Marian Dane Bauer: A White American’s Lament. (From: 911 The Book of Help, 2002)
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We crossed the ocean seeking opportunity,
Seeking freedom,
seeking peace.
Surely it wasn’t our fault
that we found our opportunity occupied
by those we named Indians,
though they has never seen India,
redskins,
though their skins were not red,
savages,
though it was we who taught them
the subtle art of scalping
What could we do but fill
their empty bellies with promises?
And when men and women,
Children, too,
innocent
were we not innocent?
fell before their swift retribution,
we were afraid.
So we put a bounty on savage red Indian scalps –
the Christian ones were the easiest to obtain;
they had learned to trust us –
and then spent the next centuries slaughtering
and confining
and oppressing
and civilizing.
How many more centuries must we spend
trying to understand
trying to atone?
We were afraid,
and remember
we crossed the ocean seeking peace.
We do not believe in hate
But when those black hands tending our crops
and our babies
were set free, at last,
we were afraid.
Might they not
attack our daughters, our sisters, our mothers
in their chaste beds?
And so we hooded our faces
behind more white
and left our mark
KKK
on their bodies,
on their souls.
Remember though,
We were afraid.
And we do not believe in hate.
We welcome all to our shores.
This melting pot.
This new, better way.
But when they dropped the bombs on Pearl Harbor
we were afraid.
And so we gathered all who looked like them
who spoke like them
behind barbed wire,
because we knew they would bomb us next.
We must protect our children.
We will deal with the regrets later,
and perhaps even one day
we will, once more
when we are not afraid
welcome all to our shores.
A plane crashes into a tower.
Two planes.
Two towers.
Another into the heart
of our ability to make war.
We are afraid.
We are afraid.
What will they do next?
What will we do?
A plane crashes into a tower.
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Vocab:
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Lament: sørgesang
Occupied: besat
Subtle: fin
Swift: rask
Retribution: gengældelse
Bounty: præmie
Savage: vild
Slaughter: slagte
Confine: holde fangen
Oppress: undertrykke
Atone: udsone
Tend: passé
Chaste: kysk
Hood: trække en hætte over
Meling pot: smeltedigel
Barbed wire: pigtråd
Regret: anger
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Questions for A White American’s Lament.
· What is the poem about?
· Do you know the historic facts, which the poem refers to? How much do you know about these events? Try to find out more about them.
· The first line: We crossed the ocean seeking opportunity, seeking freedom, seeking peace: what does it refer too? And why do you think is it repeated?
· What does the expression “melting pot” mean?
· What place does the expression our ability to make war refer too?
· Why is the sentence we are afraid repeated to many times?
· Comment on the title A White American’s Lament.
· How do you think the speaker of the poem feels? (Who speaks?).
· Do you understand that Americans can be afraid?
· Are we also a nation of fear?
· Are you afraid of what will happen next? (Look at the last lines of the poem).
Question: What are you afraid of? In groups of three: each person has to answer the question and gets 2 minutes to do this. The rest of the group just listens. Afterwards you can discuss it.
Write your own poem about fear.
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