ESSAY CEMETERY

Not an Ode: On the Reader-Writer Relationship in Kincaid's A Small Place Jamaica Kincaid's personal essay A Small Place is a highly polemical text. Written by the Antiguan native in 1988, A Small Place encompasses two voices: that of the impoverished, post-colonial Antiguan native and that of the luxuriating, capitalist Westerner. In the text's very syntax resides a meeting between these two very different types: its narrator is an Antiguan native who utilizes the second person throughout the entire text, a style generally associated with poetry, advertisements and open letters. The narrator accuses its presumably Western reader of being a personal contributor towards the suffering of the natives. With its inflammatory language, its breathless-angry style, and unapologetic imagery the text binds its readers to the natives of Antigua through discomfort and guilt. Kincaid creates a debate between the natives of Antigua and the Western tourist, in which the tourist has

Mutability Like clouds, or music of a lyre, people and their experiences and emotions change. The only thing that can be counted on is mutability. England in 1819 England is falling apart, because of the reigning monarchs who are doing a horrid job governing it. Song- To the Men of England The speaker calls the attention of the lower classes to their toil for the benefit of the aristocracy and for which they are not adequately compensated. He calls them to beware, for they are good as digging their own grave, and to revolt, for they have power. Ode to the West Wind The power of the wind is great as it looses and shakes things. The poet wants to become one with the wind, and has the power to command it. The Cloud The cloud sees all and dominates nature. It constantly changes, and though can appear to be gone, it never is. Prometheus Unbound Prometheus, the bringer of fire to men and changed by Jupiter to a rock for eternity to be pecked at by vultures, is released. Percy