The Themes Raised In “River, The Rock, And The Tree” By Maya Angelou
In January of 1993 Maya Angelou became the first black woman – the first woman at all – to stand at the podium of a presidential inauguration as a speaker. It was a momentous occasion not only for her as a poet, but for America, as her words of hope and remembrance rang out over the National Mall (and global television). For the occasion she wrote “On the Pulse of Morning”, a free verse tale to remind all of us that history is to be learned from, not repeated. The United States had just somewhat emerged from a dark period – Operation Desert Storm, the LA Riots – and the election and subsequent swearing in of Bill Clinton as Commander-in-Chief served as the beginning of a new era for the nation; new goals, a new span of peacetime, new hope. The topics Angelou touched on throughout the poem fell in line with Clinton’s first speech as president that day, showing a unified front that the country truly needed at that point.
Angelou shies away from simile for this one, focusing more on personifying the existence of the River, the Rock, and the Tree. These integral parts of Earth share their memories and their wisdom with the reader, hoping to remind us that peace is not as difficult as one may make it seem. Each has a voice and a heart, pushing to further a simpler agenda of harmony among all people, something that was appreciated as timely for 1993. The same could be said for the climate we find ourselves in now. These characters, if you will, share a somewhat gentle reminder of how things once were, and could be again, and offer to assist humans in their work to return to a more peaceful place.
Estrangement serves as a recurring theme throughout the poem. The River gives great input on the matter, stating how having every man act as his own nation with sealed borders does not sanction a possibility of working together to striver for the better, and most certainly does not give way for peace. She later refers to a more innocent time when man’s best insight was in acknowledging that he doesn’t know anything, and that we have now come to a time where a man knows – at least – something, and due to this has become too proud and cynical towards coming together.
There is also the theme of taking history into accord when moving forward, to remember that history is unchangeable but that its purpose is to serve a reminder of what works and what doesn’t. The dark subjects of slavery and the annihilation of Native Americans by colonists are mentioned, and it is said that though these parts of history hurt, they cannot be erased, and if we forge forward with strength we need not live that way again.
The idea of alliance through our differences is noted when Angelou tells us that those of every belief have come together to hear the Tree share its wisdom, and, when it is insisted that is up to all humans – man, woman, and child alike – to take on the burden of altering America’s downtrodden human state into something they can stand behind with pride. This theme is also shown when the River, the Rock, and the Tree claim that they will be there for all people; no matter their age or status of wealth.
Greed and its ability to disintegrate humanity is touched upon a couple of times. In one set of lines, the River explains how the uprising of manmade industry has littered hazardous waste along her shoreline. The exploitation of Native American slave labor in the search for gold is also mentioned, as well as the kidnapping and profiteering of African slaves.
Aside from the lingering undertone of hope, there is also another sort of unspoken concept that the poem supports within society. The specific mentioning of so many kinds of people on multiple occasions showcases the excess of cultures America is home to, which puts forth Angelou’s desire for the United States to continue to be seen as a melting pot in the positive sense. A place where different ethnicities and different groups can live among each other with understanding. As I mentioned before, this time has aged well and is once again a necessary read for Americans, though one more than likely wishes we just didn’t have to deal with such disparity again.
While Angelou doesn’t follow any sort of rhyming scheme or true meter, her sense of poetic ability shines through with how she is able to write in a way that we can all interpret. Her vocabulary is not so high brow that her work is difficult to read; it is beautiful yet straightforward. I remember watching her recite this poem live on CSPAN when I was 8 years old. Aside from nursery rhymes it was my first time being exposed to poetry, and I was enthralled. I was sort of a weird kid, very politically aware and interested in world events. I had an acute awareness of cultural and racial differences and had only recently learned what racism was during a viewing of the nightly news a few months earlier. At 8 years old, this poem put a surge of hope in my tiny heart. I didn’t want to see scary stuff anymore, and while Maya Angelou didn’t shy away from the fact that scary stuff exists, she was able to put herself out there as an adult who believed in the concept of hope, and the idea of it being fulfilled.
