Defining Blues Blues is regarded as an American
Defining Blues • Blues is regarded as an American genre as well as a black genre. • There are some white blues performers, but the majority is black. • What does the term blues mean?
Characteristics • • 12 bar pattern Certain frequency of flatted notes Themes Functions
Robert Johnson (1911 -1938)
Status • We have discussed the distinctions between popular culture and canonical culture. • To this we should add folk culture (as well as mass culture). • What distinguishes these types? • Where would you situate Johnson’s song?
Elements to Consider • Difficulty of execution, performance, audience appreciation • Production requirements (material) • Origins in work songs and call and response • Affective purpose • Relation to markets and audiences
Objects
Audience • Does Johnson’s song speak to a limited community or experience, or do his themes have some more universal reach? • Either way, you would have to remark on what factors create limits or which themes speak beyond specific cultures or communities.
Limits • Does Johnson’s song somehow speak specifically to black experience, or can we tell? • Note, for instance, the difficulty of imagining a Chinese performer (even someone entirely fluent in English) giving the same kind of performance as Johnson does—why would this be the case?
Bessie Smith
Sleepy John Estes
Memphis Minnie
Willie Mc. Tell
Overview • Berryman—problems of tone, knowledge, and time • Nash and Hughes—social criticism and problems of audience • Bishop—irony and identity
John Berryman (1914 -1972)
Pieter Brueghel the Elder, Hunters in the Snow (1565)
Description and Grammar • We’ll start by identifying Berryman’s descriptions of the painting. • What is unusual about the syntactic and grammatical construction of the poem?
Comparison with Keats • This poem’s immediate effect on me is to evoke John Keats’s “Ode on a Grecian Urn. ” • Both poems deal with the subject and effects of time, but they do so differently. • How does Keats’s aim differ from Berryman’s? • How might we explain these differences?
Keats, Stanza 2 Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on; Not to the sensual ear, but, more endeared, Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone: Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare; Bold lover, never canst thou kiss Though winning near the goal—yet, do not grieve; She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss, For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!
Stanza V O Attic shape! Fair attitude! with brede Of marble men and maidens overwrought, With forest branches and the trodden weed; Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral! When old age shall this generation waste, Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say’st, “Beauty is truth, truth beauty, ”—that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
Time • We are given a paradoxical relation which arises out of self-consciousness. • The men are out of time in being suspended while the rest of their world continues on (and disappears). • How does this situation compare with Keats?
Discontinuity • Of the five stanzas, one stands out as different from the others. Which? Why? What is the significance of this exceptional stanza? • What tone does Berryman ultimately convey? Is this poem possibly caught up in its own time (1948), expressing something about that time, or attempting a parallel between the effect of the painting and the times?
Ogden Nash (1902 -1971)
Object of Satire • Nash was a well-known wit and writer of comic verse. • This poem is satirical—what is being satirized? • Establish some categories that are the subject of his attack.
Language • • “horse racing”/“sport of kings” “first base”/“initial sack” “alligator pear”/“avocado” “fan”/“aficionado” “saloon”/“tavern” “skill”/“know-how” “poor”/“underprivileged”
Irony and Audience • Why is the poem ironic? • This question applies to the further question of audience (to start, you might consider the types of knowledge necessary to fully understand the poem). • Why is the poem still relevant?
Langston Hughes (1902 -1967)
Clarifying Dream • What dream is Hughes referring to? • For whom is it a dream? • Why is it deferred?
Diction • Which words in the poem seem unpoetic? • This is a value judgment, but we need to examine Hughes’ diction to understand why he makes the choices he does.
Metaphoric Outcomes • Hughes gives some possible outcomes of deferral, all which seem metaphorical. • Can we translate these possibilities into more concrete situations?
Audience • To whom is the poem directed? • Consider the time of the poem’s appearance— what is the situation in the United States at that point?
Elizabeth Bishop (1911 -1979)
Clarifying Community • This poem is complex, and not just because of its language. • Who, for instance, is the “our” and “we” in the poem? • Is the speaker part of a community that is inclusive of others (and who would they be)?
Hats and Identity • Hats are linked to identity in a complex way. How does a hat convey identity (you might reflect on the comic use of this idea in Moliere’s The Miser, which no doubt Bishop alludes to a little)? You will need to be imaginative. • You might start by reflecting on a range of hats, especially ones that are associated with certain professions or tasks. • Moreover, how are hats often gendered?
Qualities of the Speaker • Uncles and aunts suggest both gender difference and a generational relation to the speaker. • Who is speaking? • Is it a man or a woman, or can we tell? • Is it important to know?
Concluding Questions • The first part of the poem sets up the last two stanzas, where the questions, direct or indirect, are posed. • What is the nature of these questions? Why are they given us so indirectly? • One answer might be found in Bishop’s biography, though I don’t want to put too much emphasis on this.
For Next Time • Read: Miller, Death of a Salesman, Act I • Read: AV 656 -660, 725 -730, 790 -796
- Slides: 38