Love

I liked how Patricia Smith's poem, What It's Like to Be a Black Girl, showed the stages of how one particular black girls attitude and tone changed throughout her life. The entire tone seems to be angry and bitter, but if you look closer it really does change. In the beginning she talks about being nine years old, her tone here is sad and she doesn't understand why she is different. She becomes more bitter towards the end when she says, "it's learning to say fuck with grace, and fucking without it." She just sounds so cynical and bitter in that line and for the rest of the poem. It was intriguing and definitely sheds light on what it truely may have been like for a girl growing up in 1955 when this poem was written.

Posted by theoceanskiss at 1:00 PM

2 comments:

Taylor said...

I don't know about that particular poem I guess that's why it also say's "for those who are not" I found it way diffrent my self growing up and really could not relate at all.

October 1, 2009 6:51 PM

Taylor said...

I completly agree. The begining of the poem has a tone of anger, but it seems to me like more a tone of sadness. The young girl seems angry of everyone's attitudes towards black girls. However, she is also sad that people don't accept her as she is and has to go to great lengths to be accepted by others. The tone starts to shift when the author says, "...it's smelling blood in your breakfast..." The tone begins to shift to bitterness. The author says becomes bitter because she has to learn to let things slide, like water off of a duck's back.

October 4, 2009 3:15 PM