Rita Dove is a very important literary figure from Akron, Ohio. She attended Miami University of Ohio. She served as Poet Laureate of The United States and received several awards including the 1996 National Humanities Medal from President Clinton and the Pulitzer Prize of Poetry. She was the youngest person and first African American to become Poet Laureate. Her and her husband are avid ballroom dancers!
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| Rita Dove and President Obama |
Rita Dove is known for writing beautiful lyric poems about history, politics, and other art forms. Dove wrote a collection of poems called "On The Bus With Rosa Parks. The poem I chose is called
Rosa.There are themes of race, power, and courage in this poem. It really zooms in on Rosa Parks actions on that historical day.
Rosa
How she sat there,
the time right inside a place,
so wrong it was ready.
The trim name with
its dream of a bench
to rest on. Her sensible coat.
Doing nothing was the doing:
the clean flame of her gaze
carved by a camera flash.
How she stood up
when they bent down to retrieve
her purse. That courtesy.
It's awesome how much she broke history through being the first African American Poet Laureatte. Very influential poet. Something remarkable about the poem Rosa is how she has "How she sat there" in the beginning and "How she stood up" at the end. This segment really brings the narrative to a full circle, both having large centers of gravity in the poem.
ReplyDeleteDove sounds like a beautiful successful poet who broke many barriers, and that's something to be respected. I love the line "The clean fame of her gaze", it really depicts the fire and spirit of Rosa Parks. She writes with strength and precision and it adds to the clarity of her writing fantastically. She sounds like a true role-model personally and poetically.
ReplyDeleteRita Dove seems like she was a very important figure in the African American community. Dove reminds me of my poet Lucille Clifton, who was also an important African-American poet. Clifton also served as the state of Maryland's poet laureate from 1974 until 1985, and won the prestigious National Book Award. I would love to hear more about Dove.
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