The Focus Of Olive Seniors Gardening 

English Literature EssayBe it resolved the focus of Olive Senior's Gardening in the Tropics is not on the spectacular elements of nature but on the diverse experiences of people. Olive Senior like most post-colonial poets plays with the conventional forms of poetry, sometimes the ‘subject matter’ of a particular poem is only a guise through which she highlights pressing issues affecting  her intimate surrounding (the Caribbean community). The subject matter is only used to create a ‘photograph’ for the reader to understand the focus of the particular piece of writing. It is Senior’s brave and ingenious technique of deconstructing and reconstructing typical poetic forms which make us (the readers) appreciate her work more so that her counterparts. In proposing the moot given we will be highlighting the true focus of Senior’s poems and proving that her poems are in fact explicitly exploring human experiences. Such experiences are brought out in themes such as romantic love, love as it relates to the family, poverty, ambitions racism and ethnocentrism.  In support of these points, individual poems will be used as reference, however, before this is done, it is necessary for the key word ‘focus’ in the moot, be defined. According to the Oxford dictionary, the word focus may be defined as “an act of concentrating interest or activity on something.”               There is no denying that the preponderance of Olive Senior's poetry deals with the spectacular elements of nature; however it must be clearly noted that it is not the focus of her poetry; it is not the concentrating interest. It is instead used to give insight into greater issues; the experiences of Caribbean people. Senior's poetry highlights the element of the Caribbean region; its people, history, culture and the issues that affect them. Olive Senior uses the milieu of the Caribbean and allows it to be her focus. The experiences, concerns and issues of Caribbean people are the inspiration behind her insightful poetry. She is in tune with the people of the Caribbean, and as such, she shares their experiences, and makes them the subject of her poems. For example, in the poems, ‘Hurricane Story 1903,’ ‘Hurricane Story 1951’ and ‘Hurricane Story 1988’, although a spectacular element of nature; hurricane is highlighted, it is not the focus. The focus however, is on the effects of hurricane and how it affects the common Caribbean people and their ability to combat the unfortunate circumstance. In ‘Hurricane Story 1903’, the subject matter is in fact the hurricane; however it is how the family deals with the hurricane that is the focus. The poem highlights how a common

family living in a rural area prepares for a hurricane. The grandparents in the poem are hardworking, humble, and resourceful and were in tune with the nature which is as a result of them living in a rural community.It can be said that the metaphor of gardening is just a mere method used by Senior to collect or record information about the region, however, nature is only used figuratively to compare and discuss human experiences. Born and grown in rural Jamaica most of Senior’s poems reflect her early childhood experiences, she places emphasis on ‘country life’ and the splendour of its simplicity. Given her upbringing, it is no wonder the theme of poverty is an underlying issue in almost all her poetic pieces. In her poem ‘Hurricane Story 1903,’ Senior highlights just how important farming is to persons living in rural Jamaica. The persona’s grandparents when facing disaster opts to secure their livestock and agricultural produce before any thought was given to their house or other material property. “When the wind rose in ’03, he opened his tin trunk, took his good clothes out and packed the corn in.” (Stanza 2) Though the hurricane seemed to be the focus of this poem it was actually used to bring out themes in the poem such as love for the family and poverty. The theme of poverty is also expressed in the fact that the family could not be notified like other residents, of the hurricane because of where they lived (“Living in the bush, Grandfather couldn’t see her rush to broadcast the news...” Stanza 3).  In ‘Hurricane Story 1988,’ the theme of poverty is also highlighted however in a different light. The persona’s mother suffered a complete loss in the hurricane after all her goods were destroyed. Being in urban Jamaica where emphasis is on industry she fared much worse than the dramatis personae in Hurricane Story 1903. The phrase "she ban her belly and bawl," (line 13) is linked to the mother's anguish, anger and frustration at the destruction of her only source of income for her family, her livelihood. She fell into what seemed to be deep depression where she turns to smoking to probably ease her devastation. “...things so tight her breasts shrivel, the notes shrinking...” this shows how deeply her economic stability was affected by the hurricane’s passage.Senior through her own creative techniques explores domestic issues such as male/female relationships, racism and the struggles faced in single parent families. In the poem ‘Tropic Love’ male/female relationship is the main theme explored. In this poem Senior highlights the determined and resilient side of women. The persona in the poem is portrayed to be a strong-willed woman who gives her lover the ultimatum; if he is going to be with her he is expected to take her family as his own and in doing so provide for them. He is also expected to treat her kindly and if these expectations are not met, she advises him to leave and she will in turn do whatever it takes to care and provide for her family. This is shockingly the situation of many single parent mothers in

the Caribbean. However, not many are willing to take the initiative to set standards for their partners and see to it that they are met. “With your sweet words, Lover tempt me not, if you’ve come empty handed” (Stanza 2).Racism and ethnocentrism is brought out in her poem ‘Meditation on Yellow’ where we see even after history and all the talks about integration and the modernized world, blacks are still seen as ‘inferior sub-humans’ to the ‘superior’ whites. The ethnocentrism of the Anglo-American world has for many centuries led to the penal servitude of the aboriginals and consequently blacks. The persona in the poem is exploited not by penal servitude but by a form of involuntary servitude. It may be different from the chattel slavery under which our forefathers had to contend with however it goes to show that even with ‘freedom’, as blacks we still continue to be inferior to whites. By this poem, Senior was criticizing the whites and ultimately the church since politics and religion seem to go hand in hand. The continued frustration of the persona is brought out in the poem. This is highlighted in the statement “and I reach a stage where (though I not impolite) I have to say: lump it or leave, I can’t give anymore” (P. 16, Pp. 1). One may seek it necessary to argue that it was the fertile and rich resources of the region that led to the Europeans enslaved thus alluding back to that the fact that Senior by this poem may be praising the spectacular nature and resources of the region. However it cannot be ignored that the exploitation of our land and resources have ended but the exploitation of our people continue until this very day. Thus Senior must have intended to focus on the diverse experiences of people with highlighted issues such as racism, discrimination, ethnocentrism and exploitation.To invalidate these arguments, it must be proven beyond any shadow of a doubt that the subject matter and focus of Senior’s poems are the same. The stance of the proposition cannot be nullified by any rebut since we are not saying that the subject matter is not on the spectacular elements of nature, however it is not the focus. Gardening in the Tropics see Senior reaping out the ideologies of Europeans in the region and planting something purely indigenous for Caribbean Islanders. Be it resolved that the focus of Olive Senior's Gardening in the Tropics is not on the spectacular elements of nature but on the diverse experiences of people.Need an essay? You can buy essay help from us today!

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I’ve been re-reading Olive Senior, whom I have not read since my undergrad days, not for answers but because she too seems to be perplexed, about the conquerors, the visitors, the land and the bodies. Her “Gardening in the Tropics” explores the complicated binaries of the Caribbean landscape/ body – cultivated gardens vs. tropical wilderness, bloody, labor-intensive history vs. paradisiacal indolence, exotic black bodies vs. virgin unconquered territory. Three poems, Meditation on Yellow, The Knot Garden and Tropic Love explore three areas of Caribbean life that dramatize the inherent conflict in these binaries.

Senior’s poem Meditation on Yellow traces the trajectory of exploitation and violence from the landing of Columbus and the decimation of the indigenous Indians to the power relations inherent in the tourist industry.  The use of a single voice that travels in time and space to be simultaneously an indigenous Indian, an African slave and a contemporary tourist sector service worker, creates the sense of a collective oppression regardless of ethnicity or time period. The voice laments,

“In exchange for the string of islands

and two continents

you gave us a string of beads

and some hawk’s bells”

and confesses in retrospect,

“ had I known I would have

brewed you up some fever grass

and arsenic”

Senior conjures up the sense of the unequal exchange between alien cultures and the arrogance of the European conqueror. The image of gold through the consistent use of yellow imagery in the poem sets up the relationship between violence, exploitation and material possession:

“ but it was gold

on your mind

gold the light

in your eyes”

In a contemporary setting, gold also conjures up the marketed image of golden sunshine, golden-sandy beaches, the promise of golden suntans etc. The Caribbean landscape, once the site of material hopes for gold mines, is now consumed for another type of gold, the golden dream space of sun, sea, sex and sand.

The nature of trade and exchange remains complicated by our history as is so clearly manifested in the operation of the tourist industry. While tourism operates all over the world, Caribbean or tropical tourism depends on the projection of an iconic paradisical landscape for consumption by a vacationing public. The dream space must be cultivated, projected, packaged, marketed and sold wholesale and the maintenance of this illusion, regardless of the social realities that exist, depends on a carefully regulated and cultivated system. How does this impact on our visual culture and the way we brand and package ourselves for global consumers when the images of the Caribbean are often guided by tourism brochures? How do we own these images and yet not be defined by them?

Just as the European gaze had to construct the Caribbean as barbarous to fit into its schemata of civilized and uncivilized, western and non-western, the reality of the Caribbean space must be eviscerated from the tourist gaze. The wilderness had to be ordered, the natives had to be tamed and the freedom had to be regulated. Senior’s poem, “The Knot Garden” deals with this paradox with characteristic wit, creating rebellion out of the fertility and freedom of the landscape. ‘Gardening’ becomes a double-edged motif for the simultaneous ordering of the landscape by the colonial gaze and the ‘disordering’ of it by the forces of history and the agency of human endeavour:

“Gardening in the Tropics

you’ll find things that don’t

belong together often intertwined”

This is indeed the constant challenge of the imperial representation, to separate the reality from the fantasy, the violence of the history from the desire for indolent relaxation, the desire for rustic paradise with the metropolitan and global sensibilities of the people. Despite all attempts at separation, the agency of the landscape rebels,

“ … Instead of neat trench

and barricade separating species,

hagglers and drug barons moving

into the more salubrious climes

while daughters of gentry are

crossing lines to sleep with

ghetto boys with gold teeth…”

Olive Senior’s poem, Meditation on Red, reflects the ambivalence felt by it’s speaker about white

creole author, Jean Rhys. That she is a woman, the speaker acknowledges and celebrates; so too the

fact that she (along with her experiences) paved the way for women writers from the Caribbean (of all

creeds/ethnicities). However, the speaker also makes it obvious that, despite her connections with

Rhys, there are also several points where they disconnect, especially along racial/historical lines.

Right now

I’m as divided

as you were

by that sea.

But I’ll

be able to

find my way

home again

for that craft

you launched

is so seaworthy

tighter

than you’d ever been

dark voyagers

like me

can feel free

to sail.

(lines 51-2)

This poem differs significantly from another poem in the collection, with which it shares part of a

title: Meditation on Yellow. The two poems differ thematically, have a markedly different scope of

experience (one is more universal, while the other is more personal) and differ structurally in some

ways (look at line length, for example). However, the similarity of their titles begs us to explore these

two poems together (both meditations on colour – coincidence? Probably not).

In your opinion, what do we gain by studying these two poems together, either

comparatively or as companion pieces?

Prompt: "In Gardening in the tropics, Olive Senior uses the resources of poetry to explore experiences of trauma in the Caribbean"

With reference to at least THREE poems, discuss the extent to which you agree with this statement.

Poetry is often viewed as an outlet for emotional anxiety, that elicits an emotional response, which often is closely linked to the poet's ability communicate issues that are sometimes connected to one's culture. These issues are often fragments of the oppression and hardships that a culture has suffered. This is especially true of Jamaican poet Olive Senior, who 'explore[s] experiences of trauma,' in many of her poems, such as "Meditation of Yellow," "Meditation on Red" and "Hurricane Story, 1951," through her skilful use of structure, tone and literary tropes.In "Mediation on Yellow," Senior details an anticolonial attitude towards the "five hundred years of servitude" that the persona has suffered from. But also, highlights the neo-colonial ambitions associated with the tourism industry, similar to the "sun-stoned Frederiksted the first Freeport to die for tourism, strolling at funeral pace," as in Walcott's "The Virgins." Clearly, Senior evinces feelings of uneasiness associated with the inability to cope with this "fair exchange," and further stresses the mental distraught experienced by this appropriation.

These feelings are effectively portrayed through her use of structure within the poem. Her anaphoral repetition of 'want' and 'give' create a tense and abrupt mood within the poem, that shed light on the level of frustration that the persona feels, what Jordan Stouck calls a "tautological experience." These feelings are further cemented by ......However, Senior highlights ways of coping with this trauma, that is, through hybridization/creoloization... Even the conceit of yellow she develops becomes a sort of 'hybrid' for dealing with past experiences- racial segregation ("No Yellow Peril here"), biological differences ("our piss was exactly the same shade of yellow"), ethnic cleansing ("the only survivors/on yellow-streaked soil"). When coupled with her extensive use of feminine endings (notice her use of "Cathay" rather than China), which add a feeling of tranquility to the poem. It shows a sense of resignation to the previous ordeals experienced, and means of moving on from these perturbed feelings. The couplet, which contains a feminine rhyme, serves as a refrain to all the anxiety previously expounded on by repetition, further compounded by the use of alliteration. The sonorant 'l' sounds in "lump it/or leave it," and 's' sounds in "something soothing" cement this sense of resignation.However, Senior also describes other types of trauma experienced in the Caribbean, particularly those associated with the Caribbean woman, especially when displaced from one's homeland. Senior's use of intertextuality within "Mediation on Red," effectively depicts many concerns associated with the female postcolonial writer. ... the sympathetic portayal of Rhys allows Senior to establish a rapport between the reader and Rhys. By doing so she allows a level of emotional involvement to permeate, and allows one to understand "[the] blue murder in my[Rhys] wicked heart" as well as the overall feeling of being 'a doormat in a world of boots' (Rhys). As Senior, herself notes:

The myth of the black matriarch projects an image of theCaribbean woman as strong and powerful. But the myth disguises the fact of her powerlessness in the widersociety... the 'powerful' Caribbean woman is still socialized according to traditional lines. (Shades of Empire incolonial and postcolonial Literature)

But, intertextuality is also used as an appropriate structural device. It helps to create a theme of recursion, or rather a sort of mise en abyme effect within the poem. Rhys, who created (creolized) works, and even used intertextuality in some of her works, is referenced to in Senior's work. Which not builds on motifs of hybridization and continuation – "for that craft/ you launched/is so seaworthy/tighter/than you'd ever been/dark voyagers like me can fell free." But, like the bracketed asides, which expound on suppressing Senior's "univocal" control. The use of intertextuality, serves to empower Rhys, who unlike the persona's mother "who hardly ever spoke" in "Hurricane Story, 1944," gains a voice.In the same vein, humour within her poems also serve as a coping mechanism for feelings of inadequacy and torment, this is obvious in her poem "Hurricane Story, 1988." 

I wasn't finished, i sort of gave up, please tell me what you guys think. here's a link to one of the poems international.poetryinternationalweb.org/piw_cms/cms/cms_module/index. php?obj_id=603&x=1