Rita Dove

Rita Dove, An African American Poet Rita Dove is a poet who is currently 64 years old. She grew up as an outstanding student, to later become even more successful, winning several awards to her name. She was, and still is, a very passionate poet who has said inspiring things to her audiences such as, “Poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful”. Dove still continues to inspire and encourage those who read her poetry to this day. Starting at the beginning, Rita Dove was born on August 28, 1952, in Akron, Ohio. She was the daughter of a chemist, Ray Dove, and her mother Elvira Dove. She later on married the German-born novelist, Fred Viebahn in the mid-1970s, and had a daughter by the name of Aviva. When Dove was young, she began…

In her poem, “Adolescence - II,” Rita Dove uses dark and unsettling words to lead the reader into her world of where she grew up, she uses mysterious imagery to show the more uncomfortable sides of teenage years, and describes a brutal scene as a window for the audience to look through. Ultimately, Dove wants the reader to understand the savage and agonizing parts of becoming a grown woman. Dove uses words that don’t sound “pretty” together, and in fact, most of the patterns that are usually…

Sylvia Plath’s “Morning Song” explores a mother’s complex emotions towards her newborn child after giving birth for the first time. Although motherhood is often regarded as a joyous event that gives a woman’s life purpose and meaning, “Morning Song” instead depicts motherhood as a complicated event fraught with uncertainty and fear, but also with love and affection. Rather than expressing overwhelming love and happiness, the mother in the poem feels distant from her child and gradually learns to…

In the past few centuries, women have taken it upon themselves to combat the misogyny they faced by speaking up through any form, and that included poetry. Feminists would speak about the objectification and commodification of women, embracing their sexuality, and acknowledging the intersectionality of other identities such as racial and sexual identity. Poetry has been used for years to make political statements, so it should not be surprising that women would use poetry as a medium to voice…

words,” explains Rita Dove (Rita Dove Quotes). Rita Dove is an inspiration to all people who have a voice and want to be heard. Not only has she published many poems she also published a book of short stories (Rita Dove 1). In writing these poems and stories she has received countless awards and honors. Rita Dove has many stories about her life and she lives to tell them today. Rita Dove’s story began on August 28, 1954. Dove was the second of four children in her family. Her father was a…

The general muses over how her mother died and how “her walking cane” planted in her memory blossoms “each spring stolidly forming / four-star blossoms”. The general visits the room of his mother in the palace where he sees the beautiful curtains for the windows and a parrot in the brass ring. But he feels dejected because his mother is not in the room to enjoy all the luxuries of life. Rita Dove beautifully captures the mind-set of the general. He searches for a person to kill. The following…

Daystar by Rita Dove includes the use of strong diction and a woman’s point of view to describe the monotonous and tiring life of being both a mother and a wife. The diction is strong without the poem and helps to express both emotional feelings and physical sensations, and the woman’s point of view helps the reader to gain an emotional view and their own stand on what society thinks of women. The use of solid diction in Daystar is imperative to portray the emotional feelings and physical…

“Mandolin” by Rita Dove chronicled the life of Thomas and his journey from Tennessee to Ohio. Similar to the chapter of poems, the mandolin was referenced throughout the chapter along with several other musical references. Poems titled “Jiving” and “Refrain” connected the life of Thomas to the growing black culture in music and art during 1920’s. The collection of poems transition from being centered in nature to living in a lively society. For example from “The Event” to “Straw Hat”, Thomas’…

The poem, “Adolescence-III” by Rita Dove, is about a young girl who is growing up with a single mother. She works in the field with her mom, and they are poor. The main character, the poor girl, dreams of a better life, nicer things, and her “Prince Charming.” Rita Dove features multiple literary devices, including metaphors, symbolism, and paradox. To begin with, the author uses the device metaphor. In line 2, Dove begins an extensive metaphor comparing the girl to tomatoes. “The dusky rows…

Rita Frances Dove is the first African America to serve as the Laureate Consulate in Poetry to the Library of Congress. Born 1925, she also holds the title of being the second African American to receive the Pulitzer Prize for poetry and she served as the Poet Laureate of Virginia from 2004-2006. One of Dove’s most popular poems is Daystar in which she creates a persona which describes the life of being a mother and a wife. In the poem Daystar, the unnamed persona seeks solitude while she…