Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

In "Failure of Southern Representation: 3," James Applewhite delves deeper into the complexities of capturing the essence of the South, turning his focus towards music as a potentially more accurate medium of representation. This poem suggests that while visual or physical representations fall short, music—particularly the rich tradition of negro spirituals—might come closest to encapsulating the South's turbulent history and emotional depth.

The poem starts by acknowledging a limitation: the impossibility of representing the South's landscapes and atmospheres, such as "the fall of moonlight on tidal rivers," in a way that captures their full sensory and emotional impact. This sets the stage for the assertion that music, with its ability to convey deep emotions and historical experiences, might better represent the South's essence.

Applewhite specifically mentions "negro spirituals," highlighting their significance not just as musical expressions but as profound reflections of the African American experience of enslavement, suffering, and resilience. These spirituals, "condensed into an atmosphere of pain," are powerful enough, in the poet's view, to erode Confederate monuments to "namelessness, to silence." This imagery suggests that the truth and depth of these songs can undermine and overshadow the attempts to memorialize the Confederacy, pointing to the deeper, more painful truths of the Southern past.

The poem then shifts to the present, contrasting the spirituals' deep historical resonance with the contemporary sounds of the South: the "thud of boxes from eighteen-wheelers" and the "diesel thug thug" at Atlanta's docks. This modern cacophony, including the "tin clang of dimes" and the "glass tones from stereos," represents a new, industrial, and commercial soundscape that is as much a part of the South as its rivers and spirituals.

However, these contemporary sounds lack the depth and historical resonance of the spirituals. They strike "tin Horizons," suggesting a superficiality and emptiness in contrast to the profound spiritual and emotional depth of the music that once voiced the region's pain and hope. The image of barns "pinned to burn / In the unvoiced uproar of glare" evokes a sense of destruction and loss, perhaps of the South's rural heritage or its deeper cultural expressions, overshadowed by modernity's noise and glare.

"Failure of Southern Representation: 3" suggests that while music, especially negro spirituals, comes closer to truly representing the South, the region's essence is diluted by the noise of modern commerce and technology. Applewhite presents a South where the profound and the superficial coexist, where the deep historical and emotional truths are in constant tension with the present's relentless forward motion

POEM TEXT: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Yellow_Shoe_Poets/2D6aqhb651oC?q=BACA+%22MEN+LATE+AT+NIGHT+COOK+COFFEE+IN+RUSTY+CANS%22&gbpv=1&bsq=FAILURE%20OF#f=false

Copyright (c) 2025 PoetryExplorer

Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!

Other Poems of Interest...