Musical Memories

“O, I wish I was in the land of cotton, old times there are not forgotten…”
-“Dixie”

To say that the past is an important part of the South might be just a little bit of an understatement. Stephanie is writing a whole series of posts on the presence of history in Southern poetry on this blog. With that in mind, I’ll try to keep off of Stephanie’s toes, but I think it’s important to consider the role that music plays in remembering the past in Southern poetry.

Natural Destruction

The South has been plagued with destruction seemingly since the Civil War. The land was purged economically and physically, as well as being stripped of its young men. Recently, Hurricane Katrina and the South’s agricultural economy have also recapitulated this sense of devastation and desolation. In many of the poems we’ve read this year, these images of destruction are paired with images of nature to reemphasize not only the importance of nature to the South, but also to communicate the despair the South feels for the ruined aspects of nature, as a result of civilization or the powerful energy of nature. In Robin Kemp’s This Pagan Heaven, there are several poems that describe the destruction of Katrina. However, one of the most intricately linked poems about nature and destruction is “Pelican Sonnet”. Here, she describes how the brown pelican was nearly completely obliterated by manmade growth. It’s clear that this bird is beautiful and worthy and that they survived in spite of civilization. As a sonnet, the turning point shows the transition from the destruction of nature to the speaker’s observation of natural phenomena. In a book of poems about the changes wrought in Louisiana as a result of an epic hurricane, this poem sticks out as a description of changes wrought by human nature. Perhaps it is suggesting that man is still subject to the force of nature, despite their attempts to control it.

Music and Family

Music plays an important part in Southern culture and literature. This might seem like a fairly insignificant or unnecessary observation as (a.) music plays an important role in most cultures and (b.) there wouldn’t be much reason to write a post about the importance of music in Southern poetry if that wasn’t the case. I discussed in the first entry (“Southern Identity Projected Through Music (and Insects)”) how music is used to project the importance of other themes in poetry and now I’d like to investigate the specific role of music within this poetry.

A Way of Life

One of the most prominent ways that religion is found in Southern poetry is through poems that reflect God or religion in everyday living. Poems that have spirituality woven through them seamlessly as though the two could not be parted. This manner of writing is one that is definitively Southern. It encompasses the conservative and religious upbringing of the South and it is interwoven into the very fabric of these Southern poets' writing.

Look a Little Deeper

One very prominent use of religion in Southern poetry is through allusions and references. Many of the poems that we read in this course had biblical references that one might not have understood were they not familiar with the Bible. These references are used to enhance the storyline and can be used to create an alternate meaning as well.

Southern Identity Projected Through Music (and Insects)

“They seem to think they have something to say…I wish they’d get tired of tuning and play.”
-R.T. Smith, “Doc Watson on the Cicada Concert”

The first thing that stands out to me in the appearance of music in Southern poetry is not its individual significance, but rather the way it amplifies the importance of other themes. In “Doc Watson on the Cicada Concert,” R.T. Smith uses sound to project the importance of nature in Southern life.

Rules, Rules, Rules

One way that religion is depicted in Southern poetry is through using it to show the negative aspects of God and religion. There is a way of being raised that makes religion all about rules and following a certain moral code. When that moral code is broken then punishment is enforced and negative consequences. A few examples of this are by Andrew Hudgins. He shares very honestly from his childhood and his upbringing. Through this he shows how religion was a negative aspect of his life growing up and that be was too smart to buy the stories that the preacher told.

"How Hard it is to Escape From Places"

"Who cares about the way things used to be, except us creatures of the slime, who love the darkness and the dead?- the Maple Leaf"

"Mapleworld; or,Six Flags over the Maple Leaf" Julie Kane)

Places throughout history are as marked and recognized as the people that made them famous. One such place was the Maple Leaf bar in New Orleans known for its jazz scene which opened in 1974. The bar is widely popular among locals and tourists for its rich history and amazing music. Juile Kane writes of the bar in her collection of poems, "Rhythm and Booze". The old bar was dirty and grimey which is what gave it character and kept its regulars coming back for more. These days "You'd harldy recognize the Maple Leaf" (Kane) with its "Dial soap dispensers and hot-air machines" (Kane). The Maple Leaf of the past was grimey, had a pressed tin roof, and had more of a focus on the art of the music being played there or the poetry of Everette Maddox; the Maple Leaf today is a tourist hotspot still rich in music, however the heart and soul of the original bar has all but been cleaned up and Windexed away.

History is Who We Are

"Some names shall deck the page of history as it is written on stone. Some will not." (Natasha Trethewey Native Guard)

The Louisiana Native Guard was an all black infantry unit for the Confederate army in the Civil War. After New Orleans fell to the Union, the Native Guards 'switched sides' as it were and began fighting for the North. Take the word 'fighting' lightly because on the list of duties delegated to the Guard it was at the very bottom. Building and guarding forts, digging trenches, and doing other menial jobs were the responsibility of the Guards- a far cry from the frontlines they were promised to defend when they became Union Soldiers.

You would think these men would be seen as honorable for their willingness to fight for the freedom of AfricanAmericans and would therefore be treated as such, however the Union soldiers treated them no better and no worse than the Confederates. After the fighting was over, most of the members of the Native Guard went on to join in movements for equal rights.

Alone in the Mountains...Or the Home

One of the recurring emotional themes that is evident in the body of Southern Poetry we’ve read this semester is that of loneliness. The first book of poetry we read, Wildwood Flower by Kathryn Stripling Byer, set the tone for this with its frequent images of loneliness and loss. In general, the South seems to be engulfed in loneliness, with its mostly rural landscape and the sense of loss that can permeate allusions to the Civil War. In many ways, Southerners are the Other, particularly with Southern poets and artists, as evidenced by H.L. Mencken’s “The Sahara of the Bozart”. The Fugitive poets seemingly struggled to reshape the image of Southern poetry, but it’s this concerted effort to fight the stereotype that reiterates the sense of loneliness in Southern poetry. However, the primary image of loneliness is often more specific, relating to personal loss and sustained loneliness, and nature is often used to highlight or allude to the feeling. Byer’s “Lullaby” describes the pressing, smothering feeling of loneliness by relating it to the feeling of the snow pressing on the roof of the house. Winter presses on her from all sides, exacerbating her sense of aloneness.

Oaks, Pines and Other Leafy Things

Trees are the quintessential image of nature. And they are regionally specific, meaning that often the trees that appear in Southern Poetry are similar in appearance or even identical. In the south, there are live oaks and longleaf pines and magnolias and cypresses and myrtles and palmettos. Depending on where the speaker is from, different trees appear in the poetry, sometimes in the background and sometimes as an integral part of the depiction. For example, in Robin Kemp’s This Pagan Heaven there is mention of “shattered trees” when describing the destruction of Katrina, which brings to mind the bald cypresses and huge old live oaks of formerly picturesque New Orleans. While in Kathryn Stripling Byer’s Wildwood Flower, there are images of coves and thickets of trees; abundant and verdant clusters of trees frequent the mountains of the poems, thriving in a bygone time.

Welcome!

This blog is created by Sean, Heather, Stephanie, and Bethany for our LCC 3222 Southern Poetry final project. This blog is intended to be a tool that implements the concepts that we have been learning and discussing all semester. Throughout this course we have been discussing one primary question: “What is Southern Poetry?” By reading a series of books determined to potentially fall within the realm of Southern Poetry as determined by our professor, we have maintained dialogue on this inquiry the entire semester. And now with these books in context, we have created a framework for what we, as a group, believe Southern Poetry means.

During class and in meetings, we have discussed some of the common themes and motifs that have been observed in the books of Southern Poetry we were assigned to read. It is through this conversation that we have reached a consensus as a group as to four characteristic patterns that are noticeable in Southern Poetry: Nature, History, Music and Religion. While these are technically quite broad themes that potentially cover a wide range of issues and motifs in poetry, the fact that they exist in nearly every collection we've read this semester seems to confirm our belief.

All of that being said, we also realize our limitations. We have not comprehensively read every work of poetry written about the South, in the South, or by a Southerner. And it's not entirely conclusive that there is some characteristic of Southern poetry that makes it definitively Southern. Besides, there are countless themes and images in the poetry we've read that could also be reasonably said to give a poem its Southern-ness. However, with this acknowledgement, we feel that the semester’s discussion and the extensive reading we have done thus far has provided us with a good understanding of the commonalities between Southern poems.

Throughout the course, we have attempted to narrow down a logical framework for what a Southern poem looks like. Our purpose here is to share our findings and to give some examples so that individuals can use this blog as an educational source on Southern poetry. We hope to better equip interested parties to identify a Southern poem upon reading one and to relate it to the existing body of work. Through nature, religion, sound, and history, we hope to help readers better understand what makes a poem Southern.

(image courtesy GT IAC: www.iac.gatech.edu/ legacy/gt1.htm)