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Marilyn nelson quot daughters 1900 quot family culture and history converge in a deft poetic portrait

POEM GUIDE Marilyn Nelson ??Daughters ? Family culture and history converge in a deft poetic portrait BY AUSTI N AL L E N Marilyn Nelson ? s ??Daughters ? is both a witty villanelle and a nuanced vignette The villanelle an old French poetic form containing lines and two refrains is musical intricate and strict it ? s the form that shapes such classic poems as Dylan Thomas ? s ??Do not go gentle into that good night ? and Elizabeth Bishop ? s ??One Art ? Its rhymed cyclical scheme rarely allows much in the way of description or narrative Yet ??Daughters ? manages to set a scene and give us characters and even dialogue all while closely but not precisely following the rules of its form As we ? ll see adherence to and departure from convention are among its main themes The poem presents a vignette or literary sketch of a transitional moment in the history of a family and more subtly in the history of the modern world Though it works as a standalone piece the poem is also part of Nelson ? s collection The Homeplace which chronicles episodes in Nelson ? s Cfamily history from the pre ??Civil War era through the mid- th century Blending private narratives with public events the collection charts the complexities of African American lives across generations and regions including the southern United States and the Europe of both world wars The poems vary considerably in form and tone from the harrowing sonnet ??Chosen ? and the bawdy rollicking ??The Ballad of Aunt Geneva ? to the plainspoken free verse elegy ??Lonely Eagles ? In ??Daughters ? we encounter seven ?gures on a porch As suggested by a family tree provided in the collection the seven are Pomp and Ann aka Annie Atwood and their ?rst ?ve daughters Ray D Blanche Geneva Annie and Rosa Pomp and Ann are both about years old and their oldest daughter Ray is a young woman The poem ? s opening lines suggest that even Ray is still immature in some respects she is old enough to venture out into the world but not yet old enough to avoid ??bickering ? with her siblings Five daughters in the slant light on the porch are bickering The eldest has come home with new truths she can hardly wait to teach Here is a family whose rising generation is getting its ?rst taste of adulthood The image of ??slant light ? on their porch evokes the angled sunlight and shadow of evening when daytime workers ??come home ? It also recalls the famous Emily Dickinson poem ??There ? s a certain Slant of light ? which contains this description of moody winter sunlight CNone may teach it ?? Any ?? ? Tis the seal Despair ?? An imperial a iction Sent us of the Air ?? Notice the additional connection in the word teach Though the proud oldest daughter is eager to impart ??new truths