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Native Guard: Poems
Winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry Former U.S. Poet Laureate, Natasha Trethewey’s Native Guard is a deeply personal volume that brings together two legacies of the Deep South. Through elegaic verse that honors her mother and tells of her own fraught childhood, Natasha Trethewey confronts the racial legacy of her native Deep South—--where one of the first black regiments, The Louisiana Native Guards, was called into service during the Civil War. The title of the collection refers to the black regiment whose role in the Civil War has been largely overlooked by history. As a child in Gulfport, Mississippi, in the 1960s, Trethewey could gaze across the water to the fort on Ship Island where Confederate captives once were guarded by black soldiers serving the Union cause. The racial legacy of the South touched Trethewey’s life on a much more immediate level, too. Many of the poems in Native Guard pay loving tribute to her mother, whose marriage to a white man was illegal in her native Mississippi in the 1960s. Years after her mother’s tragic death, Trethewey reclaims her memory, just as she reclaims the voices of the black soldiers whose service has been all but forgotten. Trethewey's resonant and beguiling collection is a haunting conversation between personal experience and national history.
64 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2006
About the author
Natasha Trethewey
42 books798 followersNatasha Trethewey is an American poet who was appointed United States Poet Laureate in June 2012; she began her official duties in September. She won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for her 2006 collection Native Guard, and she is the Poet Laureate of Mississippi.
She is the Robert W. Woodruff Professor of English and Creative Writing at Emory University, where she also directs the Creative Writing Program.
Trethewey was born in Gulfport, Mississippi, on April 26, 1966, Confederate Memorial Day, to Eric Trethewey and Gwendolyn Ann Turnbough, who were married illegally at the time of her birth, a year before the U.S. Supreme Court struck down anti-miscegenation laws with Loving v. Virginia. Her birth certificate noted the race of her mother as "colored", and the race of her father as “Canadian”.
Trethewey's mother, a social worker, was part of the inspiration for Native Guard, which is dedicated to her memory. Trethewey's parents divorced when she was young and Turnbough was murdered in 1985 by her second husband, whom she had recently divorced, when Trethewey was 19 years old. Recalling her reaction to her mother's death, she said, "that was the moment when I both felt that I would become a poet and then immediately afterward felt that I would not. I turned to poetry to make sense of what had happened".
Natasha Trethewey's father is also a poet; he is a professor of English at Hollins University.
Trethewey earned her B.A. in English from the University of Georgia, an M.A. in English and Creative Writing from Hollins University, and an M.F.A. in poetry from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1995. In May 2010 Trethewey delivered the commencement speech at Hollins University and was awarded an honorary doctorate. She had previously received an honorary degree from Delta State University in her native Mississippi.
Structurally, her work combines free verse with more structured, traditional forms like the sonnet and the villanelle. Thematically, her work examines "memory and the racial legacy of America". Bellocq's Ophelia (2002), for example, is a collection of poetry in the form of an epistolary novella; it tells the fictional story a mixed-race prostitute who was photographed by E. J. Bellocq in early 20th-century New Orleans.
The American Civil War makes frequent appearances in her work. Born on Confederate Memorial Day—exactly 100 years afterwards—Trethewey explains that she could not have "escaped learning about the Civil War and what it represented", and that it had fascinated her since childhood. For example, Native Guard tells the story of the Louisiana Native Guards, an all-black regiment in the Union Army, composed mainly of former slaves who enlisted, that guarded the Confederate prisoners of war.
On June 7, 2012, James Billington, the Librarian of Congress, named her the 19th US Poet Laureate. Billington said, after hearing her poetry at the National Book Festival, that he was "immediately struck by a kind of classic quality with a richness and variety of structures with which she presents her poetry … she intermixes her story with the historical story in a way that takes you deep into the human tragedy of it." Newspapers noted that unlike most poets laureate, Trethewey is in the middle of her career. She was also the first laureate to take up residence in Washington, D.C., when she did so in January 2013. On May 14, 2014, Tretheway delivered her final lecture to conclude her second term as US Poet Laureate.
(from Wikipedia)
She is the Robert W. Woodruff Professor of English and Creative Writing at Emory University, where she also directs the Creative Writing Program.
Trethewey was born in Gulfport, Mississippi, on April 26, 1966, Confederate Memorial Day, to Eric Trethewey and Gwendolyn Ann Turnbough, who were married illegally at the time of her birth, a year before the U.S. Supreme Court struck down anti-miscegenation laws with Loving v. Virginia. Her birth certificate noted the race of her mother as "colored", and the race of her father as “Canadian”.
Trethewey's mother, a social worker, was part of the inspiration for Native Guard, which is dedicated to her memory. Trethewey's parents divorced when she was young and Turnbough was murdered in 1985 by her second husband, whom she had recently divorced, when Trethewey was 19 years old. Recalling her reaction to her mother's death, she said, "that was the moment when I both felt that I would become a poet and then immediately afterward felt that I would not. I turned to poetry to make sense of what had happened".
Natasha Trethewey's father is also a poet; he is a professor of English at Hollins University.
Trethewey earned her B.A. in English from the University of Georgia, an M.A. in English and Creative Writing from Hollins University, and an M.F.A. in poetry from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1995. In May 2010 Trethewey delivered the commencement speech at Hollins University and was awarded an honorary doctorate. She had previously received an honorary degree from Delta State University in her native Mississippi.
Structurally, her work combines free verse with more structured, traditional forms like the sonnet and the villanelle. Thematically, her work examines "memory and the racial legacy of America". Bellocq's Ophelia (2002), for example, is a collection of poetry in the form of an epistolary novella; it tells the fictional story a mixed-race prostitute who was photographed by E. J. Bellocq in early 20th-century New Orleans.
The American Civil War makes frequent appearances in her work. Born on Confederate Memorial Day—exactly 100 years afterwards—Trethewey explains that she could not have "escaped learning about the Civil War and what it represented", and that it had fascinated her since childhood. For example, Native Guard tells the story of the Louisiana Native Guards, an all-black regiment in the Union Army, composed mainly of former slaves who enlisted, that guarded the Confederate prisoners of war.
On June 7, 2012, James Billington, the Librarian of Congress, named her the 19th US Poet Laureate. Billington said, after hearing her poetry at the National Book Festival, that he was "immediately struck by a kind of classic quality with a richness and variety of structures with which she presents her poetry … she intermixes her story with the historical story in a way that takes you deep into the human tragedy of it." Newspapers noted that unlike most poets laureate, Trethewey is in the middle of her career. She was also the first laureate to take up residence in Washington, D.C., when she did so in January 2013. On May 14, 2014, Tretheway delivered her final lecture to conclude her second term as US Poet Laureate.
(from Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 4, 2023
Es un libro de poesía muy cortito, que se lee en menos de una hora. El título, "guardia nativa", hace referencia a los soldados negros que lucharon por la Unión en la guerra civil estadounidense, fuera en batallones mixtos o únicamente negros. Las poesías se dividen en tres grupos: el primero está dedicado a la muerte de su madre (que fue asesinada por su segundo marido, padrastro de la autora); el segundo, a la historia de sus padres (que eran un canadiense blanco y una estadounidense negra, y debieron casarse en otro estado porque en el suyo había leyes anti miscegenación); y el tercero, a la guardia nativa del título y a las batallas de la guerra de Secesión en que participó.
El poemario está escrito en verso libre, cosa que no suele gustarme. Como en muchos poemas de estilo, al final acabo leyendo párrafos de texto normal y corriente escritos en líneas distintas de extensión aleatoria. La temática de estos poemas me ha resultado interesante; la ejecución, no. Si hubiera tratado los mismos temas en pequeños artículos o ensayos en vez de expresarlos con poesía, habría resultado mucho más atractivo, y creo que incluso sus sentimientos al respecto habrían calado más hondo. Por ejemplo, en un poema cuenta que ella era la única niña "de color" (mestiza o mulata, en realidad) de su clase, y que uno de sus profesores les puso fragmentos de Lo que el viento se llevó para que vieran lo bien que vivían los esclavos negros en las plantaciones, que eran tratados como parte de la familia, y que empezar una guerra para "liberarlos" fue una barbaridad. Y que ella no supo qué pensar ni qué decir después de esa clase. La anécdota es muy interesante, pero despacharla en cuatro versos hace que me implique menos en ella.
El poemario está escrito en verso libre, cosa que no suele gustarme. Como en muchos poemas de estilo, al final acabo leyendo párrafos de texto normal y corriente escritos en líneas distintas de extensión aleatoria. La temática de estos poemas me ha resultado interesante; la ejecución, no. Si hubiera tratado los mismos temas en pequeños artículos o ensayos en vez de expresarlos con poesía, habría resultado mucho más atractivo, y creo que incluso sus sentimientos al respecto habrían calado más hondo. Por ejemplo, en un poema cuenta que ella era la única niña "de color" (mestiza o mulata, en realidad) de su clase, y que uno de sus profesores les puso fragmentos de Lo que el viento se llevó para que vieran lo bien que vivían los esclavos negros en las plantaciones, que eran tratados como parte de la familia, y que empezar una guerra para "liberarlos" fue una barbaridad. Y que ella no supo qué pensar ni qué decir después de esa clase. La anécdota es muy interesante, pero despacharla en cuatro versos hace que me implique menos en ella.
May 25, 2013
Trethewey se mueve por el Mississipi.
Se mueve, también, entre dos aguas: la historia personal y la historia nacional.
Heredera de un pasado de esclavitud, la autora construye en estos poemas un bello testimonio sobre raza, libertad, familia y memoria.
Se mueve, también, entre dos aguas: la historia personal y la historia nacional.
Heredera de un pasado de esclavitud, la autora construye en estos poemas un bello testimonio sobre raza, libertad, familia y memoria.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews