studies in antebellum literature, ch. 5
(or, topsy-turvy)
19th-century novels paint
quite the chromatic picture
of america—take the white
whale, say, or the scarlet
letter—but they aren’t
all tarred with the same
brush. for comic contrast
some give us black humor:
national relief projected
onto one dark little head,
in turn projecting, in all
directions, a local choler.
# # #
antebellum lit still tinges
tongues with shady tints.
our language is loaded,
packing heat, a weapon
concealed only, it seems,
from the blissful. who’d
say x used to be a small
college town, but then ten
years ago it just grew like
topsy? i’d say it grew like
kudzu, maybe. or like
wildfire. not like topsy.*
* things that just grew
like topsy: the middle
passage death toll.
the black prison
population. the crop
of negro spirituals. like
crazy. like a weed. like
a motherless child.