WITHOUT TITLE

-Harshidha Hareesh
Diane GlancyDiane Glancy (1941-)was born in Missouri. She is an accomplished poet , playwright , essayist and fiction writer who has published over thirty books and received numerous awards and fellowships. She later redefined her identity as a Cherokee Native American.
From 1980-1986 Glancy was Artist -in – Residence for the state Arts council of Oklahoma. Some of her major collections of poetry are One Age in a Dream(1986) , The Shadow’s Horse (2003), Report to the Department of Interior (2015)and Primer of the Obsolete(2015).
The most important point about her is that she coined the term “She-donism”. She strongly believes in the power of women and refer as to herself as s feminist.
About the poem
The poem is about ” a Native American who feels trapped in a different time from his ancestors , which brings about a sense of cultural loneliness. Experiencing a loss of culture can lead to identity issues, conflict and adjustment difficulties is main theme of the poem. Culture is vital in shaping identities and to be dispossessed of it , creates a deep sense of less . In the starting of the poem the poetess notes that “- for my father who lived without a ceremony “this means, that is all about her father.
Summary
Line1-2: The buffalo,the Shaman and the arrow represent the traditions of the father’s culture.
Line3-6: Means that father went for work to provide for his family.
Line7-8: Marked meanes celebrated with a ritual for his first kill and no one sang his buffalo song . Buffalo song means a ceremony performed when a boy kills his first buffalo.
Line9-10: To emphasize the lack of spiritual meaning in life . He migrated to the city and went to work in packing house.
Line11-13: In these lines we can see that the poetess’ mother does not appreciate his father’s feelings.
Line14-17: In these lines, poetess creates a tone of sadness, because the father’s life is so far removed from his values . The lines create a vivid sensory image . “I remember the animal tracks of his car /backing out the drive in snow and mud”.
Line18-19: Here ,the buffalo represents the father’s heritage that is buried, beneath the surface of his modern life, thats why poetess’father says that he remembers the silence of lost power.
Line20-22: Poetess says that her father couldn’t see it but he knew it was there , and in the night heard , he hears the buffalo grunts like snore.
By Harshidha Hareesh