Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note, Amiri Baraka (1961)

Lately, I've become accustomed to the way

The ground opens up and envelopes me

Each time I go out to walk the dog.

Or the broad edged silly music the wind

Makes when I run for a bus...

Things have come to that.

And now, each night I count the stars.

And each night I get the same number.

And when they will not come to be counted,

I count the holes they leave.

Nobody sings anymore.

And then last night I tiptoed up

To my daughter's room and heard her

Talking to someone, and when I opened

The door, there was no one there...

Only she on her knees, peeking into

Her own clasped hands

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QUESTIONS

1. What is the mood of the speaker in the opening lines? What images suggest his feelings?
2. What is the significance of the daughter's gesture of peeking into "her own clasped hands"?
3. What does this title mean? How does it explain the closing line?
4. Why does Baraka have three short lines, separated as stanzas? How do they convey the message of the poem?
5. Why does Baraka begin stanzas with "Lately," "And now," and "And then"? What do these transition words accomplish?
6. How does the speaker feel about his daughter? What does she represent to him?

ANSWER
1. The mood of the speaker in the opening was discouragement. This can be proved by stanza one. Everything done by him looks common and uninterested. In addition, he thinks a lot. Hence, it also proven that he/she was depressed.

Each time I go out to walk the dog.

Or the broad edged silly music the wind

Makes when I run for a bus...

2. The significance of the daughter's gesture of peeking into "her own clasped hands" is, the daughter still have some hopes. it was really different with her father who just pessimistic.

3. The title itself ‘Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide’ shows about death. It’s not about the natural death, but it’s about an action that might be happens in the stage of loose of hope because of depression. Finally, he gets inspired by his own daughter. No matter how, he have to face all the problems.


4. All the three short lines represent the conclusion for each of the stanza. “Things have come to that” summarize about his daily activity becomes uninterested to him. “Nobody sings anymore” summarize about the loose of hope. Finally, “Her own clasped hands” summarize about his daughter’s action that inspired him to not getting in suicide.

5. He begins all the stanzas with transition words because he wanted to make it as a timeline. Reader can easily understand about what he felt and what his decision was.

6. The speaker feels his daughter also can understand or realize with what he had go through. His daughter also represents an answer from God that he still get chance to change the action and as a hope that motivates him to continue his life.

REFFERENCE

Schmidt, Jan Zlotnik and Lynne Crockett, eds. Portable Legacies. Boston : Cengage Learning Wdsworth, 2009. 405.