Not an Elegy for Mike Brown

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2014

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Themes

Mythology

Stanzas 6-12 make a number of allusions to mythology, accentuating mythology’s allegorical—and in turn, fictional—quality. With this denotation in mind, Smith juxtaposes a myth that centers whiteness against the very real narratives of the Black community.

While historians have long suspected the Trojan war—Sparta’s 10-year siege of Troy—was a real historical event, the version relayed through Homer’s Iliad is mythological, and it was sparked by the kidnapping (actually, in Homer’s account, elopement) of Spartan King Menelaus’s beautiful wife, Queen Helen. Helen, characterized as the “white girl” (Line 12), was never harmed in the conflict because she never existed. However, Mike Brown—along with countless other Black people—did exist, dying very real, very painful deaths at the hands of the police and a system that protects whiteness over Blackness. This thematic concern is central in understanding the sheer depth of the roots of racial inequality in the fabric of American society in particular.

The bare fact of the poem’s inclusion of Greek mythology is an oblique commentary on Black American marginalization. A story near the heart of Western civilization, the Trojan War and all its lofty mythological trappings spring so easily to mind that the white figures, like Helen, are part of Western vocabulary, working as shorthand for virtues like beauty. In contrast, there is no storied Western equivalent where Black figures are valorized and immortalized. America is destitute of such a celebrated narrative from which to draw cultural identity. This contrast plays into the poem’s focus on Black erasure.

Poetry as a Political Response

Smith is adamant that their poem is “not an elegy” but rather something much more active. It can be argued that Smith is the speaker, responding to the world around them and then disseminating their opinions through poetry in real time. Smith views poetry as a form of activism that both illustrates and exposes societal inequities in order to open up a dialogue about marginalization issues that are otherwise silenced across mainstream media. Section 1 of the poem (Stanzas 1-5) portrays the inherent challenges of being Black in America, characterizing lived Black experiences through repeated images of death. Section 2 (Stanzas 6-12) then foregrounds white privilege within society. The rhetoric of political activism is most clearly apparent in Stanza 11 when the speaker “demand[s] a war to bring the dead boy back / no matter what his name is this time” (20-21). The lines create a conversation around the dehumanization and murder of Black boys, particularly at the hands of the police, to open up a larger conversation, seeking positive, societal change.

Namelessness and Indignity

Save for the title and the fleeting, abstracted allusion to the Trojan War—“Troy got shot” (Line 14)—the poem is bereft of names. The absence symbolizes the indignity given to the Black victims of police violence, and it is resonant with the poem’s other depersonalizing diction and imagery: The speaker references the “boy” (Lines 2, 20) with the “same old body” (Line 2), “ordinary” (Line 3), “thing” (Line 4). While Helen, too, is unnamed beyond “white girl” (Line 12), the namelessness of Helen is thoroughly ironic; the fact that a reader can still (and likely effortlessly) infer her specific identity is a testament to the dignity and power culturally ascribed to her. Even the name “Troy” (Line 14) is an extension of Helen’s story, and this allusive “Troy” (Line 14) is being shot.

Simultaneous with the indignity of anonymity, however, the namelessness paradoxically suggests a multitude of names—a reflection of the innumerable nature of these murders. Not only does the namelessness allow the “boy” (Lines 2, 20) to represent the countless other such Black victims of racist police violence, but it speaks to the fact that there are too many names to address in a single poem: The murdered boy now has a “new name” (Line 2), and there is an injunction to war to bring “the dead boy back / no matter what his name this time” (Lines 21-22). Even the opening line immediately suggests the overwhelming number of these names and deaths: “I am sick of writing this poem” (Line 1).

The poem ultimately uses namelessness to express the dignifying necessity of names. The speaker demands a “song” (Line 22), or a memorial that would honor the victim’s identity. The title’s inclusion of a specific name—Mike Brown—already reports the poem’s dignifying perspective.