Rodney

=Rodney's Analysis:= The poem //Mulberry Fields// by Lucille Clifton is a recollection or remembrance of the past. Clifton is known for writing poems celebrating the African American heritage, whether in history or stories from her own life. Clifton also has a very unique writing style in //Mulberry Fields//; the poem lacks meter, rhyme, and punctuation. This unusual poem is like a telegraph it may look like just dots and dashes but there is an underlying message.

The poem //Mulberry Fields// makes much reference to slavery and the past as though it were telling a story. The poem is a story but it is also much more. To say it were just a story would be a great offense towards this poem and poet seeing how much symbolism there is.

"they thought the field was wasting and so they gathered the marker rocks and stones and piled them into a barn…"

These few lines are filled with symbolism. Relating to how Clifton writes about African- American heritage, this is very symbolic. The use of marker rocks was a method of burial that was used in many parts of Africa and would have been handed down to the slaves. If we examine this same line again we will find another underlying message.

Referring to the line above, “they thought the field was wasting”, is a some what obvious statement about how they thought that the field was unproductive and infertile. It would make sense for a field to be infertile if it filled with marker rocks that block a sprout from growing. “and so they gathered the marker rocks and stones and piled them into a barn” this shows that they removed the rocks but not only did they remove the rocks in essence they removed the heritage of the slaves who had been there, and they hid it away in a barn.

"…they say the rocks went to build that wall there guarding the manor and some few were used for the state house…"

In this passage when Clifton writes the rocks she is not referring to the actual rocks but to the slaves. The slaves went to build the wall guarding the manor, and the slaves used (used a very good word to use in this context seeing how the slaves were not paid and did not have a choice) to build the state house.

After telling what they say or how they depict the story, Clifton goes on to talk about what she has to say.

"…i say the stones marked an old tongue and it was called eternity and pointed toward the river…"

She continues to meditate on history and the past in her reference to an old tongue. The stones were part of an old people because they had originated from their African ancestors. When she says it was called eternity she does not mean that eternity is the name of the old tongue but rather that these stones these signs of the past were to remain in place for eternity. Thus the quote "and pointed toward the river" comes into play. Rivers can have many different meanings in works of literature but in this poem the river symbolizes time, and to say that the old tongue was called eternity and pointed toward the river means as i have stated before that the stones were supposed to remain for eternity but not only for eternity but for the future, for the descendents of the slaves to be look back on their history, their story.

"...i say that after that collection no pillow in the big house dreamed..."

Clifton is staing that after the collection of the marker stones not one person in the big house (referring to the house slave master and his family lived in) slept. This may be because of a sense of guilt, a sensing of knowing that they had done something wrong in picking up the marker rocks which marked the graves of someone's mother, father, sister, brother, grandmother, or grandfather and placing them in a barn.

In conclusion, //Mulberry Fields// by Lucille Clifton is a very unique poem filled with symbolism and historic meaning.

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