“Salutamus”
The example of paratext the poem Salutamus has.
What is an epigraph?
The type of music the poem reference.
What is Blues?
What impossible dilemma is the speaker going through—what is the poem about?
The speaker is preparing her son for the realities of racism, exclusion, and violence while also providing him with a sense of self-worth and hope.
Where does the poem take place?
Lenox Avenue bar, Harlem
The Latin phrase that the title of the poem references.
What is morituru te salutamus?
What type of language does Weary Blues use?
It has equal parts formal and equal parts vernacular speech.
How is the poem seen as a critique to society?
It critiques society for having Black children grow up in an environment that is cruel towards them.
What is the rhythm of the Weary Blues?
It has a drowsy syncopated rhythm?
The phrase in the epigraph of Salutamus.
What is ”O Gentlemen the time if Life is short—Henry IV
The song form the Weary Blues uses.
The 12 bar blues form (a - a -b)
What does the word “branded” suggest about Black identity in the poem?
“Branded” suggests labeling, lack of freedom, and a social marking that shows how society sees Black people for their race instead of who they are.
The purpose of the word “must” in lines 8, 12 and 14 in the poem Salutamus.
It is their to emphasize while the journey to racial justice will be hard it is a path that no one can abandon.
How the poem’s title and the epigraph help the reader understand the piece’s thematic core
It shows that struggling and death may be necessary to advance a just goal and that we in the present may not be alive when the goal comes into fruition
What does the words trailing off in lines 6 and 7 represent?
It represents the silent movements of a singer/
How is racism described in the first stanza of the poem?
Racism is seen as artificial/performative, like a system of masks, costumes, or roles put upon Black Americans.
How does the speaker‘s tone change in “Shall I Say, My Son You’re Branded?”
The tone changes from inevitable and cautious to resilient and empowering.
Salutamus’s thematic core.
What is fighting for racial justice, understanding that it may take generations, suffering, and even death to come to fruition?
Acoording to Cheryl A. Wall Weary blues was the first time …..
The unmediated blues voice was heard in American poetry
What phrase does Ta-Nehisi Coates use to describe the conversation that the speaker and she son have?
“The Talk” (a conversation between black parents and their children about the dangers of police brutality)
What is the meaning of the lines? “ And yet we know relief will come some day / For those seared breasts and lads as brave again / Will plant and find fairer crops that ours.”
The seared breasts represent the fact that the African American community based of the artificially imposed “searing brand” of their skin color. The ”lads as brave again” represent the culmination of political activism. The “plant and find faired crops that ours” represents the justice the future generations will recieve.