Reclaiming History In Rita Dove’s Poems

Abstract

The purpose of the present paper is to examine some of poems of Rita Dove in which she revisits the past in order to construct a present and invokes the future as well. Dove, through her poems, points out to those souls that were lost in slavery and honors their memory by remembering them. She gives them a voice, which they did not have, as well trying to create a collective consciousness, which they were deprived off. Her voice speaks for every human being who has died into slavery, along with those generations who felt its consequences. Thus the purpose is to examine how Rita Dove reclaims the history of slavery and its aftermath in her poems.