Muriel Rukeyser has been an interesting writer to read in the last week. First off, "The Book of the Dead" proved to be as intense as the hype I read behind it. It was extremely fascinating the way the story was set up within the poem. Starting with the first section of the road when it reads "Past your tall central city's influence, outside it's body: traffic, penumbral crowds, are centered removed and strong" and "These roads will take you into your own country. Select the mountains and follow rivers back, travel the passes." All though there is one of the shorter parts of the overall poem, it does a great job at setting up the background of everything. It's a very random way to start out a poem because it feels like a story within a story. Then finally it reaches the point where it reaches the actual story. So this intro of the direction of how to get to this so called town really hooks the reader into the story of what happened in this town in West Virginia. It then breaks down into a dialogue between reporter and locals. It gives a report of the accident that happens within the town. This strategy of the section "Statement: Philippa Allen" gives a closer look to the poem and gives the reader a realistic look of the events. The testimonies throughout show the raw emotion of these workers and what they went through.
It was super hard trying to find a poet that can be compared to this style, especially modern day. This poem is written in a very unique way and not many people have tried to imitate it to its point. I guess one of the connecting points would be the testimonies of the workers written throughout. One poem that caught my eye that was written very recently is by Karen Connelly and is called "The Children. It's basically written as a testimony of the unborn lives that scream out for life and how special life really is. I would say this is almost considered a testimony of her opinion. In comparison, both of these tell a story within a story. One may go a lot more in depth, but Connelly's work does portray a certain outcry that had similar use within Rukeyser's work.
http://lemonhound.com/2014/04/17/karen-connelly-the-children/

Studying these African American poets in class has definitely been interesting. In these few short weeks, I've learned how these poets used their opinion to control their writings. By this, you can feel almost feel the personal anguish and sorrow some of the poets had felt during this time period. Poetry simply does that to people. It's a scapegoat to putting all your deepest thoughts and feelings. I guess you could say that about blogging in todays generation even though some of it might not be as personal.
Langston Hughes was definitely an outspoken poet about what he believed. The themes he used within his poetry mirrored the direct emotions of the world he grew up in. The use of culture around this time period when he wrote his poetry or shortly there after was prevalent throughout his writings and he sent a huge message to his readers by doing so. He was so outspoken in his writing that people would maybe turn or shake their heads at it today.
A lot of the poems that were written showed not only the tragedy of the time period but also the personal heartache he had from society. But another thing I found very interesting was the depth of historical background that was written in his poetry. His poem "Negro" showed just that. Lines such as "Caesar told me to keep his door steps clean. I brushed the boots of Washington." and "All the way from Africa to Georgia I carried my sorrow songs. I made ragtime" showed how the times were changing for this group of people. It not only showed background but the intensive roots of where they came from.
I guess you could compare this kind of passion to Gertrude Stein's as she promoted feminism within her writings. This subject too was not easily the most accepted thing and the world and may have appeared controversial at times. You could almost take any modern era writer and see that they have some kind of passion that they feel needs to be expressed. Whether the reader agrees with it or not is not really their problem. If it causes some form of controversy then their works will be shown through publicity no matter what.