Rope

Rope
Alberta Cox

As if two girls were starting a fire
On all sides of my daughter,
She is set ablaze: the girls swing
Two clotheslines between them
As if they were goddesses
Holding two country roads
Leading to each other; neighbors
Surround her syncopated dance
As her seizure of heat begins
To flicker on the moonlit sidewalk—
Now, the ropes are white hot—
Her hair ignites in the upswing; her barrettes,
Like petrified butterflies, click on the off beat;
Her knees pump like she's walking on red coals;
Her arms flail as if she's calling the rain
To put her out; she jumps, she flirts
With the flame: she jumps backwards
And then turns forward,
Rocking in and out of the light,
Her hands testify around her head
Or pose on yet-to-be hips, till
Her fire snuffs out as a wind blows cold,
A car with flashing lights
Slows past, and the braids of our summer night
Surrender to gravity.

In contrast to Yeat’s poetry, this poem THRIVES on simile and metaphor. The heat is described as a seizure, the barrettes compared to butterflies, and so on. The central conceit (I think that’s what it would be called) is set forth in the first two lines, “As if two girls were starting a fire/On all sides of my daughter…” The poem clearly goes on to describe the scene as if MacNolia really is on fire. By the middle of it, the poem takes on the quality of an religious and ritualistic dance using language like “Her arms flail as if she's calling the rain,” “jumps backwards,” “rocking.” Jordan even directly relates the girl’s actions as a “syncopated dance.” Also notice the use of some musical language, “syncopated” and “off beat.” Jordan says “Her hands testify around her head” which elicits an image of a devoutly religious person “testifying” her sins to God in a very animated fashion, possibly in anguish. The poem ends with the line “surrender to gravity.” The act of “surrendering” lends itself to the idea of wholly submitting oneself to God in devotion and service.
This poem is representative of oppression and most importantly, the reaction to oppression. The book’s central conflict is racism as MacNolia is eliminated from the competition because the judges gave her a word that was not on the pre-determined list of words, probably because they would not stand to see a black girl win a competition of such magnitude. The perpetrators of the arson, the two girls, are symbolic of the bigots that stand to deny African-Americans of their civil rights. They are compared to “goddesses,” and I do not think this comparison is in looks but in supposed “superiority.” The language makes it seem like they are overwhelming MacNolia, “two girls were starting a fire/On all sides of my daughter,” and the girls are portrayed as if they are finding joy in this vicious act, “the girls swing two clotheslines between them/As if they were goddesses.” MacNolia’s religious-tinged dance is the response to the discrimination set forth by the bigots. My read is that the strong religious nature of the fire-induced dance represents what many people do, or possibly should do (depending on if Jordan is trying to send a message) in response to prejudices: turn to God. “Testify,” “Surrender.” Hmm, what’s most powerful is how the poem ends, MacNolia is saved by a non-descript “wind” accompanied by a car with only “flashing lights.” I think that Jordan is saying that turning to God in response to racial hardships will ultimately lead to some amount of easing. Why do I think the wind/car represent God/fruits of religious faith? It just seems odd that, with everything else in the poem being described in detail with multiple similes and metaphors, this car is only described as having “flashing lights” and the wind is only said to be “cold.” The lack of elaboration harkens to the intangible, mystical nature of God. It makes sense that the wind and car are fairly non-descript because God is not a physical being, He theoretically has no physical characteristics.