Symbolism in “Still Life in Yellow with Browns and blacks”
In “Still Life in Yellow with Browns and blacks” Vievee Francis uses symbolism to talk about the history of racism in Texas and the hardships that slaves faced in the past. Horse In The Dark continually uses a horse to symbolize the speaker overcoming the obstacles that she is faced with. Francis does not explicitly use racial terminology in her poems, but he readers can connect the symbolism that is used throughout the book to understand the underlying meanings of poems as a whole.
In line five, the speaker uses the sun in a negative way, “and the sun that heats it all to boiling” (5). The sun is usually used as a bright and happy symbol in poems. The poet uses the sun to symbolize an …show more content…
“Said it would cure my hives my bad nerves I watched the jackrabbits from the porch it was an infestation town said.” (16) Francis uses this symbol as a vehicle that enables her to talk about the issue of race indirectly. This is a useful symbol that is carried into the poem “The Cowboy’s Son” , “Paper said, Year of the jackrabbit. Paper said, in-fes-ta-tion” (25-26). Francis explains the meaning behind it in “Still Life in Yellow with Browns and blacks” but does not really touch the real meaning of this “infestation” in “The Cowboy’s Son”. This is an interesting choice made by the poet because it forced the reader to go back to an earlier poem and connect the pieces. The phrase cowboy’s son is also used in the first poem. This is a great clue that Francis adds to make it easier for the readers to connect the two poems to each other. The poet chose to use the jackrabbit as a symbol for the growing black population because jackrabbits reproduce very quickly. Comparing African Americans to animals was also something that was done in the past to justify slave. Francis could also be making reference to
In “Still Life in Yellow with Browns and blacks” Vievee Francis uses symbolism to talk about the history of racism in Texas and the hardships that slaves faced in the past. Horse In The Dark continually uses a horse to symbolize the speaker overcoming the obstacles that she is faced with. Francis does not explicitly use racial terminology in her poems, but he readers can connect the symbolism that is used throughout the book to understand the underlying meanings of poems as a whole.
In line five, the speaker uses the sun in a negative way, “and the sun that heats it all to boiling” (5). The sun is usually used as a bright and happy symbol in poems. The poet uses the sun to symbolize an …show more content…
“Said it would cure my hives my bad nerves I watched the jackrabbits from the porch it was an infestation town said.” (16) Francis uses this symbol as a vehicle that enables her to talk about the issue of race indirectly. This is a useful symbol that is carried into the poem “The Cowboy’s Son” , “Paper said, Year of the jackrabbit. Paper said, in-fes-ta-tion” (25-26). Francis explains the meaning behind it in “Still Life in Yellow with Browns and blacks” but does not really touch the real meaning of this “infestation” in “The Cowboy’s Son”. This is an interesting choice made by the poet because it forced the reader to go back to an earlier poem and connect the pieces. The phrase cowboy’s son is also used in the first poem. This is a great clue that Francis adds to make it easier for the readers to connect the two poems to each other. The poet chose to use the jackrabbit as a symbol for the growing black population because jackrabbits reproduce very quickly. Comparing African Americans to animals was also something that was done in the past to justify slave. Francis could also be making reference to