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The Poetic Voice of Rita Dove
Essay on the Rita Dove poem
SUNDAY NIGHT AT GRANDFATHER'S
by Eric M. Stokes
University of North Florida Annual Writing Contest - 1996
Award: First Place, Undergraduate Essay
"Document #4." Copyright by Eric M. Stokes, 1996-2007. I have modified the essay somewhat. Document information and a link to the conditions of quotation, re-use, and re-publication of this document can be accessed by a link at the bottom of this page.
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SUMMARY: The following essay demonstrates that the poem "Sunday Night at Grandfather's" can be read as a subtle feminist piece, in which the text suggests a female Trinity. The mother in the poem emerges as a figure of God the Mother, and the daughter in the poem emerges as a figure of God the Daughter. The poet herself, Rita Dove, acts in the poem as the revelator of truth and is the creator of the text, and thus mirrors roles of the Holy Spirit.
Although it may be impossible to verify Dove's authorial intent, the structure of the text causes me to believe that the poet intentionally encoded a silent feminist treatment of the Christian godhead into the poem.
PERSONAL STATEMENT: As a Christian, I believe that the biblical view of a masculine deity (a single God Who is triune, consisting of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit) is existentially and factually correct and has no negative implications for women or society.
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THE POETIC VOICE OF RITA DOVE
The poetic voice of Rita Dove has the distinct accents of the United States and its African-American community. As an African-American, the poet sometimes uses black idioms. Dove fashions gritty, laconic free verse which reads much like prose. Yet, while her work sometimes seems at first overtly unpoetic, it shares with traditional poetry the virtue of distilling the essence of an experience, of a moment; it omits all but the essential details. Dove writes from an intensely personal, sometimes obscure, frame of reference. In a typical Dove poem, the personal sketches only a faint outline of the experience described, letting the reader feel the event in a uniquely personal manner. Much of her work explores philosophical themes; but always, the surface text conceals layers of more subtle meaning. Dove brings her great intellect to bear on the fundamentals of human existence. Thus, her appointment as the Poet Laureate of the United States was a boon to literature, and poetry in particular. This essay will examine the poem "Sunday Night at Grandfather's" in an interpretive, expository manner. It will explore veiled biblical references, reading rules, and mirroring mechanism in the work.
In "Sunday Night at Grandfather's" two reading rules operate even at the most literal, surface level. The first line indicates the entire poem deals with practical jokes and at least one practical joker. The three stanzas of this poem -- triangularly shaped and with a sharp tip at the lower left -- visually illustrate two digits (a literal thumb and a figurative finger). Grandfather literally pokes the children with his thumb, while Billy figuratively "pokes" Grandfather by holding out to him the dreaded parakeet. Thus, Grandfather's victimization by Billy in the third stanza mirrors Grandfather's practical joking in the first.
A theological interpretation of the poem removes this poem from the realm of the prosaic, conferring upon it considerable significance. The title of this work suggests a Christian reading of the poem. Thus, the first two lines of the third stanza ("Then out came the cherry soda and potato chips and pretzels./ Grandma humming hymns") represent a church service and a communion.
However, this Sunday evening service is not a serious observance, but a joking observance. The first line of the poem ("He liked to joke..." desacralizes the religious content of the work. In the first stanza (line 21) the "two ribs" allude to the removal of Adam's rib and its implantation into Eve. In view of the second stanza's description of Grandfather's irreligiosity (lines 5 and 6) the "pure white/shirt, real Fruit-of-the-/Loom" becomes an ironic reference to white purity of the Edenic condition, a state in which the children remain but from which the Grandfather has long since fallen. The "real" Fruit-of-the-Loom shirt functions simultaneously as a fig covering Grandfather's Adamic nakedness and as a corrupted image of the original fruit which caused Adam's awareness of his nakedness in the first place.
"He hated Billy the parakeet, mean as half-baked sin.
He hated church-going women..."
The levity of the first stanza changes to solemn anger in the second. The second stanza, by subtle reference to Christ, moves the world from the Edenic world of the children in the first stanza to the utterly lost, Christ-needing world of the New Testament. The innocent children have disappeared from the poem, and the joke grows serious.
The expression "half-baked sin" itself functions as an unfunny joke, mirroring both the light tone of the first stanza and the serious tone of the second. It foreshadows the serving of communion potato chips and pretzels, which were "baked" at a commercial food production facility and were brought out from inside the kitchen. The kitchen itself itself becomes a subtle symbol of damnation (Hell), which the sacrifice of Christ (as represented by the mock communion) unsuccessfully tries to avert. This punning, "half-baked" reference to Hell occurs, appropriately enough, almost half-way through the poem. Indeed, it represents the belief by much of the Church that the first coming of Christ occurred in the early middle of human history.(*)
[BEGIN FOOTNOTE]
(*) Consider that Christ lived 2,000 years ago; that many Bible scholars believe that the world was created 6,000 years ago and that the Millennium (a period of 1,000 years) is imminent.
[END FOOTNOTE]
The expression "half-baked" also represents Billy's two in the middle (or as the second person). Billy is between the first generation (Grandmother and Grandfather) and the third generation (the children); thus he is, figuratively, God the Son (Christ), the second person of the Trinity, and is seated between God the Father and God the Holy Ghost.
Billy, Grandfather's "favorite son" is a Christ figure -- the "only begotten son of God." This son, however, presents a sorry figure for a Christ.
"Each year he visited, each
Time from a different
City, gold
Tooth and
Drunk."
Just as Christ releases humanity from bondage, so Billy the son has "flown the coop"; nonetheless, he remains a prisoner of alcoholism, just as Billy the parakeet stays in captivity in a cage. The stanza's final line, "Drunk," alludes to Christ's miraculous provision of wine at a wedding party.
The second and thirty stanzas ironically invert the Christian salvation message. Billy the son functions (or rather dysfunctions) as a Christ figure, and Billy the parakeet becomes a figure of the Holy Ghost. (The Holy Ghost is represented in the Bible as a dove. What is this poet's surname?--DOVE!)
The final line of the first stanza, "Ghost" and of the third stanza, "Son," and the arrangement of the poem in three stanzas constitute a crucial reading rule: the poem represents the Protestant godhead, the Trinity. Thus, the aversion of Grandfather to the parakeet in the third stanza mirrors his rejection of religion in the second.
"Dad holding Billy out on a thick and bitten finger,
Saying Here: Come on Joe -- touch him.
Every Sunday night the same.
Dad's quiet urging and
That laugh. You've
Got to be kidding
Son."
Grandfather rejects the Holy Ghost and, by extension, the Son. Grandfather's choice to remain in captivity (literally to his fear and hatred of the parakeet, and symbolically to sin) mirrors the captivity of the children to Grandfather's pranks.
While the logic of the Trinitarian reading rule seemingly should establish Grandfather as the figure of God the Father, he cannot as a hater of Christianity fill this role. (Grandfather's son Billy may be a sinner but he can nonetheless as a Christ figure because he has not actually shunned Christianity.)
Rather, this poem feminizes the godhead by figuratively elevating the (presumably female) preparer of the communion meal in the third stanza to the status of God the Daughter. She and Grandmother are the only effective characters in the poem: it is significant that they are female. The daughter administers the communion and thus "saves" the children (who still retain their Edenic innocence) from the corrupt Grandfather and the Fall from Eden. Of course, she cannot rescue Billy the son, Billy the parakeet, or the Grandfather. Grandmother does not administer the communion, as she is "humming hymns and rocking in the back bedroom" when the communion is served. Grandmother, the singer of hymns, acts as a figure of God the Mother while she is seated in her rocking chair--the throne of God.
While God the Mother remains personally aloof to her problem-riddled relatives (just as God the Father in the New Testament stays above the fray, remaining in Heaven but takes redemptive action vicariously by sending God the Son to earth), God the Daughter steps directly into the unfolding scene of ineffectual male rivalry, spiritual impotence, and personal degradation in order to rescue the innocent children (just as Jesus descended from Heaven to save sin-plagued mortals.)
In this text, the poet herself, Rita DOVE, becomes the revelator of a poetic "truth." Just as the Bible was inspired by the Holy Ghost (to Whom the Bible ascribes masculine qualities, and Who also descended upon Christ in the bodily form of a dove after Christ rose from the baptismal waters) this woman poet brings illumination. In this sense, she mirrors a role of the Holy Spirit.
Throughout this poem, Rita Dove subtly overturns the masculine godhead, and with it the perceived negative implications for Western society of the existence of the masculine godhead. As an African-American, Dove appreciates the historic centrality of Christianity to her community. Still, through "Sunday Night at Grandfather's" she suggests the possibility of a female deity. Of course, Dove's main concern rests not with the nature of God but rather with the status of women in relation to men that the biblical concept deity is perceived to suggest. Also, the juxtaposition in the poem of men who are degraded and powerless or cruel against women who serve others, who (literally, and to use the vernacular) 'bring something to the table', and who are of solid character suggests that in society women have an important and beneficial role to play.
While poets once always "sang" Dove has learned from later poets to speak. Still, her speaking voice has lyric qualities. In the seventeenth century poets sought, in an expression they borrowed from Aristotle, "to delight and instruct." In the latter half of the twentieth century, Rita Dove has done just that.
An Argument for Abolishing the Electoral College (in English, political)
A Sermonette-Valentine's Day & the Love of God (in English, religious)
Caerse en un cielo, ensayo sobre Julio Cortazar (en espanol, literario)
Some Poems by Eric Stokes
Document Re-use and Re-publications (Conditions)
Send E-Mail to: emstokes72@yahoo.com
Copyright © 2008 Eric M. Stokes. All Rights Reserved