For Ruth Behar

I’m still thinking about your porch light
like a full moon casting a foggy halo
in the frigid air last night, the bare oaks
branching into the sky like nerve endings
inches away from the frozen stars,
the pink gables of your Victorian home
protesting yet another winter for you
captive in Ann Arbor as you practice
mambo by the fireplace. I’m following
your red-velvet shoes to conga beats
and bongo taps taking your body, but
not your life, from the snow mantling
your windows outside, 1,600 miles
away from Cuba. I’m tasting the cafecito
you made, the slice of homemade flan
floating in burnt sugar like the stories
you told me you can’t finish writing,
no matter how many times you travel
through time back to Havana to steal
every memory ever stolen from you.

You’re a thief anyone would forgive,
wanting only to imagine faces for names
chiseled on the graves of your family
at Guanabacoa, walk on Calle Aguacate
and pretend to meet the grandfather
you never met at his lace shop for lunch,
or pray the Kaddish like your mother
at the synagogue in El Vedado, stand
on the steps there like you once did
in a photo you can’t remember taking.
I confess I pitied you, still trying to reach
that unreachable island within the island
you still call home. I thought I was done
with Cuba, tired of filling in the blanks,
but now I’m not sure. Maybe if I return
just once more, walk the sugarcane fields
my father once cut, drive down the road
where my mother once peddled guavas
to pay for textbooks, sit on the porch
of my grandmother’s house, imagine her
still in the kitchen making arroz-con-leche—
maybe then I’ll have an answer for you
last night when you asked me: Would you
move to Cuba? Would you die there?

The speaker of this poem is meant to be the author, Richard Blanco. Blanco is the son of Cuban-exile parents, writing this poem in the context of growing up as the son of immigrants. “The Island Within” covers themes that relate to nostalgia for one’s homeland, personal identity and the past, and exile. The theme and tone of nostalgia can be seen numerous times throughout the poem, with the speaker mentioning the things he remembers and is longing for, such as “I’m still thinking about your porch light” and “I’m tasting the cafecito you made.” This nostalgia for the island of Cuba helps the readers to understand that the speaker feels like he is missing a part of himself and his identity by being separated from his homeland and the people there. The consistent use of bringing up fond memories of the past further builds on the theme of personal identity and the past, making this time of happiness seem unreachable to both the speaker and the reader.

The poem opens with the line “For Ruth Behar.” The reader of the poem can assume that this is a friend of Blanco because he consistently fondly speaks to this person throughout the poem, bringing up the memories that they shared together. In the beginning of the poem, he describes a fond memory with this woman, describing the “Victorian home” and “mambo by the fireplace”, demonstrating their closeness. Blanco also describes the homesickness they both feel for Cuba when he says that they are “1,600 miles away from Cuba”, which builds on the theme of nostalgia and personal identity, as they both feel like they are missing something by being so far away from the island.

In the second stanza, Blanco employs a metaphor when he says that he pities his friend, “still trying to reach that unreachable island within the island you still call home.” The “unreachable island” that he is referring to is the family that she either has lost or cannot reach anymore. He describes the graves of her family members, the grandfather she never got to meet, the steps where she posed for a picture she can’t remember taking. All of these lost memories and experiences are compared to an island of the friend’s memories, all within the island that they love (Cuba). The full line I cited before is where the title comes from, “The Island Within.” The island that Blanco and Behar know and love weighs heavily on their minds as they miss it every day, longing for the people and the memories of Cuba. And these feelings that they are experiencing are their own islands, making the title even more complex. To dive even deeper into the title, the people themselves could be compared to islands because of the isolation that they feel regarding their memories and nostalgia for their past experiences. 

Blanco uses Spanish italicized words, like “cafecito” and “arroz-con-leche”, throughout the poem to exemplify the memories and experiences of his past. He knows that some of his readers will likely not understand the Spanish words that he is using, but he knows that the effect will be the same. The effect of using Spanish in this poem is to demonstrate how Blanco is still connected to and longing for his heritage, despite his physical separation from his homeland. His memories, experiences, and family members are extremely important to him and who he is today, and he wanted that to be represented in this poem.

The poem ends with the friend asking the speaker “Would you move to Cuba? Would you die there?” This is a powerful way to wrap up the poem because it is a demonstration of the inner turmoil the speaker is experiencing regarding his homeland. He feels so attached to Cuba and the memories he has from it, but is he willing to pack up and leave the entire life he has built for himself here? He says he wants to “return just one more time”, and I think that he answered his own question in this poem. He consistently shows how strongly he feels towards his island, and his heart seems to be there.

Helen, thy beauty is to me
Like those Nicéan barks of yore,
That gently, o’er a perfumed sea,
The weary, way-worn wanderer bore
To his own native shore.

On desperate seas long wont to roam,
Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face,
Thy Naiad airs have brought me home
To the glory that was Greece,
And the grandeur that was Rome.

Lo! in yon brilliant window-niche
How statue-like I see thee stand,
The agate lamp within thy hand!
Ah, Psyche, from the regions which
Are Holy-Land!

The main topic of ‘To Helen’ is the speaker’s deep admiration for ‘Helen’, viewing her as a figure that brings him peace in a world of loneliness and suffering. This, along with her otherworldly beauty, depicts the woman as a supernatural or divine being. Poe uses a plethora of allusions throughout the poem, most of which are from Greek mythology. In the very first line of the poem, the speaker calls the woman he is speaking to “Helen”, saying “Helen, thy beauty is to me.” This Helen he is speaking of is the renowned beauty, Helen of Troy. Helen is so famous for her beauty because she was the reason for the Trojan War, she was stolen by the Trojan prince Paris because of how beautiful she was, starting the Trojan War. By comparing the subject of this poem to Helen, it elevates both her and her beauty to a reverential level, suggesting that he would be willing to fight a war over her. At least five times throughout the poem, Poe references Greek and Roman civilizations and mythology, such as saying Helen has brought him “home to the glory that was Greece, and the grandeur that was Rome.” This specific example once again puts Helen in a broader context of cultural and aesthetic excellence. These allusions transfer Helen into the past, suggesting that her beauty transcends time. Poe also alludes to Greek figures like Odysseus and Psyche, and I won’t go fully into the analysis of these characters, but these allusions essentially characterize the speaker as lonely and worn out and “Helen” as absolutely breathtaking and an inspiring figure in the speaker’s life.
Another poetic technique Poe uses is alliteration in the first stanza of the letter “w” in the line “weary, way-worn wanderer.” I have two interpretations of the effects this alliteration has on the poem and the reader. First, the repetition of the “w” sound creates soft, lulling sounds lending itself to the melodic quality of the poem and demonstrating how entranced the speaker is by ‘Helen’s’ beauty. Second, the “w” sound also demonstrates the exhausted, worn-out feelings the “wanderer”, or the speaker was experiencing. The contrast between the tired, dragged-down feelings to the clearly positive, glowing description of Helen only makes her seem that much more beautiful. It makes it even clearer how much the speaker idealizes and admires Helen.
The poem experiences a shift between the first and second stanzas, shifting from a more personal connection to Helen to an idealized and symbolic portrayal of her. A shift from Helen as personal and earthly to universal and divine. In the first stanza, the speaker uses connotative words and descriptions, such as comparing Helen’s beauty to the “Nicean barks of yore”, which creates an emotional and intimate tone. This relation of the ships coming home to their native shores suggests the peace the speaker feels when with Helen, which is more personal. However, once we get to the second stanza, the speaker shifts from describing her more personally to instead becoming more reverent and idealizing Helen and her beauty. He compares her to statues, beacons of light, and even goddesses (like Psyche), emphasizing her timeless beauty. He also moves on to describe her physical qualities, saying “Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face”, describing how she embodies a classical grace, almost like a muse. This is much less personal than the first stanza, making Helen and her beauty more symbolic. This shift highlights the two roles that Helen plays in this poem: as both a personal muse or inspiration to the speaker, and as a universal symbol for beauty and idealization. This progression through the poem deepens its impact, causing the readers to feel a sense of awe for Helen and the beauty that she represents.
Another really interesting factor of the poem is its rhyme and meter. Both the meter and the rhyme of this poem are inconsistent. The meter is not always an iambic tetrameter, sometimes having 9, 7, or even 3 feet instead of the 8 an iambic tetrameter has. This can be seen in line 6, “on desperate seas long wont to roam”, which has 9 feet. Similarly, the rhyme scheme of each stanza is different. I have a couple of different theories as to why Poe used such inconsistencies in his poem. First, the wandering rhythm of this poem may enrapture the audience in the same way the speaker is by Helen. By crossing the usual, expected boundaries of how a poem should usually be formatted, it may also represent the boundary-crossing admiration that the speaker has for Helen, suggesting that it is not of this world, but instead is of myths and legends like the Greek mythology used in the poem. Second, the inconsistencies in the poem’s structure may represent the new qualities the speaker sees every time he looks at Helen. At first glance, the reader of this poem may not notice the differing rhyme scheme and meter throughout it, but once they look deeper, they notice something new each time. This may be the way that the speaker feels about Helen, he already thinks Helen is beautiful, and every time he looks at her again, he notices something new about her, deepening her admiration.
Overall, this poem is truly a celebration of Helen’s beauty and the speaker’s love and admiration for it, and it is clearly portrayed in Poe’s use of many poetic techniques.

What I’d rather not see isn’t here: no rope,
no black body under a white moon swaying
limp from a tree, no bloodied drops of dew
on the twenty-first of March 1981. That’s
in another photo, like a dozen other photos
I’ve gaped at wanting—not wanting—to turn
away from the snapped necks of the hanged,
and the mob’s smug smirks, asking myself
How could they? Why? Questions not here,
not in this photo—a crisp and tranquil snapshot—
murder washed out by time, history
left uncaptured. What’s left now is easier
on our eyes: only pale morning light seeping
blue into the sky—a backdrop to the necks
of tree boughs bowing like swans, innocent
of any crime on Herndon Avenue, pictured like
any other street: clean sidewalks (no blood),
utility poles strung with wires (no rope), a few
pavement cracks (no broken-boned body).

Easier to imagine only this: groomed children
waiting for the school bus grinding to a halt
that March morning, the twenty-first, 1981.
Their backpacks zipped with undoubtable
history and equations, cartoon lunchboxes
filled with fresh ham sandwiches and sweet
grapes. Sport-coat fathers dashing to work,
worried about paychecks and the greenness
of their lawns. All-day mothers left tending
silk pillows never fluffed enough, scrubbing
sinks never white enough, wiping windows
never spotless enough. Easier not to ask if
anyone saw him, if anyone knew the boy
whose mama had named Michael—Michael
Donald. Easier to think no one was friendly
with Mr. Hays and Mr. “Tiger” Knowles who,
on the night of March twenty-first 1981,
drove around looking for something black
to kill at random. They spotted him, age 19,
walking home (the body), strangled him first,
then slit his throat (the blood), chose a tree
to hang him (the rope) on Herndon Avenue.

Why? Which tree was it that shook with
his last breath? Easier not to look for it, not
find it, not make ourselves imagine Michael
still hanging on Herndon Avenue, his death
still alive since March twenty-first, 1981.
Easier not to look at his shut eyes, wonder
what his favorite color or superhero was, if
he liked to skateboard or draw, if he heard
his mama’s cries: My boy—Jesus, my boy!
Easier to believe the last words on the lips
of his murderers must’ve been: Forgive us,
to trust this kind of thing doesn’t happen
anymore, stay blind (no rope, no blood,
no body) to the life of a boy named Michael
invisible in this photo, that is, until we dare
to look hard and deep and long enough.

In this poem, Blanco illustrates his shock and displeasure with how the street and people’s lives seemed to simply go back to normal after the tragic event of the lynching of Michael Donald. He describes how it is easier to pretend that there was no murder, to just go on with life as normal because that makes it easier for people to cope with it. Blanco also uses this poem to demonstrate the hidden racism in America of how events that are either extremely severe like this or smaller things like microaggressions tend to be swept under the rug and ignored despite having major effects on countless American individuals.

Blanco opens the poem with describing the aspects of the lynching: the body, the rope, the blood. Then, throughout the rest of the poem, Blanco repeats these aspects when they are either present or not. In the sections of the poem he mentions the lack of the body, blood, and rope, it causes the reader to feel disappointed and sorrowful because of how this demonstrates that this street/town have moved on from the lynching as if nothing happened. He described it as “pictured like any other street”, despite it being shadowed by such a grave crime. Additionally, by repeating “the body, the rope, the blood” throughout the poem, he continuously reminds the reader what horrible topic this poem is about. The poem itself is about how it is easier for people to forget and move on, but he doesn’t want the reader to do that. He wants Michael Donald to be remembered and ensure that people don’t passively think of his death; he was brutally murdered with a rope, and all that was left was his dead body and blood on the ground.

In the last stanza of the poem (and throughout), Blanco repeats the phrase “Easier not to…” or “Easier to…”. This repetition shows how it’s easier for people to simply move on with their lives than think about the gruesome murder that occurred on this street. Each “Easier to…” is followed by something that is upsetting for the audience, such as it being easier to not imagine his body still hanging there or it being easier not to wonder about what color he liked. Mentioning these personal aspects of Michael’s life automatically makes this murder seem more real to them, how Michael was just a boy when he was lynched by members of his community.

Throughout the poem, Blanco describes the ways that people have moved on from this crime and almost pretended it hasn’t happened to cope with it and ignore the racism that is so prevelant in this country. He says that people don’t look for it, think of only the normal occurences of that day, and “stay blind” to the life of Michael. By specifically describing these instances, it makes it more apparent to the reader just how much people in this country ignore racism, whether or not it is intentional. It may not be intentional when people choose not to look for Michael’s lynching and pretend he never lived, but it still has horrible effects on countless communities. In this town, the message is that Michael didn’t matter and this crime didn’t matter and you have no safety if you’re black in a racist, white town. In this country, the message is that people don’t care, that crimes like these could happen and they will still be swept under the rug and ignored so people can keep their peace of mind. This is extremely harmful and will only lead to more and more issues as this country’s problems are ignored in favor of being blissfully ignorant.

———————————————————————————————————

In this poem, Blanco is making his opinions clear on the Republican party’s (Trump’s) message of “making America great again.” He essentially defines what the message is to people of minority groups when they hear this statement: that they are not a part of America’s narrative. I think that the way Blanco does this is extremely smart, he pretends to agree with their plan and describes what it would mean for multiple different groups of people. He describes the effects it would have on women, ethnic and racial minorities, non-traditional men, and queer people. One part of the poem that I feel does this very well is, “Let’s write-out women like my mother, who fled Cuba broken as her broken English, who cooked dinner in her uniform after twelve-hour shifts at the supermarket, set the table with plastic cups she could rinse out and reuse.” This felt particularly effective because it displayed the personal affects that this plan would have on Blanco and his family, his mother would be further discriminated against. He describes the hard work that his mother puts in to support his family, making the reader feel more negatively towards the message of “making America great again” when they realize how many people would be excluded.

I think that the title is also an extremely creative way of demonstrating to the reader how big of an impact these actions would have on so many people. In the original phrase of “make America great again”, it doesn’t necessarily say what they will be doing to go about this goal. However, in his title, Blanco says “let’s remake America great.” By using the word “remake”, Blanco shows what this group of people plans on doing: altering and cutting out groups of people to fit how they want the country to look. I thought the way that the poem was divided was helpful for the reader to understand each section and see just how each group of people is being affected by this right-wing group. Each section of the poem describes how a group of people (women, men, minorities, queer people) would be changed, represented, or cut out of society so that the country can be “great again.” This makes each section equally impactful on the reader and makes them feel negative emotions regarding each new section they read and understand the variety of people that would be affected. Another way he uses structure is through the repetition of the word “again” throughout each section. This reference to the slogan of “making America great again” consistently reminds the reader just what he is talking about, who is trying to make this change, and how many people would be affected.

One line that made me feel more emotional than the rest was, “Never enough time to be the father, man he wanted to be, again.” Usually when people think about who is being discriminated against by this right-wing group, they think of women, racial minorities, and queer people. But in this section, Blanco details how average men would also be affected and hurt by this rhetoric, including his own father. In describing the relationship he never got to have with his father because he always had to work to support his family, it made me feel extremely sympathetic towards and him and the countless other children that have to deal with the same thing. The consistent vivid imagery in each section also helped paint a picture for the reader of what changes would happen. For example, when noting how women would be affected, he vividly describes what they would be cooking, wearing, and how they would be treated. Blanco did this in every section so there would be no doubt in the reader’s mind that there would be a large change in America if this is how it is going to be “remade.”

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