Death

“A survivor of the Holocaust, Paul Celan wrote spare, hauntingly beautiful lyric poems about suffering and loss” (Puchner 1467).  Celan’s poetry deals with the unspeakable; he writes of the vile horrors of his experience, yet he conveys them in a moving and rhythmic way. “Deathfugue,” his most famous poem “refers to the dance music that an SS commander forced prisoners to play during marches and executions [at a concentration camp]” (Puchner 1468).  The poem shows the shocking dichotomy of happy music being sung while suffering and death occurs amidst the Holocaust.

“Deathfugue” begins with the prisoners proclaiming they drink toxic liquid each day, all day long: “Black milk of daybreak we drink it at evening / we drink it at midday an morning we drink it at night / we drink and we drink” (Celan lns. 1-3). The prisoners are forced day in and day out to figuratively drink in the ways of the camp. If they choose to go against authority, they will be killed. Thus, the black milk symbolizes death and the Nazi’s power. When Celan writes, “we shovel a grave in the air where you won’t lie too cramped” he is being facetious (4). Since thousands of prisoners were killed in gas chambers, the graves in the air reference the smoke from the crematoriums. 

As the poem continues, Celan writes of a vicious SS guard, who is oblivious to his cruel treatment of Jews or to the suffering happening around him. Instead, he works in a hideous labor camp during the day and is entertained by singing and watching others work. In the evening, he goes home, sleeps in a warm bed, plays with his snakes, looks up at the beautiful stars, and writes about his beloved, a beautiful blonde German woman.

During the day, however, he terrorizes the prisoners with the prospect of death. Meanwhile, prisoners dig more graves and others play music for him to enjoy: “He shouts dig this earth deeper you lot there you others sing up and play / he grabs for the rod in this belt he swings it” (Celan 16-17). If they do not do as he commands, there will be brutal consequences.

Similar to the music that is played, “Deathfugue” repeats itself, mimicking the advancing frenzied feeling of intimidation and possible death. The rhythm of the poem gets faster as the theme of death becomes more real for the prisoners.

In another one of his poems, “Aspen Tree,” Celan also speaks of death but on a more personal level. Since Celan’s parents were killed in concentration camps, he expresses his mourning for his mother in this poem: “My mother’s hair never turned white” (Celan 2). Clearly, his mother’s life was cruelly cut short; thus, she did not get to experience old age.

Celan opposes sentiments for his mother with inanimate objects.  The comparison shows the similarity between the lifeless objects and his mother’s short life: “Dandelion, so green is the Ukraine / My fair-haired mother did not come home” (Celan 3-4). His mother was killed in a Ukrainian concentration camp. Her life was wiped out like a dandelion, an unwanted weed growing in a yard. She may have been beautiful, but the Nazi Party considered her useless. As a result, she never made it home.

Paul Celan’s poetry is powerfully haunting. He conveys horrors from the Holocaust, an experience he could not forget. Similar to author Tadeusz Borowski, who wrote “This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentelman,” Celan had difficulty adjusting to life after the Holocaust. Horrific memories haunted each man; as a result, they could not escape the torment, and each committed suicide. Their poetry serves as a bitter reminder of their unhappiness and continual anguish.

Works Cited

Celan, Paul. “Aspen Tree.” Trans. John Felstiner. The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Ed. Martin Puchner et al. Shorter 3rd ed. Vol. 2. New York: W.W. Norton, 2013. 1470. Print.

---. “Deathfugue.” Trans. John Felstiner. The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Ed. Martin Puchner et al. Shorter 3rd ed. Vol. 2. New York: W.W. Norton, 2013. 1469-1470. Print.

Puchner, Martin, Gen ed. The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Shorter Third ed. Vol. 2. New York: W.W. Norton, 2013. Print.

Neruda

Nobel Prize winner poet Pablo Neruda advocated for social justice. His poetry often addressed social issues within a larger community (Puchner 1421). His poem, “Walking Around” makes a statement on urban life. It “demonstrates Neruda’s turn toward public subject matter… as a description of urban life and the sufferings of the poor” (Puchner 1422).

The poem conveys a man who is tired of living life in his run down city. Ironically, he wants to leave it but feels trapped: “It happens that I go into the tailor’s shops and the movies  / all shriveled up, impenetrable, like a felt swan / navigating on a water of origin and ash” (Neruda lns. 2-4). He tries to traverse away from the city, but its walls hold him in. It seems this inability to escape begins to drive him mad. He “sobs out loud,” wishes to “knock a nun stone dead,” and run through the streets “with a green knife / shouting until I died of cold” (Neruda 5, 14, 16-17). The city’s dreadful effects have rubbed off on the people and their attitudes. Likewise, the life he experiences in the city wears him down so much that he is “tired of being a man” (Neruda 9). If only he could escape his life and find beauty again.

As he continues to wander the streets, he realizes the city is full of capitalism (“establishments” and “merchandise”) and ugliness (“cellar full of corpses”) (Neruda 7-8, 24). If he does not soon escape its materialism and horridness, he will be swallowed up by it. Yet as he ages, along with the city, he gets closer to death and destruction, similar to his surroundings.

Neruda’s poem “Walking Around” makes a powerful statement on feeling trapped in a society that does not appreciate beauty or human existence. The city instead values those in society who can afford to have dreams and live above the poor, dirty reality.

Works Cited

Neruda, Pablo. “Walking Around.” Trans. W.S. Merwin. The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Ed. Martin Puchner et al. Shorter 3rd ed. Vol. 2. New York: W.W. Norton, 2013. 1423-1424. Print.

Puchner, Martin, Gen ed. The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Shorter Third ed. Vol. 2. New York: W.W. Norton, 2013. Print.

Gender

Joaquim Maria Marchado de Assis a well-known Brazilian writer “expanded the possibilities of realism, exploring the complex psychology and social structures of modern urban life” (Puchner 911). Typically, nineteenth century literature depicted male characters as the powerful figures. Conversely, in his story “The Rod of Justice,” Marchado de Assis uses a female character as the one who holds the power.

The story begins with a young man Damiao running away from his life at the seminary. Not knowing where to go, he analyzes his choices: his father will thump him and send him back, and his godfather was the one who took him to the seminary, so certainly, he cannot go to either of them. Damiao suddenly thinks of where to go: “I’ll go beg Sinha Rita to protect me!” (Marchado de Assis 912). Sinha Rita is a widowed woman and his godfather’s mistress. He knows she can help. Although she says she cannot help; Damiao convinces her she can: “You can do a great deal, Sinha Rita (Marchado de Assis 912). Once she agrees to help, she tells him she can talk to the godfather: “Well, I’ll show him where he’ll pay attention or not” (Marchado de Assis 913). Indeed, Sinha Rita is more powerful than she first lets on.

Once the godfather arrives, Sinha Rita does not mince words. She tells him to go talk to the boy’s father and convince him his son is not fit for ecclesiastical life: “Keep after him; he’ll give in. Get along, Joao Carneiro, your godson is not going back to the seminary. I tell you, he is not going back” (Marchado de Assis 914). Sinha Rita displays her power in how she speaks to the godfather; she is not afraid to tell him what she thinks or what he needs to do.

Even though Damiao is still worried about the godfather’s influence and his father’s decision, Sinha Rita assures him she will take care of it: “They’ll find out what I’m made of! No, I won’t stand for foolishness!” (Marchado de Assis 916). Damiao realizes he needs to listen to her and be patient.

The story closes with one of Rita’s slaves not finishing her work. Even though Damiao tells himself he will protect her (earlier, she stops working to listen and laugh at one of his stories), he knows he cannot upset Sinha Rita. Fully realizing her influence, he knows she is the one who can truly help him escape a life of misery. In the end, his allegiance to the mistress wins out: “Damiao was pricked by an uneasy sense of guilt, but he wanted so much to get out of the seminary! He reached the settee, picked up the rod, and handed it to Sinha Rita” (Marchado de Assis 916). In order to fulfill his wish and leave the seminary for good, Damiao does not listen to his own conscience and help the slave girl. Instead, he hands Sinha Rita the justice rod, so she can beat her worker. Her powerful influence triumphs. Indeed, Sinha Rita, a forty-year old widow, mistress, and employee, is not a typical woman. She holds the power and knows how to control all the people in her life, including the men: Damiao’s father, godfather, and Damiao himself.  

Works Cited

Marchado De Assis, Joaquim Maria. “The Rod of Justice.” Trans. Helen Caldwell. The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Ed. Martin Puchner et al. Shorter 3rd ed. Vol. 2. New York: W.W. Norton, 2013. 911-916. Print.

Puchner, Martin, Gen ed. The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Shorter Third ed. Vol. 2. New York: W.W. Norton, 2013. Print.

Martí and Darío

Walt Whitman’s poetry left an incredible legacy with its innovative form and language and its focus on the spirit of democracy: “Whitman ushered in a whole new era in American poetry” (Puchner 646). He was an important influence in the literary world in America, as were fellow poets José Martí and Rubén Darío, in their respective countries.

Cuban writer, José Martí also revolutionized poetry in his country. His poem,  “I Am an Honest Man” is similar to Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself in that both speakers declare they represent the natural world. Walt Whitman writes “My tongue, every atom of my blood, formed from this soil, this air” (ln. 6). Similarly, Martí expresses similar sentiment, when he declares, “I am a mountain” (8). Both speakers celebrate nature and individuality.

Likewise, both poets remind the reader that they speak for all people. Whitman writes, “And what I assume you shall assume / For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you” (2-3). Just as Whitman represents humankind, so does Martí: “I come from everywhere / And I am going toward everywhere” (6-7). Both men show their democratic notions by speaking for many.

Another poet who shares comparisons to Whitman is Rubén Darío, who “revolutionized Spanish American poetry” (Puchner 689). In his poem “Blazon,” Darío introduces a beautiful snow-white swan. As the poem describes the swan’s loveliness with descriptive language, Darío hints at sexuality and eroticism.

He is the swan of divine origin

Whose kiss mounted through fields

Of silk to the rosy peaks

Of Leda’s sweet hills. (Darío 9-12)

Since Darío alludes to Leda, a nymph Zeus raped in Greek mythology, it seems Darío finds beauty in nature, while using a suggestive allusion.

Comparably, in Song of Myself, Whitman uses sensuous language to display his pleasure for the world around him: “Press close bare-bosomed night” (Section 21 ln. 14) and “Smile O voluptuous cool-breathed earth! (Section 21 ln. 17). Both poets seem to delight in nature and the provocative.

All three poets, Whitman, Martí, and Darío were talented and influential poets. Whether their themes focused on nature, democracy, or the seductive, their poetry revolutionized the literary world.

Works Cited

Darío, Rubén. “Blazon.” Trans. Lysander Kemp. The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Ed. Martin Puchner et al. Shorter 3rd ed. Vol. 2. New York: W.W. Norton, 2013. 692-693. Print.

Martí, José. “I Am an Honest Man.” Trans. Aviva Chomsky. The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Ed. Martin Puchner et al. Shorter 3rd ed. Vol. 2. New York: W.W. Norton, 2013. 681-682. Print.

Puchner, Martin, Gen ed. The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Shorter Third ed. Vol. 2. New York: W.W. Norton, 2013. Print.

Whitman, Walt. Song of Myself. The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Ed. Martin Puchner et al. Shorter 3rd ed. Vol. 2. New York: W.W. Norton, 2013. 648-653. Print.