LITR 4332: American Minority Literature

Sample Student Poetry Presentation 2000

Reader: Michelle Glenn

Respondent: Vicki Issac

14 September 2000

"Song at Midnight"

by

Lucille Clifton

Unsettling America, p. 111

"Poetry began when somebody wandered off a savanna or out of a cave and looked up at the sky with wonder and said, ‘Ah-h-h!’ That was the first poem."

--An interview with Clifton

Background Information: Thelma Lucille Clifton was born in 1936 in Depew, New York. Between 1953 and 1955, she attended Howard University and she graduated from Fredonia State Teachers College in 1955. She began writing poetry in 1969, and has taught both literature and creative writing. Clifton has written and published more than sixteen children’s books and numerous books of poetry. She has received various honors, such as an Emmy Award, a Lannan Literary Award, two fellowships from the National Endowment for the

Arts, the Shelley Memorial Award, and the YM-YWHA Poetry Center Discovery Award. Clifton was also elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American poets in 1999. Previously, she served as a Poet Laureate for the State of Maryland and she is currently a professor of humanities at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Her work seems to comment on feminine pride, African-American pride, and her pride in being a poet. Clifton’s poetry is usually shaped by spiritual values, optimism, and everyday, musical language. Her poetry is so brilliant that she has often been compared to Dickinson and Whitman in style.

 

Sources:

(http://www.poets.org/poets/poets.cfm?prmID=80)

(http://www.britannica.com/seo/l/lucille-clifton/)

(http://college.hmco.com/english/heath/syllabuild/iguide/clifton.html)

(http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/clifton/about.htm)

(http://stedwards.edu/hum/drummond/clifton.html)

Relevant Course Objectives:

  • (Obj. 1, a & b) Minority Concept: Involuntary Participation, Voiceless and Choiceless.
  • (Obj. 5a) To help others hear minority voice and share the experience.
  • (Obj. 6) To observe images of the individual.

Style:

  • Free verse
  • Ideas are being given new meaning ("sweetness in the fold of her flesh," "white with wonderful," etc.)
  • Repetition of "who will" and of b, f, h, & w sounds (alliteration). Metaphors. This is why it is a poem, not prose.
  • Rhetorical question at conclusion

Theme:

Clifton’s poem seems to be commenting on the aging process. Moreover, it comments on an individual’s appearance and the relation it has to societal acceptance. Clifton makes the observation that our identity is not comprised of outward appearances alone and she challenges the reader to acknowledge this idea.

Questions:

1. Why do you think Clifton chose to title this poem "Song at Midnight?"

2. Do you think that Sonia Sanchez’s quote before the poem is significant?

If so, why?

Discussion:

The discussion of the poem allowed for many interesting ideas to be presented. The title of the poem was speculated and said to have been chosen partly for the poem's musical content (the poem is certainly very musical, as I mentioned in my discussion of the repetition of b, f, h, and w sounds) and partly because the word "Midnight" suggests the mid-life of an individual. I pointed out several stylistic elements such as the negative images being transformed into positive ones ("white with wonderful"), the imagery, and the rhetorical question at the end. To add to my perspective on the poem, Vicki commented that the poem seemed to discuss the issue of race and finding a lover within race. I pointed out that the term "brothers" was placed in the poem to show the poet's relationship and feelings toward the audience. David added to this by saying that his interpretation of the poem was about the aging process and family tradition. For example, the reliability of a grandma and taking care of the elderly at home. Reliability brought up the topic of "the moon" and its faithfulness. Jody pointed out that Clifton was clearly alluding to Shakespeare's "inconstant moon" in her poem. Sylvia then shared that she agreed and that she believed that "faithful" in the poem intertwined with David's idea of reliability. Phyllis said that she viewed the moon as a reflection of the sun and that the woman could be saying to look beyond her reflection, her physical appearance, and to find her inner beauty. Her comment added an intriguing idea to what I believed the theme of the poem was, looking past physical appearance and finding inner-beauty. Vicki suggested that the poem could possibly be a narrative into Clifton's life, as many of her other poems seem to be. Finally, Dr. White added to the discussion by saying that the last couple lines were examples of parallelism. (who will ....who will...)