Adam Sobel Week 9 - Poetry Blog: "Eulogy for Her" By: Aziza Barnes

     In "Eulogy for Her", Aziza is describing her attendance at her aunt's funeral. Aziza describes her mixed feelings about her aunt and her funeral and talks about how our personal memory of people can differ from how we are supposed to remember them.

    In the poem, she starts off by saying, "I stood over the body of someone I was supposed to love". This quote instantly got my attention because I wanted to know what she was feeling and why she wasn't feeling any love towards this person. She uses a very monotone voice to describe her aunt's illness. She says that her bones had gone brittle and that "no marrow would take" like she was simply creating a list. I feel like this was meant to demonstrate how Aziza was feeling emotionless towards this person even though she was supposed to love her.

    Later, Aziza describes why she doesn't like her aunt. Apparently she could get physical with her and her cousins and she was very good at aggravating her own mom. But, at the end of the funeral, she had to go up and make a eulogy about how much she loved this woman. She feels greatly conflicted about this eulogy because she's supposed to pretend that she loves this person even though she doesn't.

    I feel that everybody has people in their lives that they don't love being there even though they are told they have to care for them or love them regardless. I think Aziza was very brave in describing how, sometimes, we can't just love people because others tell us to. We have to love people because of their character and how they treat us, not because we feel obligated to.


Poem Link

Aziza Barnes - Poets House

Comments

  1. AnonymousNovember 21, 2022 at 5:14 AM

    I understand Barnes's conflict. It is difficult to care about someone who you should love but they have wronged you. Ultimately, I believe family is by chance, but who you love and care about should be because of your own choice.

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  2. AnonymousDecember 14, 2022 at 4:01 PM

    I think that Barnes's internal conflict is very real. I relate to it immensely. Being expected to feel love towards someone after they had wronged you and hurt you is definitely something I have experienced. It feels as though you are forced to contradict yourself and I feel that Barnes displayed that very well.

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