Cullen's poem "Heritage" reminded me of McKay's "Heritage." Both Cullen and McKay focus on Africa and the importance of Africa to their culture. However, Cullen's "Africa" is not portrayed as a place, rather a symbol. Cullen's description of Africa focuses primarily on an idealized land in which the Negro had once been happy and kingly. Although Cullen may not know what Africa truly is it is a poem related to the joy of a long-subdued African past.
As the narrator "listlessly" thumbs through a book about Africa, he becomes mused by a hidden snake that sloughs it's skin as naked lovers are concealed within the dampness of the rain forest. Suddenly, the speaker questions an ambiguously erotic impulse to slip back in time to Africa's past. The poem continues with the speaker in an imaginative state. Throughout the poem the speaker questions why one should ache for a land in which his ancestors left hundreds of years ago? As temptation is hinted upon throughout the poem, at the end the speaker becomes obsessed with "primal measures," an intense music that forces the body to nakedness and the feet to tread forbidden deprivation out of keeping with his Christian upbringing. As the speaker is confronted with a duplicity of identity and behavior ("With my mouth thus, in my heart Do I play a double part), the speaker realizes the danger of living a double life, especially if it makes one fiercely long for something.
Overall, I enjoyed reading this poem the most. Although I am not the best at deciphering poetry, this is what I got out of this particular poem.
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2 comments:
I think you did really well deciphering “Heritage.” Even if there is a different interpretation, I really had no idea even where to star on that one. I hope you bring it up in class, I have a feeling just the wording confused a lot of us.
Wow, I never would have pulled all of that out of those two poems. But, what you said makes sense. It seems that both authors are looking to connect to a place or past that they really don’t have any connection to. They long for their ancestors land just because they are ancestors, the need to connect and have ties to someone, something, religion, and people. We all want to belong and feel a part of a whole. African’s were taken and deprived of this fundamental human right to belong to something, and I can fully understand why all of the authors we have read seem to be so lost and on a quest to find something they can cling to and call their own.
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