W11 Close Reading of Henderson
With an interesting background, and living in both coasts, Henderson is influenced in many ways in his writing. You can see the effects of both his home life and educational life in the poem, and the ways that he approaches writing it. Henderson is also able to efficiently describe going up and down California in a simple but effective way to someone who may or may not have visited before.
Henderson has a really informal way of writing that encapsulates the various areas that he lived in. Growing up in the Harlem and the Bronx, and then living in Berkeley, he was exposed to most likely African American vernacular, which isn’t too present in this section of the poem, but the education and influence of Berkeley and education is. He uses words that an average person can grasp, and yet is written well enough that it feels composed. He does have some presence of shorthand in the poem, and also using a lack of grammatical tools to make it have a different flow than would be regular.
Not only is there the use of his writing style, but the description he uses through the poem to help us readers envision the trip through California. Earlier he described Berkeley and Now in this section he describes the trip from the Bay Area to L.A., which without too much extra details, I felt summed up that travel quite well. I’ve been down that trip many times and it’s still like he says in his poem, so for someone who’s never been, it’s a great description for them to understand as if they were road tripping as well.
“California 13 above Oakland
running with the silver gleam of the bay
and the distant mountain range across the waters
heading for L.A.
past the windmills and the Valley,
Breadbasket of America agribusiness cornucopia
Highway 5 in the mist of nowhere
no cities or radio only rest stops and gasoline”
David Henderson, California 13. “Neo California”
Henderson has a really informal way of writing that encapsulates the various areas that he lived in. Growing up in the Harlem and the Bronx, and then living in Berkeley, he was exposed to most likely African American vernacular, which isn’t too present in this section of the poem, but the education and influence of Berkeley and education is. He uses words that an average person can grasp, and yet is written well enough that it feels composed. He does have some presence of shorthand in the poem, and also using a lack of grammatical tools to make it have a different flow than would be regular.
Not only is there the use of his writing style, but the description he uses through the poem to help us readers envision the trip through California. Earlier he described Berkeley and Now in this section he describes the trip from the Bay Area to L.A., which without too much extra details, I felt summed up that travel quite well. I’ve been down that trip many times and it’s still like he says in his poem, so for someone who’s never been, it’s a great description for them to understand as if they were road tripping as well.
“California 13 above Oakland
running with the silver gleam of the bay
and the distant mountain range across the waters
heading for L.A.
past the windmills and the Valley,
Breadbasket of America agribusiness cornucopia
Highway 5 in the mist of nowhere
no cities or radio only rest stops and gasoline”
David Henderson, California 13. “Neo California”
Hi Michelle,
ReplyDeleteI like the literary analysis about Henderson writing style. You capture how he describes his poems simple and descriptive. Henderson show in his poems places that he visited that has meaning with him. He somewhat gave meaning to different places and show that in the poems by Disappointments of life by “unattainable Dog Mountain looming stupidly beyond the hiss of the freeway, dinner somewhere on twilight
Thank you
Ginalyn