Poetry analysis and literary significance

¶ … artist must take a stance in the world. He or she must present himself from a vantage point, a perspective, that identifies him or herself and from which he is able to convey his or her sentiments about whatever topic is at hand. This sense of identity and the vantage point it affords Lucille Clifton and Etheridge Knight are fairly obvious in their poems "adam thinking" and "The Violent Space (or when your sister sleeps for money)," respectively. It is also what would more than likely cause Groddeck to say that their poetry is that of a dying tradition.

This fact is certainly true in Clifton's poem. This poem is clearly written from a feminist perspective which is not at all inclusive of the democratic values that Groddeck celebrates. The interesting thing is that although this poem champions feminist values, it is narrated from the perspective of a man. Moreover, it is narrated from the first man in existence, Adam, whose rib was allegedly removed to create Eve and eventually spawn womankind. Virtually all of the connotations of Adam's references to Eve and to womankind are negative, which merely reinforce the feminist notion that men are oppressors, do not truly like them, have little use for them etc. Eve is described as "stolen" (Clifton) from Adam's rib; the negative connotation of this word implies that Eve has done something wrong even in her initial act of creation. Additionally, Adam wants to put his rib back where it was before Eve was created, so that Adam can "be whole again" (Clifton). This passage implies that Adam has effectively lost something via the creation of Eve, and is somehow wrong or not proper since he is no longer whole. All of these negative connotations attest to sentiments of which feminists readily accuse men. As such, it is not inclusive of the new tradition of democracy that Groddeck proclaims has emerged in America, since it is so firmly entrenched in the author's definition of herself as a woman and as a feminist, at that.

The notion of identity, as an African-American, is a central notion to the poem that is Knight wrote. In this particular piece, the author describes the degradation of Black women who are forced to sell their bodies in prostitution. He details his own inability to assist such women due to his own problems related to drug abuse. He demonstrates his own inability to assist in the problem of such women, or for other men such as himself, in the following quotation. "I am not bold. I cannot yet take hold of the demon/And lift his weight from your black belly" (Knight). The demon referred to is the monstrosity of America for African-Americans, which is generally considered the reason for the prostitution of African-American women and the ills that turn many people junkies, a situation that the narrator of this poem is facing. All of these facts help to present this poem with a degree of fortitude of identity. It is quite obvious that such a poem is written from an African-Americans perspective, concerned with African-American people, and is not at all indicative of the common democracy that Groddeck believes is the beauty of contemporary American poetry. In that sense, Knight's work is an example of what Groddeck would call the dying tradition of poetry.