Full title "Carver: a Life in Poems," poems are written by Marilyn Nelson. Researching concepts, the title is misleading. A person might think poems were written about during Carver's lifetime. Published in 2001 many poems were published in various magazines and journals in 1999 and 2000. Writing is excellent, reflecting higher standards of Contemporary Free-verse. It is contemplative. The choice of Carver's life as a backdrop for Nelson's ideas is inappropriate.
George Washington Carver is a historical figure. He lived a long life and contributed an insurmountable amount to society. He invented plastic and synthetic rubber. He received grants for the University of Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute for Negroes. This is after gaining a Master Degree of Bacterial Botany and becoming facility at the Iowa State University. Carver is the first Afro-American to receive the honor of a National Monument. It is in Diamond Grove, Missouri.
Marilyn Nelson was a Poet Laureate of the State of Connecticut until 2006. She was born in Cleveland, Ohio and gained a PhD. from the University of Minnesota. As winner of the National Book Award in 1997, her writing style is excellent. Every word shows purpose and intent while flowing in a semi-rhythmical fashion. The choice of Carver as a primary symbol is conceptually interesting. Clearly she studied his life, events and associates. I wonder if she chose Carver to project a contradictory message to an overall statement.
George Washington Carver is a great man. Nelson places one hundred years of suffrage onto Carver's shoulders, while in real life he was most likely as pompous as his contemporaries. While he was a adopted by a white couple after the Emancipation he received every benefit of etiquette and education. I imagine him avoiding listening to the poor and desolate when speaking of his many blessings. Any racism might relate to a faint sense of peer smugness and dinners with reoccurring conversations about brutish racism throughout the rest of the United States of America.
A mixture of elevating his character and blending suffrage into poems might imply many things we say about ourselves or others in an attempt to fit everyone into a mold is degrading to everyone. I will at least entertain this idea, since this is the understanding "Carver: a Life in Poems" produces. This is Carver's life inspires everyone today.
Historically the book is blissful. It mentions oddities about Carver's life. It is a summary of Afro-American Suffrage Movement in the United States. The book itself is an adornment of the movement. Most people will enjoy Nelson’s poetry. It is somewhat hostile, yet you do not have to be any particular race to enjoy these passages.
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