"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.
I think writing poetry about the past or places of the past is really beautiful. People often talk about how history distorts in our minds and we rewrite it constantly, but I almost prefer it that way. A.L. Rowse once said "history is a great deal closer to poetry than is generally realized; in truth, I think, it is in essence the same". The past, even the ugly past, is somehow beautiful in a way in that we can remember it however we want- even if we weren't there. I think one of the best ways to capture history is poetry because the concise language is able to say so much with so few words.
Another poem that captures a place in the past in the same way is "Voices, Traces, the Whip-poor-will's Plea" by R.T. Smith. The poem describes the KKK arriving on horseback in their white robes to kidnap and murder a black man named Will. The poem ends with the speaker's Great Uncle giving Will's wife "a shroud of banners" that Will had rescued from the battle of Appomattox. The wife declines the shroud and says "What this used to mean no longer matters. Take it please, and put it in the ground" (Smith). This line is significant because the Battle of Appomattox was the last battle Lee and the Confederates fought before surrendering to the Union. Even though the war was over the war between the races still raged on. It didn't matter that Lee surrendered or that the battle had been lost by the South, it still meant nothing to the members of the KKK and Will paid the ultimate price.
This poem makes me sad, and yet it provides insight into the past that is unlike reading accounts of the KKK in a history book. The speaker talks about the tree limb where Will was hung, about the meeting in the woods by the clansmen, and also about his savage beating with whips and how they set him on fire. These are not the stories of history books and if they were, they would surely not be taught in public school settings.
Perhaps this is why we must look to poetry to give us "the real deal" when it comes to history. Textbooks merely skim the surface of the past and focus on the big picture instead of the nitty gritty which give the past its character. I am thankful for the efforts of Julie Kane and R.T. Smith for giving the world glimpes into the past and into places of the past that I would have probably never learned about.
photo credit: mapleleafbar.com
I agree that it is almost better that history is constantly being rewritten according to context or personal belief. I think it gives us more of a connection to history and perhaps to our futures. And the idea that poetry is an effective vehicle for writing about the past is also appealing to me, because as we've discussed in class, the concise language leaves the meaning open to the reader. And you are also right that reading poetry about historical events is very different than the cold narrative of history according to the experts. History is the story of the general, of the trends, of the civilization. Poetry tells a story that is intimate and personal and yet can still be a shared memory. Southern poetry may be more relevant for Southerners, but there are aspects of it that are universal.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Heather's comments. Our personal revisionist histories allow us to better connect with events of the past. Beyond that connection, revising history makes it more pallatable. "Gone With the Wind," "Roots," and "The Birth of a Nation" all present ideas of how the South was, but each film tells a story from a perspective that appeals to its audience. For me, this immediately brings to mind Natasha Trethewey's "Southern History" and its presentation of an alternative view of history as "fact."
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