american political poetry in the 21st century - STIBA Malang

EMBODIED AGENCY 67
in using “Who do” and “Who know” instead of SAE Baraka increases
the poem’s orality. “Who do” creates a fluid rhyme whereas “Who
does” sounds stilted; “Who know” combines with other similar structures
to create a fast-paced invective meant to be read aloud. Baraka is
also unafraid to employ simple—although here he regretfully taps into
hip-hop culture’s relatively pervasive misogyny—internal rhymes such
as the one between “Skeeza” and “Condoleeza” in order to increase
aural effects. AAVE, rhyme, repetition, and syntactic parallelism
anchor the poem, elements that have long structured black political
speeches, sermons, and revolutionary pronouncements. Finally, however,
Baraka uses all of these techniques almost as ends unto themselves
rather than to engage his audience initially in order to turn their
attention to some greater conclusion.
Baraka erases historical, cultural, and geopolitical differences and
speaks of events about which he does not have intimate experience in
order to create a sweeping indictment of American misdeeds. His
authority is partly borne of his experiences as a member of a minority
group, but it is more a product of his refusal to compromise or to fear
retribution. As such, his voice draws on and displays a trust in the
poet’s role as a populist spokesperson, who is able to articulate
people’s experiences, and the events that mark them, in unique ways.
The differences between this poem and Kinnell’s 9/11 poem are
obvious and need no further explanation, as will be its differences
from the hip-hop songs about 9/11 in chapter 4. The differences
between Kinnell’s poem of experiential agency and Baraka’s poem of
authoritative agency beg a question: Are there poems that fruitfully
combine experiential and authoritative agencies?
Synthesizing Experiential and
Authoritative Agencies
Carolyn Forché’s “Return” (1981) successfully combines the strategies
of experiential and authoritative agency. This first-person, lyricnarrative,
free verse poem is an exemplar of embodied agency. It synthesizes
first-person experience, memory, and poetic authority via an
interplay of voices that Michael Greer calls a “dialogue in verse” showcasing
“the poet’s self consciousness about her own political role”
(172). The primary rhetorical strategy of “Return” is a staged dialogue
interrogating experience, authority, and their consequences on
an individual’s political ideals. These dual figures of voice incarnate
agency derived from experience and from authority respectively. 18