Blog for Week of March 31st

 For this week, I enjoyed studying the poems on the Cuban Revolution. Yes, one of the benefits of studying poetry is that it's short, but it almost always has a significant meaning. I found our discussion of Guillen's poem "I Have" to be interesting. One point that stood out to me and was basically what I said in my discussion question was that Cuba has changed and is living in the present in the setting of the poem. The phrases "I have" and "I can" are present tense phrases that show what Guillen has gained at has at that moment. Everything that has happened with the Cuban Revolution has led to the peace that Guillen feels.  Cuba has changed in Guillen's eyes for the better. In a way, Guillen feels that he and the rest of Cuba deserve the positive changes that have happened to the nation. This is especially reciprocated in the last line where Guillen says, "I have what was coming to me." I know that we mostly talked about the poem focusing on the present, but I wonder if it implies anything about the future. Guillen doesn't explicitly state anything about the future; however, the present always has an impact on the coming time. I would be curious to hear what Guillen had hoped for in the future as he wrote this poem. More likely than not, he would have been happy to maintain life in Cuba the way that it currently was because things had already progressed for the better.

Comments

  1. Linnea FrantzApril 1, 2022 at 6:54 PM

    Hi there, Ben! I also agree that poetry is extremely beneficial to study. Like you said, while poetry is short, I think this can help to convey a particular message even more, as it is not as full of dates and facts. Therefore, poetry is able to convey how individuals felt and the emotion of the time, which is hard to convey in hard facts.

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  2. Jackson HicksApril 4, 2022 at 9:26 AM

    Hi Ben! Thank you for your post. I like your interpretation of the poem, and your idea of the coming time. Now that I have read your post, I cannot help but wonder myself what Guillen's idea of the future coming was, and what else he could learn to do.

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  3. Professor StarkApril 6, 2022 at 12:29 PM

    Thank you, Ben, for the blog. I am glad you enjoyed reading Guillen's I Have. You are right that he writes about current conditions - what the revolution has accomplished. Racism was a problem in the past and no longer is. Guillen is satisfied and what he writes reflects the govt's position that revolutions goal to establish racial equality had been met.

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