Jim Daniels' Poetry Jim Daniels may not write poetry as eloquently as one would expect, but his style matches the subject matter he writes about perfectly. Indeed, it is this unrefined colloquial style, which allows Mr. Daniels to capture the essence of working class Detroit and relay it to the reader. His words may be somewhat coarse and he does not hesitate to use profanity, but one is still able to find beauty in his writing. The same can be said about the working class society, in which Jim Daniels was born and raised. At first glance, the Blue-Collar landscape of Detroit Michigan, with its dilapidated factories and toxin belching smokestacks, may seem coarse and profane. Yet, when one looks closer it is not hard to find beauty in this god-forsaken place. Amongst the UAW workers, Millwrights, ironworkers, and construction workers of Detroit lurk philosophers, artists, historians, economists, and, as proven by Mr. Daniels, poets. In “Ted’s Bar and Grill” Mr. Daniels writes, “…we shuffle our greasy boots up to the bar where Jeannie serves up drinks with her long blond hair and nice ass.” (15). The language he chose to use conveys a lot to the reader. By choosing the verb, “shuffle” and describing their boots as “greasy” Mr. Daniels paints a picture of a seedy “shift” bar where workers go after work, before work, or during work to get drunk. This is not a classy establishment. Indeed, patrons are not striding up to the bar in wingtips to procure libations here. In addition, by describing Jeannie as having “long blond hair and a nice ass”, Mr. Daniels gives the reader another insight into what kind of bar this is and what type of patrons frequent it. One can assume that few, if any, of the regulars at “Ted’s Bar an... ... middle of paper ... ...rnacular is an essential part of his writing because it gives his poetry authenticity. If one did not know better, one could easily imagine Mr. Daniels sitting at a “shift” bar after work guzzling Budweisers and writing poetry on cocktail napkins. He does a tremendous job of illustrating the good and bad aspects of Blue-Collar life in Detroit. This is very important because many people assume that working-class life is horrific, but in truth it has it’s good points and bad points. As a native Detroiter, who has worked on a myriad of construction sites for more than a decade, I can definitely relate to Jim Daniels poetry. This is because I have fallen in love with a dozen “Jeannie’s” in a dozen “Ted’s Bar and Grill’s” and I can definitely “do real dancing.” Works Cited Daniels, Jim. Places Everyone. Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1985.
Many writers begin writing and showing literary talent when they are young. Paul Laurence Dunbar, born and raised in Dayton, Ohio, was already editor of a newspaper and had had two of his poems published in the local newspaper before he’d graduated from high school. His classmate, Orville Wright, printed The Tattler which Dunbar edited and published for the local African American community. After graduating from high school, he was forced to get a job as an elevator operator which allowed him spare time for writing. He finally gained recognition outside of Dayton when, in 1892, he was invited to address the Western Association of Writers and met James Newton Matthews who praised his work in a letter to an Illinois newspaper. In 1892, he decided to publish his first book of poems entitled Oak and Ivy and four years later his second book of poems Majors and Minors was published. People began to see him as a symbol for his race, and he was thought of artistically as “a happy-go-lucky, singing, shuffling, banjo-picking being… in a log cabin amid fields of cotton” (Dunbar, AAW 2). Dunbar’s poems, written alternately in literary and dialect English, are about love, death, music, laughter, human frailty, and though Dunbar tried to mute themes of social protest, social commentary on racial themes is present in his poetry.
One of Larson’s first uses of contrast demonstrates the exploitation of the Gilded Age. On page 11, the very beginning of part I, Larson recounts how in the 1890s, young, single women were flocking to Chicago in large numbers and exercising their newfound independence by getting jobs. Larson then states “The men who hired them were for the most part moral citizens intent on efficiency and profit.”
The struggles that many face while experiencing poverty are not like any other. When a person is experiencing poverty, they deal with unbearable hardships as well as numerous tragic events. Diane Gilliam Fisher’s collection of poems teaches readers about labor battles within West Virginian territories, at the beginning of the twentieth century. Some of these battles include the Battle of Matewan and Battle of Blair Mountain. The collection of poems is presented in many different manners, ranging from diary entries to letters to journal entries. These various structures of writing introduce the reader to contrasting images and concepts in an artistic fashion. The reader is able to witness firsthand the hardships and the light and dark times of impoverished people’s lives. He or she also learns about the effects of birth and death on poverty stricken communities. In the collection of poems in Kettle Bottom, Fisher uses imagery and concepts to convey contrast between the positive and negative aspects of the lives of people living in poverty.
Billy Collins is one of the most credited poets of this century and last. He is a man of many talents, most recognized though by his provocative and riveting poetry. As John McEnroe was to the sport of tennis, Billy Collins has done the same for the world of poetry. Collin’s rejected the old ways of poetry, created his own form, broke all the rules, and still retains the love and respect of the poet community. Collins has received the title of Poet Laureate of the United States twice and also has received countless awards and acknowledgements. He has achieved this through a style of poetry that is not over-interpreted and hard to understand to most, but that of the complete opposite, his poetry is hospitable and playful.
Though this poem is only a small snapshot of what I personally thought Douglass was going through, I could never adequately understand the frustration he must have had. My hope in writing this poem was not to provide a psychoanalysis or theoretical idea structure to any audience, but rather to show that even today, a modern audience member like me, can appreciate the struggle of a fellow human and speak against injustices, specifically in Douglass’s time.
According to Raymond Williams, “In a class society, all beliefs are founded on class position, and the systems of belief of all classes …” (Rice and Waugh 122). His work titled, Marxism and Literature expounded on the conflict between social classes to bridge the political ideals of Marxism with the implicit comments rendered through the text of a novel. “For the practical links,” he states “between ‘ideas’ and ‘theories’ and the ‘production of real life’ are all in this material social process of signification itself” (133). Williams asserts that a Marxist approach to literature introduces a cross-cultural universality, ensuingly adding a timeless value to text by connecting creative and artistic processes with the material products that result. Like Williams, Don DeLillo calls attention to the economic and material relations behind universal abstractions such as aesthetics, love, and death. DeLillo’s White Noise brings modern-day capitalist societies’ incessant lifestyle disparity between active consumerists and those without the means to the forefront of the story’s plot. DeLillo’s setting uses a life altering man-made disaster in the suburban small-town of Blacksmith to shed light on the class conflict between the middle class (bourgeoisie) and the working poor (proletariat). After a tank car is punctured, an ominous cloud begins to loom over Jack Gladney and his family. No longer a feathery plume or a black billowing cloud, but the airborne toxic event—an event that even after its conclusion Jack cannot escape the prophecy of his encroaching death. Through a Marxist reading of the characterization of Jack Gladney, a middle-aged suburban college professor, it is clear that the overarching obsession with death operates as an...
One image which Daniels frequently co-opts to highlight Fords’ ironic approach to its workers is the manufacturer’s slogan. Quality appears to be job one in Daniels’s portrayal so long as it does not impede on the bottom line. Buying a cheap radio from a merchant who assures him that he is purchasing "Quality Merchandise", (author’s italics) the author curses the mal-functioning machine, remarking to himself that he should "know all about quality by how." The shrewdly placed slash in the title of "Quality/Control", again highlights the company’s ambivalent stance on quality versus profits. In the poem,...
Gwendolyn Brooks is the female poet who has been most responsive to changes in the black community, particularly in the community’s vision of itself. The first African American to be awarded a Pulitzer Prize; she was considered one of America’s most distinguished poets well before the age of fifty. Known for her technical artistry, she has succeeded in forms as disparate as Italian terza rima and the blues. She has been praised for her wisdom and insight into the African Experience in America. Her works reflect both the paradises and the hells of the black people of the world. Her writing is objective, but her characters speak for themselves. Although the idiom is local, the message is universal. Brooks uses ordinary speech, only words that will strengthen, and richness of sound to create effective poetry.
George Saunders, a writer with a particular inclination in modern America, carefully depicts the newly-emerged working class of America and its poor living condition in his literary works. By blending fact with fiction, Saunders intentionally chooses to expose the working class’s hardship, which greatly caused by poverty and illiteracy, through a satirical approach to criticize realistic contemporary situations. In his short story “Sea Oak,” the narrator Thomas who works at a strip club and his elder aunt Bernie who works at Drugtown for minimum are the only two contributors to their impoverished family. Thus, this family of six, including two babies, is only capable to afford a ragged house at Sea Oak,
When discussing the poetry of the Harlem Renaissance, due to the strength of their relationship, one must look at Blues and Jazz. Many viewed this genre as a voice for the black communities and as “the New Negro poets expressed a deep pride in being Black” (Smith, 1983, p. 37) it is easy to see how this influenced their poetry. The main theme of Blues were the troubles of life and finding an escape, and this underlying dissatisfaction was incorporated into poetry as a response to many of the injustices present. For example, a clear example of this is Langston Hughes’ Homesick Blues which uses many of the key techniques from Blues songs, such as short lines to create urgency. The poem discusses the effect of prejudices and injustices on the black communities, especially when it comes to finding a home and an identity. There is a subtle, irregular rhyme scheme from words such as “sun… done” (Ramazani, 1994, pp. 152-3) which strengthens the influence. The dull, full rhymes create a sense of dissatisfaction and boredom, as if the speaker has given up on life. Hughes similarly uses many colloquialism and phonetics, which were common in Blues songs, such as “De Railroad Bridge/ a sad song in de air” (Ramazani, 1994, pp. 152-3), which furthers racial pride and identity, present in Blues and Harlem Renaissance poetry. However, perhaps the strongest example of how the Blues genre infl...
James Wright’s poem “Autumn Begins in Martins Ferry, Ohio” was published in 1963, and like many of his other works, points focus toward the nature of human life in the Rust Belt region of America. Within the Rust Belt, poverty was common due to the after effects of the Great Depression and the decline in mining. Sports and entertainment were one of the ways that individuals afflicted by poverty were able to escape the reality of their conditions.Wright’s open form poem follows a narrator's thoughts of his immediate and regional surroundings while watching a high school football game. One may look at this poem as the football game providing not just a mental escape for the parents and townspeople, but also hope for the sons to make it out of
The article discusses the need for these early Chicago saloons as a neighborhood commune for those men who labor long hours only to come home to poverty and despair of a desolate household. Melendy focuses on the mental, physiological, and moral nature of these workingmen. He points out that this saloon culture allows it’s patrons to develop these traits by interacting with their peers—others facing the same despair. These establishments are described as the “workingman’s school. He is both scholar and teacher” (Melendy pg. 78). Patrons gather at the bar, around tables and in the next room amongst games of pool, cards, and darts to discuss political and social problems, sporting news, and other neighborhood gossip. Here men, native and immigrant, exchange opinions and views of patriotism, brotherhood, and lessons in civil government. Melendy describes this atmosphere as cosmopolitan, and articulates that these businesses advertise this issue in their names. For example one of the downtown saloons was entitled “Everybody’s Exchange.” The saloon’s customers experienced a buffet of nationalities upon which was not so for those of poverty in previous decades. Saloons also served as disguises of corruption as Melendy illustrates by declaring “...
Human beings can always rely on one constant in the shifting and often dangerous world around them: the consistency of change. Over thousands of years our race has evolved, shifting from uneducated hunters and gathers into basic city dwellers and finally, in the last couple of centuries, into the first “modern” humans. This final step has been by far the most challenging as people were forced to persevere through the most challenging of circumstances as Europe and America underwent their Industrial Revolutions. During this time period the population of cities exponentially increased, and more and more workers poured into these urban centers in search of a better life. Trade increased, as did the efficiency and technology of industry as a whole. Yet despite this overall advance of society, this time period was one full of both hardship and suffering for many of the poor as the first of these major cities were corrupted with gluttony and hunger. Disease also became a major concern, as the vast increase in population brought to light the lack of housing and sanitation needed to support the amount of people that were now living inside of the city limits. Even with the constant struggle that came with living in such a dense urban center, the sense of pride that gave people the endurance to continue is perfectly illustrated in Carl Sandburg’s “Chicago.” That sense of community despite the negative influences of the world around them can also be seen in modern times with the shipbreakers in India, who live in similar circumstances as the factory workers in nineteenth and twentieth century America. As the same issues of health and safety are called into question, we must ask ourselves a simple question: do we have the right to step in and...
For this assignment, I have decided to write about a famous poem of Billy Collins which is titled as ‘Introduction to Poetry’ written in 1996.
Jones employs the dynamics of change to his speaker throughout the poem. From an aimless vagrant to a passionate revolutionary, Jones plots his speaker's course using specific words and structural techniques. Through these elements, we witness the evolution of a new black man--one who is not content with the passivity of his earlier spiritual leaders. We are left with a threat--a steel fist in a velvet glove of poetry--and it becomes a poem that we "have to" understand, whether we want to or not.