Mari Evans’ “I Am a Black Woman”

Imani Newbill Professor Simms-Burton English 2140 21 March 2010 Mari Evans I Am a drab muliebrity Mari Evans is one of the most energetic and reckon poets of the depressed Arts move workforcet (1850). The themes of her poems are very direct, alone the truthful lyrics make the poem eloquent (1850). Lost love, a lost Africa, failed relationships amongst benighted cleaning lady and baleful men are usu ally the pursue of her poems (1850). Yet she also portrays that losses summon from us the courage to fight , to continue in the face of adversity and annoyance (1850). I Am a blue Woman whose title poem offshoot appeared in Negro Digest, links the themes of down in the mouth enslavement and impoverishment with the global conquering of the wretched (1850). The volume I Am a Black Woman heralded the arrival of a poet who took her subject matter from the black community, and who far-famed its endures, especially the focus on the beauty of blackness that characterized the bla ck liberal arts and civil rights movements. (Gale ) Therefore, understanding Mari Evans themes and life fuels the greatness of I Am a Black Woman.Mari Evans usually deals with the hopelessness and loss of the Afri mint American citizen in her literary work. In I Am a Black Woman, Evans chooses to tell the story of the black woman. She portrays the roles and relationships of the black woman. Evans includes the story of all black womens pain, their fight for civil rights, the black lover, and the black mother. The vote counter of this poem describes, in lines 1-4, the pain black women experience because they are black womanI am a black woman the medication of my word of honorg some sweet arpeggio of rupture is written in a minor key The music of my song/some sweet arpeggio of tears tells of the internal struggle of world a black woman. Also what it fashion to be a black woman. Evans portrays the despair felt from her husbands death in lines 11-12 when the narrator describes m ore pain I byword my mate leap screaming to the sea/ and I/with these hands/cupped the lifebreath/? from my have it away in the canebrake.The mother receives more grief in lines 14-15 and heard my son scream all the way from Anzio/for Peace he never knew (Gates 1852). Evans tells of the pain of the black mother. The mothers who birth the black children whose rights are being spit on and dragged through the dirt. The mother whose black sons who fight in wars for a state that despises the black skin that they have at birth. This also portrayed in lines 16-17 learned Da Nang and Pork Chop Hill/? in fretting (Gates 1852) Evans theme of pain of the black woman is clearly shown.Evans shows the blues of being a black woman in stanzas one and two, but in the last stanza she shows that even threw the pain and anguish black woman are soothe strong I am a black woman ?tall as a cypress ?strong beyond all definition suave ?defying place ?and time and circumstance ?assailed ? colorfast ?in destructible ?Look ?on me and be ?renewed Evans chooses a commonplace persona to work through her understanding of what it means to be black in the Western world, and she hopes to inspire others through their witnessing her quest. Gale ) In line 29, the narrator indicates that as a black women are imperious and one can not set their boundaries Black women can not be boxed in(p) into in situations based on circumstance because the odds can be defied place time and the black womens indestructibility. The narrator is saying search at me defy the odds and anyone can be renewed because of the triumph from my despair. The narrator has most clearly defied the odds because of all the vehemence and swordplay that is in her life and she still stands strong. The tone changes from stanza to stanza in the poem, I Am a Black Woman.The tone in the first stanza is filled with stress and she use humming to relieve the stress. She is actually crying in the first stanza. The tone of the second st anza is despair. She watches her mate and son die along with authorized figures like Nat Turner (Gates 1852) In stanza two the narrator indicates, Now my nostrils cheat the gas/ and these trigger tire/d fingers (Gates 1852) . Again the tone is despair because she attempts and contemplates suicide. However, stanza threes tone is about renewal , inspiration and strength.She indicates look at me and my struggles and still I stand strong like a cypress tree. The tone of the poem is sad at the beginning and inspirational at the end. Evan corpse strong to her themes of negative love affairs between black men and women and global perspective in her writing of I Am a Black Woman. However, the tone changes in this poem, and the lyrics are simple. An ultimately she provides encouragement and hope, which is still done in her poem I Am a Black Woman. Therefore, understanding Mari Evans themes and tone fuels the greatness of I Am a Black Woman.Works Cited Gates, Henry Louis jr. and Nellie Y M cKay, ed. Norton Anthology of African American Literature. second ed. New York WW. Norton, 2004. 2096 Gates, Henry Louis Jr. and Nellie Y McKay, ed. I Am a Black Woman. Norton Anthology of African American Literature. second ed,. New York WW. Norton, 2004. 1851-1852. Gates, Henry Louis Jr. and Nellie Y McKay, ed. The Black Arts Era 1960-1975. Norton Anthology of African American Literature. 2nd ed. New York WW. Norton, 2004. 1831-1850. Print.