LITR 5731:
Seminar in American Minority Literature
University of Houston-Clear Lake, spring 2003
Poetry Presentation Summary
Reader:
Toni Sammons
Recorder:
Jennifer Curtis
February 5, 2003
"Poem
in Which I Refuse Contemplation"
Rita
Dove
“Poem in Which I Refuse Contemplation” is about a moment in time,
specifically 1:00 A.M. German time, six hours after beginning a drive from
France. The writer is exhausted.
She has spent too much time in a cramped car with the two people she
loves most in the world. She has
started her period with its accompanying bleeding and cramping, and another
reason to be miserably out of sorts.
What she wants now is to take a walk-alone. Instead, she is greeted by a letter from her mother back in
America that has preceded her to her mother-in-law’s house in Germany.
The unopened envelope demands her immediate attention because of its
unknown contents. She is upset by
what she reads. The letter is both
trivial and relevant, and filled with irritating misspellings.
Her mother’s garden is growing well, there are raccoons in her crawl
space, and Cousin Ronnie has been murdered in a chili joint.
Murder is second nature, murder of a human being and murder of a
language. She thinks of Cousin
Ronnie whom she has not seen since they were both ten and spent time together in
the crawl space the raccoons now inhabit.
She can no longer feel the touch of his hand.
There is only her mother who misspells words, forgets that she hates
gardening, and intrudes on her life even in Germany.
Her daughter is happy to be in Germany with a language she knows.
She knows German and English well enough to hate them both, at least for
the moment, this moment in time.
The letter is read. The bags
must be unpacked. “That’s all
for now. Take care.”
Rita Dove was born in Akron, Ohio in 1952.
Growing up, her home was visited by numerous aunts and uncles who told
stories and filled their home with laughter.
Dove credits her family with her love of language.
She received her B.A. degree in English, summa cum laude from Miami,
University in Ohio in 1973. She is
a prolific writer who has published several volumes of poetry, a book of short
stories, a novel, and a verse drama that was set to music by John Williams, as
well as a book of the lectures she gave as Poet Laureate of the United States
from 1993-1995.
Dove is concerned with issues of race, but tends to focus on a kind of “everyperson whose experiences of life transcend (s) the reductive categories of race and economics.” Dove says that she has “never been a proponent of poetry where the poet feels that everything that happened to him or her is important.” Her poetry has a universal, not self-indulgent ring (Book magazine).
Dove explains: “Obviously as a Black woman, I am concerned with race…But certainly not every poem of mine mentions the fact of being Black. There are poems about humanity, and sometimes humanity happens to be Black. I cannot run from, I won’t run from any kind of truth”
(Washington Post, April 27, 1987). “Poem in Which I Refuse Contemplation” is a poem about
humanity.
Question: What do you think of the quiet
voices that speak loudly with words?
Jennifer Curtis, Recorder
Ms. Sammons reviewed Rita Dove’s love of family stories and her scholarly background. Sammons pointed out Dove’s influence on and use of language.
The poem reflects Dove’s concern for
humanity and also her own background. The
poem is a “moment in time” portraying the situation and feelings of the
speaker: It is one o’clock in the morning and she has just completed a
six-hour drive from Paris. A letter
awaits her when she arrives at her mother-in-law’s house in Germany. The speaker just wants to be alone, yet the letter seems to
demand her attention. The contents
of the letter are trivial, yet relevant and reflect her mother’s lack of
spelling skills. The daughter seems
to hate the triviality and the lack of language skills, yet she also loves her
mother.
In discussing Dove’s poem, group members identified with the various roles and responses of mother/daughter that are mirrored in the poem. Dove’s use of mundane details reflects the actuality of life. There was a great deal of discussion about the reference to Cousin Ronnie. Dr. White believes that Ronnie had a choking episode, but many class members feel that the use of the term “strangulated” indicates that he was murdered in the restaurant. The woman in the poem reflects on him as though he is in the past and beyond firm memory. She remembers an incident in the crawl space, but she cannot remember what it was like to touch his hand. The implication is that the ten year old cousins had a youthful love relationship that took place in the crawl space under her mother’s house.
The general realization is that this is a poem that could be read numerous times and still only brush the surface of its meaning. On the surface, it appears to be a simple poem about a busy woman who is reading a letter from her mother. Beneath the surface, there is the undercurrent of past relationships forever lost to death. There is the monumental burden of a chronically mundane existence. And there is the inescapable influence of family in our lives. “Poem in Which I Refuse Contemplation” is a poem that must be contemplated in order to even begin to grasp its significance.
CS: Makes me want to listen hard.
TA: To read more…
GH: We’re familiar with the “mother’s” call…details of clan disconnect, and focus. Why does the mother bother writing? We know why…not to be more encouraging.
TA: Mom…too busy…
CW: Your reaction testifies to the kind of truth/material for poetry.
TA: We can cope…anything is open to woman
JS: POV is irrelevant…detached. The mother is writing to write…the mother should know by now the way the daughter feels about gardens.
CW: Could think…what do I do…Do I correct mother? We spoke that it was trivial and relevant…We don’t talk about this stuff…we get to something that matters.
TA: …trivial stuff and death…
CW: [referring to the “strangulated” cousin] I didn’t see this as a murdered person. The stress is on Chili’s–this could be a classic comic set-up. It is potentially haunting. The “he” is her cousin.
TA: He left her.
CW: It’s relevant
AM: Could be indifference…
CS: Think not…indefinite…something alluded to…speak quietly with force.
AM: Mother and daughter don’t have any other than the garden and the raccoons…continues for daughter. The same thing—unpack—take care of your daughter.
EM: Her mom holds the little items…sometimes you get irritated…like she is here…do you have nothing better to do…
AM: She’s there…it is time to see her mother-in-law
?: Misses words
CW: Identify with that. Relate to orality and literacy from the African-American point of view in Germany…letter from home written in down-home way…
AM: Parents and children grow and live in a different environment…
GH: It’s a reminder of roots: Language is irritating; language is identity.
CW: …qualities in me get on nerves…
GH: She knew there would be a letter waiting for her…
TS: She knew it would be there. It was a great poem…I had to read and reread it…
CW: Can we see gothic…raccoons and crawl space…hidden chambers where you don’t go…a house is a metaphor for a mind…if she is talking about___? And crawl space, something is haunting there…hints of domesticity…she sets up something inexplicable…
GH: I’m still standing…surviving…
TA: I still stand…
AM: The title...bags in the path…we move on…we don’t want to think…
AS: Title with misspelling…the mother is in her native language…
GH: The letter doesn’t communicate what she wants to hear…
AM: The bad news of the cousin…that’s it?
CW: Good literature does not pin down…
JS: Each person takes and interprets for self…wife, mother, Southern…
CW: Maybe…gather?...not led into the mother/daughter dynamics
EM: Only thing I picked up on…mother/daughter…Who is supposed to babysit? What was the reason to read the letter… she is tired…
TS: The daughter is like me…roles reversed
JS: general backlash
?: Mom overreacted
?: Thought he was strangled…
TA: Language [if he was dead] used choke instead of strangulated
CW: Think he is the loser verses the victim…he is reduced in scale this way…
JS: Comment on Aunt May’s reaction…family gossip…
CS: …binds self not to react to death…
CW: It’s the way of resurrecting him…