A Brown Girl Dead by Countee Cullen
With two white roses on her breasts,
White candles at head and feet,
Dark Madonna of the grave she rests;
Lord Death has found her sweet.
Her mother pawned her wedding ring
To lay her out in white;
She'd be so proud she'd dance and sing
to see herself tonight.
White candles at head and feet,
Dark Madonna of the grave she rests;
Lord Death has found her sweet.
Her mother pawned her wedding ring
To lay her out in white;
She'd be so proud she'd dance and sing
to see herself tonight.
The Sad Memory - Amanda Beltran.
So beautiful and lovely,
why must she leave so soon,
why was she dressed so festively,
If a funeral song was crooned.
Her mother should have kept the ring,
and lay her out in black,
Amidst the sad sad memory,
That her daughter's not coming back.
Comment by: Ana Peguero
ReplyDeleteAmanda,
i think that you did a great job with this poem. i think that the language you used in this poem was very discriptive. nice job :)
Wow, this poem is really strong!
ReplyDeleteI like how powerful the message of the poem was.
I also liked your word choice and your unforced rhymes because your rhymes enhanced the poem.
Great job!!
Nancy (=
Amanda,
ReplyDeleteWhat a powerful poem! I loved the questioning nature of this poem and the lines, "why must she leave so soon,/why was she dressed so festively,/If a funeral song was crooned." The fact that the woman was dressed in clothes not normally associated with death (black) gives the poem a mysterious quality and makes one wonder why she was dressed "festively" and why the woman was buried with her ring. The poem is built on concrete details, stated plainly, but left for the reader to interpret. I wonder what you think of the mother in the Cullen poem dressing her daughter in white for the funeral. Why would her dead daughter be so proud of this, as the speaker states?
Sophisticated work!
--Greg
Interesting, that you went against the poems message.
ReplyDeleteOn the one hand, Cullen expressed happiness at a black citizen being buried in white, the preferred skin color, at the hands of a sacrifice, the ring. "She'd be so proud she'd dance and sing to see herself tonight". Yet on the other hand, amanda finds greater symbolism in believeing the deceased be buried in what she was born as, black, without any sacrifices being made. "Her mother should have kept the ring,".
What people do is their own buisness but amanda, if you were denied something your entire life that you wanted to be, then don't you believe that it be more appropriate to grant that wish in death?
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI like how you used big words in the poem and how you asked questions in your poem. My favorite line in the poem was "Amidst the sad sad memory, That her daughter's not coming back." I find this line interesting because it really relates to the actual poem where shes sad.
ReplyDeleteBy:Ryan