Thursday, November 5, 2015
Analyzing Discourse in Sugar Cane: Stanza 6/6
60) One day Evelina’s son waved goodbye
61) and climbed on board a northbound train,
62) black angels guiding him invisibly.
63) In class he quoted a sentence from Jean Toomer:
64)“Time and space have no meaning in a canefield”
65) My father died last fall at eighty-one.
66) Love’s bitter, child, as often as it’s sweet
67) Mm-mm, I sure do have the blues
68) Baby, will you give me some sugar?
This final stanza brings the poem sugar full circle. The dichotomies of bitter/sweet, life/death, north/south, young/old are circumvented in the concluding stanza.
Jean Toomer's book, "Cane" is also cyclical. The sections of the book Cane is also marked with images of arcs, the first two sections are singular half arc, the third section, "Kabnis" is marked by two half arcs together forming a circle. The third section of Toomer's "Cane" confronts life and death and the confrontation of the Southern past.
Like in Toomer's "Cane" where the old man Kabnis assumably dies, here, the old man, the narrator's "father" dies old. Here, the dichotomy of age is present and still overcome through the preceding quote from Toomer's “Time and space have no meaning in a canefield.” One could read this as, history is bound to repeat itself as long as we are all under the same hegemonic forces. This old age is contrasted with youth.
In this last paragraph, Bubba, Evelina's son gains complete agency. Again, responding to the original epigraph from Wheatley, Corn writes in lines 61-62 that Bubba "climbed on board a northbound train,/black angels guiding him..." Here, it is not just the poems white narrator taking up the torch to tell the story of African-American history, but the actual desendents of African-Americans exploited by the American sugar companies and the society in all. Here, in line 64, it is not only Jean Toomer's voice, but also Bubba's voice, and the history.
It can be inferred that the invisible black angels are all the African-Americans who have come before him. Those in the previous stanza that succeeded in music, art, and business, such as those in the Sugar Hill region of New York City.
"Love’s bitter, child, as often as it’s sweet/ Mm-mm, I sure do have the blues/ Baby, will you give me some sugar?"
I am however unsure what the last three lines of the poem are getting at. I seem to believe, due to line 65 referring to what appears to be the narrators father, but that perhaps it is the narrator a) either addressing the reader. or perhaps b) the narrator addressing Shug. The narrator, says that love is bitter as much as it is sweet, and he says he is sad and he has the blues. HE then asks for sugar... ans this sort of boggles my mind. Is he asking for sugar as he is a white man and addicted to it? Is this the sugar as a drug we as a nation have come to depend on and use to handle that which we can not and do not want to confront.
Wednesday, November 4, 2015
Analyzing Discourse in Sugar Cane: Stanza 5/6
49) Phillis Wheatley said the sweet Christ was brought
50) here from Asia Minor to redeem an African child
51) and maybe her master’s soul as well. She wrote
52) as she lived, a model of refinement, yes,
53) but black as Abel racing through the canebrake,
54) demon bloodhounds baying in pursuit,
55) until at last his brother caught him,
56) expressed his rage, and rode back home to dinner.
57) Tell it to Fats Domino, to those who live
58) on Sugar Hill, tell it to unsuspecting Shug
59) as soon as she is old enough to hear it.
The violence and conflict peaked in the 4th stanza. Here many of the themes developed in the previous Stanza's come together. Not only is Phillis Wheatley alluded to, but she appears (again) in the poem along with her quote.
there again, is the repetition of the word "expressed" from the previous stanza...
Here, there is finally a step towards conclusion, and a response to the line in teh first poem, "Who will tell the story." The answer may be, that the story has already been told, and we are to retell it. As all stories. Like the blues which has a long oral tradition. We are commanded to tell tell the story to the famous, to the rich, to the old and young. Again, here is transportation and transformation. The quote from Wheatley suggests that Christ, the savior, comes from Africa (which is the historical evidence). And Christ in America serves as a redeemer of the African people, but also of the Americans and Christians who have sinned/committed sins.
This is the story in the Bible of Cain and Abel. Cain does kill Abel, however God does not kill him for this sin. Instead, he forbids anyone to kill Cain, and commands Cain to continue to live on earth and have a family. The poem might suggest, that Abel was black too.
there is again the repetition of the word demon (demonic, diabolic)
Here is another Domino, neither a game piece nor an international corporation. Here Domino is pianist and singer "Fats Domino" known for his jazz music as well as blues.
in line 58 Sugar is a proper noun. It is a place, a location in New York City, in Harlem, known for being the neighborhood of wealthy African Americans.
50) here from Asia Minor to redeem an African child
51) and maybe her master’s soul as well. She wrote
52) as she lived, a model of refinement, yes,
53) but black as Abel racing through the canebrake,
54) demon bloodhounds baying in pursuit,
55) until at last his brother caught him,
56) expressed his rage, and rode back home to dinner.
57) Tell it to Fats Domino, to those who live
58) on Sugar Hill, tell it to unsuspecting Shug
59) as soon as she is old enough to hear it.
The violence and conflict peaked in the 4th stanza. Here many of the themes developed in the previous Stanza's come together. Not only is Phillis Wheatley alluded to, but she appears (again) in the poem along with her quote.
there again, is the repetition of the word "expressed" from the previous stanza...
Here, there is finally a step towards conclusion, and a response to the line in teh first poem, "Who will tell the story." The answer may be, that the story has already been told, and we are to retell it. As all stories. Like the blues which has a long oral tradition. We are commanded to tell tell the story to the famous, to the rich, to the old and young. Again, here is transportation and transformation. The quote from Wheatley suggests that Christ, the savior, comes from Africa (which is the historical evidence). And Christ in America serves as a redeemer of the African people, but also of the Americans and Christians who have sinned/committed sins.
This is the story in the Bible of Cain and Abel. Cain does kill Abel, however God does not kill him for this sin. Instead, he forbids anyone to kill Cain, and commands Cain to continue to live on earth and have a family. The poem might suggest, that Abel was black too.
there is again the repetition of the word demon (demonic, diabolic)
Here is another Domino, neither a game piece nor an international corporation. Here Domino is pianist and singer "Fats Domino" known for his jazz music as well as blues.
in line 58 Sugar is a proper noun. It is a place, a location in New York City, in Harlem, known for being the neighborhood of wealthy African Americans.
Analyzing Discourse in Sugar Cane: Stanza 4/6
34) Black-and-white negatives from a picture
35) history of the sugar trade develop
36) in my dreams, a dozen able-bodied slaves
37) hacking forward through a field of cane.
38) Sweat trickles down from forehead into eye
39) as they sheave up stalks and cart them to the mill
40) where grinding iron rollers will express a thin
41) sucrose solution that, when not refined,
42) goes from blackstrap molasses on into rum,
43) a demon conveniently negotiable for slaves.
44) The master under the impression he owned
45) these useful properties naturally never thought
46) of offering them a piece of the wedding cake,
47) the big white house that bubbling brown sugar built
48) and paid for, unnaturally processed by Domino.
Again, in the fourth stanza, the theme of color is dominant. Again, there is the oppositional relationship of black and white. Back-and-white is idiomatic expression, meaning an issue is simple, clear, and without controversy. This can be read as ironic. The idy of binary and identy comes into question with the technology of photography. Corn creates an image of an image --- the image is a negative, meaning that the colors are reversed. What would appear to the human eye as dark appears light in the negative, and what appears light to the human eye is then dark in the negative. There is another play on words with the term "develop." Film is developed from negative to create the photo image... when events develop, they progress in time and sometimes in complication.
Lines 37 and 38 also contain references to the Genesis. Corn writes "able-bodied slaves" which means healthy and strong slaves... however, this could also mean that they have the bodies of the innocent son of Eve from Genesis. The slaves laboring in the field have bodies like Abel... These slaves are "hacking forward through a field of cane" literally meaning that they are cutting the cane grass and harvesting it, however, this can be interpreted also as a reference to Genesis. The context of this stanza is a dream, it is something that did not happen. Another condition of the context of this dream is that it is a dream of a photographic negative. Photographic negatives reverse colors, but by the same token, roles may also be reversed. The field of cane can also be interpreted as a "field of Cain." Cain has therefore been cut down by Abel in these lines, offering another subversion of the binary.
There are parallel images in this stanza. The sweat running from the forehead to eye parallels the this sucrose solution. The transporting, harvesting, and the processing of sugar cane seems to be mirrored by the slaves in the field. There is a mirroring happening in this stanza which reverses images. The color theme continues, the unrefined sugar product is thick, dark, black molasses -- which is integral in the making of rum.
Again, words from Wheatley's poem are adapted for the use in "Sugar Cane." the word refined appears in line 41.Demon also recalls Wheatley's use of the devil "diabolic dye" in "On Being Brought from Africa to America."
In contrast to the previous two stanza's which focused on individuals, the scale of the narrative is larger. The narrative is historic, economic, and on an industrial scale. In line 34 sugar is part of a two word phrase "sugar trade."
Again, there is transformation. This stanza centers on
contrasting color is again the opposition The binary
There is also a repetition of alcoholic drink. Here it is not the upscale crystal champagne to intoxicate those with status, but the strong dark rum. The symbol of the cake returns, and it is a monolith, like the estate houses on plantations. Big white symbols of decadence. Again the cake may symbolize the whole. The phrase "slice of the cake" means the portion, or ones share of something. Another subtle allusion may be that the white house and cake represent the America as a whole, And the White House refers to the home of the President in the US Capitol of Washington, D.C. If this wedding cake and the estate house and the White House are mirror images then, this stanza is also insinuated that the exploitation and denial of the individual master on the plantation is the same exploitation and denial which the nation participates in with respect to African Americans.
The end of the stanza returns to the binary of the slave and master. Lines 44 through 48 deal with contrasting the slave and master dichotomy. There is also the dichotomy of natural and unnatural. The "bubbling brown sugar" "built and paid for" the
35) history of the sugar trade develop
36) in my dreams, a dozen able-bodied slaves
37) hacking forward through a field of cane.
38) Sweat trickles down from forehead into eye
39) as they sheave up stalks and cart them to the mill
40) where grinding iron rollers will express a thin
41) sucrose solution that, when not refined,
42) goes from blackstrap molasses on into rum,
43) a demon conveniently negotiable for slaves.
44) The master under the impression he owned
45) these useful properties naturally never thought
46) of offering them a piece of the wedding cake,
47) the big white house that bubbling brown sugar built
48) and paid for, unnaturally processed by Domino.
Again, in the fourth stanza, the theme of color is dominant. Again, there is the oppositional relationship of black and white. Back-and-white is idiomatic expression, meaning an issue is simple, clear, and without controversy. This can be read as ironic. The idy of binary and identy comes into question with the technology of photography. Corn creates an image of an image --- the image is a negative, meaning that the colors are reversed. What would appear to the human eye as dark appears light in the negative, and what appears light to the human eye is then dark in the negative. There is another play on words with the term "develop." Film is developed from negative to create the photo image... when events develop, they progress in time and sometimes in complication.
Lines 37 and 38 also contain references to the Genesis. Corn writes "able-bodied slaves" which means healthy and strong slaves... however, this could also mean that they have the bodies of the innocent son of Eve from Genesis. The slaves laboring in the field have bodies like Abel... These slaves are "hacking forward through a field of cane" literally meaning that they are cutting the cane grass and harvesting it, however, this can be interpreted also as a reference to Genesis. The context of this stanza is a dream, it is something that did not happen. Another condition of the context of this dream is that it is a dream of a photographic negative. Photographic negatives reverse colors, but by the same token, roles may also be reversed. The field of cane can also be interpreted as a "field of Cain." Cain has therefore been cut down by Abel in these lines, offering another subversion of the binary.
There are parallel images in this stanza. The sweat running from the forehead to eye parallels the this sucrose solution. The transporting, harvesting, and the processing of sugar cane seems to be mirrored by the slaves in the field. There is a mirroring happening in this stanza which reverses images. The color theme continues, the unrefined sugar product is thick, dark, black molasses -- which is integral in the making of rum.
Again, words from Wheatley's poem are adapted for the use in "Sugar Cane." the word refined appears in line 41.Demon also recalls Wheatley's use of the devil "diabolic dye" in "On Being Brought from Africa to America."
In contrast to the previous two stanza's which focused on individuals, the scale of the narrative is larger. The narrative is historic, economic, and on an industrial scale. In line 34 sugar is part of a two word phrase "sugar trade."
Again, there is transformation. This stanza centers on
contrasting color is again the opposition The binary
There is also a repetition of alcoholic drink. Here it is not the upscale crystal champagne to intoxicate those with status, but the strong dark rum. The symbol of the cake returns, and it is a monolith, like the estate houses on plantations. Big white symbols of decadence. Again the cake may symbolize the whole. The phrase "slice of the cake" means the portion, or ones share of something. Another subtle allusion may be that the white house and cake represent the America as a whole, And the White House refers to the home of the President in the US Capitol of Washington, D.C. If this wedding cake and the estate house and the White House are mirror images then, this stanza is also insinuated that the exploitation and denial of the individual master on the plantation is the same exploitation and denial which the nation participates in with respect to African Americans.
The end of the stanza returns to the binary of the slave and master. Lines 44 through 48 deal with contrasting the slave and master dichotomy. There is also the dichotomy of natural and unnatural. The "bubbling brown sugar" "built and paid for" the
Analyzing Discourse in Sugar Cane: Stanza 3/6
21) One day Evelina who worked for us
22) showed up with her son Bubba and laughed,
23) “Now y’all can play together.” He had a sweet
24) nature, but even so we raised a little Cain,
25) and Daddy told her not to bring him back.
26) He thought I’d begun to sound like colored people.
27) She smiled, dropped her eyes, kept working.
28) And kept putting on weight. She later died of stroke.
29) Daddy developed diabetes by age fifty-five,
30) insulin burned what his blood couldn’t handle.
31) Chronic depressions I have, a nutritionist
32) gently termed “the sugar blues,” but damned
33) if any lyrics come out of them, baby.
Alfred Corn's third stanza is another interesting one in relation to form and diction. There is the speaker of the poem, but there are also many other voices. Similar to the epigraph from Wheatley.
This stanza continues with the intertextual "mise en abyme." Not only does Corn's "Sugar Cane" reference Wheatley's poem, but also references the Book of Genesis (Which Wheatley also alludes to in her poem).
On one level, the character's Evelina, "Daddy," and Bubba and introduced to the narrative, with the speaker. These characters can be seen as those from Genesis. Bubba derives from "brother." Evelina is the diminutive of Eve. "Daddy" is the speaker's father, however, neither the speaker nor the speaker's father have a given name within the poem.
In this stanza, Corn retells the story of Cain and Abel. In order to understand a subversion or role reversal in the biblical story of Cain and Abel, it is important to first have a concept of the story from Genesis. In the Bible this is also the first instance of mortal murder. Cain is the first born son of Adam and Eve and Abel is his brother. The story according to Genesis tells of Cain who planted crops and Abel who tended flocks making offerings to God. Abel sacrificed the season's first-born lamb and Cain offered the early harvest of vegetables. However, God expressed his dissatisfaction to Cain about his offering. Which results in Cain then secretly killing Abel while he is tending his flocks. In the evening Cain returns to Adam and Eve and does not admit what he has done when asked whether he knows where Abel is. According to Genesis he responds, "I am not my brother's keeper." God calls Cain out on his lie and then banishes Cain to wander the earth cursed. (Apparently he wanders the world for 700 years procreating the whole time, cursed to be unhappy and never able to settle down) Because of this story, it is Cain who is known as the "black son" and is associated with "evil" and sin.
In Corn's poetic interpretation of Cain and Abel, it is hard to tell which role is taken by whom. If we assume Evelina is Eve, then it is unclear whether Bubba is meant to be Cain or Abel. The expression "to raise Cain" is idiomatic and the equivalent to "to raised hell" meaning to behave in a rowdy or disruptive way. Corn however writes that "we raised a little Cain." First, it's important to note that the pronoun is "we." The two boys behave together. Another shade of meaning belonging to the word raise, would be "to life." If we assume that the biblical Cain has died, perhaps the two have resurrected Cain (though I am not convinced of that interpretation). "Daddy" in this story fulfils the action of God in the story of Cain and Abel by banishing the son of Eve from his house. In this story, it is Bubba who is banished, however, he has not killed anyone. However, the one who shamed and cursed in this story is Evelina. In line 28 she becomes obese and dies of a stroke.
The theme of transformation and sugar in the first stanza is paralleled in the third. Whereas the sugar in the first stanza starts as thick black liquid boiled in a vat until it becomes pure, white granular crystal, like table sugar, the sugar in the third stanza is carried in a different kind of vessel. here, the vessel is the human body, and sugar is carried in the blood and it is "burned" by insulin.
Again, color is thematized. Color is a emotional sickness, it is a symptom of a nutritional illness. In line "32" the "sugar blues" are diabetes related depression.
Another element of this is a diction, a vocabulary which is borrowing from AAVE. This is another way which Alfred Corn's "Sugar Cane" subverts the binary.
There are binaries of health and sickness and life and death in this stanza.
22) showed up with her son Bubba and laughed,
23) “Now y’all can play together.” He had a sweet
24) nature, but even so we raised a little Cain,
25) and Daddy told her not to bring him back.
26) He thought I’d begun to sound like colored people.
27) She smiled, dropped her eyes, kept working.
28) And kept putting on weight. She later died of stroke.
29) Daddy developed diabetes by age fifty-five,
30) insulin burned what his blood couldn’t handle.
31) Chronic depressions I have, a nutritionist
32) gently termed “the sugar blues,” but damned
33) if any lyrics come out of them, baby.
Alfred Corn's third stanza is another interesting one in relation to form and diction. There is the speaker of the poem, but there are also many other voices. Similar to the epigraph from Wheatley.
This stanza continues with the intertextual "mise en abyme." Not only does Corn's "Sugar Cane" reference Wheatley's poem, but also references the Book of Genesis (Which Wheatley also alludes to in her poem).
On one level, the character's Evelina, "Daddy," and Bubba and introduced to the narrative, with the speaker. These characters can be seen as those from Genesis. Bubba derives from "brother." Evelina is the diminutive of Eve. "Daddy" is the speaker's father, however, neither the speaker nor the speaker's father have a given name within the poem.
In this stanza, Corn retells the story of Cain and Abel. In order to understand a subversion or role reversal in the biblical story of Cain and Abel, it is important to first have a concept of the story from Genesis. In the Bible this is also the first instance of mortal murder. Cain is the first born son of Adam and Eve and Abel is his brother. The story according to Genesis tells of Cain who planted crops and Abel who tended flocks making offerings to God. Abel sacrificed the season's first-born lamb and Cain offered the early harvest of vegetables. However, God expressed his dissatisfaction to Cain about his offering. Which results in Cain then secretly killing Abel while he is tending his flocks. In the evening Cain returns to Adam and Eve and does not admit what he has done when asked whether he knows where Abel is. According to Genesis he responds, "I am not my brother's keeper." God calls Cain out on his lie and then banishes Cain to wander the earth cursed. (Apparently he wanders the world for 700 years procreating the whole time, cursed to be unhappy and never able to settle down) Because of this story, it is Cain who is known as the "black son" and is associated with "evil" and sin.
In Corn's poetic interpretation of Cain and Abel, it is hard to tell which role is taken by whom. If we assume Evelina is Eve, then it is unclear whether Bubba is meant to be Cain or Abel. The expression "to raise Cain" is idiomatic and the equivalent to "to raised hell" meaning to behave in a rowdy or disruptive way. Corn however writes that "we raised a little Cain." First, it's important to note that the pronoun is "we." The two boys behave together. Another shade of meaning belonging to the word raise, would be "to life." If we assume that the biblical Cain has died, perhaps the two have resurrected Cain (though I am not convinced of that interpretation). "Daddy" in this story fulfils the action of God in the story of Cain and Abel by banishing the son of Eve from his house. In this story, it is Bubba who is banished, however, he has not killed anyone. However, the one who shamed and cursed in this story is Evelina. In line 28 she becomes obese and dies of a stroke.
The theme of transformation and sugar in the first stanza is paralleled in the third. Whereas the sugar in the first stanza starts as thick black liquid boiled in a vat until it becomes pure, white granular crystal, like table sugar, the sugar in the third stanza is carried in a different kind of vessel. here, the vessel is the human body, and sugar is carried in the blood and it is "burned" by insulin.
Again, color is thematized. Color is a emotional sickness, it is a symptom of a nutritional illness. In line "32" the "sugar blues" are diabetes related depression.
Another element of this is a diction, a vocabulary which is borrowing from AAVE. This is another way which Alfred Corn's "Sugar Cane" subverts the binary.
There are binaries of health and sickness and life and death in this stanza.
Tuesday, November 3, 2015
Analyzing Discourse in Sugar Cane: Stanza 2/6
12) When I was a child whose payoff for obeying
13) orders was red-and-white-striped candy canes,
15) I knew that sugar was love.
16) The first time someone called me “sweetheart,”
17) I knew sugar was love.
18) And when I tasted my slice of the wedding cake,
19) iced white and washed down with sweet champagne,
20) don’t you know sugar was love.
The answer to WHO is going to tell the story is partially answered in the second stanza of the poem. The speaker narrates in the first-person past tense.
Already by the second stanza, there is subversion to dichotomy. Whereas the first stanza is written in free verse, without rhyme and rhythm, the form of the second stanza is different. It includes repetition and rhyme which reflects the blues form. The blues is based on African American oral tradition traced back to the African oral tradition of griots. There are typically three rhyming lines in a blues stanza, where the first two lines repeat and the third responds. (There are variations on this).
This stanza continues with the theme of generations. On interpretation of the repetition is a subversion of form, mixing both African and non-African form. Another way to interpret the repetition, with respect to the theme of coming of age is the repetition representing social conditioning. In the first two lines the speaker recalls childhood, and the sugary sweetness of a candy cane being approval and the following affirmation in line 15 that "I knew sugar was love." Then the speaker recalls his first romance in youth, and the associations of sweetness and emotions of affection in the use of "sweetheart" as a term of endearment. Again, the speaker affirms in line 17 "sugar was love." Again, there is a cultural symbol of the wedding cake, both as a symbol of decadence in a western wedding, but also as a symbol of purity in the unity of love between the bride and groom. In lines 18, 19, and 20, the speaker of the poem reaches maturity, and addresses the reader "don't you know, sugar was love."
There is also a clear contrast of power in this stanza. sugar becomes a "payoff"
it is unclear from who or where the orders come from, however, obedience results in a candy reward.
The speaker, the child as come to equate "obedience" with candy and candy with love.
Sugar here appears in line 13 in the processed form of a candy cane.
Sugar, by association, becomes a person again, in the term of endearment "sweetheart," which represents a lover or romantic interest.
Again, color is a theme. There is white in the stripe of the candy cane, however, black is not present in this stanza. The color red in the the stripes of the candy cane subverts the black and white dichotomy of the previous stanza and epigraph. The cake however is "iced white." Icing, naturally, being the primarily sugar covering on a cake. This is interesting, because the connotations of "icing" is something superficial, a surface covering used to hide or disguise unpleasantness below the surface. Again, the proximity of the words "white" and "washed" might also allude to superficial covering. "White wash" is cheap paint used to color and disinfect interiors and exteriors often just barely covering flaws, however idiomatically use "to whitewash" means "to censor" or "to cover up a scandal or crime." Whitewashing is also a term used in America to refer to institutionalized racial discrimination, this could also be an allusion in line 19. Another interesting element that enters the poems is status and intoxication. The image of cake, especially of wedding cake, is one of decadence. The word cake recalls the famous quote attributed to Marie Antoinette "Let them eat cake," which was her supposed response upon learning that the French peasants were rioting because they had no bread to eat.
"Enfin je me rappelai le pis-aller d’une grande princesse à qui l’on disait que les paysans n’avaient pas de pain, et qui répondit : Qu’ils mangent de la brioche."
Rousseau (trans. Angela Scholar), Jean-Jacques (2000). Confessions. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 262.
The reference to cake and champagne might be a subtle symbolic representation of the disconnect between those who have and those who do not.
13) orders was red-and-white-striped candy canes,
15) I knew that sugar was love.
16) The first time someone called me “sweetheart,”
17) I knew sugar was love.
18) And when I tasted my slice of the wedding cake,
19) iced white and washed down with sweet champagne,
20) don’t you know sugar was love.
The answer to WHO is going to tell the story is partially answered in the second stanza of the poem. The speaker narrates in the first-person past tense.
Already by the second stanza, there is subversion to dichotomy. Whereas the first stanza is written in free verse, without rhyme and rhythm, the form of the second stanza is different. It includes repetition and rhyme which reflects the blues form. The blues is based on African American oral tradition traced back to the African oral tradition of griots. There are typically three rhyming lines in a blues stanza, where the first two lines repeat and the third responds. (There are variations on this).
This stanza continues with the theme of generations. On interpretation of the repetition is a subversion of form, mixing both African and non-African form. Another way to interpret the repetition, with respect to the theme of coming of age is the repetition representing social conditioning. In the first two lines the speaker recalls childhood, and the sugary sweetness of a candy cane being approval and the following affirmation in line 15 that "I knew sugar was love." Then the speaker recalls his first romance in youth, and the associations of sweetness and emotions of affection in the use of "sweetheart" as a term of endearment. Again, the speaker affirms in line 17 "sugar was love." Again, there is a cultural symbol of the wedding cake, both as a symbol of decadence in a western wedding, but also as a symbol of purity in the unity of love between the bride and groom. In lines 18, 19, and 20, the speaker of the poem reaches maturity, and addresses the reader "don't you know, sugar was love."
There is also a clear contrast of power in this stanza. sugar becomes a "payoff"
it is unclear from who or where the orders come from, however, obedience results in a candy reward.
The speaker, the child as come to equate "obedience" with candy and candy with love.
Sugar here appears in line 13 in the processed form of a candy cane.
Sugar, by association, becomes a person again, in the term of endearment "sweetheart," which represents a lover or romantic interest.
Again, color is a theme. There is white in the stripe of the candy cane, however, black is not present in this stanza. The color red in the the stripes of the candy cane subverts the black and white dichotomy of the previous stanza and epigraph. The cake however is "iced white." Icing, naturally, being the primarily sugar covering on a cake. This is interesting, because the connotations of "icing" is something superficial, a surface covering used to hide or disguise unpleasantness below the surface. Again, the proximity of the words "white" and "washed" might also allude to superficial covering. "White wash" is cheap paint used to color and disinfect interiors and exteriors often just barely covering flaws, however idiomatically use "to whitewash" means "to censor" or "to cover up a scandal or crime." Whitewashing is also a term used in America to refer to institutionalized racial discrimination, this could also be an allusion in line 19. Another interesting element that enters the poems is status and intoxication. The image of cake, especially of wedding cake, is one of decadence. The word cake recalls the famous quote attributed to Marie Antoinette "Let them eat cake," which was her supposed response upon learning that the French peasants were rioting because they had no bread to eat.
"Enfin je me rappelai le pis-aller d’une grande princesse à qui l’on disait que les paysans n’avaient pas de pain, et qui répondit : Qu’ils mangent de la brioche."
Rousseau (trans. Angela Scholar), Jean-Jacques (2000). Confessions. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 262.
The reference to cake and champagne might be a subtle symbolic representation of the disconnect between those who have and those who do not.
Analyzing Discourse in Sugar Cane: Stanza 1/6
1) The mother bending over a baby named Shug
2) chuckles, “Gimme some sugar,” just to preface
3) a flurry of kisses sweet as sugar cane.
4) Later, when she stirs a spoonful of Domino
5) into her coffee, who’s to tell the story
6) how a ten-foot-tall reed from the Old World,
7) on being brought to the New, was raised and cropped
8) so cooks could sweeten whatever tasted bitter?
9) Or how grade-A granulated began as a thick
10) black syrup boiled for hours in an iron vat
11) until it was refined to pure, white crystal.
Alfred Corn's "Sugar Cane" continues to reference Phillis Wheatley's poem. Phillis Wheatley does not mention "sugar" in her poem, and the only "cane" is "Cain" the biblical brother of Abel, however, the idea of refinement and binary of black and white is also a theme which relates to the manufacturing and processing of cane sugar into refined sugar. This theme is immediately alluded to in the first stanza. Sugar and its uses are mentioned six times in the first stanza.
The first stanza is told in the present tense. The scene starts domestic, familial, and feminine. The characters are a mother and her baby daughter at home. The baby girl's name "Shug" appears in the first line, and is an African American Vernacular English (AAVE) use of "sugar", used as a term of endearment often used as a nickname. Like an allegory, the baby girl becomes sugar, by being named "Shug." In the second line the mother, speaking to her baby daughter asks her to give her kisses "Gimme some sugar" which is also playful AAVE. "Sugar" is slang for a kiss or kisses in AAVE.
The third mention of sugar is in the following line, the kisses are described metaphorically as being "sweet as sugar cane."
The forth mention of sugar is in the fourth line, where the use of sugar as a sweetener poured into coffee is described, and sugar appears as a proper noun as the American sugar brand name "Domino." This is the first reference to the commercial. "Domino" is interesting as a term because it is a game commonly plaid in the West, however it has it's origins in the "Old World" in Asia (specifically China) . It's origins are recorded as early as the Yuan Dynasty. Domino's are traditionally white rectangular tablets with black spots and have been known to be made of precious materials such as ivory and ebony, which are also imported to the West from Africa. (The Domino Sugar Company had it's refinery in Brooklyn, New York along the East River)
The fifth mention of sugar, is in it's raw form as a "10-foot-tall reed" . (The following three line's describe the migration, process, and use).
The migration of the Sugar Cane plant is intertextual. The importation of sugarcane follows to importation of Africans to America, and therefore references Wheatley's "On Being Brought from Africa to America" (OBBFATA) The slave trade from Africa to America is inextricably connected with the sugar trade. I think the diction here is important too. In line 7 Corn writes that sugarcane was "raised and cropped" not that it was "produced" or "cultivated". Corn uses words which can be interpreted to have negative connotations. The word "raised" can mean to cultivate, but it also sounds like "razed" which means to destroy completely and "cropped" which can refer to agriculture and the harvesting of a crop is most commonly used as a synonym for "cut" especially "to cut short."
Line 8, although not mentioning sugar explicitly refers to an integral quality of sugar as a product, as something used by cooks for consumption. Line 8 addresses taste by introducing the dichotomy of sweetness and bitterness. In the context of the 8th line the transformation from bitter to sweet is culinary, however the words "bitter" and "sweet" do not necessarily have to be related to food. Somehow, by bringing a "cook" into the stanza, there is always a question of agency... a third party is transforming something unpleasant to be perceived as pleasant.
Lines 9, 10 and 11specifically references sugar again. It is referred to by a processed rating of quality. "Grade-A granulated" refers to the final processed product of sugar which is consumed in the west as typical table sugar. Here again, there is a dichotomy and contrast. In line 10 the origin of sugar is a " thick/ black syrup" which contrasts in both form and color to the "pure, white crystal." In line 11. These lines, again, reference Wheatley's "OBBFATA." The word "refined" appears in the last line of OBBFATA. By line 11, the originally black liquid product of sugar has been through time and heat lost it's color, become "refined" and transformed into "crystal."
This first stanza asks a question of a) agency WHO is going to tell the story b) or origins WHERE did sugar come from? c) transformation HOW did sugar change?
This stanza is set in the present tense. This stanza can be interpreted as a response to Wheatley's command to "remember", by asking "who's to tell the story...". This introduces the following narrative stanzas which are told (predominantly) in the past tense as recollections, brief stories from the speaker's memory.
This stanza takes part in discourses of time and space. Of age and race. Of construction and destruction and agency.
Analyzing Discourse in Sugar Cane: Epigraph
Some view our sable race with scornful eye,
"Their color is a diabolic dye."
Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain,
May be refined, and join the angelic train.
Phillis Wheatley, "On Being Brought from Africa to America"
This epigraph, though short, is dense with allusions to the cultural discourses which it engages in. Phillis Wheatley is an educated slave who was freed. This poem was published in 1773 when slavery was still an institution in the united states, but also at a time when the abolitionist movement began to gain momentum.
Though the words slave and slavery are not used in the poem, the title of the poem, "On Being Brought from Africa to America" is a blatant allusion to the slave trade and slavery. This poem directly engages in the cultural discourse of slavery. This creates an immediate polarity of oppositions. On one side there are "Negroes" and on the other side non-negro Americans, implied as the "Some" in line one of the epigraph who "view our race with scornful eye." Another related discourse immediately implied is race and race relations.
The speaker in Wheatley's "On Being Brought from Africa to America" is herself dark skinned, the possessive pronoun "our" in the first line of the epigraph makes that clear, as the speaker identifies in "our sable race." The poem engages in this discussion of race with the use of color. "Sable race" "Their color" "diabolic dye" and "black as Cain" describe darkness related to skin color.
Another discourse present in this poem is one of religion and morality. The way non-negro Americans view dark-skinned negros is with a "scornful eye." The non-negro American judges the negro based on the color of his or her skin as Wheatley ascribes in the quotation in the second line of the epigraph. The dark skin color is given demonic or devilish characteristics via the term "diabolic" and characteristics which conjure up the idea of intentional stains and impurity via the term "dye." The binary to this would indicate purity and holiness. These elements are present in the use of the terms "angelic" and "refined" in the last couplet. There is also a biblical allusion to the story of Cain and Abel. According to certain versions of the bible, Cain was the first official murderer in the Bible. After killing his brother Abel, Cain was confronted by God who asked him of Abel's whereabouts... to whcih cain replies "How should I know? I am not my brother's keeper" Whereby God calls Cain out on his lie, cursing him and banishing him to wander. His curse was a mark that made clear he were not to be killed (#markofcain ). This story is is often referenced to exemplify the wicked and the righteous.
Furthermore, the speaker in "On Being Brought from Africa to America" addresses Christians in the third line, commanding them in the imperative to "remember."
This epigraph does two things. First, it creates binary oppositions. There are three binary oppositions in the epigraph. The second thing the epigraph does is overcomes those oppositions. In the first two lines, an "us" and "them" relationship is fairly clear. There are negroes and non-negroes. By the third line, it is unclear who the "us" and "them" is. Another binary opposition is dark and light as described through color "sable" "black" "dye" "refined." And the third binary opposition is that of good and evil in the biblical context as alluded to through the words "diabolic" "Cain" and "angelic."
The speaker of the poem addresses Christians, "Remember Christians." And Christians refers to religion and belief, which is not dependent on skin color. (Even if you want to assume that Africans brought from an non-Christian Africa to serve as Negro slaves in America do not traditionally practice Christianity, it cannot be denied that African slaves were forced to attend church services and observe Christian practices as slaves. Many also adopting the religion and belief system).
Another way the "us and them" binary opposition is overcome is through a mixed speaker. The speaker of the poem identifies as having dark skin, and uses the possessive pronoun "our" when identifying as belonging to a "sable race" however, Wheatley then chooses to give the non-negroe voice within the poem as well, using a quotation "Their color is a diabolic dye" --- however, this distinction is only present in the printed version of this poem. When recited orally, the lines become more ambiguous.
Another interesting thought about this epigraph is to take into consideration it's form and the medium it is being transmitted on. When it is printed it is easier to perceive the us in them through punctuation, grammar, and layout, -- it is of all things, black ink, printed on whiite paper. However, if the poem is transmitted orally, it becomes less clear who the "us and them" is -- Wheatley could have kept the poems speaker without including the quotation marks around the second line.... she could have written something like: they see their color as a diabolic dye... however in this poem, there are two voices. And the medium which it is transmitted makes the difference. The voice can neither be black nor white, at least not in color.
There is an opposition created in this poem immediately.
Below is this poem in it's entirety:
- 'Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land
- Taught my benighted soul to understand
- That there's a God, that there's a Saviour too:
- Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.
- Some view our sable race with scornful eye;
- "Their colour is a diabolic die."
- Remember, Christians, Negros black as Cain,
- May be refin'd, and join th'angelic train.
- - from "Poems on Various Subjects Religious and Moral"
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