Wall+Three--American+Poetry

Poetry in America, Poetry Across the Years

Reflection

1800s "And your very flesh shall be a great poem." -Walt Whitman

= Song of Myself = by: Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

I CELEBRATE myself, and sing myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

I loafe and invite my soul, I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.

My tongue, every atom of my blood, form'd from this soil, this air, Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their parents the same, I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin, Hoping to cease not till death.

Creeds and [|schools] in abeyance, Retiring back a while sufficed at what they are, but never forgotten, I harbor for good or bad, I permit to speak at every hazard, Nature without check with original energy.

Houses and rooms are full of [|perfumes], the shelves are crowded with perfumes, I breathe the fragrance myself and know it and like it, The distillation would intoxicate me also, but I shall not let it.

The atmosphere is not a perfume, it has no taste of the distillation, it is odorless, It is for my mouth forever, I am in love with it, I will go to the bank by the wood and become undisguised and naked, I am mad for it to be in contact with me.

The smoke of my own breath, Echoes, ripples, buzz'd whispers, love-root, silk-thread, crotch and vine, My respiration and inspiration, the beating of my heart, the passing of blood and air through my lungs, The sniff of green leaves and dry leaves, and of the shore and dark-color'd sea-rocks, and of hay in the barn,

The sound of the belch'd words of my voice loos'd to the eddies of the wind, A few light kisses, a few embraces, a reaching around of arms, The play of shine and shade on the trees as the supple boughs wag, The delight alone or in the rush of the streets, or along the fields and hill-sides, The feeling of health, the full-noon trill, the song of me rising from bed and meeting the sun.

Have you reckon'd a thousand acres much? have you reckon'd the earth much? Have you practis'd so long to learn to read? Have you felt so proud to get at the meaning of poems?

Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess the origin of all poems, You shall possess the good of the earth and sun, (there are millions of suns left,) You shall no longer take things at second or third hand, nor look through the eyes of the dead, nor feed on the spectres in books, You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me, You shall listen to all sides and filter them from your self. [|(continues here)]

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by Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
 * Death

Because I could not stop for Death, He kindly stopped for me; The carriage held but just ourselves And Immortality.

We slowly drove, he knew no haste, And I had put away My labor, and my leisure too, For his civility.

We passed the __school__, where children strove At recess, in the ring; We passed the fields of gazing grain, We passed the setting sun.

Or rather, he passed us; The dews grew quivering and chill, For only gossamer my gown, My tippet only tulle.

We paused before a house that seemed A swelling of the ground; The roof was scarcely visible, The cornice but a mound.

Since then 'tis centuries, and yet each Feels shorter than the day I first surmised the horses' heads Were toward eternity. ||

media type="youtube" key="-yRtl_BMR6U" width="425" height="350" "The Idea of Order at Key West" by Wallace Stevens (1879-1955)

1900s "An artist must be free to choose what he does, certainly, but he must also never be afraid to do what he might choose." -Langston Hughes

Saturday's Child by Countee Cullen Some are teethed on a silver spoon,  With the stars strung for a rattle;  I cut my teeth as the black racoon--  For implements of battle.  Some are swaddled in silk and down,  And heralded by a star;  They swathed my limbs in a sackcloth gown  On a night that was black as tar.  For some, godfather and goddame  The opulent fairies be;  Dame Poverty gave me my name,  And Pain godfathered me.  For I was born on Saturday--  "Bad time for planting a seed," <span style="color: #31239f; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Was all my father had to say, <span style="color: #31239f; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> And, "One mouth more to feed." <span style="color: #31239f; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Death cut the strings that gave me life, <span style="color: #31239f; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> And handed me to Sorrow, <span style="color: #31239f; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> The only kind of middle wife <span style="color: #31239f; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> My folks could beg or borrow. media type="youtube" key="4CUKyVrhPgM" width="425" height="350" I, Too by Langston Hughes (1902-1967)

2000s “. . . All artists’ work is autobiographical. Any writer’s work is a map of their psyche. You can really see what their concerns are, what their obsessions are, and what interests them.” - Kim Addonizio

18 Years by Kanye West (1977-Present) (This is the section of Gold Digger by Kanye West known as "18 Years." The artist performed this a slam poem separate from the song.)

<span style="color: #d4257d; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Cutie the bomb <span style="color: #d4257d; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Met her at a beauty salon <span style="color: #d4257d; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">With a baby Louis Vuitton <span style="color: #d4257d; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Under her underarm <span style="color: #d4257d; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">She said I can tell you ROC <span style="color: #d4257d; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">I can tell by your harm <span style="color: #d4257d; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Far as girls you got a flock <span style="color: #d4257d; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">I can tell by your charm and your arm <span style="color: #d4257d; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">But I'm looking for the one <span style="color: #d4257d; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Have you seen her? <span style="color: #d4257d; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">My psychic told me she have an ass like Serena <span style="color: #d4257d; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Trina, Jennifer Lopez, four kids <span style="color: #d4257d; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">An I gotta take all they bad ass to show-biz <span style="color: #d4257d; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">OK get your kids but then they got their friends <span style="color: #d4257d; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">I pulled up in a Benz, they all got up in <span style="color: #d4257d; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">We all went to Den and then I had to pay <span style="color: #d4257d; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">If you fucking with this girl then you better be payed <span style="color: #d4257d; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">You know why <span style="color: #d4257d; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">It takes too much to touch her <span style="color: #d4257d; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">From what I heard she got a baby by Busta <span style="color: #d4257d; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">My best friend says she use to fuck with Usher <span style="color: #d4257d; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">I don't care what none of you all say I still love her

<span style="color: #d4257d; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">18 years, 18 years <span style="color: #d4257d; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">She got one of your kids got you for 18 years <span style="color: #d4257d; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">I know somebody paying child support <span style="color: #d4257d; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">For one of his kids <span style="color: #d4257d; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">His baby mamma's car and crib is bigger than his <span style="color: #d4257d; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">You will see him on TV any given Sunday <span style="color: #d4257d; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Win the Superbowl and drive off in a Hyundai <span style="color: #d4257d; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">She was supposed to buy your shorty TYCO with your money <span style="color: #d4257d; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">She went to the doctor and got lypo with your money <span style="color: #d4257d; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">She walking around looking like Michael with your money <span style="color: #d4257d; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Should of got that insured got GEICO for your money <span style="color: #d4257d; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">If you ant no punk holla we want prenup <span style="color: #d4257d; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">WE WANT PRENUP! Yeah <span style="color: #d4257d; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">It's something that you need to have <span style="color: #d4257d; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">'Cause when she leave yo ass she gone leave with half <span style="color: #d4257d; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">18 years, 18 years <span style="color: #d4257d; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">And on her 18th birthday he found out it wasn't his media type="youtube" key="TlIruvTMFIc" width="425" height="350" "What Do Women Want?" By Kim Addonizio (1954-Present)

Wall One--The American Dream Wall Two-Body Image in America The Fourth Wall--The American Advantage