Native American

http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/holbein/369/napoet.htm

TEARS OF A NATION
I met a man of many colors

And a tear was upon his cheek."

Old man" I ask, "why do you cry

With such an agonizing weep?"

"Oh child" this man he says to me,

"My heart is broken in so many ways

That I believe this day to end

Will find me out stretched and far within

The encompassing earth of sin."

I sat down beside this man

And asked him "do not cry.

For what you think is so bad

That life will pass you by?"

He looks at me with such sad eyes.

And weeps ever more.

He holds his hands out to me

And alas, I do see

The anguish of his heart.

For his hands were different colors

One is red and the other white,

A leg he unclothed for me

Was as yellow as could be

And his other leg as black as night.

"I am the father of the world.

In case you do not know.

And my children have grown apart

And fight among themselves.

For when they do not get along

My arms and legs and hands and feet

Destroys the very life of me.

My hands of red and white

Will not feed this face of night.

And my legs of black and yellow,

Will not stand beneath this body

And support my heart and soul.

For they argue far too much,

And now I have grown old.

So here I sit in this haven

Of unwelcomeness.

And when this day ends,

A father I will not be.

For my children of many nations

Have forgotten how to accompany me.

Reflection:

What can be seen from the poem "Tears of a nation" is how our country as a whole suffers from racial segregation. First the country, described as an old man, is shown having different colored limbs. One color which describes each race, and because of the differences he is weeping. The man wishes all the colors would blend, but instead they segregate. Due to the colors not unifying, they work agaisnt eachother, making it impossible for his body to function together. It ends alluding to that if these colors do not unite, the country as a whole will fail.

Journal:

Dear Diary,

Woe is me to know that my people are torn apart. Though we are all man, we are seperated by our skin color. The lives would could live together are forever lost because we fight eternal wars against our own kind. We see each other as animals, trying to be superior to one color. We could be united as part of god, each of us for the benefits of the world. As each of us our different limbs of god, we can not work together if we are in dysfuction. Only if we work together we can survive, and without working together, the god of the world cannot be whole.

Eastman, C. A. "Tears of a Nation." Native American Poetry. Fortune City. 16 Mar. 2008 http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/holbein/369/napoet.htm..

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Essential question:

The conflicts of the native's took away from their "american dream". Technically, they cannot experience the american dream because they lived their and did not migrate to escape, but as for them to live peacefully, a mutual acceptance of race and culture is their ideal path to victory. Assimilation is truly the only cure to the elder's sadness of their dis-functionalism as a nation.

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Political Extension: