Dove Love
Rita Dove
By Maddy Epstein, Sam Steiner, and
Maggie Segale
Background Information
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Born in Akron Ohio
Middle-class family
Stable childhood
Very good student
First black to be known as the Poet Laureate of the US
Went to Germany and was interested in black Germans
How it affects her writing
http://www.calstatela.edu/academic/english/images/ritadove.jpg
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Pride
Strength (ex. Exit)
Searching (ex. Sunday Greens, Golden Oldie)
Pleasant
Golden Oldie
I made it home early, only to get
stalled in the driveway-swaying
at the wheel like a blind pianist caught in a tune
meant for more than two hands playing.
The words were easy, crooned
by a young girl dying to feel alive, to discover
a pain majestic enough
to live by. I turned the air conditioning off,
leaned back to float on a film of sweat,
and listened to her sentiment:
Baby, where did our love go?-a lament
I greedily took in
without a clue who my lover
might be, or where to start looking.
Motifs
• Haunting her
• Relationships
-Childhood
-Family
• African American background
-Slavery
-Freedom
• Past and Present
• http://www.achievement.org/achievers/dov
Themes
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What she truly wants vs. What is realistic
Memories (either accepted, painful, or enjoyable) vs. Letting go
Struggle vs. Strength
Resisting humanity vs. going with the flow
Resisting vs. Accepting change
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History (both of the world, and of herself) vs. Present
Writing Technique
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Narrative
No rhymes
Different fonts and sizes
Italics
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Usually short
"Rather, the journey of the narrative was interesting, and therefore the telling of that journey was paramount. So
you could say that even before I began to read, I had discovered the delight of shaping life with words. I
think I'll never want to be rid of this delicious tension between the telling and the tale - which, when
translated into the lyric and the narrative, is part of the systolic and diastolic of poetry
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Literary Devices
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Symbolism (using colors)
“you are turning pink, doing what they do
every dawn. Here it's gray”-excerpted from Exit
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Figurative Language
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Imagery “Nested chairs stripped of varnish
Turpentine shadows stiff legs in the air” excerpt from Centipede
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Personification
“And now through
the windshield the sky begins to blush
as you did when your mother told you
what it took to be a woman in this life.”- excerpted from Exit
Literary Criticism: Agreement
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Rita Dove’s poems have a creative dynamic in that they take something as simple as a
classic song on the radio (as seen in Golden Oldie) or an out-of-the-ordinary passer-by (as
seen in Lady Freedom Among Us) and transforming them into beautiful works of art.
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Her poems often deal with parts of life such as being an African American woman (and the
issues that go hand-in-hand with it), world history (and how it relates to/affects her life),
experiences in life such as adolescence, romance and of course, romance coming to a
screeching halt.
Structurally, like most poets, her poems are purposely spliced into different lines in order to
create a more effective, yet less predictable poem.
She does not use a specific rhyme scheme, and therefore her poems are written in free
verse.
While her verse is free, it is also very evocative and concise.
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Literary Criticism: Disagreement
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Her writing is compassionate. Usually, her writing illustrates remaining emotionally strong through
the struggles of life, therefore, not providing a sympathetic comfort, but a sturdy guide to carry-on.
Her poems use symmetry. Rita Dove uses neither a steady rhythm nor an even structure, and
therefore, symmetry is not a major benefactor to Dove’s artful style.
List of Works Cited
Academy of Achievement. Rita Dove Interview. 18 June 1994
<http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/dov0int-1>
Carlisle, Theodora. Reading the Scars: Rita Dove’s the Darker Face of the Earth- Critical Writing. Spring 2000
<http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2838/is_1_34/ai_62258911 >
Cruz, Christian Dela. On the Bus with Rosa Parks by Rita Dove. 9 May 2005
<http://voices.cla.umn.edu/vg/Critique/review_poetry/on_the_bus_with_rosa_parks_by_rita_dove.html>
Donohue, Cecilia. Rita Dove. 12 Jan 2005
<http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1303>
Dove, Rita. Selected Poems. New York: Pantheon Books. 1993
Dove, Rita . Mother Love. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1995.
"Geometry: Style." Poetry for Students. Ed. Marie Rose Napierkowski. Vol. 15. Detroit: Gale, 1998. eNotes.com.
January 2006. 15 April 2007.
<http://www.enotes.com/geometry/25802>.