Of a Man Named Countee Cullen.

Last Wednesday  we were introduced to the poems “horse” by Gloria Anzaldua as well as Countee Cullen’s “Incident”. Both poems are highly influenced by mixed culture in America (“horse’s” on American and Chicanos or Mexican while “Incident’s” on African American and the white people).

         

 So here’s a short biography of Countee Cullen:

Countee Cullen, an African-American poet was born on May 30, 1903 in New York City. He was also a playwright, activist, and educator who was a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance, the African-American arts and cultural movement that crossed the 1920s. He began writing poetry at the early age of fourteen. After entering New York University in 1922, his poems started to get published in The Crisis, a magazine of the National Urban League. Later the Century Magazine, Harper’s and Poetry also gave him a spot in publishing poems. His poem, “Ballad of the Brown Girl” made him won several awards and he even graduated from New York University in 1923, the same year he published his first volume, “Color” in which the poem “Incident” was included. After that, he completed his master degree in Harvard University. 

While writing this entry, I found an interesting fact about his background; he was raised and educated in a primarily white community and that’s what makes him differed from other poets of the Harlem Renaissance like Langston Hughes. He wanted to speak to all Americans, not just to the ones who looked like him. 

His second volume, “Copper Sun (1927)” collides with controversy in the black community since he did not give much attention to the race issues as much as he did in Color. Countee Cullen died on January 9, 1946.

In his poem Incident, Cullen managed to bring out a racism incident that happened to (probably, and I’m pretty sure it was his very own personal incident) him when he was a child. The first impression I got from the poem was “RUDE!” when it gets to the “Nigger” syllable. Incident somehow can be read as happening at the first stanza then innocent, sad and of course, a taste of racial prejudice as it may sound.

Speaking of prejudice, I believe people at some point in their life had the experience of it. To be honest, the feeling was horrible and I myself faced the experience big time. In “Incident”, Countee Cullen tackles the issue of racial prejudice. Even though the poem was written almost 100 years ago, it still manages to ring true today.

In my case it is almost similar to Cullen’s experience. I was born and raised in Machang, Kelantan. In school, my deep interest in English had made me a bit different from other kids or even in my own family because in Kelantan, the kids were not quite fond of English lessons and some of them learned English simply for the sake of grade. I read English novels, write birthday cards in English, listen to good English music (so I can practice more on my listening skill and also for the fun of it), watch English movies, speak in English outside of classroom with my best friend and the list goes on. For them it seemed as I was trying to be one of the Westerners. What they did not get was I had passion in learning English for the beauty of learning it, not becoming one of the people. As a consequence, they out thrown me and saying things like, “Oh, she speaks English. What a show off!”.

Another experience of mine is also coming from the fact that I’m a Kelantanese, a place called “rural, conservative, where close-minded people live in”. When I got a letter calling for PLKN service in 2010, I knew it was going to be my chance to expand my circle of friends. And so I did without telling them where exactly I came from. But of all the memories I built in PLKN, I remember one the most: a so-called friend from other state in Malaysia said to me, “no wonder you’re so weird. You’re from Kelantan.” There are plenty of other experiences as I grew up and that has changed who I am today and I’m thankful to be able to experience all that because if I would not, I will never grow up and speak against racial prejudice or any kind of prejudices.

Ref: "Countee Cullen." Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, n.d. Web. 24 Sept. 2014.

Of A Lady Named Naomi Shihab Nye.

Naomi Shihab Nye?

My classmates and I have been given a poem by Dr. Haslina titled A Biography of an Armenian Schoolgirl written by Naomi Shihab Nye on last Monday.  In my honest opinion I think Nye is an honest poet. The poem is honest in a way she managed to 'touch' on such sensitive issue on a girl who lives in a trapped circumstance involving arranged marriage, rebellious phase, and unwillingness. Below is a biography of the known poet. 

Naomi Shihab Nye was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1952. Her father was a Palestinian refugee and her mother was an American. She spent most of her adolescent in both Jerusalem and San Antonio, Texas. Living with two different cultures has influenced much of her writings. Her poetry brings fresh perspective and ideas on local life.

 “I never get tired of mixture,” Nye wrote for Winds Press. “My poems and stories often begin with the voices of our neighbours, mostly Mexican American, always inventive and surprising.”

Received her higher education from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, Nye was once announced as a “wandering poet” due to her interest in travel, place and cultural exchange.  Tattoed Feet (1977) and Eye-to-Eye (1978) poems both were written in free verse and themed on journey or quest.

Nye also won the Voertman Poetry Prize by her collection named Hugging the Jukebox (1982). Critics and reviewers praised the collection, noting Nye’s “warmth and celebratory tone”. She used a lot of earthy relation and its people in her poems. For example the poem “Hugging the Jukebox”, Nye inspired the poem upon a boy who is very enthusiastic about the jukebox he adopts and sings its songs in a way that “strings a hundred passionate sentences in a single line.”

Besides writing about daily lives or so, Nye also ponders on tragedy and sorrow view. She wrote “Blood” describing the Palestinian-Israeli endless conflict. After some time, she wrote another volume which is, perhaps, her most acclaimed one, Fuel (1998). The poems discussed over varieties of subject, settings and scenes.

In 2001, after the World Trade Center attacks, Nye became a voice for Arab-Americans against terrorism and prejudice. Tailed by this act, she collected her previous poems regarding the misunderstanding between Americans and Arabs. This act received a lot of positive feedbacks from her followers.

Attempts on writing children literature also been made by Nye. She is acclaimed for her sensitivity and cultural awareness. For instance, her book Sitti’s (grandmother) Secrets (1994) focuses on an Arab-American child’s relationship with her grandmother who lives in a Palestinian village. Nye was highly praised for her ability to capture the emotions of a longing child for a distant grandparent.

Other compilations from Nye are:

• Different Ways to Pray, Breitenbush (Portland, OR), 1980.
• On the Edge of the Sky, Iguana Press (Madison, WI), 1981.
• Yellow Glove, Breitenbush (Portland, OR), 1986.
• Invisible, Trilobite (Denton, TX), 1987.
• Red Suitcase, BOA Editions (Rochester, NY), 1994.
• Words under the Words: Selected Poems, Far Corner Books (Portland, OR), 1995.

And lastly before I finish my entry, here’s a quote from Naomi Shihab Nye to Contemporary Authors:

 “I have always loved the gaps, the spaces between things, as much as the things. I love staring, pondering, mulling, puttering. I love the times when someone or something is late—there’s that rich possibility of noticing more, in the meantime…Poetry calls us to pause. There is so much we overlook, while the abundance around us continues to shimmer, on its own.”

Ref : "Naomi Shihab Nye." Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web. 15 Sept. 2014.

Of Women and Poetry.

First entry of my first academic blog. Here we go. So Dr. Haslina has assigned us to find 5 female poets and I started doing my research on 5 of my favourite female poets of all time.

1. Maya Angelou or Marguerite Annie Johnson was born on April 4, 1928 in St. Louise, Missouri and was known for ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’ (1969), which dubbed as one of the earliest nonfiction best-seller by an African-American woman. When I first encountered the poem it becomes instantly one of my favourite poems. The poem was known to be written as a memoir of her childhood and young adult years. Maya had a difficult childhood since her parents divorced and she and her brother were sent to live with her grandmother in Arkansas. As a child, Maya suffered and experienced racial prejudices and discrimination while living there. She also happened to be a dancer, singer, activist, actress in Broadway at some point in her life.

 She had received several awards for her achievement in writing including NAACP Image Awards in the outstanding literary work (nonfiction) category. Some of her other autobiographies works are All God’s Children Need Travelling Shoes (1986) and A Song Flung Up to Heaven (2002). Besides, one of her poetry collections Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘Fore I Die (1971) was even nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Some of her other famous works are Phenomenal Woman (1995), several books for children including Life Doesn’t Frighten Me (1993), multiple collections of essays including Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now (1993) and many more. After a few years of battling health issues, Maya passed away on May 28, 2014 in North Carolina. Many people shared mourn in social network in the wake of her including President Barack Obama who stated that she was truly ‘a phenomenal woman’.

 Ref: "Maya Angelou." Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web. 13 Sept. 2014.

2. Next is none other than Emily Dickinson.

Emily Dickinson was born on December 10, 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts. She led a quiet life in her home where she had only her brother and her sister as both family and intellectual companions. She, however, filled her youth with reading, schooling, studies of nature and even encountered with poetry. In 1860s, she lived in almost complete isolation for outside world but remained actively doing wide reading and had some few good correspondences. She was believed to compose almost 1800 throughout her life. A few attempts were made to publish her work since she chose to share them with her closest family members and acquaintances.

Her poetry was discovered by her family upon her death on May 15, 1886. Hope Is the Thing With Feathers, I Heard A Fly Buzz, and A Bird Came Down the Walk are among her famous works. She was said to be a keen observer in nature, religion, law, music, immortality in her poems by critics. She used images from these elements to portray universal themes in poetry: the wonders of nature, death, love and sometimes the identity of one’s self.

Ref: "Emily Dickinson's Biography | Emily Dickinson Museum." Emily Dickinson's Biography | Emily Dickinson Museum. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Sept. 2014.

"Emily Dickinson." Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, n.d. Web. 14 Sept. 2014.

3. Third is Sylvia Plath.

Born in 1932 in Boston, Sylvia Plath was the daughter of Otto Plath and Aurelia Schober. She spent her early years near the seashore. She was said to be a gifted student since she won a number of awards and had herself published stories and poetry while studying at University of Boston. Plath began to suffer of severe depression in her undergraduate years. This later led to her death in her thirties.

In one of her journal entries, she wrote : "It is as if my life were magically run by two electric currents: joyous positive and despairing negative—whichever is running at the moment dominates my life, floods it." This indicates that she also happened to suffer from bipolar disorder which has no cure during her time. She also tried to take her own life a few times by swallowing sleeping pills but survived and this breakdown later inspired her to write her only published and most famous novel, The Bell Jar. After her troubled marriage to Ted Hughes which left her with two young children, and after an intense burst of creativity that produced the poems in Ariel, she managed to commit suicide by inhaling gas from the kitchen stove.

Her famous works in poetry are: Daddy, The Collossus, Million Dollar Month, Winter Trees, and a few more.Few critics believe her works are fuelled with “cynism, ego-absorption and a prurient fascination with suicide”. 

Ref : "Sylvia Plath." Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web. 15 Sept. 2014.

4. Hilda Doolitle

1.     Hilda Doolitle was born on September 10, 1886 in Pennsylvania. She befriended Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams while studying at University of Pennsylvania. She travelled to Europe and spent her life abroad. Through Ezra Pound, she developed interest in poetry. Her work is characterized by the intense strength of her images which explained why she was appointed as the leader of Imagist movement, economy of language, and use of classical mythology. Her works was not recognised during her lifetime. Only after her death critics found the beauty in her writing. She later died in 1961.

Her works are: Sea Garden (1916)
The God (1917)
Translations (1920)
Hymen (1921)
Heliodora and Other Poems (1924)
Hippolytus Temporizes (1927)
Red Roses From Bronze (1932)
The Walls Do Not Fall (1944)
Tribute to the Angels (1945)

Ref : Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, n.d. Web. 15 Sept. 2014.

last but not least....

5. Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf or Adeline Virginia Woolf, was born on January 25^th, 1882 in London, England. She was an essayist, novelist, publisher, critique and specifically famous for her feminist writings. Among her famous novels are To the Lighthouse (1927) which explores the everyday life of people in times of war and the unbalanced relationship between men and women, Mrs Dalloway (1925), Orlando(1928) and A Room of One’s Own (1929). She came from an educated family and she herself was educated by her father in her house’s library. She first had a nervous breakdown when her mother and half-sister died. Unknown to most people, she was sexually abused by her half-brother after her father died which later made her institutionalized due to her biggest collapse breakdown.

Her works had made big impressions towards fellow writers and most of her works examined feminist issues. For example, Mrs Dalloway, the novel works with themes of mental illness, in the figure of a shell-shocked war survivor that suffers with doctors that dismiss his condition and ultimately commits suicides. The book examines feminist issues, in the figure of Dalloway herself, as a personification of the female stereotype, sexually and economically repressed and in the figure of Sally Seton, who appears as her opposite, independent and care free.

Virginia Woolf died on the 28th of March 1941 in East Sussex, England, at the age of 59.

Ref : "Virginia Woolf - Biography." Virginia Woolf. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Sept. 2014