american political poetry in the 21st century - STIBA Malang
american political poetry in the 21st century - STIBA Malang
american political poetry in the 21st century - STIBA Malang
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
78 AMERICAN POLITICAL POETRY<br />
ra<strong>the</strong>r than staged. However, Hamlet’s words also reveal a certa<strong>in</strong> irony<br />
as he consciously takes on and performs an antic disposition throughout<br />
<strong>the</strong> open<strong>in</strong>g acts of <strong>the</strong> play even though he claims that he has “that<br />
with<strong>in</strong> which passes show.” The <strong>in</strong>f<strong>in</strong>itives that def<strong>in</strong>e <strong>the</strong> play—“to be”<br />
and “to seem/appear”—are useful for beg<strong>in</strong>n<strong>in</strong>g to understand how<br />
<strong>political</strong> poems of equivocal agency work. In <strong>the</strong>se poems <strong>the</strong>re is no<br />
strict “to be”; <strong>in</strong>stead, <strong>the</strong>y have someth<strong>in</strong>g ak<strong>in</strong> to what Tim O’Brien<br />
calls a “surreal seem<strong>in</strong>gness.” In The Th<strong>in</strong>gs They Carried, O’Brien writes<br />
that “<strong>the</strong>re is always that surreal seem<strong>in</strong>gness, which makes <strong>the</strong> story<br />
seem untrue, but which <strong>in</strong> fact represents <strong>the</strong> hard and exact truth as it<br />
seemed” (78; orig<strong>in</strong>al emphasis). Poems of equivocal agency stage <strong>the</strong><br />
power of <strong>the</strong> imag<strong>in</strong>ation, <strong>the</strong>reby call<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>to question any strict divide<br />
between truth and falsity, be<strong>in</strong>g and seem<strong>in</strong>g.<br />
The poems I discuss <strong>in</strong> this chapter problematize direct notions of<br />
experience, while utiliz<strong>in</strong>g equivocation, paradox, strangeness, irony,<br />
and rhetorical guises. The strategies of <strong>the</strong>se poems show <strong>the</strong> importance<br />
of <strong>the</strong> speakerless scene, abstract language, nonspecific diction,<br />
and nonconcrete references. These are often <strong>the</strong> poems that <strong>in</strong>timidate<br />
students look<strong>in</strong>g for def<strong>in</strong>itive answers to questions such as What does<br />
this poem mean? and What is this poem about? These poems often defy<br />
simple <strong>in</strong>terpretation and pose challenges to critics attempt<strong>in</strong>g to tease<br />
out patterns of rhetorical strategies between poems. Fur<strong>the</strong>r, though<br />
<strong>the</strong>se poems are clearly <strong>political</strong>, <strong>the</strong>ir content, especially for a poem<br />
such as Harjo’s “A Postcolonial Tale,” may require a more focused<br />
<strong>in</strong>terpretative endeavor, a deeper engagement from readers, and a will<strong>in</strong>gness<br />
to suspend disbelief and strict notions of referentiality. As such,<br />
<strong>the</strong> subject may be <strong>in</strong>justice or poverty writ large ra<strong>the</strong>r than small.<br />
In <strong>the</strong> <strong>in</strong>troduction to Aga<strong>in</strong>st Forgett<strong>in</strong>g, Forché po<strong>in</strong>ts out that<br />
<strong>poetry</strong> of witness often uses paradox and equivocation. She suggests<br />
that <strong>the</strong> language of <strong>the</strong> everyday is <strong>in</strong>adequate for poems of witness <strong>in</strong><br />
<strong>the</strong> violent and repressive contexts <strong>in</strong> which <strong>the</strong>y are produced. She<br />
writes that when <strong>the</strong> “quotidian has been appropriated by oppressive<br />
powers” so that language becomes unusable for protest, poets must<br />
pursue truth through <strong>in</strong>direction (41), a claim that connects subtly<br />
with Mutlu Konuk Blas<strong>in</strong>g’s notion that poems that highlight <strong>the</strong>ir differences<br />
from normal speech can be <strong>the</strong> most <strong>political</strong>ly adroit. So, too,<br />
poems of equivocal agency generally rely not on first-person speakers<br />
poeticiz<strong>in</strong>g experience, but on <strong>in</strong>direction, utopian/dystopian visions,<br />
and transpersonal experiences, sometimes evoked via parodic, staged,<br />
distant, and fragmented voices.<br />
Whereas poems such as Harper’s “Deathwatch” and K<strong>in</strong>nell’s<br />
“When <strong>the</strong> Towers Fell” refer to verifiable personal and historical