Link to the poem: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/47895
This is one of the first poems that I have read by Sherman Alexie that does not have a large amount of humor in it. Through the poem instead of a humorous tone there is a very sarcastic critical undertone. The overall idea of the poem is to discuss the intrusion of the government and people on the Indian’s land. Everyone tells they should simply forgive, but he creates this poem saying he will forgive after a series of events occurs, which would eventually lead to the Indians being able to reclaim their land.
Alexie uses a lot of repetition in this poem stating at the beginning of each sentence, “I am told by many of you that I must forgive and so I shall after…” By using this repetition throughout the poem he thoroughly reiterates the idea that everyone has told him he must forgive, but he himself does not feel that he has to forgive anyone and instead they should be apologizing to him. This sentence structure is what leads to the critical and sarcastic undertone. It’s very ironic that him or the Indians as a whole, which he has depicted himself to sort of represent, are told they should be the ones who forgive when in reality it should be the people forgiving to them because it was the people and government who took the land from them in the first place.
The most important line in the poem to me is, “I am told by many of you that I must forgive and so I shall when I am dancing with my tribe during the powwow at the end of the world.” This is the very last line in the entire poem and represents the theme of the entire poem very well. This is the line where the reader should make the realization, if they have not already, that he will not forgive until he has what is rightfully his. He feels once his entire tribe is back in their home, they place they truly belong, then he can forgive for those who took from them. Until that point nothing will change. The title is very important in relation with this line. It is obviously the title of the poem, but what can be seen is that he doesn't think the Indians will ever get their land back until this powwow at the end of the world. They have to wait until the end of the world when these floods he has described have gone through the country and a series of other events has happened.
An important symbol within the poem is the salmon he describes. The salmon is one of the main focuses of the poem and after the first 3 sentences the poem is all about this salmon from the pacific. In this instance the salmon is not just a normal fish because as it arrive at Aleixe’s home in the country it jumps out of the water and shoots a lightning bolt to start a fire to lead the Indians home. After they all arrive it tells them three stories of how to pray, one that makes them laugh for hours, and the third which will give them reason to dance. I think this salmon is symbolic of the dreams and wishes of the Indians. It is almost as if the salmon is a God like figure and I think that it is possible the the Gods the Indians believe in could have sent that salmon.
This poem sticks out a lot to me from Alexie’s other poems because of how little humor is involved. This is the first one that I have seen that doesn't involve some form of humor. Even in some of his poems where he talks about more grim subjects he finds a way to add humor into them. Since this can't be seen in this poem I think it shows how truly committed to this ideal he is and how much he truly cares about it. He doesn't want to just make another joke about it. I think he feels if he were to be humorous about this subject people wouldn't take him as seriously and it would take away from the meaning of this poem. In all his other poems he is able to use humor to contribute to the meaning and it still represents his true feelings but in this he can't do that.
I enjoyed this poem very much. I really liked the structure of it and the repetition hr uses to create a story while still staying true to his theme. I think it is very important that we read and think about what he has said here because many of the Indians have lost their land and lives and people just expect that they should be happy because we have “helped” when in reality we have just made their lives worse. They were happy as they were and they should not have anyone be able to stop them in practicing what they believe in.