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Dove Love. Rita Dove By Maddy Epstein, Sam Steiner, and Maggie Segale. Background Information. Born in Akron Ohio Middle-class family Stable childhood Very good student First black to be known as the Poet Laureate of the US Went to Germany and was interested in black Germans.
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Dove Love Rita Dove By Maddy Epstein, Sam Steiner, and Maggie Segale
Background Information • Born in Akron Ohio • Middle-class family • Stable childhood • Very good student • First black to be known as the Poet Laureate of the US • Went to Germany and was interested in black Germans
How it affects her writing http://www.calstatela.edu/academic/english/images/ritadove.jpg • Pride • Strength (ex. Exit) • Searching (ex. Sunday Greens, Golden Oldie) • Pleasant
Golden Oldie I made it home early, only to get stalled in the driveway-swaying at the wheel like a blind pianist caught in a tune meant for more than two hands playing. The words were easy, crooned by a young girl dying to feel alive, to discover a pain majestic enough to live by. I turned the air conditioning off, leaned back to float on a film of sweat, and listened to her sentiment: Baby, where did our love go?-a lament I greedily took in without a clue who my lover might be, or where to start looking.
Motifs • Haunting her • Relationships -Childhood -Family • African American background -Slavery -Freedom • Past and Present • http://www.achievement.org/achievers/dov0/large/dov0-003.jpg
Themes • What she truly wants vs. What is realistic • Memories (either accepted, painful, or enjoyable) vs. Letting go • Struggle vs. Strength • Resisting humanity vs. going with the flow • Resisting vs. Accepting change • History (both of the world, and of herself) vs. Present
Writing Technique • Narrative • No rhymes • Different fonts and sizes • Italics • Usually short "Rather, the journey of the narrative was interesting, and therefore the telling of that journey was paramount. So you could say that even before I began to read, I had discovered the delight of shaping life with words. I think I'll never want to be rid of this delicious tension between the telling and the tale - which, when translated into the lyric and the narrative, is part of the systolic and diastolic of poetry."
Literary Devices • Symbolism (using colors) “you are turning pink, doing what they doevery dawn. Here it's gray”-excerpted from Exit • Figurative Language • Imagery “Nested chairs stripped of varnishTurpentine shadows stiff legs in the air” excerpt from Centipede • Personification “And now throughthe windshield the sky begins to blushas you did when your mother told youwhat it took to be a woman in this life.”- excerpted from Exit
Literary Criticism: Agreement • Rita Dove’s poems have a creative dynamic in that they take something as simple as a classic song on the radio (as seen in Golden Oldie) or an out-of-the-ordinary passer-by (as seen in Lady Freedom Among Us) and transforming them into beautiful works of art. • Her poems often deal with parts of life such as being an African American woman (and the issues that go hand-in-hand with it), world history (and how it relates to/affects her life), experiences in life such as adolescence, romance and of course, romance coming to a screeching halt. • Structurally, like most poets, her poems are purposely spliced into different lines in order to create a more effective, yet less predictable poem. • She does not use a specific rhyme scheme, and therefore her poems are written in free verse. • While her verse is free, it is also very evocative and concise. We agree that...
Literary Criticism: Disagreement We disagree that... • Her writing is compassionate. Usually, her writing illustrates remaining emotionally strong through the struggles of life, therefore, not providing a sympathetic comfort, but a sturdy guide to carry-on. • Her poems use symmetry. Rita Dove uses neither a steady rhythm nor an even structure, and therefore, symmetry is not a major benefactor to Dove’s artful style.
List of Works Cited Academy of Achievement. Rita Dove Interview. 18 June 1994 <http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/dov0int-1> Carlisle, Theodora. Reading the Scars: Rita Dove’s the Darker Face of the Earth- Critical Writing. Spring 2000 <http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2838/is_1_34/ai_62258911 > Cruz, Christian Dela. On the Bus with Rosa Parks by Rita Dove. 9 May 2005 <http://voices.cla.umn.edu/vg/Critique/review_poetry/on_the_bus_with_rosa_parks_by_rita_dove.html> Donohue, Cecilia. Rita Dove. 12 Jan 2005 <http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1303> Dove, Rita. Selected Poems. New York: Pantheon Books. 1993 Dove, Rita . Mother Love. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1995. "Geometry: Style." Poetry for Students. Ed. Marie Rose Napierkowski. Vol. 15. Detroit: Gale, 1998. eNotes.com. January 2006. 15 April 2007. <http://www.enotes.com/geometry/25802>. Stamper, Anthony. Rita Dove(1952- ) Modern America –1914 to Present. <http://www.uncp.edu/home/canada/work/allam/edit/dove.htm> “Rita Dove.” Answers.com. 15 Apr 2007 <http://www.answers.com/topic/rita-dove >