Monday, October 12, 2009
Gwendolyn Brooks, "First Fight. Then Fiddle"
Gwendolyn Brook's sonnet "First Fight. Then Fiddle" is a Petrarchan sonnet, with an overall theme of music or "fiddling" compared to life. Brooks makes an argument about life and how it is necessary to fight in order to enjoy all the joys in life. In this sonnet fiddling is symbolic of enjoying life, as can be seen by her word choices in the first two lines. Brooks writes "...Then fiddle. Ply the slipping string with feathery sorcery." The tone of this writing in my opinion is positive, because she is talking about music which I identified as all the good things in life. Brook's imagery when talking about fiddling demonstrates her views. "Devote the bow to silks and honey." When thinking about silks and honey I apply a positive connotation to the words, because honey is usually considered sweet, and silk smooth and beautiful. This poem does take a turn between the 8th and 9th lines, and instead of talking about music and the joys of life, Brooks starts to talk about war and fighting. I knew that there was a turn in the sonnet because Brooks uses words with negative connotations like "blind, bloody, hate, and deaf." Brook's message after the shift in the sonnet is that we must fight, and go to war in order to clear space for us to enjoy life or, "civilize a space wherein to play your violin with grace." I enjoyed this sonnet because the it had 2 messages, one that had to do with music, and a main message dealing with the joys of life.
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I definitely agree with you on the main argument that Brooks is trying to convey through the poem. This piece of work combines both the enjoyable and gruesome events that occur in life. The argument is that one must be willing to fight for their freedoms, before they are able to enjoy the everyday events that people today take for granted. Like you said, the choice of words in the poem really helped highlight the Volta. The first half of the poem portrayed a tranquil world, filled with music which I usually associate with partying or festivities. As the poem continued I felt the happiness and innocence of the poem deteriorate as you noticed. The war related words started popping up and that is when the Volta appeared. I saw and agree with everything that you observed in the poem. I think some people take the simple joys of life for granted, don't you?
ReplyDeleteI thought Kofi did a good job understanding the poem, however personally I interpreted many parts differently. I agree that the first part, 8 lines of the poem are a celebration of life, however I see the ending lines as more of a mockery of man. To me Brooks is not saying that to enjoy the wonders of life it is sometimes necessary to fight, rather why do we fight when we have all these wonders to enjoy. I also believe the two messages, “one that had to do with music, and a main message dealing with the joys of life” according to Kofi, are different than that. To me the poem is asking why war has to happen and tries to point out it’s ugliness. The music and fiddle are a glimpse of what life should always be like. We should fiddle, and never fight.
ReplyDeleteThis is not a Petrarchan sonnet. The rhyme scheme is Shakespearean.
ReplyDelete