James Baldwin
James Baldwin was born in 1924 but moved to Paris in 1948. He did it because, as a black person, he felt unsafe in Ametican society. Baldwin grew up in a poor family. He had a lot of siblings and, as one of the eldest, was a breadwinner for a while and worked at menial jobs, as waiter or dishwasher. The relation with his stepfather influenced his perception of white people. He was taught to never trust them and to consider them to be hostile. What is more, Baldwin was a victim of domestic violence. He was both a writer and a community activist.
Baldwin wrote a lot about the situation of black and homosexual people (he was openly gay). He is well-known primarily bacause of his novels (for example Giovanni's Room). But today I will present to you one of his poems.
when you send the rain
think about it, please,
a little?
Do
not get carried away
by the sound of falling water,
the marvelous light
on the falling water.
I
am beneath that water.
It falls with great force
and the light
Blinds
me to the light.
Baldwin starts his poem with a question, an apostrophe to God. He uses a metaphore of rain - something full of ambiguities. Water is essential to our well-being, life wouldn't exist without it. In many cultures, the prayer for rain is something very frequent. What is more, polytheistic religions have their Gods resposible for oceans, water and rain. On the other hand, water can be extremely dangerous. Who has never heard of huge floods that devastated whole countries? Thanks to this measure, we can interpret this poem in many different ways. At the end of the poem, we see a wordplay: "the light | Blinds me to the light". The persona of this poem is undoubtedly overwhelmed, maybe even suffering. I think that this poem shows in an intresting way a mental state in which people often get stuck.
Based on: Wikipedia note, link and biographical notes in English editions of Notes of a Native Son and Giovanni's Room.
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