Category Archives: close reading

A close reading of “Failure of Hospitality”

close reading

Failure of hospitality

I had normal dreams like wires dangling everywhere
The ludicrous thing about order won’t hear lies only peace
Her body full with splinters can’t pick the olives alone
Luxurious character of the negative raised a lion in your house
No Hebrew word for integrity will be a blazing light
Future collapsed in present execution and mourning
Duty of guest and host a torn native
Narratives compete for a sacred hair lying where it shouldn’t
Stoked button the key to distilled water living a quiet way
This unbearable intimacy a purity of arms suturing
Chocolate cake with coconut flecks none of us taught to see
Besieged body a piece of metal we will offer all our children
This permanent remembrance slaughtered and we promise a pleasant life

This poem attempts to present the contradictions brought by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through manipulating language. Several words in this poem reflect and therefore emphasize these contradictions. For example, negative words are paired with positive words such as besieged, slaughtered, unbearable, execution, mourning narratives, lies, peace, sacred, pleasant, integrity, light, purity. Yet Zolf uses the words “host” and “guest” in “Duty of guest and host a torn native” to embody the dual identity that native people must live. While they should be the hosts of Israelis, the Israeli occupation has turned them into guests in their homeland; they have become “torn native[s]”. The first line contains a simile in which Zolf compares dreams to wires in their arbitrary directions. The dreams referred to here could be nightmares or daydreams of a changing world.

The next line contains a sense of irony in its tone: “The ludicrous thing about order won’t hear lies only peace”. Zolf tells the reader that lies and peace are two separate concepts and that order is related to peace not lies; however, there are always lies about peace when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As we read how “Her body” is disabled; although she is anonymous to us, Zolf succeeds in evoking our sympathies with her. Her body is full of splinters and she can no longer pick the olives without help. Zolf is probably personifying the Palestinian land which has been disabled because of the continuous violence.

A metaphor is presented in: “Luxurious character of the negative raised a lion in your house”. The poet compares the Israeli people to a lion who is being raised in the Palestinian homeland. Zolf, then, with a sorrowful tone, confirms that Hebrew does not have a word that could resolve for their deeds towards the Palestinians. Zolf warns that there will be no future if the present is full of killings and mourning. To confirm this foretelling, she ends her poem with the following two lines: “Besieged body a piece of metal we will offer all our children\ This permanent remembrance slaughtered and we promise a pleasant life”. Zolf emphasizes that within this adopted violence, a weapon or “a piece of metal” is what they will leave to their children. The permanent memory of the nation is slaughtered because of current conflict that consumes their lives, and thus, there will be no real life without memory –  history.

Close Reading of Brathwaite’s “Duke Playing Piano at 70”

close reading, Uncategorized

The old man’s hands are alligator

skins

and swimming easily like these

along the harp stringed keyboard

where he will make

of

Solitude

a silver thing

as if great age like his

could play that tune along

these cracks that flow

between their swing

without a scratch of thistle

sound

& whistle down the rhythm all night long

In this response, I attempt a close reading of the poem section above.

The form:

The lines in this part of the poem are uneven and staggered, with lengths ranging between a single word and eight words, which is the maximum length. In some lines, it is the visual isolation of a word which reflects and stresses its meaning, such as “Solitude”, which (besides from the poem’s opening word “The”) is the only capitalized word on the page. The Brathwaite’s capitalization of the word “Solitude” aims, I think, at highlighting the solitude that African Americans have encountered during decades of struggle.

The audience:

I think the poet is addressing current and upcoming generations. A connection is drawn between past, present, and future through documenting African American history and recording the names of creative and talented individuals. In this section of the poem, we know Brathwaite is talking about an African American pianist, Duke Ellington, who has a long history as a jazz musician. I believe that one of his most significant reasons for writing this book and specifically this poem is to celebrate African American creativity as well as endurability. Thus, this part of the poem, from its association with the rest, significantly contributes to the orientation of the whole book.

The content:

This poem is one of the most interesting works in Brathwaite’s book. The title of the poem refers to Duke Ellington, an African American composer, pianist, and jazz band leader. Brathwaite opens his poem by drawing upon metaphoric language: he compares the old jazz musician’s wrinkled hands to “alligator skins”. Here, like “alligator skins”, the old man’s hands represent strength as well as value. This comparison goes beyond the resemblance between images of alligator and human skin to associate the smooth movements – which reflect a distinct talent – of the old man’s hands between the keys of the piano to the natural ability of the alligator to swim smoothly and lonely underwater.

The poet applies the alligator swimming to the easy movement of the musician’s hands over his instrument. Thus, the swimming movement of his hands in the musical world gives the state of “Solitude” a higher meaning.