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Roast Possum by Rita Dove:
Rita Dove is a wonderful writer who has analyzed a variety of themes through her works. This particular paper will focus upon the poem Roast Possum, and specifically on the point-of-view and message sent to readers throughout this poem.
In Roast Possum, the reader is presented with an interesting physical poem, namely, one written in italicized and non-italicized text. It thus seems, at first glance, that the author, therefore, is trying to transmit different ideas, or different points-of-view. The italicized portion, for example, deals with specific descriptions of the possum, as well as the descriptions relating to how to catch the animal and, finally eat it. The other part seems to deal much more with a social criticism, or a social description of surroundings.
The point-of-view seems to come from two different sources, the...
e first of which is a bit more childish or less educated, and utilizes slang, such as "Man he was tough but no match/for old-time know-how." However, reading the poem closely evidences that although the same person is speaking, he does offer various "accounts" to each of the people to whom he is speaking.
Thus, the second point-of-view, the non-italicized text, references an Encyclopedia, and gives a more comprehensive account of the surroundings such as "He could have gone on to tell them / that the Werner admitted Negro children / to be intelligent, though briskness / clouded over at puberty, bringing / indirection and laziness."
In this poem, it seems as though the writer is talking both to the audience, as well as, through the main character who seems to be a grandfather, to the granddaughters "propped on each knee" as well as the child Malcolm, who is…
In this poem, it seems as though the writer is talking both to the audience, as well as, through the main character who seems to be a grandfather, to the granddaughters "propped on each knee" as well as the child Malcolm, who is the one for whom the grandfather "invents" and to whom he speaks in a more diminutive tone, hence the italicized text.
The message of the poem, through these different points made, is quite interesting. The narrator thus begins with a pretty scientific description of the possum, from, as aforementioned an Encyclopedia, but, realizing that his audience is of varying ages, he adds interesting anecdotes. As his audience bored, the man narrating thus begin to speak of other subjects, yet reverts back to the possum quickly, in order to finish his ideas and states "You got to be careful / with a possum when he's on the ground; / he'll turn on his back and play dead / till you give up looking," and "Yessir, we enjoyed that possum. We ate him real slow, with sweet potatoes."
The poem, however, is not as simple as two intertwining stories told by a grandfather to his grandchildren, and one piece of evidence of this is the question posed at the end by the grandson. The author, in commentary suggests that this happened due to the fact that the grandfather is trying to tell "childish" stories but that the children really are interested in grown up stories, and in the truth; however, as the reader can see at the end of the poem, the grandfather has no interest in these more serious questions and keeps his story light-hearted, which mirrors the ideas that the author herself has had upon the subject, and her constant striving for "interesting" stories in her childhood.[footnoteRef:1] [1: Texts referenced: Roast Possum (poem) by Rita Dove. Retrieved October 13, 2011. Also please note I referenced the "LBJ Lecture" by Rita Dove (given March 10, 1998), also retrieved October 13, 2011.]
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