jasper texas 1998

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1998

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Symbols & Motifs

The Speaker’s Body

Clifton uses Byrd’s body to emphasize the difficulty and reality of living in a Black body. Black skin is a visible and permanent marker of difference. Here, the body is both the murderers’ justification for violence, and also the site of the violence. In addition, the destruction of the body reflects the historical destruction of Black lives and culture. We get graphic descriptions of the severed slumped head, arm, and hand, which are given the agency of action and voice.

In a crime, the body becomes an important source of evidence. The physical body is the site of forensic evidence that can help give insight into the crime. In the real-life investigation of the crime, Byrd’s body helped determine facts, such as how long Byrd survived during the lynching. But in the poem, Clifton allows Byrd’s body to testify by speaking for itself and acting as a witness to the crime. The body, whether described by forensic experts or by a poet, acts as the most important source of information about the crime.

Dirt

In the final stanza, Clifton highlights the dirt surrounding the head of the dead man. The first reference to this substance is metaphorical: “the dirt covers us all” (Line 15), the speaker says, recalling a grave—the place where a deceased is ritually interred and covered by earth as a gesture of remembrance, peace, and dignity. Yet here, this mutilated and disrespected body remains unburied, baking in the sun as its blood drips “into the dirt” (Line 4). This dirt is literal—the grime of the road where the head of the dead man is lying. Rather than being part of a religiously ceremonial goodbye, this dust is a marker of disregard and misery. The speaker equates his oozing blood with “hope” (Line 14)—hope that is being besmirched by its surroundings. Instead of being an equalizer that eventually covers everyone, the dirt symbolizes the discord and tension in a divided America.

Blood

This poem symbolizes the tragedy of dying hope in America by connecting it to the blood flowing from the head’s mouth. Like blood, which is crucial to a body to live, hope is crucial for a person to flourish. As a result of the racial violence, Black people are losing faith in America and the promise of freedom and unity. The blood flows “slowly” (Line 14), just as racism and racial violence has slowly killed hope for change over the hundreds of years of American history.