International Journal of English

and Literature (IJEL)

ISSN(P): 2249-6912; ISSN(E): 2249-8028
Vol. 4, Issue 6, Dec 2014, 1-8
TJPRC Pvt. Ltd.

RITA DOVES SATIRE ON THE OVERLOOKED EVENTS IN THE WORLD HISTORY

J. M. SABOO
Principal and Head, Department of English, Shankarlal Khandelwal Arts, Science and Commerce College,
Akola, Maharashtra, India

ABSTRACT
Rita Dove is a globally applauded name in the realm of contemporary American poetry. She is a Black poet, but
her poetry has crossed the confines of race, region, gender and ethnicity. She is not fettered to any restrictive political
ideology. Her major themes include self, ancestral memories, black history, black experience and female images. She has
culled numerous female characters from the pages of world history, and skillfully exhibited them to the world at large.
Besides her major themes, many of her poems are the satire on historical images in general or we can say satire on
overlooked events in the world history. It is the result of her foreign tours that have exhibited these satires in her poetry.
For example character of Nestor in Museum, Liu Sheng and his wife Tau Wan in Tau Wan Speaks, character of Alexandria
in the poem Catherine of Alexandria, character of Siena in the poem Catherine of Siena and character of Baccassio and
Fiammetta in the poem Baccassio : The Plague Year. In this way, Rita Doves travelogues in Museum speaks about flaws
in these historical characters by stirring them.

KEYWORDS: Rita Dove, Museum, Nestors Bathtub, Alexandria, Siena, Liu Sheng, Tau Wan, Baccassio, Fiammetta,
Travelogues, Satire

INTRODUCTION
Rita Dove is a globally applauded name in the realm of contemporary American poetry. She is a Black poet,
but her poetry, by its intrinsically expository and exploratory nature, has crossed the confines of race, region, gender and
ethnicity. It is the poetry which is the culmination of the engagement of all senses, innocence and experience, confession
and concealment, courage and forthrightness. It is the outcome of epiphanal moments. The poet is all committed to record
such various moments and experiences, and poetry is, possibly, the most competent mode of re-living those past
happenings, and also receiving the bliss of unfolding. To Dove, to write poetry is not just a conscious act of stringing
words together, rather, it is a sure way of making discovery into her self, and others perceptions. She has no high claims
for the vocation of writing and reviews, however, she is sensibly aware of the truth of disintegrating communities, and her
poetry seeks to illumine and enlighten people on this burning issue. But sometimes she is criticized too for her support to
short poems with restricted vocabulary in black poetry.1 Evidently, whenever Dove intends to touch the hidden cords of
human heart, she prefers to do it through poetry: not prose. She herself admits, I prefer the highs and the deeper depths in
poetry prior to everything, she desires to be considered as part of the human family. This feature of humanistic concerns
makes her a uniquely timeless poet. One another virtue of Dove is her intellectual and emotional honesty. She is not
fettered to any restrictive political ideology. It is this specific dimension of her poetry, which fascinated me to undertake a
study of her poems. Dove is a thematically excellent poet. Scores of subjects of contemporary and historical, communal
and universal, and national and international interest are the seedbed of her poetry. Her themes are as varied as life itself.

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J. M. Saboo

Most prominently she writes about individuals struggle and survival in day to day situations. Racial and gender
discrimination, color complexes, socio-politically infected relations, broken familial and fraternal ties, disrupted friendship,
etc. are her favorite topics. Kings and queens, poor and suppressed people, innocent children robbed of their wonderland,
deserted and subjugated women, exploited and ill-treated employee the wide range of personae frequent her verses. Each
one of Doves poem offers us small moments of insightful observation. The way she fuses the act of observation and
reflection, while dealing with exterior world, is distinct and impressive. Numbers of her poems are self-revelatory in nature
where she emerges in various roles like mother, wife, daughter, sister, etc. However, none of roles disruptively interferes
with her individual consciousness and imaginative exploration. The roles and guises are the means to perceive and
thoroughly understand the world. There is substantial dramatic element in her poetry, and remarkably enough, this
dimension makes her a truly enjoyable artist. There is hope, rage, protest, confession, love, remorse, despair, discontent in
her poems, but what is noteworthy is that she presents these in an aesthetically believable manner. In a word, Doves
poetry is full of entrancing touches, passional life and splendid suggestiveness. Ekaterini Georgoudaki has
characterized Doves work as crossing boundaries of race, gender, class, culture and time. Dove has insistently written
from a wide variety of subject positions: male, female, white Americans, Chinese, African, Americans, German, the
historically famous and unknown commoners, and in the distant past as well as in the immediate present.2 In the words of
Gary Waller: Like Hass poetry, Doves opens up for critical commentary the language of the culture unconscious
repressed by a poetic that has divided the world into observant, neurotic self and an inert world of objects. With her
characteristic vigor, creativity, and command over the language, she has proved that she was the right person to be
conferred upon the honour of poet laureate of the USA.
Satire on Overlooked Events in the World History
Her major themes include self, ancestral memories, black history, black experience and female images. She has
culled numerous female characters form the pages of world history, and skillfully exhibited them to the world at large.
It is not difficult to find a good few legendary females from different cultures like Catherine of Alexandria, Tou Wan,
Cathrine of Siena and Fiammetta. Doves poetry is undoubtedly unique in the sense that it makes us aware of the sad facets
of life in a casual mode. Besides the themes of black history, many of her poems are the satire on history in general or we
can say satire on overlooked events in the world history. It is the result of her foreign tours that have exhibited these satires
in her poetry. For example, the first section of her second volume of poems Museum: The Hill has something to say
deals with great historical figures from different countries. The first poem Nestors Bathtub opens with Doves complaint
against the official version of history. Further, she criticizes the historical figure Nestor:
As usual, legend got it all
Wrong: Nestors wife was the one
To crounch under
Jug upon jug of fragrant water poured
Until the small room steamed.
But where was Nestor
On his throne before the hearth,

Impact Factor (JCC): 4.0867

Index Copernicus Value (ICV): 3.0

Rita Doves Satire on the Overlooked Events in the World History

Counting the jars of oil

In store room 34, or
At the Trojan wars
While his wife with her white hands
Scraped the dirt from a lovers back
With a bronze scalpel?
Legend, as usual, doesnt
Say.

(Selected Poems, P.72.)

The poet describes the luxurious facilities that Nestor provided to his wife. Dove raises the question: where Nestor
himself was? It is her presupposition that he might be in storeroom no. 34, counting jars of oils or at Trojan War showing
his heroism and his wife is involved with other. Both the things represent his greed for wealth and power, and lust.
However, history does not reveal it; legend, as usual, doesnt say, and celebrates him as a great warrior. The next poem
Tou Wan speaks to her Husband, Liu Sheng brings us the same historically praised figure, Liu Sheng. It focuses on the
name and fame of Liu Sheng and his mortal existence. It is imagined as if his wife, Tou Wan, is conversing with him.
The conversation shows her loyalty and compassion to her husband even after his death. She assures him that she will build
him a house of limited chambers that will last forever as his possession and will not vanish like his great empire. Similarly,
she admits that he is the only person whom she loves:
I will built you a house
Of limited chambers
But it shall last
Forever: four rooms
Hewn in the side of store
For you, my
Only conqueror

(Selected Poems, P.77)

Further, on her level best, she tries to manage his heroic persuasions assigning them different chambers:
In the south room all
You will need for the journey
-- a chariot, a dozen horses

(Selected Poems, P.77)

Finally, she assures him that she will set a lamp for him when he would be oppressed by darkness.
However, to our surprise, we suddenly confront with another side of his personality, when with the act of setting lamp;
she recalls her memories of him with the statue of the palace girl:
For those times
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J. M. Saboo

In your niche when darkness

Oppresses, I will set you
A lamp (And a statue
Of the palace girl you most
Frequently coveted)

(Selected Poems, P.78)

Having described his materialistic persuasions and the dark side of his personality, the poem describes his kingly
funeral prophesied by legends in official version of history:
And for your body,
Two thousand jade wafers
With gold thread puzzled
To a brilliant envelope,
A suit to keep
The shape of your deathWhen you are long light and clouds
Over the earth, just as the legends prophesy.

(Selected Poems, P.78)

After handling the historic heroes, she turns to a historic woman Catherine of Alexandria. The poem Catherine of
Alexandria deals with Catherines silent submission to manhood due to illiteracy and lack of chance to travel.
Nevertheless, according to the poet, this sainthood came to her as a vice (voice). Her silent submission to the will of men
deprived her from gaining knowledge and experience of travel. The harsh reality of her life is satired in further lines:
Deprived of learning and
The chance to travel,
No wonder sainthood
Came as a voice
In your bed
and what went on
each night was fit
for nobodys ears
but Jesus,

(Selected Poems, P.79)

Among Doves portraits of historical women, Nestors wife and Tou Wan choose sainthood to conventional social
roles. On the other hand, in the case of Catherine of Alexandria, sainthood does not appear as a free choice but as the only
alternative to a woman without education and the chance to travel.3
Impact Factor (JCC): 4.0867

However, in the next poem Catherine of Siena,

Index Copernicus Value (ICV): 3.0

Rita Doves Satire on the Overlooked Events in the World History

Dove deals with real sainthood. The poem describes Catherine of Sienas physical journey and the hardship she has faced.
Thus, her spiritual journey is conveyed:
You walked the length of Italy
To find someone to talk to.
You struck the boulder at the roadside
Since fate has doors everywhere
Under the star-washed dome
of heaven, warm and dark,
as the woolens stacked on cedar
shelves back home in your
fathers shop, you prayed
until tears streaked the sky.
No one stumbled across your path.
No one unpried your fists as you slept.

(Selected Poems, P.80)

Dove mentions in her Notes that Catherine of Siena refused to marry, received the stigma, and worked to secure
peace between the Papacy and a divided Italy dictating letters of advice to people all over Europe.4 After dealing with the
kings and the queens, Dove portrays an artist named Baccaccio. The poem Baccaccio: The pleague Years initially
describes the horror of the decease:
Even at night the air rang and rang.
Through the thick swirled glass
He watched the priests sweep past
In their peaked hoods, collecting death. (Selected Poems, P.82)
Soon it turns stern on the hypocrisy of the artist who urges romantic love from his beloved in the situation of the
dread decease. He tries to prove her unfaithful as she does not respond to his idea of stopping time and decay with romantic
love and art:
Rolling out of the light
He leaned his cheek
Against the rows of bound leather:
Cool water Fiammetta!
He had described her
A hundred ways; each time
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She had proven unfaithful. If only

He could crack this city in two
So the moon would scour
the wormed streets clean! Or
walk away from it all, simply
falling in love again.

(Selected Poems, P.82)

This injustice with Fiammetta is immediately answered in the next poem Fiammetta Breaks Her Peace.
Fiammetta expresses Baecaccios unfair expectation from her to her mother:
And to think he wanted me
Beautiful! To be his fresh air
And my breasts two soft
Spiced promises. Stand still, he said
Once, and let me admire you.

(Selected Poems, P.84)

In contrast to Baccaccios idealism, Fiammetta offers her serious vision of a deceased world:
All is infection, motherand avarice,
And self-pity, and fear!
We shall sit quietly in this room,
And I think well be spared.

(Selected Poems, P.84)

In this way, Fiammetta explains her mother how deceased world wants to infect her with its self pity and fear.
Further, she decides to ignore it to spare herself. In Baccaccio the Plaque Years and Fiammetta Breaks her Peace, Dove
goes back to the history and provides an example of the artists dehumanizing attitude. Juxtaposing both Baccaccio and
Fiammetts view points is Doves typical method of reconstructing events and peoples portraits.5 Dove is an assembler
who gathers the various facts of the life. She further presents them in the way that jars our lazy assumption. She gives
voice to many positions and many characters. Like the writer of a classic argumentation, Dove frequently describes
the opposing sides of conflicts she deals with.6

CONCLUSIONS
In this way, Rita Doves travelogues in Museum prepare the readers for travel poems. Here she deftly deals with
the over looked historical details and with help of satire tries to focus on the reality. Nestors Bathtub, a pivotal poem in
this respect, begins with line: As usual, legend got it all wrong. This exhibits poets dissatisfaction with the conventional
ordering of events. She further expresses her desire to rejuvenate history by coming up with new ways of telling it.7
Thus, Rita Doves poetry is concerned with history in general, and satires the overlooked events in the world history.

REFERENCES
Impact Factor (JCC): 4.0867

Index Copernicus Value (ICV): 3.0

Rita Doves Satire on the Overlooked Events in the World History

1.

Dove Rita, Defining an anthology. The New York Review of Books, December, 2011.

2.

Pereira, Malin. An Interview with Rita Dove. Contemporary Literatur. 14:2 (1999 Summer): P.184.

3.

Georgoudaki, Ekaterini. Rita Dove: Crossing Boundries. Callalloo: A Journal of African American and African
Arts and Letters. 14:2 (1991 Spring): P.425.

4.

Dove, Rita. Notes. Museum. Pittsburgh: Carnegie-Mellon University Press. 1983, P. 78.

5.

Georgoudaki, Ekaterini. Rita Dove: Crossing Boundries. Callaloo: A Journal of African American and African
Arts and Letters. 14:2 (1991 Spring): P. 424.

6.

McDowell, Robert. Assembling Vision of Rita Dove. Callaloo: A Journal of African and African Arts and
Letters. 9:1 (1986 Winter): P. 61.

7.

Ibid. P.64.

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