Having read very little poetry in my life, Thomas and Beulah was a welcome change from the majority of the poems we've read over the course of this class. Told with gut-wrenching emotion, Thomas and Beulah is the story of the lives of two black folks, one southern, one northern, who meet and ultimately marry. Throughout their lives together, they seem to experience very little true happiness. Their marriage seems loveless, and their hopes and dreams never come to fruition.
The story of Thomas is told first, and starts of with Thomas enjoying a wonderfully drunk moment with his best friend, Lem. The are aboard a steamboat headed north, when Tomas dares Lem to jump and swim to an island, a dare that Lem accepts. Lem quickly drowns, and references to Lem are made throughout the poem. Throughout his life, Thomas is seeking to somehow replace Lem in order to lessen his suffering over the loss of his friend.
Beulah, the pretty northern lass that captures Thomas' heart, has dreams since childhood of visiting Paris. As we read, this dream is ultimately unrealized, which lends to her sorrow throughout her life. Yet, Beulah continues to hold onto these dreams, as they tend to make her life from day to day a bit easier. Thomas and Beulah go on to have two little girls, which is a bit of a disappointment for Thomas, as he wishes to have a boy to somehow replace Lem, but finds in a son-in-law a kind of replacement for Lem. Towards the end of the story, the characters seem to realize that they did truly love one another, and reflect on how fortunate they were to have one another.
No comments:
Post a Comment