Aboriginals point of view on History from the poem "History Lesson".

Exploring the verses from “History Lesson” by Jeannette C. Armstrong

Today this post is a little bit different. Indeed, it is a historical poem and not a museum or historical places descriptions. The name of those verses is “History Lesson,” and the writer is an Aboriginal poet,  Jeannette C. Armstrong. The poem is about the colonization of North America by the Europeans from the Aboriginals point of view.This post responds to an English class assignment, as well as the study of an interesting historical fact for this blog.

Exploring literacy devices from the excerpt “Out of the belly of Christopher’s / Ship / A mob burst” (lines 1-3).

Here the author uses a metaphor to describe how the natives firstly view the European ships. She compares them to livings creatures as she employs the word “belly” to describe the boat shells. This show that the natives were not accustomed to the view of such great ships. So it is possible that they first may have mistaken them for monsters. However, this last statement may not be accurate as the aboriginals left no text about them, so we can't be sure. In result of this, it is hard to know how they react toward the arrival of the European colonizers.

The author also uses Personification in the passage. She uses the words “a mob burst” to tell what the aboriginals firstly thought of the Europeans. The irony is that the aboriginals viewed Europeans as disorganized and chaotic, while they saw themselves as the incarnation of civilization. In the end, in this passage, the author shows what the aboriginals were thinking of the colonizers in North America. She also demonstrates that History may not always be what we believe by using metaphor and personification, to remind the simplicity of the means the Aboriginals had to describe and understand the unknown newcomers. They were comparing everything with nature.

Exploring literacy devices from another fascinating excerpt: “Glimpsed in a garden / Forever closed / Forever lost” (lines 46-48)

This passage shows the aftermath of the colonization of North America by the Europeans from the aboriginals point of view. Firstly, the author uses “Garden” as a symbol representing the land of the natives. She uses this word as gardens are views as places where people can relax and be at peace, except when you have a noisy neighbour! The word garden describes perfectly the way the aboriginals were seeing North America: a place where they lived their lives quietly and traditionally. Unfortunately, this change when the colonizers arrived as they destroyed everything they cared for, eventually themselves.It directly leads to the second part of the quote as Jeannette uses repetition with the word “forever.” The use of this word demonstrates that the damages caused by the Europeans when they took over the Aboriginals' lands will never be repaired or replaced. The author is pointing out that now they are in a hopeless situation due to this invasion. Also, it implies that they might never recover anytime soon. This quote shows that the history is not as shiny and good as it looked from the Europeans point of view. Also, that all actions, even the best-intended ones, always cause problems to someone else as a balance.

Does the structure matter? A study case of  the lines“Red coated knights / Gallop across the prairies / To get their men / and building a new world” (lines 12-14)

The author also uses the structure of the poem to highlight what she wants to demonstrate. This usage of the structure appears, particularly in this excerpt. Here she uses the principle of enjambment to highlight the different stages of the colonization of North America.Firstly, the "red-coated knight" represents the Europeans when they arrived in America. We can imagine them galloping across the prairies. This cavalier image serves the idea that they spread through the new world as scouts. The next strophe mentions the arrival of the colonizers. Finally, the fact that they start to build cities refers to their settlement, taking the place of the natives. Jeannette uses this technique to allow us to see the different steps in the colonization of North America as if it was a timeline.

An Aboriginals Lesson on History

Eventually, this poem describes the Europeans colonizing North America from a new point of view. This time, the Aboriginals report this part of History. The author also made great use of different literary devices like metaphor or imagery to make it more interesting to read. This method is also a way of relating to the way Aboriginals saw things. She also plays with the structure of the sentences to make clear the weight of these events for the natives. She also names this poem an “Historical Lessons” as this is teaching us a lesson about these people's history. These verses show that one event experience is entirely different depending on who is living it.

Previous
Previous

Museums in Oslo and its Surroundings

Next
Next

Trip to Marrakech and its renovated riad garden