“at the cemetery, walnut grove plantation, South Carolina, 1989” by Lucille Clifton and "Song" by Adrienne RichCompare the rhythm of these two...

"at the cemetery, walnut grove plantation, South Carolina,
1989" by Lucille Clifton describes the unmarked graves of slaves who were responsible
for building a majestic plantation in South Carolina, and asks why they were considered
so unimportant that they were not even mentioned as people who helped to build the
plantation on a tour she took of the property.

"Song" by
Adrienne Rich discusses what loneliness is, but with irony she asserts—based on
situations described—that loneliness may not match the definition the reader might
attribute to the word. Additionally, the title of the poem may add some initial
confusion to the reader.

The rhythm Clifton uses resembles
a chant or a prayer. This is appropriate for the poem's theme of slaves who helped to
build a plantation into a beautiful and successful "business" who were later placed in
unmarked graves. The men were only listed on inventories as property, and the women were
so poorly thought of, that they were not listed anywhere. The prayer is said over these
dead whose lives mattered despite the fact that those people that "owned" them showed
them no regard as human beings. The poem is written as if Clifton tries to put their
spirits at rest and honor their existence.

The rhythm in
"Song" is more syncopated, almost musical in nature; the poem's title is, after all,
"Song." The author's definition of lonely is not what we might expect: she writes of a
plane flying over the beautiful Rockies (mountains); of a woman driving cross-country
who passes through towns where she chooses not to spend the rest of
her life; of waking on a cold, beautiful morning while the contentment of others
sleeping surrounds one with peace; and, of a rowboat that man be frozen in the ice, but
knows it is not something passing or passive, but something that has the "gift of
burning"—the ability to burn means the ability to give life. Fire has always been
associated with life (i.e. Prometheus gives man fire), and the image does not bring with
it an sense of loneliness, which is, I believe, the intent of all
the examples provided in the poem. The main idea here may be that not all who are alone
are lonely.