The general remembers the tiny green sprigs
men of his village wore in their capes
to honor the birth of a son.
He will order many, this time, to be killed
for a single, beautiful word.
This stanza—which concludes this poem—captures the cold, careless brutality of dictator Rafael Trujillo. The dictator’s decision to decide the fate of thousands of black workers rests in fate a single, seven-letter word. This stanza encapsulates the absurdity of such a decision and captures the massive waste of life that will be wrought upon the workers—all because they failed to accurately pronounce a seven-letter word. This stanza perfectly captures the intense sorrow that is associated with this real-life event; how so many lives were brutally destroyed over a beautiful word.
Let me go back to the white rock
On the black lawn, the number
Stenciled in negative light.
Let me return to the shadow
Of a house moored in moonlight,
Gables pitched bright above
The extinguished grass […]
In this quotation, the narrator reminisces about her childhood home and recalls the old scenery. As a child, she recalls how the house and the neighborhood seemed quite bleak and ominous. As an adult, however, she views the area through different eyes. She realizes that the house—with its white rock, black lawn, and shadows cast by the gables. In this way, the stanza underscores how we are able to view situations and locations with a different perspective as we grow older; situations sometimes become less bleak and frightening through the adult lens.
I wrote stubbornly into the evening.
At the window, a giant praying mantis
rubbed his monkey wrench head against the glass,
begging vacantly with pale eyes;
and the commas leapt at me like worms
or miniature scythes blackened with age.
the praying mantis screeched louder,
his ragged jaws opening into formlessness.
In this quotation, the narrator (presumably Rita Dove, herself) recalls an evening where she was attempting to write her poems, continuing stubbornly, even though she was not nearly as motivated as she could be. She catches sight of a praying mantis near the window. The mantis distracts her and piques her interest. In doing so, it ignites in her a renewed motivation to continue writing. Once she studies the mantis for a bit, her imagination grows and the words come easily. In this way, this poem shows how motivation and inspiration can come in the smallest or simplest of forms.
[W]hat can she be
thinking of, striding into the ballroom
where no black face has ever showed itself
except above a serving tray?
In this rather sobering commentary on racial tensions during the 1940s, the narrator wonders what Hattie McDaniel must have felt as she attended the Academy Awards and was the first African American woman to win an Oscar—all while surrounded by a sea of white actors and actresses. This quotation captures the racial divide that was painfully apparent in mid-1900s America. She wonders how it must have felt to be Hattie on that night, when she was the first black individual to be addressed in a position of power and reverence, rather than a servant position.
