Hirsch, Edward. “Three Initiations: A COLUMN.” The American Poetry Review, vol. 27, no. 5,
1998, pp. 45–55, http://www.jstor.org/stable/27782809. Accessed 5 Apr. 2022.
Edward Hirsch wrote “Three Initiations: A COLUMN.” which is an article published in The American Poetry Review - a magazine passionate about providing the best contemporary poetry for a diverse, worldwide audience - in 1989 about Emily Brontë’s structure and language features in her poem titled, The Night is Darkening Round Me. This article analyzes each line of the poem based on language features - metaphors, imagery, repetition and alliteration to name a few - and provides subtle links to the deeper meaning behind certain lines. This article also expresses how each line of the poem shows Emily Brontë’s intent of frustration with and desire to escape the sexist world in which she lives. Edward M. Hirsch is an American poet and critic who wrote a national bestseller about reading poetry, proving his credibility. Further proving the article’s reliability is the fact that this article was published in The American Poetry Review by Old City Publishing. Emily Brontë creates a powerful atmosphere in this poem through the ABAB rhyming pattern - for every four lines, the first and third lines rhyme, and the second and fourth lines rhyme - and her heavy use of descriptive adjectives, verbs, and metaphors to portray her desire to be free. This is emphasized when Hirsch states, “the passive verb in the first line (‘The night is darkening round me’) creates a sense of the speaker’s passivity before an active nature” (Hirsch, 45). Hirsch further justifies Brontë’s purposeful use of language structure to bring forth the theme of feeling captive and wishing to be free by stating that the rhyming pattern “gives off a powerful sense of handcuffing, of being handcuffed - as in ‘round me’ and ‘bound me’”(Hirsch, 46).
Kirkland, David E. “‘The Rose That Grew from Concrete’: Postmodern Blackness and New
English Education.” The English Journal, vol. 97, no. 5, 2008, pp. 69–75, https://doi.org/10.2307/30046887. Accessed 5 Apr. 2022.
“‘The Rose That Grew from Concrete’: Postmodern Blackness and New
English Education.”, written by David E. Kirkland, is an article published in 2008 in The English Journal about Tupac Shakur’s inspiration and reasoning behind the structure of his poem, The Rose That Grew from Concrete. This article explains that Tupac Shakur loved writing from an early age but never pursued it; he could not relate to the language style as it was not natural to him or people similar to him. English literature written in the 1980s did not relate to African Americans, leading him to believe he was not allowed to write about his struggles as a black man who grew up in a difficult and violent neighborhood. Shakur went on to write music allowing him to express everything he wanted. The intent of his lyrics was to make profound statements on serious topics such as racial discrimination, injustics, and gun control. His lyrics brought out heartfelt but wise messaging in a literary way. Kirkland also details how having writers such as Shakur, creating music with these intelligently thought-out lyrics, is an important aspect of English which is important to study. Dr. David E. Kirkland is known to be a reputable writer as he is currently responsible for the Research Foundation of the National Council of Teachers of English. The fifth book that he wrote called A Search Past Silence: The Literacy of Black Males, is a Teachers College Press bestseller and winner of the 2015 Daniel E. Griffiths Research Award, the 2014 AESA Critics Choice Award, and the 2014 NCTE David H. Russell Award for Distinguished Research in the Teaching of English. In addition, this article was published in “The English Journal” by the National Council of Teachers of English which further proves its academic reliability. It is clear that Shakur’s poem is not structured as formally as other English writers at the time; however, this was purposeful to show that English literature does not have to read or sound a certain way to bring out important messages. Kirkland recognizes that the classics of English literature do not represent the experiences of many people. The introduction of hip-hop as a new literary genre allows greater human experiences to be expressed. Shakur’s poem tells the story of a rose that was treated poorly and unloved, but it was still able to grow. It represents the identity of individuals who grow up in poor neighbourhoods but despite this, they are able to move forward with their lives and flourish. Shakur was able to clearly explain this theme without using a traditional structure. This bias that literature has a standard was proven in the article when Kirkland excerpts Shakur’s words:
I had an attraction to English early on but was fast realizing that English standards did not look like me, sound like me, or think like me. While they represented English, the standards represented a narrow English, one that did not necessarily include me. (Kirkland, 72)
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