Lord Byron (1788-1824)

“Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” 

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
  There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
  There is society where none intrudes,
  By the deep Sea, and music in its roar:
  I love not Man the less, but Nature more, 5
  From these our interviews, in which I steal
  From all I may be, or have been before,
  To mingle with the Universe, and feel
What I can ne’er express, yet cannot all conceal.

   Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean–roll! 10
  Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain;
  Man marks the earth with ruin–his control
  Stops with the shore;–upon the watery plain
  The wrecks are all thy deed, nor doth remain
  A shadow of man’s ravage, save his own, 15
  When for a moment, like a drop of rain,
  He sinks into thy depths with bubbling groan,
Without a grave, unknelled, uncoffined, and unknown.

   His steps are not upon thy paths,–thy fields
  Are not a spoil for him,–thou dost arise 20
  And shake him from thee; the vile strength he wields
  For earth’s destruction thou dost all despise,
  Spurning him from thy bosom to the skies,
  And send’st him, shivering in thy playful spray
  And howling, to his gods, where haply lies 25
  His petty hope in some near port or bay,
And dashest him again to earth: —there let him lay.

After reading this poem a couple of times, I was able to grasp the author’s purpose with the help of imagery and keys from the title. It seems as though this person is on a journey that isn’t very small but rather a long journey where he experiences all different types of weather and sceneries which hints to readers like me that it was very long and roomy through very different places and settings. The settings are described as “pathless woods”, “lonely shore”, “ocean-roll”, and lastly “drop of rain”. These all show the difference in setting throughout his journey. A lot is going on, and he admires it and is really descriptive about what he sees throughout the poem. Imagery is one of the biggest things I see going on in the poem. Although this poem was not too difficult to understand, there were keywords in the poem’s title that helped hint at readers what to expect when first reading, such as the word. “Pilgrimage”. This word told me a lot in that it was a long journey that took place in multiple places. However, I was really curious about what this one word meant and felt like I needed to understand its meaning because I was sure it had a significant meaning to the poem. That word was “Childe”. After looking it up to understand its basic definition, it all made sense together because it’s defined as a young boy in medieval times who is training to become a knight. So I found the title of the poem to be very significant. Another thing I also realized was interesting was when I was looking for the poem’s rhyme scheme. I noticed that they aligned with where I put the shifts in the poem. I found this to be very cool as it all lined up well and made sense. I was able to come to the realization that it was an Iambic Pentameter and it had two shifts in the poem. When first discovering where the first shift was, I noticed that the first chunk of information talked about his admiration for the setting and descriptive contacts to help readers better visualize. He uses words such as “ deep sea, and music in its roar”. He also starts off by telling the readers what he sees by repeating “there is” in the first three lines of the first chunk of the text. The first and second shifts in the poem also ended with a period so it made sense for a shift to take place there. In the second chunk, it describes the power of the ocean and its strong waves. It seems as though he has encountered an issue that has brought the powerfulness of the ocean to his attention. They are uncontrollable by anyone which makes them so powerful. It describes it as being so powerful that no one will be able to save them if they sink to the bottom of the ocean. Lastly, in the last chunk, I noticed a change in point of view from the first to the last stanza. In the first and second stanzas, it was first person point of view but in the last, it was third person point of view and I think the reason for that is because, in the third chunk, it describes the ocean and refers to a person as “he”. It seems to describe what the ocean had done to the boy talked about throughout the poem who was on his journey. It seemed to have been so powerful that it swept him away and that he had gone to heaven. I believe that is what had occurred since the author uses words like “earth’s destruction”, “thy bosom to the skies” and “where haply lies”. That has made me come to the conclusion that the boy on his pilgrimage had come across an unexpected storm that had ruined his journey.

By Fatimah Asghar

these are my people & I find

them on the street & shadow

through any wild all wild

my people my people

a dance of strangers in my blood

the old woman’s sari dissolving to wind

bindi a new moon on her forehead

I claim her my kin & sew

the star of her to my breast

the toddler dangling from stroller

hair a fountain of dandelion seed

at the bakery I claim them too

the sikh uncle at the airport

who apologizes for the pat

down the muslim man who abandons

his car at the traffic light drops

to his knees at the call of the azan

& the muslim man who sips

good whiskey at the start of maghrib

the lone khala at the park

pairing her kurta with crocs

my people my people I can’t be lost

when I see you my compass

is brown & gold & blood

my compass a muslim teenager

snapback & high-tops gracing

the subway platform

mashallah I claim them all

my country is made

in my people’s image

if they come for you they

come for me too in the dead

of winter a flock of

aunties step out on the sand

their dupattas turn to ocean

a colony of uncles grind their palms

& a thousand jasmines bell the air

my people I follow you like constellations

we hear the glass smashing the street

& the nights opening their dark

our names this country’s wood

for the fire my people my people

the long years we’ve survived the long

years yet to come I see you map

my sky the light your lantern long

ahead & I follow I follow

Reading this poem over and over again allowed me to form an image of its purpose. The more I read it, the more I was able to picture the scenery of the setting. What the main focus is on and what its significance is to her as she writes a poem about her homeland. As I read this I learned why the author wrote about this so much and it got me as a reader to think that this is most likely something she relates to a lot as she admires her surroundings when walking through this setting. One thing that really stood out to me as I was reading this poem was her choice of diction and why she repeats certain words multiple times. I believe that she did this to emphasize her main point. The one word that stood out to most out of all was “People”. The reason why is that the poem starts out by saying “These are my people” which helps readers like me know what the purpose is. As the poem gets to the end the author continues by writing “For the fire my people my people”. As a reader, I felt that this was a very helpful and important thing to be included in the text as it simplified the significance of the setting she is describing and formed a conclusion that she is referring to the people of her town and who are from the same place. The use of imagery repeatedly throughout the poem is just as helpful because it makes the poem more entertaining as I was able to visualize the setting. Although the diction stood out to me a lot as I was reading the poem, something else stood out to me most and that is how I can relate this poem to my personal life experiences. Fatimah Asghar, the author seems to have returned to her homeland after a while and got the chance to see her people as she related so much to just seeing them live their lives. “My people my people I can’t be lost” is one of the lines that I related to most because although I live far from where my family comes from, each time I return for a trip I feel most at peace. I don’t get lost when I go back home whether I am with my family or just walking the streets alone back home and overseas. I feel like it is a place where I can’t get lost since It is “my home” and I feel very connected with my roots there. The setting seems to be a place where many muslims live, which is something I can relate to since that is where I come from as well. As she described what she saw, I myself got flashbacks since I witnessed the same things happening overseas. A specific example would be the “drops to his knees at the call of the azan”. The azan means call to prayer and this is so significant because this is something I would witness every single day back at home. Whether it was morning call to prayer or night, there would be streets full of people dropping to their knees to pray since mosques would be filled and out the door. Overall I think that this was really interesting to read and see how she admired the surroundings of her home since it is something we experience everyday when back home with relatives but rarely ever see when living far away and don’t see many things to relate to. As a person who really loves talking about my trip back home to see family, I really enjoyed reading this poem and seeing how others also are the same way when they see people with the same background.

“Smell Is the Last Memory to Go”

By Fatimah Asghar

on my block, a gate

on my block, a tree smelling

of citrus & jasmine that knocks

me back into the arms of my dead

mother. i ask Ross how can a tree

be both jasmine & orange, on my block

my neighbors put up gates & stare

don’t like to share, on my block

a tree I can’t see, but can smell

a tree that can’t be both but is

on my block, my mother’s skirt twirls

& all i smell is her ghost, perfume

on my block, a fallen orange

smashed into sidewalk

its blood pulped on asphalt on my

block, Jordan hands me a jasmine

by the time i get home

all its petals are gone

After reading this poem a couple of times, I was able to form multiple ideas of what it was talking about overall through the figurative language; imagery such as “a tree smelling” helped with visualization of the setting and tone of the poem. In this poem it focuses on the passing of the author’s mother, Fatimahs mother who is no longer in her life. Fatimah begins by speaking about the setting which is near her home, her block. Where takes place a jasmine and orange tree which seems to be the main focus of this poem. Along with the jasmine and orange tree being the main focus, we learn that Fatimahs mother is unfortunately no longer present in her life as she has passed. Us readers aren’t specifically told how the mother has passed but can instead form a guess based on the poetic techniques that Fatimah uses all throughout this poem. This tree almost seems to be out of her reach since she says it is blocked by a gate, which makes me as a reader think that it is imaginary and something that reminds her of her mother. The location where this tree is described could be the place where her mother passed. The author states that as she passes by this particular area, she gets a whiff of the air which is described as “ghost” perfume. This hints to readers like me that the smell of this area in her block reminds her of her mom. This one particular area that smells like her mothers perfume as she states. Since I think this tree is imaginary, it may be an area near her home that meant a lot to her mom or has a reason as to why it reminds Fatimah of her loved mom that she no longer has her by her side. The ghost perfume symbolizes the absence of the mother. It was interesting to read about a tree that is both jasmine and orange. As I reread multiple times and felt that the tree is not real, I created the thought in my head that jasmines might have been the mothers favorite flower or even scent. And perhaps oranges were the mother’s favorite fruit. Therefore the author tried to incorporate the two to represent missing her loved one as Fatimah smells the jasmine and orange tree walking past, she says she feels as though she has fallen “into the arms of my dead mother”. This line automatically also proves to the reader that the mother has passed. It is shocking to me that as I read this poem over and over again, I formulate new ideas about what this author is referring to and each time, my ideas seem to turn out more and more accurate. New ideas forming in my mind led me to think that the tree referred to in the poem seems to be her mother. Instead of repeating that her mother is dead, she uses figurative language to describe how the tree is her mother. Although I may have understood many things from reading this poem over and over again, there are still a few things that are quite difficult to understand. Foe example it is difficult to understand what the author’s point she’s trying to make was when she describes the orange’s  “blood pulped on asphalt on my block”. The connection trying to be made may be that the oranges on the tree are all well except for one that is not like the rest and is smashed on the floor. This one orange being on the floor unlike the rest could represent the dead mother because the one particular orange is dead among the many others. Similar to living on her block, Fatimah and the others on the block are alive, except for one which is unfortunately Fatimahs mother.

Fatimah Asghar is an artist who spans across different genres and themes. A poet, a fiction writer, and a filmmaker, Fatimah cares less about genre and instead prioritizes the story that needs to be told and finds the best vehicle to tell it. Play is critical in the development of their work, as is intentionally building relationship and authentic collaboration. Their first book of poems If They Come For Us explored themes of orphaning, family, Partition, borders, shifting identity, and violence. Along with Safia Elhillo, they co-edited Halal If You Hear Me, an anthology for Muslim people who are also women, trans, gender non-conforming, and/ or queer. The anthology was built around the radical idea that there are as many ways of being Muslim as there are Muslim people in the world. They also wrote and co-created Brown Girls, an Emmy-nominated web series that highlights friendship among women of color. Their debut lyrical novel, When We Were Sisters, explores sisterhood, orphaning, and alternate family building, and is forthcoming October 2022. While these projects approach storytelling through various mediums and tones, at the heart of all of them is Fatimah’s unique voice, insistence on creating alternate possibilities of identity, relationships and humanity then the ones that society would box us into, and a deep play and joy embedded in the craft. 

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/149512/smell-is-the-last-memory-to-go

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