Jessie+Redmon+Fauset,+Period+1

=Jessie Redmon Fauset:=
 * By Eric Todd**

Jessie Redmon Fauset was born on April 27, 1882, in Snow Hill, New Jersey. Her father was an African American minister, and her mother died when she was young. Her father remarried to Bella Huff so that she could take care of his kids. As Jessie began to grow up, she attended Philidelphia's High School for Girls, where she was the only African American girl that attended (Criswell). After gradutating from high school in 1900, she attended Cornell University, where she studied classical languages. After graduating from Cornell University, she applied fro many teachers jobs in the Eastern U.S., but was denied based on her race and sex (fauset, afropoets.net).

After finding a job and teaching for 14 years, she was asked by W.E.B. DuBois if she would move to Harlem, New York to become an editor for the Crisis magazine, the official magazine for the NAACP. As an editor, she got to read and sponser many of the works of the Harlem Renaissance in the magazine. The material she read prompted her to write her own poems and short stories to submit to the magazine (fauset, afropoets.net). She was not given large recognition for her literature contributions in the Harlem Rennaissance, but they were still significant examples of the themes of the Harlem Renaissance (Criswell). Jessie Fauset tried to express her feelings through her novels, which mostly consisted of perceptions of a black lifestyle and self identification for African Americans (Fauset!). By expressing her feelings on her perceptions of a black lifestyle and self identification, she was able to gain some recgonition for her views and her literature (fauset, afropoets.net). The main focus of her literature was for self-identification for African Americans.

Jessie Redmon Fauset died on April 30, 1961, but her legacy and her literature still lives on, proclaiming her standpoints on the themes of the Harlem Renaissance and self identification for African Americans (Fauset Biography).

= //**__Poetry Analysis:__**// = = **Enigma ** =

There is no peace with you, Nor any rest! Your presence is a torture to the brain. Your words are barbed arrows to the breast, And one but greets To wish you sped again. Frustrate you make desire And action vain. There is no peace with you. No peace. . . Nor any rest. Yet in your absence Longing springs anew, And hopefulness besets the baffled brain. "If only you were you and yet not you!" If you such joy could give as you give pain! <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Then what an unguent for the burning breast! <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">And for the harassed heart <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">What rapture true! <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">"If only you were you and yet not you!" <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">There is no peace with you <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Nor ever any rest! **//__<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt;">Written by Jessie Redmon Fauset (1882-1961) __//** (Enigma, Poem).

There is a lot of repetition and symbolism in the poem. The title stands out to me, it shows that all of the poem is a symbol or sign, or enigma to mean something else significant about the poem. It is sad and happy throughout the poem, sort of switching off between them. There is almost no structure to the poem, so it is a free verse. The speaker has mixed feelings buot the person she is addressing. The speaker is the poet and she is addressing her friend and her situation she has when she is with and away from him. The tone of the poem is a sad peom, it addresses sadness first and shwos how he gets rid of sadness, but only when he is gone and she has a feeling of loneliness, so the tone is a sad, lonely one. Baffled- Confused, perplexed,bewildered. Unguent-Ointment or salve for appliction to wounds. Brain:Thoughts, intelligence, smart, logicality, wise, exact, and contemplative. Breast:Heart, feelings, emotion, deepness, softness, tenderness, truth, direction, and correctness. Longing Springs Anew (12) is an allusion to a new year after a dreary winter, the poet is longing for happiness to come back into her life after not having it for a long time. Jessie Redmon Fauset feels that there is both a good and bad side to everyone, and most everything else as well. She fought for this and it can be seen in her poem when she says "If only you were you and yet not you."(14,19) She is talking to her friends but also those that read her poem are part of her audience as well. She is talking to all when she says this, and she means that we are both good and bad in our nature. She tries to promote the good things about people, but she addresses the bad in people as well. The <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">main theme for this poem is about change. She addresses what people do wrong in life and how it affects others like herself. She longed for people to change in the way they act, and in self expression, because when they did not change, they made her feel tortured and terrible. She was also concerned about how they could make up what they had done before by giving back.(12,14-15)
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"> There is a lot of symbolism in this poem. The title "Enigma" (0) is a symbol of the person the speaker is addressing. " Your presence is a torture to the brain."(3) this line is a metaphor of his presence, how it is similar to torture. "Your words are barbed arrows to the breast ." (4) This is another metaphor to what he says comparing them to barbed arrows that hurt her feelings when he talks. "Longing Springs Anew"(12) is a symbol of something new, after a dark time, something new and bright appears, such as the spring after winter. All of these symbols show how she wants the man, or the world, which he symbolizes, to change because if it doesn't, she becomes sad, and the world will be hurt in multiple ways.

"Then what an unguent for the burning breast!" (16) This line is another metaphor of what the man, or the world, is like when they have changed their ways. The poet wants poeple to change the way they do things, and when they do, it becomes a salve for wounds, or it repairs the damage they have done. The meaning of the poem, to right the wrongs you have made in the world, is evident all throughout the poem and her other literary works as well. By strongly and constantly expressing her feelings about people and that they should change themselves for the better through her literature, she affects people around the world and inspires them by her poem to follow her advice to make the world a better place and to make people happy.

<span style="display: block; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center;"> **__<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 110%;">Works Cited __** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 27.5pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 40pt; text-indent: -40pt;">Criswell, Mandy. "Jessie Redmon Fauset." //The Pennsylvania Center for the Book//. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2011. [].

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 27.5pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 40pt; text-indent: -40pt;">"Enigma - Written by the African American Writer Jessie Redmon FausetÂ… Send this poem to a friend... "African American Poem"." //afropoet.net//. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2011. [].

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 27.5pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 40pt; text-indent: -40pt;">"Jessie Redmon Fauset Biography." //Famous Poets and Poems - Read and Enjoy Poetry//. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2011. [].

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 27.5pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 40pt; text-indent: -40pt;">"Jessie Redmon Fauset!." //Best Harlem Tours, Harlem People, Harlem Place, Cheap Gospel Tour Harlem, Harlemculture, Harlem Attractions//. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2011. [].

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 27.5pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 40pt; text-indent: -40pt;">"Jessie fauset, jessie redmon fauset, jessie redmon fauset poems, jessie fauset - Welcome to African-American Writer Jessie Fauset Webpage... Collection of poems written by Jessie Fauset can be found here... ( Jessie Redmon Fauset harlem renaissance, h." //afropoets.net//. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2011. [].