A Poem For My History Teacher

I wanted to write The best slavery poem ever written— Perhaps win a Pulitzer or Faulkner. I had every intention of conforming To the standards Of modern verse and composition, Lyrics fluidly written, Perfect in frame, tempo and time, but a lot of my thoughts on Slavery (and the Holocaust) Were just too difficult to rhyme. And though I found a few words that rhymed with Oppression— Most were slanted. Granted not angry enough To leave my true impression. Forgive me for my error of expression. Maybe Dickinson, Keats or Elliott could have written this Poem In a more graceful form. So I suppose I'll use prose to get me through this metaphorical storm. It's going to rain so be warned. I'm sure you'll find at least one example of ASSONANCE in this Thesis, which is repetition of similar vowels, if you search carefully through the words, but no guarantees. For just doing the research on the Middle Passage was a painful enough TRIP (no pun intended). I can only imagine how much more painful It must have been to have been there. If you scale through my paragraphs I'm sure you'll find a few examples of IRONY. I know I included it in here somewhere. And reading of a Black woman Running through an icy lake with baby in hands, Trying to dodge the slavers gun, The masters whip and rod, Screaming "Help us God"- Chased into a cold lake by a Beast more colder And then saved by the waiting arms of death— Sometimes PERSONIFICATION can be too real. How do you use ONOMATOPOEIA to describe the sound of Adolph Eichmann Throwing a Jewish child Twenty feet up in the air and shooting it before it hit the ground? I wanted to compare these mother's screamings But both ELEGY and PROSODY let me down. Or when you read of a Jewish woman Who had to quiet her baby By feeding it her own Urine To keep a murderous Nazi soldier from killing it. How do you analyze the above sentence to see if the meter is correct or if the syllables are TROCHEE or ANAPEST. I couldn't do it but I tried my poetic best. Or a Polish woman who strangled her own child just so the Germans wouldn’t do worse. Blake or Kipling can you help me put this in FREE VERSE? Or a Black woman in the belly of a slave ship; Breaking the chains— Tossing her baby into the sea, Saying "You ain't gon be no slave like me!" As she was shot and killed. This doesn’t need a TOPIC SENTENCE And has no Theme- There are a million and one listings On Google under Bad Dreams- Neither slavery or the Holocaust was listed. If it's in Yahoo I certainly missed it. And I rushed through a stack of History books trying to find something happy to write about, But no Historian ever recorded Happy Christmas memories of slaves eating half cooked chitterlings and raw cornmeal by the fireplace While the Master ate steak in the kitchen— This just ain't happy ish. Seven million dead relatives Can really make Hanukkahs and Passovers a real drag and ruin Birthday celebrations. As for ALLITERATION, I could only think of a lone sentence. Why in the Hell did the Holocaust Have to happen? How? Millions of human beings executed in showers while thirty-one Kings or more played Golf. I'm sorry if the rhymes are slanted or if the rhythm is off. I could have used the word 'ovens' instead of 'showers' but what teacher gives extra points for METONYMY. And how do you PARAPHRASE an account of a Black man, who quite possibly could have been one of my great Grandfathers; Each of his legs tied to a separate horse, Each horse sent in an opposite direction, severing his legs from his body— while the captors cheered— Pregnant Black women made to stand near. And if written in a more creative form, Would it hurt any less? How do you write of ‘Castration’ with grammatical correctness? Sometimes verbs and subjects Refuse to agree. I just wish I could find the right adjective to resolve the discrepancy. And could Frost in all of his genius and wit, have put to poetry the painful wailing of a Black child snatched savagely from the breast of his mother? A White child placed there to nurse. Sometimes its hard to care if the semi-colon is in the right position or if the quotes or the comma comes first. And though the sentence "Screw Hitler and all parties responsible for the Holocaust!" Is not model English and probably inappropriate; I’d like to say it for each of the seven million Jews who died senselessly, With no lawyer, court or voice. I hope I don’t lose too many points for bad diction or poor word choice. And I wanted to include ANASTROPHE which is verb and subject reversal, but whether I write: "Three hundred million paraded to the Atlantic shore, never to see Africa no more." Or if I write "Never to see Africa no more, three hundred million, paraded to the Atlantic shore." The rhythm may be different but it’s still just as painful to write. Or hearing our finest scholars Debating whether Slavery or the Holocaust was worse. This I can’t even put to verse. And is there ever a properly ending paragraph or conclusion for slavery even when it still lives today in Somalia and Darfur. The Holocaust was Slavery. Slavery was a Holocaust. All is Never lost... Tyranny in the world is real. Let us use these Archetypes to heal. I end this Thesis By irresponsibly misquoting Cummings— Pardon the double negatives, But Auschwitz was doubly A negative experiences as well: " Pity this busy monster, [indifference], not. Progress is a comfortable disease." "...A world of made is not a world of born-- pity poor flesh and trees and stars." [Pity poor us]. That’s my Thesis for Contemporary English 201. Thank You. I'm done. Michael Ellis