A hunch and Richard III

A quick disclaimer: I am writing the first part of this on a hunch. This would not make a good thesis (or even a thesis at all), because, though I tried to find more information on the author so that I could possibly have a chance of proving this hunch, thesis style, I have been unsuccessful.

Perhaps it was because of the first stanza, which suggested that others might believe that the only reason the author had managed to publish this poem was because she played “the multiculture card” and that she “[slid] into print with poetry that’s worse,” but through the course of the poem, I had a feeling that this poem wasn’t as good as other poems we’ve read. When I say that, I don’t mean that it was any less meaningful or worthy, but all the other poems we’ve read have had a sort of professional feel, if you will. That is, without telling me who the author was, I would guess, upon first reading them, that these poems were written by experienced writers. This poem, on the other hand, had less of that feel. I almost found myself thinking that I could write a more professional poem than this.

My hunch is that the author tried to make her poetic voice sound as inexperienced as possible, perhaps to add irony at this poem being an example of the truth in the words of those she criticizes, or perhaps to show that poems can still be worthwhile and meaningful even if they aren’t generally accepted as “good” and taught in English classes across the country.




Now, there was a line that caught my attention in the second stanza, namely “Now is the summer of minority malcontent.” It caught my attention because it seemed so familiar, like I’d heard it somewhere before, and the fact that it was italicized seemed to indicate that it was pulled from somewhere else. However, I could not place it until I called my parents and my dad identified it as a derivative of the first line in Shakespeare’s play, The Life and Death of King Richard III, which reads “Now is the winter of my discontent,” and is the beginning of a long soliloquy. Though I’ve never read the play and what little I know of it is all courtesy of Wikipedia, the soliloquy seems to have an interesting connection to the poem, or, more specifically, to the views of those the poem criticizes.

According to Wikipedia, the soliloquy is spoken by the ugly younger brother, Richard, of the new king of England, Edward. In the soliloquy, Richard mentions his ugly features, describing himself as “curtail'd of this fair proportion, Cheated of feature by dissembling nature, Deform'd, unfinish'd, sent before my time” and even mentions that “dogs bark at me, as I halt by them.” Yet, he is somehow able to court Lady Anne, a widow, and convince her to marry him.

This, if you look at it the right way, could be talking about a minority writer (who some would consider deformed by virtue of skin color or different customs) getting bad work published through guile (convincing “Lady Anne” to marry him even though he’s ugly).