Emma Ruch
Zong! By M. NourbeSe Philip focuses on the ship Zong and the neglection and mistreatment Captain Luke Collingwood had towards the enslaved Africans on the ship. The poems in Zong! are to tribute and memorializing the death of the enslaved people who lost their lives on the ship. The format of the poems leads to confusion and frustration as the reader is putting it together. This is because Philip’s takes the idea as a whole and breaks it down by separating words, using fragments of words, filling the page with blank spaces, and using repetition of specific words throughout the page. This specific format pulls emotion out of the reader by trying to get them to understand what is trying to be said. It is almost as if there is a full article of someone speaking about a topic, and Philip pulls out words and letters from the text to focus on the importance of what is trying to be said. The reason this could be frustrating is that the reader is going to have a hard time piecing together what is being said because the message is not always clear.
Knowing the fact that the ship was overcrowded and had about double the amount of desired people for the size of the ship, there began to be a need for a water supply. This causes the Captain to think of many ways they can reduce the amount of water being consumed, so there is enough for everyone on the ship. With a lack of water and resources, Collingwood decided that it would be best to massacre more than 130 Africans on the ship. The text states, “Captain Luke Collingwood is of the belief that if the African slaves on board die a natural death, the owners of the ship will have to bear the cost, but if they were ‘thrown alive into the sea, it would be the loss of the underwriters” (Philips – 189). This quote inherently reveals the cause for the ‘need’ to massacre the innocent people, so the British workers on the ship can still be provided with basic needs. Collingwood tries to cover up his actions of this gruesome action by saying the enslaved people have died due to natural causes of being on the ship. Being a white male he had the advantage to get away with these unforgivable acts stated in the text as, “The ship’s owners begin legal action against their insurers to recover their loss. A jury finds the insurers liable and orders them to compensate the ship’s owners for their loss — their murdered slaves” (Philips- 189). This proves that the jury did not take into consideration the whole case because the idea of it does not seem logical.
Zong #1 focuses on both the ideas above (the format of the specific poem and the need for water) put into a poem. Philip’s writes Zong #1 almost as a cry for help. Reading through this poem it is almost as reading a person struggling to ask for water. This constant need for water is based on the water storage from the ship, and the stutter of words and sentences. Although throughout the whole poem is letters spread out, towards the end it is clear that the words “water” and “want of water” are being stated throughout the whole poem. This poem would be challenging to interpret if the ending of the book was not read with the background story of what inspired these poems to be. There can be an overall theme of water being looked upon in this poem. It is obvious that there is a call for the need for water on the ship, but it can also be connected to the fact that these innocent enslaved Africans are being thrown overboard into the water as well. It is almost as if the whole theme of this poem revolves around water. This repetitive call for water, “wa te r wat er wa ter of w ant” (Philips – 4) proves that the speaker is gasping for air in between each pace of words. After considering the fact of the circumstances going on, this could be interpreted in two different ways on what the author was trying to tell the reader. Although the enslaved people were probably talking about the need for drinking water, considering the events going on and the treatment they are getting, it could be interpreted that they are calling for the water outside of the boat.
Discussion Questions:
- How is the format of Philip’s poems different from ones usually focused on in school curriculum? Explain your answer with what stands out about the appearance of this structured poem.
- How would you explain the legal system during the time of the Gregson v. Gilbert case?
- In what different ways can you interpret Zong #1. How does this meaning connect to the overall historical background of the Zong ship?
Philip, M. NourbeSe. Zong! Wesleyan University Press, 2008.
Hi Emma, great job on your blog post! I liked your analysis of Zong #1 and found it to be well-written. Regarding your first question, we see that M. NourbeSe Philip’s poems are written in a confusing way and different from typical poems. Philip’s states “the poems resist my attempts at meaning or coherence and, at times, I too approach the irrationally and confusion, if not madness (madness is outside of the box order), of a system that could enable, encourage even, a man to drown 150 people as a way to maximize profits-the material and the nonmaterial” (Philip 195). In other words, Philip’s is left confused and full of rage regarding the tragic murdering of 150 African American slaves. Philip’s took these emotions she experienced and decided to incorporate them into her poems. These poems leave us confused and frustrated similar to how Philip’s feels about the killing of African Americans on the Zong ship. In these poems, there are letters randomly spaced throughout the page and it is hard to decipher words. This is different from poems we usually read in school because Philip’s poems are structured in an unordinary way and are more difficult to read. We have been taught to read from left to right and to read down the page, but Philip’s poems break these norms. Poems that I have read in the past have been more clear and easier to read, while Philip’s poems are challenging. What stood out to me was how each poem had their own distinct pattern and organization of letters and words. These poems are not similar to any poems I have read before. The organization of these poems can leave us as readers, with an unclear meaning.
Hi Emma! This was a great blog post! The title you gave it really grabbed my attention! As for your first question, these poems are very different from most poems someone would read in a school curriculum. Philip writes for pages about her use of language in this book, and how she deeply distrusts language. Poetry does not have a set format, poetry can be whatever the poet wants it to be, thus, Philip writes, “Poetry comes the closest to this latter type of communication — is, indeed, rooted in it — not only in pushing, against the boundaries of language, but in the need for each poet to speak in his or her own tongue” (Philip 197).
Typically, when you think of poetry, you may think of Robert Frost or think of a set format, line by line; However in Zong!, the words are scattered and spaced apart, and seem like they might not make a lot of sense. This is because each poet has their own way in delivering a poem or message. These poems are unlike anything I have ever read, which is why I personally had to read over them more than once, and was still unclear as to what the message was that Philip was trying to deliver.
Hi Emma, good job on your blog post! I liked how you described the way the poems are formatted and how this format pulls emotion out of the reader by trying to get you to understand what is trying to be said. Something that stood out to me is the amount of spacing in the poems and how the text is not in a specific format, rather all over the page. Philip says “when I start spacing out the words, there is something happening in the eye tracking of the words across the page, working to pull the page and larger meaning together” (Philip 192). This spacing and randomization of the words could lead people to be confused on the meaning but as continue to read the poems, the meaning starts to become clearer. Regarding your first question, this format that Philip uses is quite different than the ones that we focus on in school. One poet that comes to mind when thinking of “normal” structured poems is Emily Dickinson. In her poems you would read them from left to right and continue to the next line in a sequential order. This is different than Philips, as his poems are scattered all across the page and one might not know how to read them at first glance. These poems are not like anything I have seen and I was confused on what Philip was trying to communicate to the reader.
Hi Emma! I thought you did a great job on your blog post. I also thought question 1, on how Zhong’s poems are different from poems we learn about in the school curriculum. Personally, I really enjoy poems. I like that there can be different meanings, structures, styles, and no one’s choice is wrong. Zhong’s style isn’t like the average every other rhyme, ABAB or AABB. I felt his use of “stutter” in his structure was a good idea and help of trying to capture the story. “Poetry comes the closest to this latter type of communication – is, indeed, rooted in it – not only in pushing, against the boundaries of language, but in the need for each poet to speak in his or her own tongue” (Philip, 197). Zhong uses his own style of poetry for his own personal style or “his own tongue.” He literally wrote the words as if he was speaking, he uses fragmented sentences and spaces in between letters to emphasize words. For example, when he says “water” he spaces the letters apart because he wants to draw emphasis that they had a water shortage and their mouths are so dry from dehydration. Zhong’s style is definitely harder to immediately grasp his meaning but creative as well.
Hey Emma!! I really enjoyed reading your blog post. I found your intake on this chapter very fascinating as you explained Phillips’ unique writing style and how it draws the reader’s in. To answer your first question, these poems are very different from most poems read in a school curriculum due to numerous reasons. For instance, when typically reading poetry in school it is usually structured in a sequence that we are able to fully comprehend and understand. Phillips uses a unique writing style of spacing apart words and scattering it all over the pages in order to develop his central theme of the story. Philip quotes “The ones I like best are those where the poem escapes the net of complete understanding- where the poem is shot through with glimmers of meaning” (Philip 192). This allows the readers to initially feel confused at first by Philip’s powerful words until they understand his dramatic purpose of writing so the readers feel his emotions with the scattered and spaced out words almost like how punctuation is used.
Hi Emma I enjoyed reading your blog post! To answer your first question, this book is written differently from other books I have read and is unique in the way that it isn’t written for readers to completely understand rather it allows us to interpret its meaning. The books relies on letters and syllables on some pages which helped create a lot of tension. For example when Philip uses individual letters and syllables to write out water “wa ter of w ant” (Philip 4) this emphasizes the emotion of desperation and strong need for water on this ship. By writing this way it allows the words to tell a story in a way that readers interpret for themselves. These poems can initially be harder to understand with the way they are written, however I feel that they are designed this way for that reason so as readers we can comprehend the emotion and tension of the poems.
Hey Emma, great blog post! I really loved how you used this blog post not only to talk about the obvious “strange” format but also to really analyze the meaning of Zong! #1 based off of what this book is a tribute to, which is the neglection Captain Luke Collingwood has towards enslaved Africans on this ship. I feel your blog post really clarified this chapter for everyone. It was very interesting to see how you equated Phillips words in Zong#1 directly to the need for water that these unfortunate enslaved Africans had to endure all because of Collingwood. To answer your first discussion question, Phillip’s format that she uses for her poems is very different due to the fact that these poems don’t follow the usual guidelines were are all accustomed to see. While we are used to seeing each word separated by a single space, Phillip’s poems have words separated by many spaces, even one word or thought is separated by spaces. Along with the difference in spacing Phillip uses other unusual literary techniques such as the use of different fonts, incomplete words, and different text sizes. For example Phillip writes “wa ter of w ant” (Phillip 4), just from visually looking at the poems you can clearly see this untraditional/unfamiliar format.