SESSION 34 — Crafting Resonance
Photo by Yannick Pulver on Unsplash
Discussion:
When a poem cracks us open or stirs something inside of us, it’s often because the poet has consciously or unconsciously utilised literary devices that are meant to affect us in particular ways.
Many of these devices are tied to poetry’s oral history—the fact that, for millennia, poems were recited, chanted, sung and passed from person to person and generation to generation.
Let us examine some of the devices used in Edward Kamau Brathwaite’s “All God’s Chillun”. As we read and hear them, let’s also try to feel them. Where do they reverberate in our bodies? What tightens or releases? What feels heavy or light?
What emotional landscapes do they open up for us?
The idea is not just to know the device but to understand, in an embodied way, what it does to the reader… and, of course, to the poet who employs it.
All God’s Chillun
By Edward Kamau Brathwaite
They call me Uncle
Tom and mock me
these my children
mock me
they hate the hat
in hand
the one-
roomed God
I praise.
Winds raise
the flat-
roofed house
each harvest
time
each southern soft Se-
tember.
“Hey, nuncle!
wanna see
what God in heaven
brought for me?
One pink-ear’d rat,
thick knuckle-headed land
one plot, you know, one
bloody plot; one cow, one dog
one fuckin’ plough that only works one way
a snotty pond in which my children play
leap frog’s habitat.
A sniffin’ mouse
won’t touch the best
we have to offer it; and yet there was a time
we kept
our state on golden stools – remember?
2
Yes, I remember…
but what good
is to recollect now
my own mock
me; my own seed,
ruined on this rock
of God, struggle
to strike me
and what need
my story
in these fields
where these cart-wheels
turn over heart
crush hard our hurt
destroy the root of love
with pain.
Boss man makes rules:
who works, who jerks
the rope, who rips
the patient dirt
Boss man makes rules:
I am his patient mule.
Boss man rates gain:
I am his living vein
of sustenance:
his corn, his meal, his grain.
Boss man lacks pride:
I am his hide
of darkness. Bide
the black times, Lord, hide
my heart from the lips
that spit
from the hate
that grips
the sweat-
ing flesh
the whips
that rip
so wet, so red,
so fresh.
3
They call me
Uncle Tom and mock me
they laugh
laugh loud
laugh loud at me
from the barrels of their bellies
swishing loud with liquor.
They laugh and the white
man laughs: each
wishing for mercy, teach-
ing their children to hate
their skin to its bitter root in the bone.
Hold hard
heart
From the bold
sun of the over-
seer’s rod
from the cold
sneer of my own
children’s fear;
for I fear
to see them
back broken
black broken
teeth their own
gravestones,
pinched
by fever
lynched
by the balls.
4
‘But to hell with this, nuncle!
You fussy black Uncle
Tom, hat in your hand!
Cut the cake-
walkin’, man; bus’
the crinoline off the white woman,
man; be the black buttin’ ram
that she makes you
an’ let’s get to hell out’a Pharoah’s land
5
These my children?
God, you hear them?
What deep sin
what shattered glory?
What harsh logic
guides their story?
When release
from further journey?
6
Ease
up, Lord
Devices:
As we identify each device, ask: What does it make the line do? Does it slow us down, press us forward, tighten the breath, deepen the grief, sharpen the anger, or make the voice more memorable?
Repetition: the deliberate repetition of words, phrases or sounds to emphasise a point, create rhythm and evoke emotion. It anchors the reader's attention and builds musicality in both poetry and speeches.
Anaphora: the deliberate repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses, sentences, or lines.
Parallelism: the use of matching grammatical forms or structures for words, phrases, or clauses that express related ideas.
Incremental repetition: the repetition of a line or phrase with a small, crucial word change.
Alliteration: the repetition of the same consonant sounds or letters at the beginning of closely connected words.
Catalogue: a detailed list of people, objects, places, or abstract ideas.
These are just a few of the literary devices that Brathwaite uses in this poem. Sit with them, think about them and what they do. And when you write, try one on for size.