Roses and Revolutions

Roses and Revolutions by Dudley Randall, spoke true to the time and place from which he hails. Dudley witnessed the race riots in Detroit, and his poem reflects the grievances of the time or that building up to it. He talks of the city as if it exists on the face as being just that, a city like every other, but he sees the dispair of the people living in the city and the injustices they deal with. I thought the line about the Negro man lying in the swamp with his face blown off, was a very strong line with gruesome imagery. He doesn’t just tell the reader the hardships that people deal with on a daily basis but instead the more brutal realities, of black people who step out of line and what (I assume, the police or white people will do to them). The line where he talks of being hunted down like a hair reminded me of the poems from the earlier poets before emancipation, when the poems talk about trying to run away from the slave owners who are trying to hunt them down and catch them. It is interesting that this theme of being hunted down continues on even into the 60’s, after so much time had passed since then. Then he talks of groping in darkness and feeling the pain of millions. This line speaks of how hard it is when, like I said so much time has passed and so little has changed. The riots that are talked about in New Thoughts of the Black Art Movement reflect the feelings in the poem. This shows that like the article said the poets and artists played a big role in speaking for the people and portraying the feelings of many as Randall says, I feel the pain of millions.