Print
Word
PDF|
This section contains 192 words (approx. 1 page at 400 words per page) |
|
Ode to Dinah Summary
This poem, also set to music, gives a complex and largely figurative description of black American life.
Ode to Dinah Analysis
The titular Dinah is not Dinah Washington, as some have suggested, but the Dinah who represents an enslaved black woman in the song "I've Been Working on the Railroad." The poem compares the noble struggle for freedom of the Underground Railroad during the period of slavery in the United States to the enervated black movement of modern Harlem. Niagra Falls is on the border between the United States and Canada and was the point where slaves would escape to freedom. The rumble of the train is now forgotten and in modern Harlem there is no conductor and no train. Niagra Falls is frozen; escape is no longer possible, or even entertained as an option or necessity. Now, black...
(read more from the Ode to Dinah Summary)
|
This section contains 192 words (approx. 1 page at 400 words per page) |
|
