America By James Monroe Whitfield Essay

James Monroe Whitfield’s poem, “America,” spoke to me the most compared to the other poems in the selection. In the poem he asks many questions regarding the American Revolution, and the true reasons for America to become free. The line that stuck out to me the most was on lines 17 and 18, “Was it for this they shed their blood, On hill and plain, on field and flood?” Whitfield is trying to make the point in these lines that the American Revolution was fought for freedom for all men and women in America. Many men shed their blood for liberty and they were proud of the outcome. Whitfield is asking a rhetorical question about the true meaning behind reason for the blood shed. If the revolution was fought for freedom, Whitfield is asking about the slaves and the reason why their are not free. This quote stuck out to me so much because Whitfield is right in questioning why the slaves are not free if the American Revolution made people free.

The first stanza as a whole stood out to me, Dunbar wrote, “G’way an’ quit dat noise, Miss Lucy- Put dat music book away; What’s de use to keep on tryin’? Ef you practice twell you gray, You can’t sta’t no notes a flyin’ Lak de ones dat rants and rings F’om de kitchen to de big woods When Malindy sings.” (Dunbar 1-8). I believe Dunbar’s meaning behind this poem, and especially this poem, is the question, “why should blacks keep trying at anything if they can never be as good as the whites.” I think Dunbar means white Americans when he uses the phrase “When Malindy Sings” (Dunbar 8). The whites looks down upon blacks in everything they did, in the white’s eyes, blacks were not as good as them. This quote spoke to so much because the blacks could have just thought this way quit everything, but most of them did not, they persevered and are role models for many other people, including