Kamau Brathwaite's 'Hex' - Essay Example

?Kamau Brathwaite's 'Hex' Background Edward Kamau Brathwaite is regarded as one of the seminal within Caribbean literature. Among other prizes, Brathwaite prominently was awarded the prestigious Griffin Poetry Prize for his volume of poetry ‘Born to Slow Horses.’ Today Branthwaite is a professor of Comparative Literature at New York University. Brathwaite was born in the town of Bridgetown, Barbados in 1930. He attended Harrison College in Bridgetown and won a scholarship to attend Cambridge University. After completing his education Brathwaite began a career as an Education Officer on the Gold Coast/Ghana with the Ministry of Education. This was a seminal time in Brathwaite’s life as it marked a significant period in his literary production. After this period he would continue his writing and move through a number of educational and academic careers. From 1997-2000 Brathwaite spent three years away from academia in his Barbados home writing. It was during this period that he wrote his poetry volume Ancestors: a reinvention of Mother poem, Sun poem, and X/self. This collection explores a number of universal themes of human existence, as well as native themes of Brathwaite’s Barbados. This essay presents a close reading of Hex, a poem from this collection. Analysis Kamau Barthwaite’s poem ‘Hex’ explores a variety of themes in a unique and powerful way. The poem itself is divided into a four-stanza structure, with three lines in each stanza. The first line of the first stanza reads, “But the children know nothing of this in their prisons x-“ (Barthwaite, pg. 80, line 1). In these regards, Barthwaite is beginning the poem in a cryptic way, not openly indicating the subjet matter of his statement. This has the effect of immediately drawing the viewer into interrogating poem’s contents. In examining this line, perhaps the most obvious connotation is that the children’s ‘prisons’ symbolically represents the education they are receiving. The negative articulation of mainstream education practices is a prominent theme in Brathwaite’s work, as he believes such mechanisms reduce the cultural significance of the individual’s homeland. This is a prominent issue for Brathwaite as his homeland of Barbados faces external colonial and imperial influences. The next line of the poem simply states, “cept how to praise” (line 2). Here Brathwaite implements a novel form of language in splitting the x from the previous line to the next line. While it’s not clear if this contains meaningful significance, it places the poem on an experimental scale and contributes to the work’s thematic concern with cultural resistance. The final line of the stanza continues this structural experimentation; it states, “god. Honour the king. & betray their own country” (line 3). This line is significant in that it openly states the poem’s overriding theme, namely the concern with the cultural ‘brainwashing’ of individuals through mainstream education. It also functions as a possible criticism of religion in the grouping of god into these elements. The poem’s second stanza continues the structural and thematic structure of the first stanza. This stanza reads, “they will grow up to be good teachers/ soft spreading doctors lawyers political liars/ builders of lyrical bricks along the sandy shores of Atlantis” (line 4-6). This is a powerful stanza in its continuation of Brathwaite’s thematic concern with cultural imperialism. The power of this stanza is derived from Brathwaite’s almost ironic use of the profession of teachers and doctors and lawyers. While traditionally these are believed to be honorable professions, within the context of cultural imperialism they take on sinister connotations. In these regards, Brathwaite is indicating that through the mainstream education and acculturation students receive they gain the skills to act in these esteemed professions, yet sinisterly use their position in these professions to advance the culturally slanted view on the world they have been conditioned to accept. The poem’s third stanza continues with the structure that has already been established, yet expands to a more abstract thematic concern. This stanza continues, “other men will come bringing flowers shadows slaughters/ other men will revive the strangled loves of their daughters/ for the mind is dry. Where there are no rivers” (line 7). While this is the most cryptic portion of the poem, it is arguably the most poetic. In terms of content, it seems that Brathwaite is not simply indicating a direct meaning, but is poetically attempting to achieve an impressionistic or slightly transcendental description of acculturation or change. In these regards, one notes Brathwaite’s earlier reference to Atlantis and his later discussion of the mind as dry without rivers. It seems that Brathwaite is metaphorically alluding to the nature of culture and existence as a river that flows through one’s mind. The poem’s final stanza is the most personal and intimate. In this stanza the speaker states, “the sky of hope shone high w/barren metal/ where there are no watercourses/ I struggle through the silver thorn but cannot find the pool” (1-12). While it may be impossible to precisely determine the speaker’s meaning in this stanza, one notes the continued use of water imagery in ‘watercourses’ and ‘pool’. In some sense it seems that the speaker is bemoaning the loss of his culture. This stanza projects the image of an individual in distress, searching for a lost culture or area of knowledge that no longer exists. Even as the meaning remains mysterious, one can not neglect the almost lyrical poetic language Brathwaite implements in his articulations within this final stanza. Conclusion In conclusion, this essay has presented a close reading of Kamau Brathwaite’s poem ‘Hex’. The essay has considered both the poem’s structural and thematic elements. In these regards, it has demonstrated that the poem adheres to a four-stanza structure, with three lines per stanza, and no rhyme scheme. In terms of thematic content, the poem explores the overriding theme of the sinister nature of cultural imperialism. In addition to this concern, the poem explores more personal concerns of the speaker, in an abstract yet highly poetic presentation. References Brathwaite, Kamau. Ancestors: a reinvention of Mother poem, Sun poem, and X/self . New York: New Directions Publishing, 2001. Print. Read More