Re-read "To Elsie" (WCW, Coll Poems, pp. 217-19) before class begins, and ponder the final stanza: No one to witness and adjust, not one to drive the car If it is your interpretation of the poem that the image of the driverless car is on the whole a positive thing, sit on the windows side of the room. Be prepared to state your position in relation to the rest of the poem. What is WCW saying about America? If it is your interpretation of the poem that the image of the driverless car is on the whole a negative thing, sit on the door side of the room. Be prepared to state your position in relation to the rest of the poem. What is WCW saying about America? If it is your interpretation of the poem that the image of the driverless car is a wholly and thoroughgoingly ambiguous thing--or if you cannot decide what you think about it--sit in the back middle of the room. Be prepared to state your position in relation to the rest of the poem. What is WCW saying about America? And if in the course of discussion you find yourself agreeing with door or window side, please MOVE.When considering Williams's attitude toward the cultural (including ethnic and racial) melange that he finds both fearful and alluring in Elsie, you might want to consider the story of the legal problem of the Golden Hill Paugussetts of Connecticut, a Native American tribe that found itself in the position of having to certify its authenticity legally-- raising the question of what it is to be "native" and what kind of question that is.
POETRY HOME | ENGLISH 88 READING LIST | POETRY NEWS | FILREIS HOME
Document URL: http://www.english.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/to-elsie-position.html
Last modified: Wednesday, 18-Jul-2007 16:29:04 EDT