و عليكم السلآمـ و رحمة الله ~..
اتفضلي هالشرح و الصيغ البلآغيهـ لقصيدة A Brown Girl Dead by Countee Cullen
In the first stanza of "A Brown Girl Dead," alliteration and capitalization are used to emphasize the importance of certain words, ultimately allowing for a racial reading of the poem. The words "with" and "white" are stressed in the first line through alliteration, and "white" even more so by its repetition in the second line. Such emphasis creates a striking contrast with the word "brown" in the poem's title. Combined with "dark" (l. 3), stressed due to its capitalization, 'brown' is interpreted by the reader as referring to the color brown. Its use as an adjective to describe "girl" in the poem's title implies that the girl about whom Cullen writes is non-white, or "Black." Also important in the first stanza is Cullen's use of capitalization: "Dark Madonna of the grave she rests;/Lord Death has found her sweet" .Capitalization of "Lord Death," interpreted here as referring to the way in which many cultures have historically personified death, parallels the capitalization of "Dark Madonna," in the previous line, implying that "dark" is not capitalized simply because it is the first word in the line, but because it is important; thus "dark" becomes an important adjunct to "brown," emphasizing its reference to skin color.
The second stanza supports a racial reading of "A Brown Girl Dead," based on its use of repetition-in both word and the number of syllables per line-and punctuation. Poets often use dramatic changes in rhyme scheme between stanzas to emphasize a certain part of a poem (as we will see in "Death to the Poor"), but in "A Brown Girl Dead," the same A-B A-B rhyme scheme appears in each stanza. The difference between the two stanzas lies in the number of syllables per line; in the second, the "A" lines contain six syllables, whereas the "B" lines contain eight. In the first stanza, however, each of the four lines contains a different number of syllables: eight in the first, seven in the second, nine in the third and six in the fourth. This change in the arrangement of syllables per line between the first and second stanzas serves to call attention to the lines of the latter, due to the fact that the reader is moving suddenly from a less ordered structure to a more ordered, repetitive one.
Increased emphasis on the second stanza highlights the idea that adorning the "Brown Girl Dead" in white would make her "proud" if she was still alive. This is established as important by both the increased stress on the stanza, as previously discussed, as well as the fact that "Her mother pawned her wedding ring," (l. 5) an often valuable and important symbol of the love shared by two people, in order to "lay her [daughter] out in white" (l. 6).The image of a "brown girl" laid out in white evoked by these lines creates a connection between the universal racial dichotomy of "Black" and "White." Repetition of the word "white" in the second stanza, also emphasized by the semicolon directly following the word, which causes a reader to pause there, serves to illustrate that it is not simply the fact that the girl is being richly adorned with candles and roses that would make her "dance and sing" (l. 7), rather it is the fact that these things are "white."
While some of his work is racially charged, poems like "Death to the Poor" illustrate, through title, mechanics and diction, Cullen's professed desire to tackle greater themes without limiting them to the experiences of African Americans. Again certain words, phrases and ideas are stressed through the use of repetition, as well as alliteration and rhyme scheme. Rather than "white," repeatedly highlighted in the previous poem, important now is the word "death." "Death" is the first word to appear in the poem's title, and the only one not contained within the following prepositional phrase. As the only subject in the title, later repeated in the first, second, and sixth lines of the first stanza, "death" is clearly important to the poem's interpretation. As the first stanza continues, we see that death is not only the subject of the title, but the subject of the poem as well.
Repetition in the first stanza is augmented by frequent appearances of alliteration, as well as rhyme scheme. The alliteration in the first stanza, such as "ridged and rocky slope" (l. 4), as well as "hail, and hurt of human look" (l. 5), combined with the repetition of its rhyme scheme, an A-B, A-B pattern that continues C-D, C-D in the stanza's last four lines, establishes this section of the poem as rigidly structured. Of the stanza's eight lines, five contain examples of alliteration. The structure of this stanza is important in that it provides the reader a framework with which to examine the second. Repetition of the A-B, A-B rhyme scheme in the first stanza places greater emphasis on the second stanza due to the noticeable deviation of its rhyme scheme, which utilizes instead an A-B-C, A-B-C pattern. Due to the fact that the lines of both the first and second stanzas each contain ten syllables, the change in rhyme scheme is pronounced, as it breaks up the lyric flow created in the first part of the poem.
Also important is the lack of alliteration, highlighted by the frequency with which it appeared in the previous stanza, as well as the use of the word "death"-more specifically the phrase, "Death is..." (l. 12). The absence of alliteration serves to disrupt the poem's established flow, as does the abrupt change in rhyme scheme. Combined with the phrase "Death is," which occupies the same position in the second stanza, beginning the third line from the bottom, as in the first, a connection is forged between the subjects of the two sections, giving the poem a sense of continuity that allows the break in rhyme scheme and use of alliteration to function as a stressor for the second stanza without making the poem seem disjointed. These elements coalesce to create a fluid metaphor for the idea of "death" that lacks any specific reference to the African American experience.
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