A White Americans Lament

Rebekka Nielsen 2.Y USA TODAY - A White American’s Lament 12/10-2018

A White American’s Lament - Analysis

The poem ?“A White Amerian’s Lament”? was written by Marion Dane Bauer in 2002. The poem is

about all the “hardness” America as a country has gone through. From the possessing of America, to starting the KKK, to the captivity of Japanese Americans; the narrator is trying to justify the terrible

actions throughout USA’s history. The poems intention is to raise awareness of the racist actions the white Americans has conducted towards foreign people throughout all of America’s history. The poem is an epic poem. Epic poems are normally longer than lyrical poems, and can also involve elements of history and can spread across several periods of time. The poems time span is from the fifteen hundreds to nowadays. The narrator of the poem is America speaking as a country: ?“We crossed the ocean seeking opportunity”? (l.1). The pronoun “we” covers the ancestors of the people

who are now considered Americans. Since the poem narrates a wide time span, spread over hundreds of years, the narrator can’t possibly only be the ancestors. The narrator is therefore seen as America

and all its citizens as one. The narrator's intention is to make America’s historical actions seem less heartless by trying to express sad feelings like being afraid and anxious. The result is that the reader is feeling empathy for the narrator, and forgets about the circumstances of some of the American actions that was done in malice. The poem is split into six stanzas - some being longer than others. They are all arranged into historical order with the first stanza being the oldest historical event. The poem starts with: ?“We crossed the ocean seeking opportunity” ?(l. 1). The line is referring to when Columbus “accidentally” came to America thinking it was India. Already in the first stanza, the pity begins: ?“Surely it wasn’t our fault that we found our opportunity occupied”? (l.4). When Columbus