the 1920’s to make a name for women. Fisher incorporated this poem in her collection because she wanted the role of women in the 1920’s to be more understood. Not only were the men suffering in the coal mines, but women were having it rough too. She begs the question what is the role of a woman? to challenge the views associated with women in the 1920’s. In this case, the role of a woman is to fight back, just like the miners did.
ReplyDeleteOne of the pieces in Kettle Bottom that stood out was “The Rocks Down Here.” This brief, yet powerful poem emphasizes the struggles and pains of raising a family. The narrator begins by saying, “First hour of every shift down in the mine, / shakes and cold sweats worse’n the grippe / that near took me last spring. / Past that, I begin to feel easy-like, / moving through the dark.” (Fisher 1-5) The narrator is essentially stating that in the beginning, mining is a daunting task, however, the task becomes easier as one continues mining. The narrator then continues to state that the mine is an area that nobody will go to, “You can bet your bottom dollar / them Baldwin-Felts gun thugs / won’t hound am an down into the hole…” This idea is then connected to finding love; the narrator says that a woman cannot fall in love with a miner due to the work and effort it takes to hold a relationship, “...where she don’t / spend her days wiping coal dust / and scraping to feed young’uns…” (Fisher 12-14). The stress of family is then mentioned again when the miner states, “Seven / is hard to feed. The rocks down here, / they don’t expect nobody to love them…” (Fisher 14-16). Although mining may be difficult, it doesn’t require the care and effort that a family requires. The rocks are simplistic; they don’t require anything, “...they don’t never need shoes, nor get /all big-eyed and hungry, looking/ at a man…” (Fisher 17-19). Through the speaker’s commentary, we are able to recognize that he is a miner that is in a complex relationship with his family; one that revolves around confusion and anxiety. In addition to this, the speaker is creating commentary about the hard work and passion that must go into a family; he states that no other task is able to match the intensity of raising a family, “...After an hour or so / down below, a body gets to thinking, / a mountain on your back, hell, / that ain’t nothing” (Fisher 19-22).
ReplyDelete“Journal of Catherine Terry” is written by the perspective of a teacher, hired by the company to teach in the mines. The change in dialect differs from the other poems because there is no southern dialect, and the grammar is more proper. “The way millions of green leaves in this place whisper then retreat, give glimpses beyond the curtain, then draw closed” (Fisher 5-7). This, in addition to the speaker referring to her residence of “this place” reveals the speaker is not from the region and her grammar and expanded vocabulary hints she is of higher education, alienating her even more. The speaker provides a perspective to someone still fresh to the coal mines, that is forced to be there against their own will. The speaker is not yet desensitized to the world around her, while she describes the others do not seem to be aware of the horrors she sees and hears. “Wild creatures -- they tell me, though my heart is not resolved to it” (Fisher 21-22). This quote highlights the contrast between Terry’s thinking and the natives, all the natives brush off the noises and things that frighten her, while Terry’s mind runs wild and she cannot stop thinking about it. This poem answers the question, “How do outsiders view the coal mines?”
ReplyDeleteKettle Bottom opens with the poem, “Explosion at Winco No. 9”. This poem is very symbolic as the opening. The speaker is a woman who is married to a coal miner. The poem begins with explaining how women recognize their husbands, “Delsey Salyer knowed Tom Junior by his toes” (1). This creates the tone of light heartedness and loving someone enough to recognize them by the little details. Then a tone shift occurs in the second stanza and the speaker starts to describe what it is like being a woman married to the mine, “It is true that it is the men that goes in, but it is us/ that carries the mine inside” (6-7). The diction in this line shows how dreadful the speaker feels about her husband working in the mines. She explains that he might physically be in the mines daily but involuntarily she gets dragged in there with him. Next, the wife describes how the miners wives cannot just identify their husbands by the surface, but by the very details that could only belong to them. She makes this statement generally, “Us that learns by heart/ birthmarks, scars, bends of fingers” (10-11). However, in the next stanza she discusses a personal moment with her husband which we later learn is how Maude Stanley identifies her husband. This is important because as soon as she recognizes who was dragged out of the mine, she felt that she was carried out of the mine as well, “I said, blue dress. I told him, Maude Stanley, 23” (24). The irony of this refers back to how the speaker originally said that she was carried into the mine with her husband.
ReplyDeleteDiane Gilliam Fisher’s poem “L’Inglese” details the perspective of an Italian immigrant who has moved to work in the coal mines of West Virginia. The speaker introduces by stating how “the English is rocky in the mouth” to introduce the foreign environment that the immigrant finds himself in. He then goes on to create a contrast between his own culture and this new one, “they have no Tasso, they have no Dante”. This statement serves to allude to the apparent lack of culture that this new home has in contrast with the poets of Italy. The speak then wonders what “kettle bottom” is, saying “il sotto della caldaia” to both include his Italian roots and speculate that it’s the bottom of some boiler. After speaking it Henry Burgess, he then realizes the grave danger of kettle bottom looming over the mines ready to “drop through the mine roof” at any moment. Following this unfortunate realization, the speaker the realizes the melancholy nature of working in the mines, that at any moment, an innocent miner’s life can be swiftly taken in an instant, “kills a man just like that”. After making this realization the Italian speaker then says “Lasciate ogni speranza voi ch’entrate qui”, translating roughly to “leave all hope at the door”. This references the hopeless and depressing circumstances of living and working a life in the mines. In introducing a foreign perspective into the lives of the mines, the author attempts to answer even a foreign immigrant moving in search of a self fulfilled life can take control of his own destiny in the mines. As exemplified by kettle bottom, it can be seen that the mines strip all hope and control from its victims, regardless of the personal ambitions of even those who are determined enough and courageous enough to immigrate to the land of “L’Inglese”.
ReplyDeleteIn Diane Gilliam Fisher’s collection of poems entitled Kettle Bottom, a short poem named “Explosion at Winco No. 9” depicts the hardships faced by those left behind after a tragic mine accident. Family members and friends identify their lost loved ones by physical attributes such as their toes, their ear, their “birthmarks, scars, bends of fingers” (Fisher 11). The speaker of the poem is presumably the wife of a dead miner, which allows insight to just how intimately each spouse knew each other. To be able to identify someone by seemingly insignificant attributes that would go unnoticed by strangers speaks to the love shared between those in the poem. “Explosion at Winco No. 9” attempts to answer the question of how well we know the ones we love. Could you identify your sister by the mole behind her ear? Or your best friend by the dimples in her cheeks? It is those we hold nearest to our hearts that we know best, which is why the speaker of the poem gave her own name when asked to identify her dead husband’s body. When he died, a piece of her did as well.
ReplyDeleteThe third poem in Kettle Bottom "My Dearest Hazel" is much like "L'Ingles" the poem before it, in that it changes the paradigm for which traditional society is based on, and from this point all morals and values must be decided upon by those who hold it which proves dangerous. The name hazel, to whom this poem is addressed, suggests some characteristics she holds inbetween two fundamental values, like hazel is between blue and green. However, the nature of "Momma" tells that their is no ambiguity in her message, the mine has completely controlled his soul, even if he had another opportunity to do something else Momma explains: "But he won't go back to farming, even though Momma'd give us a stake on the home place" (Fisher 19) She explains that this paradigm shift goes completely under, and the only indicator Momma gives to Hazel on Turley is another complete shift, this time in the way the mind processes information through the use of alcohol. Essential, the game is rigged against them, it is a catch-22. The mine is a trap, and Momma can smell it on the breath, as she explains to her about her husband: "Daddy took to drink like a fish to water"(5) ignoring the obvious play on alcohol and liquid, this serves as another important way to see paradigm shift in that Daddy has reached a whole different level of a key fundamental aspect of living between air and water. Hazel cannot be inbetween these two worlds as her name suggests, being a strong heart person herself but falling victim to the proverbial mine in the way Daddy does. Momma addresses this confidence in being unambiguous in tolerance for this paradigm shift for the alchohol which their husbands drink to deal with the fundamental shift when saying "you smell it on his breath, you walk away."(13) In order to address how to deal with this paradigm shift, is the only time Fisher decides to rhymwe, effectively shifting the fundamental values of the whole poem. Momma rhymes in the last lines when addressing interacting and the effects of the mine with her husband: "I'm telling you Hazel, for the sake of your own sweet soul, when Clayton kisses me now I don't take nothing but coal." (26). Fisher asks an important question, which is how do we handle paradigm shifts that we face everyday. It points on some glaring errors in our current understanding of the world, like we have been walking on thin cracked ice this whole time and people falling through has been progress and innovation. The blame will never rest on Momma, but it won't rest on Turley or even the cruel mob bosses. How do we adjust to be able to even have a decent or quality thinking about what we do when the parameters of it are always changing, and the answer to that lies in the collective change of the whole system itself. The problem arises here when we must decide to make the morals that govern the placement of mines in the minefield and as Dostoevsky and Nietzsche point out, this is a radiation.
ReplyDeleteDiane Gilliam Fisher’s poem “Pearlie Asks Her Mama What Poontang Means” focuses on the loss of innocence of a young girl as she is faced with harassment for the first time. The poem answers the question of how innocence can be lost and demonstrates the way that the loss of innocence can change a person. In this case, Pearlie’s loss of innocence forces her to consider acts of crime and violence. The loss of innocence in the poem is introduced in the first half when Fisher writes, “Mama says to don’t tell Daddy, for he/ would have to go after them men that spoke/ to me that way” (1-3). By saying that Pearlie’s father would want to go after the men that spoke to her implies that what they said to her was likely derogatory. Pearlie’s actual loss of innocence, though, is seen when Fisher writes, “the one run up behind me, laughing,/ and lifted up the back of my skirt/ with a shotgun” (7-9). These lines reveal that one of the ment speaking to Pearlie lifted up her skirt. More importantly, though, is the break in the sentence at “with a shotgun” which emphasizes the danger of the situation. Not only were the men being rude to Pearlie, but threatening as well. This is Pearlie’s loss of innocence and prompts her thoughts in the remainder of the poem. Following these lines, Fisher writes, “I have not never stole nothing,/ nor hardly ever even told a lie” (13-4). The use of alliteration with “not never stole nothing” and “ever even” stress that Pearlie was a well behaved girl who stayed out of trouble. However, now “them men” have made her feel the need “to get me a knife” (Fisher 15). The phrase, “to get me a knife” also starts a new line in the poem, stressing the change in Pearlie, for she has gone from a good, innocent young girl to a frightened and angry young girl who must get a knife to protect herself from “them men.”
ReplyDelete“My Dearest Hazel” by Diane Gilliam is a poem from Kettle Bottom, in the form of a letter from a miner’s wife to her sister. This poem answers the question, “what is it like to be married to a miner?”, through the speakers urges to her sister Hazel, to not marry her fiance who is a miner, saying it’s, “for the sake of [her] own sweet soul” (21-22). This shows that being married to a miner is mentally and emotionally harmful if it has an effect on the soul. She also retells details of her own marriage with a regretful tone, such as her husband’s illness from mining, indicating that she doesn’t like the situation she is in, but is trapped, as her husband “Won’t go back to farming” (18-19), meaning she can’t escape the bad situation as much as she dislikes it. She describes how mining overtook her husband’s life and that is he doesn’t care about anything else, or, “what goes on in the sun” as the speaker describes(15). The speaker also compares mining to the speaker and Hazel’s father’s drinking habit, calling it addictive and destructive. Overall, this poem shows the destructive effect mining has on marriage.
ReplyDeleteOne of the most striking poems in Kettle Bottom is “Dear Diary”. Edith Mae, a young girl, innocently pours her heart out into her diary at the request of her teacher. In her entry, she explains how she was given a coat from a box donated to her miner village. Edith Mae feels beautiful and special in her coat, and has trouble understanding why her parents did not want her to have it. This is until she discovers that the coat was donated to her by a wealthy girl, and she realizes how her situation is worse than others. This takes away from Edith Mae’s innocent joy and “turns her heart cold”, and she is forced to grow up. The fact that this poem is told from a child’s perspective makes it very raw and honest. Edith Mae is unaware of the fact that anyone is going to read her diary, so she does not hold back. Because of this, she gives a very accurate description of what she is feeling. This poem gives the perspective of how the mines affected the lives of children. We see that they are very poor and can not afford “dancing lessons or a new coat every year, or the benefit of scripture of even supper every day”, which to Emily Lawson is considered ‘normal’. These children were not given the luxuries given to other children of their day, and that is very sad and eye-opening. Edith Mae’s story can be seen as a humbling lesson, as all she wanted was a coat.
ReplyDeleteThe poem “explosion at Winco no 9” tells the story of the wives of the miners and they way in which they recognize their husbands after bad accidents. It emphasizes the struggles of the women in mining areas. It also shows the sadness behind mining accidents and the way the wives remember so many little details about their husbands before they enter the mines. The speaker in this poem is a miner named teds wife whose name is revealed to be maude. This is important to the poem because when asked to identify her husband she gives her own name signifying a loss of a part of herself. The poem says “it is the men who go in but it is us who carry the mine inside”. This shows the idea that it is the women who are dealing with the loss of their loved ones. It also shows the struggles the mines give to everyone in the family’s of the miners. This answers the question of how the mines affect more than just the miners.
ReplyDeleteDiane Gilliam Fisher wrote the poem “Explosion at Winco No. 9”. The poem illustrates the devastation and frustration of the coal miner’s lovers. Unfortunately, the women are able to identify their lovers by their poor conditions. Their devastating description of the coal miners are revealed in the beginning of the poem where Fisher explains that, “Betty Rose seen a piece of Willy’s ear, the little notched part where a hound had bit him...” (3-4). This reveals how the woman uses their poor condition as a form of identification. The woman tone releases a sense of numbness. The numbness she experiences derives from the constant pain she suffers which inevitably becomes a norm that she can’t escape from. This is a devastating matter due to the lack of positivity they have in order to describe their physical appearance. The lovers frustration is seen when the narrator explains that, “It is true that it is the men that goes in, but it is us that carries the mine inside.” (Fisher 6-7). This goes to show you that the women also carry the burden that comes from coal mining. The diction that is being used signifies their anguish and grief of the dangers that come from coal mining. The use of “us” emphasize the great deal of distress it causes to not only the coal miners but also their families. The poem answers the question of what it is like to be with a coal miner. The woman explains how coal mining breaks her down in agony due to the constant fear and pain it causes her and her family.
ReplyDeleteOne of the poems in Kettle Bottom by Diane Fisher is My Dearest Hazel. The speaker of the poem is the wife of a coal miner and a mother. She warns her daughter of what she’s marrying into, telling her the coal mine will break a sense of intimacy in the relationship. “They won’t do nothing else, nor care / anymore for what goes on in the sun” (14-15). Great marriages don’t happen by love or by accident. They are the result of a consistent investment of time, thoughtfulness, forgiveness, affection, mutual respect and a rock-solid commitment between a husband and wife. “My Clayton, / his lungs is so full of dust, some nights / he can’t hardly breath. But he won’t / go back to farming, even though Momma’d give us / a stake on the home place” (15-19). When you are willing to compromise and make sacrifices for someone, that’s where you feel true love. The most direct form of communication is a kiss. It’s the most essential gesture to seal and affirm the statement of love. When the speaker kisses Clayton, the passion lacks and she only tastes coal.
ReplyDeleteIn the Journal of Catherine Terry, the speaker is a teacher in the coal mines school. She explains throughout, how she feels uncomfortable. Catherine doesn't understand why nobody else is worried like her, “Screams, silence, more screams, it goes on for an hour or more and no door opens in the camp, no light goes on” (lines 27-30). This provides how different their ‘world’ is in the mountains compare to the life the teacher is used to. She explains that not even her light went on because, “my hand trembled so I could not put my match to wick” (lines 30-32). This showcases how she is scared in this alternate world, she is “racing to get away” like her pulse (line 36).
ReplyDeleteHow does it feel to be an outsider against society and the environment? The tone of the poem is a state of constant anxiety, which strengthens the outcast feeling. She compares her thoughts to a kaleidoscope, her “nerves and senses constantly jumbled into patterns which do not hold” (lines 2-4). She is scared of the different environment and lifestyle. Catherine attempts to change to fit the societal needs, or rather, lack thereof. However, she still feels out of place and is in need of an escape.