So you guys wouldn't understand this poem and even the theme behind the words if you don't know the actual story of Emmet Till. This takes us back to the fall of 1955. Emmet Till was a fourteen year old, black boy that was visiting some cousins in Mississippi. One day he and a couple boys went into a grocer to buy some candy, that was being watched by a white lady at that time. Emmet was telling the boys about the integrated school he was going to and the other boys wanted him to talk to the white store owner.
No one really knows what happened or what words where said, but the lady freaked and ran out of the store to grab a gun. The boys fled and the lady's husband did everything to figure out who and where the young boy was. Basically, he and a few other men hunted down and found Emmet, dragged him from his cousins home, where he was then beaten (including an eye being gouged out) and shot. The men disposed of Emmet by tying a cotton gin fan around his neck with barbed wire and throughing him into a river.
When they finally found the body three days later, Emmets mother called for a public funeral ceremony so that the world could see the cruelty shown by fellow men. The body in that coffin barely looked human from the grusome beatings, which terrified and angered thousands. This was a murder that is considered a catylist to the civil rights movements.
It's indescribably heart wrentching and sick to think that a fourteen year old boy was maliciously abused like that because of the deep hatred and descrimination of our country.
So for me, reading this I felt the emotion of Emmet Till's death, and the oppression of the black race as a whole.
When reading this poem ("Emmet Till" by James A. Emanuel) I took it as Emmet Till representing or personifying the blacks' desire and movement towards equality. In 1968, when this poem was written, there were still bitter feelings and harsh battles for equality: "Little Emmet/ Won't be still." The people kept fighting and little reminders and flickers of wrath from lynchings such as that of Emmet, unjust laws and other actions kept the fire of equality blazing. This battle, as the poem pledges, will "swim forever" until the people are satisfied.
For being such a disturbing and agressive topic the diction used in this poem create an interesting, almost calm mood. I read this more like a lullaby than in a harsh attitute that the story behind the name calls for. Emanuel uses words like "whistle" instead of shreik, "floating" instead of drowning, "bedtime story" instead of ghost story, or "fairy" instead of crying spirit. It's a different way of presenting this kind of a topic, that I found kind of weird. I loved this poem because it was short, interestingly written and makes you think about humanity (past and present). I love it, but now I am angry... :(
First of all this made me angry now too, I have never been good with history, so I didn't know that much about Emmet Till, so I thank you for explaining what happened to him. I re read the poem and I felt this deep sick feeling in my stomach. People are ruthless and sick. Then and now. I really liked how you talked about it being a lullaby. It's like the mother is forgiving the men for killing her son. And I think she's trying to avoid the fact that he's dead. She doesn't want to admit it to herself so she asks him to tell her the "bedtime story". I am fascinated with lullabies, I always have been, especially the ones like this one. Just by using a few nice words, they can make it sound like a happy thing, but as we grow older we realize the true meaning of it. Kind of like how we used to play Cops and Robbers, and sing ring around the rosy. As kids we don't realize the true meaning of such things, but as we grow older we have a deeper understanding and I think the fact that it used to be like a game to us, makes the meaning hit us all the much harder.
ReplyDeleteThis poem is very sad, I didn't know anything about Emmet Till, and after reading your response it's horrifying. I really didn't get much into this poem and your response of it makes it so understanding, this poem makes sense after reading the history behind it. I could infer what it was about, but I had no idea what an impact this poem was and how much history was behind it. This poem is really sad and has a sad background. I think Emmet Till was trying to live his life more equally than differentiated with "whites" and "colored." I really liked this poem.
ReplyDeleteImagine though that this poem was about a little white girl, would it still take the same effect on us? Of course the historical background to Emmett Till adds to the poem and makes it even more of an impact but take away that background and have it as a little black boy vs. a little white girl. To me knowing the race would make an EXTREME difference, because saying it was a black child would immediately turn most of our minds to racism. In our society though most people would feel more “changed” by the character in the poem being a girl, because of how girls are more fragile and easily taken advantage of. The child being white would even blow the roof off of America because, even though some don’t admit it, we like to think that events like that don’t happen to white people.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I read the citation at the bottom and it said Emmett Till allegedly made sexual advances towards a white woman.
Sophie! You beat me to this one. This poem was really sad and I read about the boy in history last year. I feel like this poem shows how everything was back then, a fourteen year old boy couldn’t even talk to a white women without so accusations. I mean the boy could have just asked her about the town or anything and being in the south you didn’t talk to white people if you were black they all acted that they were of greater value then you. Which isn’t right and we all know that isn’t true, all life is of great equal.
ReplyDeleteI loved this poem! I mean of course its beyond sad but all literature from this time period is so lovely and so inspired. I mean its so horrible this young boy was hung for no crime. Who us to say he was even flirting? If he was, was it so bad that it required this violence. Yes this was a time of racial tensions, but this just shows how bad it really was. I mean even to this day in the south the racial tensions are still high. Ive been to louisana and I received many racial jokes and was even refused service because of my skin color. I mean the bigotry is just so unvblievable.
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