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Literature Annotations

Wright, James The Minneapolis Poem

	On-Line Text
Genre	Poem
Keywords	Abandonment, African-American Experience, Human Worth, Loneliness, Native-American Experience, Poverty, Suffering
Summary	A seven-part poem reflecting facets of indigence, homelessness, and helplessness. "How many old men last winter / Hungry and frightened by namelessness prowled / The Mississippi shore . . . ? " This poem enters into the lives of the nameless persons who live in the same place, but not the same world as the "Walker Art Center crowd." The speaker cries out that he "could not bear / To allow my poor brother my body to die . . . . " Even here, in the midst of his desperation, the speaker finds a glimmer of possibility: "I want to be lifted up / By some great white bird . . . . "
Commentary	This is an exceptionally moving poem about poverty and homelessness. It is a good companion piece to Wright's, In Terror of Hospital Bills (see this database) which originally appeared in the same collection. Much of the work in Shall We Gather at the River deals with the experience of being down-and-out and alone at mid-century in middle America. This poem is an affirmation of individuality and integrity despite the brutal facts of existence.
Source	Shall We Gather at the River
Publisher	Wesleyan Univ. Press
Edition	1968
Place Published	Middletown, Conn.
Alternate Source	Articulations: The Body and Illness in Poetry
Alternate Publisher	Univ. of Iowa Press
Alternate Editors	Jon Mukand
Place Published	Iowa City, Iowa
Annotated by	Coulehan, Jack
Date of Entry	11/08/95
Last Revised	01/10/07