Daybreak In Alabama Analysis

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When I get to be a composer

I'm gonna write me some music about

Daybreak in Alabama

And I'm gonna put the purtiest songs in it

Rising out of the ground like a swamp mist

And falling out of heaven like soft dew.

I'm gonna put some tall tall trees in it

And the scent of pine needles

And the smell of red clay after rain

And long red necks

And poppy colored faces

And big brown arms

And the field daisy eyes

Of black and white black white black people

And I'm gonna put white hands

And black hands and brown and yellow hands

And red clay earth hands in it

Touching everybody with kind fingers

And touching each other natural as dew

In that dawn of music when I

Get to be a composer

And write about daybreak

In Alabama.

.: Daybreak in Alabama :.

I got taken in by the imagery and totally forgot that the poet is talking about being a composer, so when he mentioned it again at the end, I was taken by surprise. I suspect this was the intended effect of the poem. I also noticed that there is an implicit comparison (through the reference to "dew") between the songs he is imagining and the idealized world he is imagining. What I think this means is that the song/world he is imagining seems real to the reader because the images and language are so seductive and persuasive, but the fact that they are imaginary, and that both this world and song are unrealized is brought back to the reader with a sort of jolt at the end.

| Posted on 2006-03-21 | by Approved Guest