Poety Blog One

Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall” and Jan Jacobs’ “Death and Life of Great American Cities” both have central themes that building walls physically, can build walls emotionally and culturally. Similarly, Yusef Komunyakaa’s “Slam, Dunk, & Hook” and Judith Ortiz Cofer’s “The Game” both have themes of how a lack of, or presence of emotional boundaries can affect lives and relationships.

Both “Mending Wall” and select passages from “Death and Life of Great American Cities” discuss how walls create negative barriers. In Frost’s “Mending Wall”, he begins with the line “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall”. By choosing to start with the word “Something” the reader is forced to immediately ask themselves what “Something” is. Had he chosen to order the sentence “There is something that doesn’t love a wall” you are given a statement rather than a question. Frost’s poem asks you to question why walls create barriers between emotional connection and people. In the poem, the narrator and his neighbor have to consistently re-build the wall that divides their property. While the neighbor insists that “Good fences make good neighbors” the narrator finds himself questioning where walls came from to begin with. “Why do they make good neighbors? Isn’t it/ Where there are cows? But here there are no cows./Before I built a wall I’d ask to know/ What I as walling in or walling out./And to whom I was like to give offense.” (lines 29-33). In this passage, the narrator questions the original practical purpose for the wall, and how it has evolved to be a social barrier as opposed to a necessity. While the neighbor feels a great need for the wall, The narrator does not understand why it is necessary. This point is also touched upon in Jan Jacobs’ “Death and Life of Great American Cities”. In Chapter 14 “The Curse of Border Vacuums” Jacobs discusses how borders can help to worsen an already bad area. “They form borders, and borders in cities usually make destructive neighbors….a border exerts an active influence…Besides tending to produce these vacuums in the nearby general land (and hence abnormally poor places for diversity or social vitality to grow), borders divide up cities into pieces.” This is similar to the narrator’s in “Mending Wall” question as to whether or not fences make good neighbors. While borders or fences can help to allow personal space and form a sense of ownership and community, what these two authors are trying to depict is that they can also divide and hinder developing relationships

In Yusef Komunyakaa’s “Slam, Dunk, & Hook” and Judith Ortiz Cofer’s “The Game” the effects of emotional boundaries are discussed. In “Slam, Dunk, & Hook” the reader is told a story of a basketball team. The player uses short, concise sentences to create an excited upbeat tone and rhythm, Up until line 24, the story is of glory. He describes the team as “storybook sea monsters” (line 10) and uses diction such as “metaphysical” (line 19). The momentum of the poem builds as the narrator tells of moving and dunking. At lines 24-26 however, the content, rhythm, and tone of the poem change. Up until this point, all lines were short, action filled phrases, that started and ended quickly. Lines 24-26 cause the reader to slow down and read a whole sentence. “When Sonny Boy’s mamma died/ He played nonstop all day,/ so hard our backboard splintered.” The poem goes on to show how the whole team feel the boys pain, and come together to become stronger. “We had moves we didn’t know/We had. Our bodies spun/ On swivels of bone & faith,/ Through a lyric slipknot/ Of joy & we knew we were/ Beautiful & dangerous.” (lines 35-40). In these lines, the diction of the words faith, and bone, tell the reader that the narrator is discussing the issue of dealing with death. In the poem there are no verbal boundaries. With the exception of lines 24-26, emotions and acts are described as “our” not “my”. There is a sense of community and a lack of emotional boundaries. In Judith Ortiz Cofer’s “The Game” similarly to “Slam, Dunk, &Hook” there is an issue of emotional and societal boundaries. The poem is about a young girl, who has a deformity in her spine. The first stanza is from an outsiders or societal view. This narrative has an unforgiving and raw tone “an unsmiling woman with other children/ whose spines were not twisted/ into the symbol of a family’s shame.” (lines 3-5) The next narrative is that of the brother of the young girl. His tone and diction are much more forgiving. “But when she stood at our door,/ waiting for me to go out and play,/ Mother fell silent, awed, perhaps,/ by the sight/ of one of her God’s small mysteries.” By calling his sister one of God’s small mysteries, it allows her to be seen as a gift, rather than a burden. This poem shows how there are not only physical borders on maps, or in yards, but that a disability can create emotional boundaries as well. There is in a way a fence between the mother and her daughter because of her child’s disability. The son however, is able to look beyond these boundaries while playing “family” with his sister. In their imaginations they are able to erase all boundaries and live a happy normal life.

Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall”, Jan Jacobs’ “Death and Life of Great American Cities”, Yusef Komunyakaa’s “Slam, Dunk, & Hook” and Judith Ortiz Cofer’s “The Game” all discuss different types and effects of boundaries. The issue of boundaries is extremely important when looking at Baltimore. While Baltimore is united in its rich and unique culture, it is also divided by its socioeconomic challenges. For a perfect example you can look at the division and contrast between Loyola College and York Road. The borders between Charles Street and Coldspring Lane (Where Loyola is located) and York Road, are very distinct and clear. These borders do not unite the two communities, but divide them. If these social and economic borders did not exist, a Loyola student would have a much greater chance of connecting and understanding a person living or working on York Road.