Joy Harjo: A Poet of Nature, Grit, and Grief - Essay Sample

Introduction

Joy Harjo is a Native American writer and poet and also a member of the Creek nation. Her Poets mostly reflect on the affiliation that exists between the oppression of Native societies and also the oppression that women face and endure because of their sex. She is one of the most celebrated poets who have managed to out some of the most acclaimed poems over the decades. Most of her poems ache with great grit, nature, and grief. The poems make one feel like insomnia moments if twilight breaks. Most of her lines are heavy and curt but devise delicate stories (Gale, Cengage, 4). She had some Horses a 1983 poem is an anthology of poems that varies in the form of syntax. The poem greatly ranges from concrete context to abstract, and also from a personal context to general. Harjo creatively makes a connection with the poems using the motif of an animal, the horse, which also is set to represent various moments that typically depict Harjo's past, future, and present selves. Harjo also uses the horse as a metaphorical bridge to the tribunal spiritual roots of Harjo, greatly romanticizing the sadness and joys of her native life. The essay will thus look into various elements and phases of the poem 'She Had Some Horses' by Joy Harjo.

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What Is the Structure of the Poem?

The poem "she had some horses" reads through eight stanzas in which, in every stanza, almost all the lines start with exactly the same line stem, as is the name of the poem. The rest of the line thereafter presents various categories and nature of horses that the unnamed sound in the poem "she" once had owned. As the lines continue to build up, it then becomes very vivid and clear that the poem is generally not about literal horses but rather develops a very complex image of human beings. Within the lines, the horses are presented to be "broken" and hard to tame, they exist as insubstantial "bodies of the sand" and also a "fast-shifting 'skins that are of ocean water." Here Harjo references the erosion and the changes that suggest that human beings are continuously undergoing various renewals.

The presentation and structure of the poem depend largely upon repetition and anaphora for cohesion, instead of the regular meter or rhyme. The line, "She has some horses," and the repetition of "She had horses who" presents to the poem the general feeling of a chant. It is imaginable of the thunderous view depicted of the horses and the nature of their hooves, which comes across the "splintered red cliff" in these repeated words. Harjo creatively links the horses, which in this case are purely metaphorical instead of being literal to the universe: The horses here are "maps drawn of blood' "skins of the ocean," "the blue sky." The language that Horja uses here makes a suggestion of spaces wide open and also desert places, but in contrast, the various references to the maps created of blood develop a scenario that haunts the undercurrent. In the case that the horses are presented as protagonists of the many issues, then various aspects of this are then designed and founded in the native history of the Native Americans, whose lands were stolen from them through actions of warfare and slaughter.

The line, "She had some Horses" itself is continuously repeated across the poem as a way to create emphasis in the poem. With the repetition of the line, the poet, Horja seems to tell the readers that look; this is the basis of my arguments and presentation in the poem. The stressing of the line clearly demonstrates the extent to which the poet wants the readers to better understand the text. The natural context of the stanza creatively gives a description of the horses. However, the in-depth meaning and dilemma that the poet intends the readers to analyze is there exists any real animals as they are presented by the poet. Such a dilemma with the horses comes along as the poet wants the readers to navigate through the nature of the poems as some of them are not meant to be earthly elements. Others also have been presented with human elements and characteristics as those she presents to have "laughed" and even "licked razor blades." The general understanding of the reader to these human elements of the horses gets much clearer as the poem goes by.

Pattern

Repetition seems to be the ideal order and pattern by Harjo in the poem. The line "She had a horse," is evidently repeated in the first stanza and across the entire poem. It is a style that Harjo has creatively utilized in order to stress on her subject theme and also to enable the reader to closely walk with her throughout the poem as she unveils her thematic concern of the Native American Women. Repetition creates some sort of rhythm across the poem that well allows the reader to better understand and have a better flow reading the poem.

Imagery

In the poem, some of the poems are presented to be "shy" while some of the horses are presented to be able to dance under the stars. The horses are also depicted to be, lie, be afraid, while others "spit at their male queens" who seem to force them to be ashamed of themselves. It gets even much clearer and more vivid in that these horses are depicted to be representations of human nature, some who wish to describe themselves as 'horses' which is what the world presents them as, and those who also reject the name. Some horses in the description are presented to be afraid, and even some fear to be destroyed, while the others await "resurrection." It is towards the ending of the poem that it spirituality comes to light: a number of the horses "went down on their knees for a savior," while at the same time others have attempted to save who is described as the "she" of the piece, seemingly climbing up the bed and praying at night.

Right towards the ending of the poem, the speaker in the poem narrates how the protagonist had a number of horses that she loved and a number that she hated, but even with that nature of contrast, they "were all the same horses." It is really difficult to depict or conclude any specificity to what the horses really represent, it is only vivid that there exists a feminine link with them; they depict the women crammed into systems or boxes that they do not fit. In denoting that the hated and loved horses are all alike, Horja in his presentation seem to suggest that certain elements regarding ourselves and others can be hated and at the same time beloved; and that It is this complexity that really defines us as humans beings in the face of the earth.

Personification

Harjo, in hi literal presented of the poem, uses the horse as a dualistic nature of the condition of humans, once she presents as urban and also simultaneously embedded by nature. Horja's choice of words is all suggestive and tends to personify the hurdles and discrimination that women face as Native Americans. The poem is literally a long presentation of horses that tends to demonstrate a woman trying to be whole. However, the poem tends to transcend through the physical manifestation of women and fully integrates the larger perception of humanity.

In the poem, Harjo creatively tends to use the horse as a general personification of the basic dualism of the nature of humans to shine as she presents a number of horses that are deeply engaged in the deciding of urban and various social pursuits. This form of personification is the primary understanding of "she Had Some Horses." The flow of the poem talks of the horses that long cried in their own beer, busy hunting addiction as an image, and also as the "the horses that were too shy, and decided to stay quiet in the stalls relating to their making" Harjo clearly and creatively derives the aspect of personification from driving the ideal nature of her theme which is the oppressive nature and life of women in native America. It is such presentation of the poems that really depicts the dualistic themes relating to captivity and also freedom; both themes being ideally imposed and also as self generated. Harjo also uses personification to present the poem as the reader observes the context of "horses spitting at male queens who makes them afraid" and also in the context of "the horses that called themselves the spirit and kept secret their voices and also to themselves" (Harjo 6)

With such natural creation and personification of the horses to depict the oppressed women, the reader gets to experience the nature of hate, homophobia and also racism, clearly juxtaposed with the elements of spirituality, the overall propensity of human nature to simultaneously get to higher levels while at the same time be mired with intense hate, separation and conformity. Harjo's creative use of metaphorical figures gets even much clearer with the line "She had horses that went down on their knees for any Samaritan. She presented horses that thought their high prices saved them. She had horses that tried to save her, horses that climbed in their bed and prayed at night as they raped her" (Harjo 6) such line as disturbing as it might sound, it still is a beautiful presentation that talks of the overall theme of Harjo which is that there is no human that can be perfect and that we all get better by progress.

We can identify elements of paradox in the poem "she had Some Horses" right at the end as Harjo ends the poem ambivalently and abruptly. The line "She had some that she loved and some that she hated." It is an ending that points out a clear paradox in the nature of presentation; the horse, being a stand for the human race, presents a number of impulses and experiences, and also various judgments that can be noted throughout the entire poem (Navarro, Carmen García, 2)

Theme

She uses the Horses as her main theme as she has a personal connection to the horses because they have been present throughout her life. Again, the horses are inextricably connected to her own experiences as a Native American, all because her own ancestry has been closely linked to the horse for generations. The main thematic concern of Harjo relates to the horses and how they help transcend throughout her own life as a Native American.

Sections of the poem contrast to human actions, and there are elements that seem to threaten the order of the natural world. Harjo demonstrates aggression and pollution as the defining factors and elements relating to the civilization of humanity. She thereafter broadens the scope of her emotional experience of her description of human beings, creatively analyzing the various virtues and also the vices. Horses dancing to the arms of their mothers carry along with an affinity to different music, and that they exist as truth-tellers. These imageries and poetic depictions all allude to the fragments involving the Native American. In the poem, the horses are often described to be "self aware": On one side, some name themselves as "Horse," with the full understanding that every horse does not necessarily bear names. In this context, Harjo tries to suggest how human beings identification evolved with the experiences of life, thus questioning the absolute accuracy that involves ascribing static identities to various changing beings.

The poem largely depicts the darker and more reactionary and hostile impulse that relate to human nature. Harjo demonstrates how horses bring out knives in all places in order to scare away ghosts, and this depicts the theme of darkness, as illustrated in the poem. Hate and love, too is evident in human life (Harjo, Joy, 4). The poem clearly celebrates the overall complexity involving the Native American Women as Harjo presents who is very able to reclaim her strength and individuality while at the same time paying respect to her flaws.

Conclusion

The poem She Had Some Horses by Harjo is an interesting contemporary poem that details the life of Harjo and the nature of oppression as women have to go thr...