StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Cornelius Eadys Poetry - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
From the paper "Cornelius Eady’s Poetry" it is clear that Cornelius Eady, the famous American poet, and author of seven volumes of poetry, was born in 1954 in Rochester, New York. Cornelius Eady’s poetry is largely focused on matters of race and society…
Download free paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER95% of users find it useful
Cornelius Eadys Poetry
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Cornelius Eadys Poetry"

The major stimulus of Eady’s “Brutal Imagination” is race and racism in America. On October 25, 1994, in Union, South Carolina, 23-year-old, Caucasian, Susan Smith drowned her two young sons, 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alex, in a South Carolina lake (King, 1). She tried to cover up that brutal crime by accusing and fabricating a false story that her car, along with her two young children, had been stolen by an unidentified black man, who had forced her from the car and then disappeared with her offspring and vehicle in Union County, South Carolina. Smith’s concocted tale fueled very high racial tensions in Union, S.C. Fortunately, nine days later, the whole tension was diffused when she confessed that had let her car, with the two infants strapped in the back seat, drift deep into the John D. Long Lake, not too far from her home. Nimaginary the imaginary black man that Susan Smith falsely claimed had abducted her children, however, existed in reality in the minds of the American public for nine days until the truth surfaced about her infanticide (Jansen, 1).“Brutal Imagination” narrates Eady’s persona - the black man, invented by white consciousness, particularly by Susan Smith like individuals. He, for the most part, writes in the voice of the imaginary kidnapper, using the details of the case to investigate the way the black man lives in the white imagination. The black man’s character draws power both from the real and fictional realms for his existence. “Susan Smith willed me alive/At the moment/Her babies sank into the lake/When called, I come” he explains in “How I Got Born,” the collection’s opening poem (Rakoff, para. 6).

Eady’s work transcends the public arena and moves within Smith’s imagination. In poems like “Birthing”, the spirit takes form; I am not me, yet. /I am just an understanding” Eady continues to delve into the mind and body of this imagined black man who stalks and preys on white women and their children in poems like “My Heart,” “My Face” and “Press Conference” where he lurks just behind the screen of Smith's lie and reports, like an entry to a travel diary (Bashir, 2007, pin his-5). Also, in his poem” Where Am I?” he nationalities on his functional fictionality in perpetrating racial mistrust in a divided land: I flicker from TV to TV… / I hover/ over so many lawns, so many cups of coffee. //I pour from lip to lip. Abstractly dispersed across the white field of vision, “a shadow on the water glass, / Changing hues, The slant of my nose and eyes. Depending on the light /And the question,” young black men are typecast as menaces to society, to be hauled out periodically for a symbolic and cosmetic justice (Deniz, para.2).

The second section entitled “The Running Man Poems” illustrates the barriers in a white racist society that often tear apart the black family and defer the dreams of black youth. The theme of the poem “Running Man,” used in Eady’s libretto is also used for Diedre Murray’s 1999 Pulitzer Prize-nominated jazz opera. Examining the violent death of a black youth and its effect on his family, these powerful poems also focus on expectation weight expectation and its uneasy converse with reality. Defying the role usually allotted to his kind, Tommy (the running man) shows intellectual promise, ambition, and sensitivity at an early age, "proof that maybe not everything happens …The way they say it should.” But in the end, he is still dragged down by that heavy burden—unable to run quite fast enough. Still, words can hold the weight aloft long enough to speak painful, necessary truths. The power of his work is such that, even thus diluted, Brutal Imagination is a haunting collection. Fans of Eady’s work will find that it shows a profound expansion of his considerable gift, and contains his most piercing work to date. Read More
Tags
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Eadys response Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words”, n.d.)
Eadys response Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words. Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/literature/1532027-eadys-response
(Eadys Response Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 Words)
Eadys Response Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 Words. https://studentshare.org/literature/1532027-eadys-response.
“Eadys Response Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 Words”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/literature/1532027-eadys-response.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Cornelius Eadys Poetry

Emily Dickinson: Poet and Poetry Analysis

In the paper “Emily Dickinson: Poet and poetry Analysis” the author examines life and poetry of Emily Dickinson who went against the norm and found pleasure in the absence of a title, and incorporated capitalization and punctuation where unnecessary.... In the paper “Emily Dickinson: Poet and poetry Analysis” the author examines life and poetry of Emily Dickinson who went against the norm and found pleasure in the absence of a title, and incorporated capitalization and punctuation where unnecessary The poems of Emily Dickinson reflected a sense of bleakness and isolation....
3 Pages (750 words) Essay

Self-Expression in the Poetry of Eliot

This essay "The poetry of Eliot" focuses on the prominent poet Eliot who was a radical commentator of modern society, who revaluated mankind and nature in his works, and every poem of his had been regarded as extremely thought-provoking, and not dead pomes.... Known as the Picasso of poetry, Eliot found the interplay with music, society, war, pessimism, and psychology and he presented them in an unprecedented form of poetry....
6 Pages (1500 words) Essay

Brutal Imagination by Cornelius Eady

Brutal Imagination" as a collection of poetry based on a true story about the case of Susan Smith, and "My Face" as a poem from this collection reveal Cornelius Eady's revolt against racism, but at the same time his poetry reveals the sorrow of all the African-Americans for being imagined as brutes, as unworthy people, even nowadays.... Cornelius Eady, born 1954, is one among the many who deals with race and class in his poetry.... He has published seven collections of poetry and has been awarded many honors, nominations for awards, and awards....
7 Pages (1750 words) Book Report/Review

Running Man: A Personal Review of Cornelius Eadys Poetry

Beyond creating art for art's sake, cornelius Eady's play “Brutal Imagination” is one literary piece that had more goal than just to entertain.... Beyond creating art for art's sake, cornelius Eady's play “Brutal Imagination” is one literary piece that had more goal than just to entertain....
5 Pages (1250 words) Essay

Imagery in Christopher Marlowe's Poetry

The poet strives to portray the beauty Imagery in poetry Introduction In his poem, The passionate shepherd to his love, Christopher Marlowe uses imagery systematically to help develop mental images in the minds of his audience thus enhancing the consumption of the poem.... He therefore uses descriptive words that help develop the images thereby enhancing the consumption of the poetry....
1 Pages (250 words) Essay

Poetry reaearch eassy

William Shakespeare's poem fear no more heat uses the idea of simplistic words or rather languages to bring out the themes that are involved in the poem itself.... In this poem of fear no more heat; there is the use of complex or rather complicated metaphor to show how hard.... ... ... The struggle that people go through as they are alive provoked the author, William Shakespeare to urge all the readers and the people in general not to be fearful and to get rid of melancholic actions that 2014)....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

Western Lyric Poetry

The paper 'Western Lyric poetry' presents lyric poetry which is distinguished from all other forms of poetry essentially because it does not attempt to tell or narrate a story like epic or dramatic poetry.... Western lyric poetry owes its origin in Southern Europe where the Petrarchan influence was closest and most potent, enhanced by the Roman/Italian manners, values, and sentiments.... One of the most popular and original subjects of this form of poetry is the courtly-love lyric tradition which Capell Lofft....
8 Pages (2000 words) Literature review

The Threat of Black Masculinity in Brutal Imagination by Cornelius Eady

In this work, Eady displays 'a sharp satiric sensibility' which was rare in his previous works.... Brutal Imagination has political implications as it reflects on either race, gender, class or status.... However, the predominant motif is a race.... ... ... ... The poem contains a larger message the author wants to bring to the public and this message is evident – racial prejudices persist till nowadays....
6 Pages (1500 words) Book Report/Review
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us