Thursday, March 3, 2016

Response to "1971"

I'm going to immediately debunk anyone who's thinking, "He's just responding to the first poem in the book." That's purely coincidental - this poem is absolutely fantastic and it's purely coincidental that the first poem of "Seam" was both beautiful and full of themes. (lucky me)

I'd primarily like to look at sections iii and iv:

From a historical perspective, this poem addresses world events in a very interesting manner: the Bangladeshi crisis AND the Vietnam War were happening at the same time. Yet I've never even heard of the Bangladesh crisis. Go figure. The lines, "the bodies of men and women march forward in protest, rage candling their voices." speak to the intense passion felt for Vietnam and the conflict there, but I feel like Faizullah is sort of seeking an equal response for the Bangladesh conflict. She could be saying, "Hey guys, there's even more F***** up S*** going on over here!"

Additionally in part iii, there are countless references to her mother, dresses, weaving, and other traditional feminine or domestic themes. As well, she speaks of soldiers who don't even know that they're soldiers yet, merely "lean[ing] against the cool stone walls of your grandparent's house." This sort of domesticity being paired with the upcoming conflict reflects that none are safe from the reaching arms of war. This is further evidenced by the appalling statistics at the beginning of the poem.

Part iv furthers this theme of "violence on the homefront" with a rape or sexual assault scene that is sort of broken up by bits of memories and sensory experience. While this soldier is attacking her, she can only think of her mother, saris, her home, the ever-present cool green water, etc. In this violence ravaging her people, Faizullah can only seek a reprieve in her culture and her family.

No comments:

Post a Comment