Wednesday, December 12, 2012
No Reservations
The tone within this poem is different from the rest, unlike the other poems the tone in this poem is neither angry, sad, or depressed, but empty, there is a very empty and gloom like tone. Meaning it is almost as if the speaker is telling the story of the poem with no emotion. The motif that seems to be more predominant would be emptiness or nothingness. In the third stanza it states "There are no banners to wave forward no blaring trumpets not even a blues note" If you look back at the title of the poem it says "No Reservations" when one hears the word reservation one tends to think about planning something before it happens, or having something ready ahead of time. However in this case it is used to indicate how people who do good deeds receive no recognition. This becomes evident within the third stanza that is listed above. In the last stanza it says "there will be reservations only if we fail" the effect from this shows that someone is mainly recognized when they do something wrong. The fact that the speaker focused more on what people do not receive shows how unfair peoples perception of whats important really is.
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I disagree that the poem "No Reservations" has a empty tone. All throughout the poem, I can hear Giovanni's militant voice as evident in the second stanza, "no polite little clerk/ to send notice/ to your room/ saying you are WANTED/ on the battlefield." From this stanza among others throughout the poem, I can sense that Giovanni is urging a call to action. Rather than "reservations" meaning a good deed, Giovanni is noting that if energy is conserved or an effort is not put forth, then the revolution will fail. Giovanni wants them to feel the pressure that if YOU, and YOU, and YOU do not join in this effort it will be your fault and no one else's. The revolution that Giovanni is referncing to is the Civil Rights movement, based upon the time period, and the plague that Blacks are facing during this time. The reader can visualize Giovanni on a megaphone blaring this message to the masses, so that they can feel the urgency in her message and the dire need that they participate.
ReplyDeleteI like how you picked up on the concepts emptiness or nothingness, but I feel you may have misinterpreted those emotions. You contradict yourself by saying that there is no emotion because emptiness is an emotion.
ReplyDeleteLook at the bigger picture of the poem. Consider the time period in which the poem is written. Try to put the poem together as a whole rather than just look at isolated lines.
Read Mariah's response. I think she makes some noteworthy points.