Poetry Analysis
The year is 1872, slavery has ended with the Civil War seven years ago, and the now United States is undergoing the process of Reconstruction. Born in 1825, Frances E. W. Harper is 47 years old and a brilliant female African-American writer whose fingertips are on the heartbeat and pulse of voiceless women and blacks. In her frustration and perseverance, she sits down and pens Aunt Chloes Politics, a timeless attack on the politics of Reconstruction and the poem that is being analyzed in this essay. Harpers Aunt Chloes Politics uses colorful, colloquial language, the events of the Civil War and Reconstruction Era, and the fearless tone of the speaker to depict the political condition of that time and provoke an emotional response from the reader.
When reading this poem, the readers attention is immediately drawn to the language that the author uses to portray the social class of the speaker. Lines like Ive seen em honey-fugle round gives the reader the impression that the speaker is not very educated and possibly black. Harper uses this type of language throughout the poem with phrases like Though I thinks a heap of voting and this buying up of each other. The ABCB rhyme scheme and compact structure of the piece accompanied with this colorful language leaves the reader with an accurate Reconstruction Era aftertaste. Among many other aspects, the language the author uses for this work becomes a wheel on the vehicle that delivers the message of equality and non-complacence.
Another wheel that Harper installed on her poetic machine is the accurate recollection of the events that led up to 1872 (when this poem was written). The Civil War had taken place and had been over for about seven years and the United States had moved into a period of Reconstruction. Though actual slavery was almost non-existent, the political slavery and educational repression that was once just a product of slavery, now became a part of everyday life in America. Most of these events are assumed by the reader. The easiest way to date this poem in history is to understand the last paragraph. The speaker talks about buying up of each vote. During the Reconstruction Era, white politicians were buying the black votes to secure political victory. Knowing this, the reader is able to identify with the speakers struggle and the author succeeds in conveying her message.
The last wheel Harper uses to complete the mechanism called poem is the fearless attitude and tone of the speaker. The speaker, Aunt Chloe in this case, is quite aware of her education level and status in society. She knows her place is not to speak out against the current political practices. The first line of the poem she recognizes, I dont know very much about these politics, but what she did realize is that there was a group of people who once enslaved were now supposed to be free. She knew that regardless of race or origin, if a person was a citizen of the United States they were to have true freedom. She also knew that those promises made to her people were not reality and in her words I dont believe in looking honest people in the face, and saying when youre doing wrong, that I havent sold my race. It may very well be that Aunt Chloe was uneducated, poor, and black but her courage and boldness in this poem exemplify true intelligence and character. Her fearlessness grabs the readers attention and leaves an imprint on the persons conscience.
Every good writer writes with the intention of captivating the reader and when evaluating a piece of literature the main focus should always be the reader. Harper understood this and used her poem Aunt Chloes Politics to deliver a message to the masses. As a result of the oppression she had faced in her life, Harper was able to see the political injustice that was taking place at the time this poem was written. Using the language of the uneducated minority, the events that encompassed the Civil War and Reconstruction, and the courageous tone of the speaker, Aunt Chloe, Francis E. W.
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Harper delivered her message of equality and political honesty to every person that takes the time to read this poem.
