Cultural Context

Cultural context

Analysis of the poem ‘When In Rome’

 

This poem was first published in 1970, the author, Mary Evans (born in Toledo, Ohio) is an African-American poet with a tendency to write black poems. She was a membership of the African Heritage Studies Association and wrote some books of poetry, plays and poems, and the poem in question here is taught in many high schools and college English classes. “When in Rome” is a dialogue poem between a possible black servant. The objective here is to analyze this text, observing the idea o the cultural context present in it. To begin With, from different stanzas one can perceive easily the presence of some variety of foods which is show on some lines: “an egg or soup”, “there is sardine”, “there is endive there”. Nevertheless, all these sort of foods seems to be unfamiliar to Mattie, this unfamiliarity becomes more clear on lines twelve and thirteen of the poem: “Whew! If I had some black-eyed peas…”. So this call the attention to the fact that Mattie can be a African-American servant, due to some factors which are included in the culture. Later, the poem confirms this fact, considering the passage in the text which shows a linguistic variety besides certain kinds of foods that are not part of Mattie’s culture. Analyzing the structure of the poem, the culture is divided by left and right side within the dialogues, the first column show off formal English, while the second brings a more informal use of the language. The linguistic varieties in the poem that cross social, economic and cultural divergences turn more easy the extraction of a idea of disagreement between the two cultures. Altogether, it becomes clear that the cultural context in the poem contribute in a substantial way to reveal the/a meaning of the text, showing some evidences to the readers which facilitates them to understand the poem better.

 

 

Students:

Flávio Soares Bezerra

Linderval Alves

Maria Betânia Bento Silva

Quézia Raíssa

Rogério de Jesus Santana