Caravel Undergraduate Research Journal
Abstract
Southern Styles is a select four poems from a larger collection about rural life in the South and the extreme cultural and socioeconomic contrasts that exist in its people. As a southerner, it is often difficult for me to reconcile these extremes. Exploring these extremes through poetry has helped me to better understand how the beauty of the South co-exists along with the violence and inequalities. I use a sparse poetic form – short lines, few words – so that the important images do not get lost in a flood of language. For me, the socioeconomic and cultural contrasts in the South jar against one another abruptly and this style allows that conflict to be the focus of the poems. I hope that my poems will help readers view the South as if they are seeing a young African-American woman in tribal garb driving a minivan with a confederate flag bumper sticker – full of amazing contrasts that speak volumes, and perhaps not the same story to every person.
Recommended Citation
Parker, Cynthia
(2012)
"Southern Styles,"
Caravel Undergraduate Research Journal: Vol. 1, Article 7.
Available at:
https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/caravel/vol1/iss1/7