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Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained | |||
"Before Making Love" by Toi Derricotte is a deeply evocative and intimate poem that explores themes of love, ancestry, and the profound connections between the personal and the historical. Through the act of touching a lover's face, the speaker delves into a contemplation of identity, heritage, and the foundational elements of human dignity and pride. The poem opens with a tactile exploration, as the speaker moves their hands over their lover's face with eyes closed, engaging in a form of seeing that transcends the visual. This act of touching is not merely physical but becomes a means of understanding and connection that goes beyond the surface. The description of the lover's facial features—broadly spaced cheekbones, wide thick nostrils, a forward-jutting chin—evokes a sense of strength, resilience, and pride. These features are not just physical attributes but are imbued with the weight of heritage and identity, specifically referencing African ancestry. The imagery of "the forehead whose bones push at both sides as if the horns of fallen angels lie just under" introduces a layer of mythical or spiritual resonance, suggesting a latent power and a connection to something transcendent or otherworldly. This image enriches the poem's exploration of identity, adding a dimension of depth and complexity to the lover's physical presence. In the latter part of the poem, the speaker's thoughts shift to the "delicate skull of the Tuang child"—an allusion to an early human ancestor, often associated with the Taung Child, a fossilized skull of a young Australopithecus africanus. This ancestral reference grounds the poem in a broader historical and evolutionary context, linking the personal and intimate act of touching a lover's face to the deep currents of human history and evolution. The "geometry" of the Tuang child's skull, bringing "word of a small town of dignity," evokes the idea that all human beings, regardless of the "bloody kingdoms" that have risen and fallen, share a common foundation of dignity and worth. "Before Making Love" thus weaves together the personal and the ancestral, the intimate and the historical, in a meditation on love, identity, and the deep connections that bind us to one another and to our shared past. Through the act of touching, the speaker not only connects with their lover but also with the lineage and legacy that have shaped them, finding in this connection a profound sense of dignity and pride that transcends time and history.
| Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CLAN MEETING: BIRTH AND NATIONS: A BLOOD SING by MICHAEL S. HARPER MY AUNT ELLA MAE by MICHAEL S. HARPER DERRICK POEM (THE LOST WORLD) by TERRANCE HAYES ODE TO BIG TREND by TERRANCE HAYES WOOFER (WHEN I CONSIDER THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN) by TERRANCE HAYES |
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