Dramatic Monologue: [American Journal]

For my dramatic monologue, I chose [American Journal] by Robert Hayden, which you can find here.

A dramatic monologue is a poem in which the poet, through an assumed voice (through a certain voice, fictional character, etc), speaks to an assumed audience. The poem provides just the speaker's perspective and leaves interpretation up to the reader.

[American Journal] is interesting because the speaker is an alien sent to earth to observe Americans. It sounds a little out there, but Hayden does it in an effecting and unexpected way. The poem is set up somewhat like a journal, but more of a stream-of-consciousness with disconnected thoughts and fragmented sentences. Hayden does a good job of detatching himself and providing an outside view of Americans and presenting an "alien" persona.

The poem points out many flaws in Americans, from our "intricate waste left behind" to our "cruelties to one another." It even goes as far to as to comment on the American value of freedom, questioning "what do / they fear mistrust betray more than the freedom / they boast of in their ignorant pride." While some of the speaker's comments and observations of the "enlightened primatives" in America may seem disparaging, I think this is an ultimately patriotic poem. Even though the speaker immerses himself among Americans and his "skill in mimicry is impeccable," there is some intrinsic quality, "some constant amid the variables / [that] defies analysis and imitation," that one cannot pinpoint but that is undeniably American. The reader can see this most clearly in the envoi (a short stanza at the end of a poem that addresses an imagined or actual person or comments on the preceding body of the poem) at the end. Despite all of the faults the speaker has found with the Americans, he is "attracted nonetheless" to "their elan vital and that some thing essence / quiddity i cannot penetrate or name."