The New World Literature

The first story that I read from the American literature anthology was "The Iroquois Creation Story." It is different in some ways, but bears some similarities to the story of creation according to Christianity as well. I find it very interesting, and it says a lot about what was important to the Iroquois. There is the element of good versus evil, but nature is the main theme.



"The good mind continued the works of creation, and he formed numerous creeks and rivers on the Great Island, and then created numerous species of animals of the smallest and the greatest, to inhabit the forests, and fishes of all kinds to inhabit the waters. When he had made the universe he was in doubt respecting some being to possess the Great Island; and he formed two images of the dust of the ground in his own likeness, male and female, and by his breathing into their nostrils he gave them the living souls, and named them Ea-gwe-howe, i.e., a real people; and he gave the Great Island all the animals of game for their maintenance and he appointed thunder to water the earth by frequent rains, agreeable of the nature of the system; after this the Island became fruitful and vegetation afforded the animals subsistence."

Do you know any other Native American stories or literature?

Femmes de la Littérature

I am going from the rhetoric of essays to the aesthetic of poetry with this post. However, don't be fooled by the pretty colors in poetry. Once your pulled in by the flowery language of a poem and you lean in for a smell of the nectar therein, BAM! It hits you like a brick wall. The author had something important to say and it makes you think. Such is poetry, not all "roses are red, violets are blue."

I want to focus on not just any poet, but the great Emily Dickinson. The reason is that she created beautiful poems with all the flowery language, but she usually had a point to make. She was also very unique, and is considered one of the greats, not just for a lady. That is what I want to focus on. One of the greatest poets ever felt very much restrained as a woman in society, and she expressed that in her poetry.



What are some of your favorite pieces of literature by women? They don't have to be poetry or refer to a specific topic.

Rearrange a “Wife’s” affection!

1737

Rearrange a “Wife’s” affection!
When they dislocate my Brain!
Amputate my freckled Bosom!
Make me bearded like a man!

Blush, my spirit, in thy Fastness—
Blush, my unacknowledged clay—
Seven years of troth have taught thee
More than Wifehood every may!

Love that never leaped its socket—
Trust entrenched in narrow pain—
Constancy thro’ fire—awarded—
Anguish—bare of anodyne!

Burden—borne so far triumphant—
None suspect me of the crown,
For I wear the “Thorns” till Sunset—
Then—my Diadem put on.

Big my Secret but it’s bandaged—
It will never get away
Till the Day its Weary Keeper
Leads it through the Grave to thee.

http://hellopoetry.com/poem/3459/rearrange-a-wifes-affection/

Literature for the Soul

I would like to focus my first blog on African American literature. It is something that has had an impact me since I was young. My mother brought a book home from an antique store. She told me to, "Check it out." When I did, I discovered that it was very old, I am not sure of the exact year, but I know that it was a few years after the end of the Civil War. It claimed to be the first book of collected freed slave literature. It contained poems, letters, short stories, and personal accounts of daily life as a slave or the newly freed slave. It had a profound effect on me. The authors had very little ability in writing. They wrote how they spoke. I knew this was from a lack of education that was imposed on them even to the point that it was illegal for them to be taught to read. However they gave very detailed and vivid description and expression of their experiences. They described the terror and sadness of life as a slave, and expressed the jubilation of newly found freedom. That experience fueled my interest in the literature of African Americans throughout that time. I wish I cite the book for you, but it has been lost for a long time.

What piece of African American literature has inspired you?

The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B Du Bois



W.E.B. Du Bois lived from 1868 to 1963. He grew up in the Northeast, and received a Ph.D. in history in 1895. The Souls of Black Folk, written in 1903 was a rhetorical essay aimed to bring light to the state of inequality that plagued the African American at that time. The arguments that he made resonate with me. I have tried to articulate the same ideas to folks that do not believe that racism exists. The arguments that he rebutted are still ideas that people still hold. It is hard to imagine that after all of the progress that we have made many are still in the dark ages of the Civil War period. If you are thinking, "Yawn, an essay?" then you are mistaken. W.E.B. Du Bois wrote eloquently, compellingly, and fervently on the subject. He also included excerpts from songs that were passed down from generation to generation of African Americans. Here are couple of excerpts from the book. Italics indicate a musical excerpt. Du Bois even included musical notation for the songs.

I. Of Our Spiritual Strivings
O water, voice of my heart, crying in the sand,
All night long crying with a mournful cry,
As I lie and listen, and cannot understand
the Voice of my heart in my side or the voice of the sea,
O water, crying for rest, is it I, it I?

Unresting water, there shall never be rest
Till the last moon droop and the last tide fail,
and the fire of the end begin to burn in the west;
and the heart shall be weary and wonder and cry like the sea,
All life long crying without avail,
As the water all night long is crying to e.

Arthur Symons

Between me and the other world there is ever an unasked question: unasked by some through feelings of delicacy; by others through the difficulty of rightly framing it. All, nevertheless, flutter round it. They approach me in a half-hesitant sort of way, eye me curiously or compassionately, and then, instead of saying directly, How does it feel to be a problem? they say, I know an excellent colored man in my town; or, I fought at Mechanicsville, or, Do not these Southern outrages make your blood boil? At these I smile, or am interested, or reduce the boiling to a simmer, as the occasion may require. To the real question, How does it feel to be a problem? I answer seldom a word (1717)

One never feels his two-ness, - an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in  one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder (1718).

Du Bois, W.E.B, The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Nina Baym. New York and London: W.W. Norton and Company. 2013. 1717-1731. Print.