5.05

Samantha Brandt

Languages by Carl SandburgSandburg lived from 1878-1967 in Midwestern United States. This was a time of Urbanization in America. Resulting in mass amounts of immigrants. Which resulted in a blending of cultures and communities.

He writes of this blending of languages and crossing of borders in his poem.

“It is a river, this language,Once in a thousand yearsBreaking a new courseChanging its way to the ocean.It is mountain effluviaMoving to valleysAnd from nation to nationCrossing borders and mixing.”

The River Merchants Wife: A letterby: Ezra Pound

Ezra Pound lived from 1885-1972, and he wrote this poem in 1917. The struggle for women’s rights was at the forefront of politics in the late 19th century and early 20th century. The 19th Amendment ,which gave women equal voting rights, was passed in 1919. The River Merchants Wife is written by a lonely wife who has not seen her husband in five months.

“At sixteen you departed, You went into far Ku-to-yen, by the river of swirling eddies, And you have been gone five months. The monkeys make sorrowful noise overhead.”

sources• http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/174305• http://images.slideplayer.com/22/6334704/slides/slide_53.jpg• https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/Carl_Sandburg_NYWTS.jpg

• http://history.house.gov/Exhibitions-and-Publications/WIC/Historical-Essays/No-Lady/Womens-Rights/• https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/Ezra_Pound_2.jpg

• http://fromplaygroundstopolitics.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/20130820-082013.jpg