News – Page 165 – Quixotic Pedagogue

Sylvia Plath’s Last Poems

Sylvia Plath submitted her last two poems, Balloons and Edge to the New Yorker on February 4, 1963. They are regarded as her last two poems as Plath died on February 11 of the same here.

Edge

The woman is perfected.
Her dead

Body wears the smile of accomplishment,
The illusion of a Greek necessity

Flows in the scrolls of her toga,
Her bare

Feet seem to be saying:
We have come so far, it is over.

Each dead child coiled, a white serpent,
One at each little

Pitcher of milk, now empty.
She has folded

Them back into her body as petals
Of a rose close when the garden

Stiffens and odors bleed
From the sweet, deep throats of the night flower.

The moon has nothing to be sad about,
Staring from her hood of bone.

She is used to this sort of thing.
Her blacks crackle and drag

February 12, 2013/by dpogreba

Travel Guide for African Americans During Jim Crow

Daily Wisdom

Slate has a fascinating look at a travel guide published for African-American travelers during the era of Jim Crow:

The Negro Motorist Green Book was a guide that helped African-American travelers identify friendly hotels, restaurants, and mechanics when they were on the road. Harlem postal employee and publisher Victor H. Green published the Book annually from 1936 to 1964.

As historian Cotton Seiler points out, the Green Book flourished during a time when cars were getting cheaper, and travel by automobile was becoming more common. For black drivers, however, freedom of the road had its limits. These travelers had to navigate segregated accommodations, couldn’t join AAA, and received disproportionate levels of attention from the police and local racists.

February 11, 2013/by dpogreba