Walking Down Park

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1996

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Themes

The Lasting Effects of Colonization

Throughout “Walking Down Park,” the speaker asks readers if they ever wonder what America was like before colonization. The speaker starts by asking what “[three major streets] looked like before [they were] avenue[s]” (Line 5), before there were roads in general, and before the grass was rolled up into a “ball” (Line 17) and called Central Park. The speaker is asking readers to consider what life was like before the arrival of Europeans. At the same time, asking this question draws attention to Europeans and the changes they made. The speaker does not draw a picture of life prior to colonization, but she does interrogate the effects and proof of that colonization and offer an alternative view.

The speaker describes the environment not as it was but as it is now, with the “syphilitic dogs / and their two-legged tubercular / masters” (Lines 19-21). She acknowledges Times Square—calling it “time’s squares” (Line 30)—and the grass rolled “into a ball and called / […] central park” (Lines 17-18). These descriptions suggest that the speaker is asking the reader to imagine a world prior to colonization despite being unable to undo the effects of colonization she sprinkles in throughout the poem.

One of the biggest thematic concerns in the poem is just how much the landscape is recognizable due to how it has changed, and the poem suggests that colonizers intentionally used so much asphalt to cover up the memory of Indigenous tribes. This revelation makes the colonizers even more insidious, because they robbed the present generation of knowing the full scope of American history due to the lasting effects of colonization.

Freedom’s Freedom

The speaker tackles the overarching theme of freedom by asking, “ever, did you ever, sit down / and wonder about what freedom’s freedom / would bring” (Lines 37-39). The poem’s audience is universal, yet this particular line suggests the speaker is in conversation with African American readers in particular. When the speaker writes “freedom’s freedom” (Line 38), the phrase resonates even more because the speaker references the personal freedom enslaved people received when they obtained their legal freedom, i.e., when slavery ended, and what that so-called freedom brought the formerly enslaved and their descendants.

This question about freedom’s freedom implies that freedom comes with choices, and the speaker may be suggesting that knowing what to do with freedom is a challenge of its own. Formerly enslaved people did not know how to prepare for their future lives, and even that freedom had limits. This freedom came with the effects and limitations of colonization on society and the environment in the form of racism, discriminatory housing practices, and other acts of violence that kept most Black people segregated. Without governmental oversight or resources, plantation owners quickly tricked formerly enslaved individuals into indebting themselves to landowners, thus replicating their previous captivity.

Despite rampant violence, the poem’s speaker informs readers that freedom itself is easy because it begins with loving oneself (Lines 40-44). Given the context of the poem in the Black Arts Movement, the instruction to love “those who look like you” is a call for African Americans to treat one another with respect, and oftentimes against social messaging to the contrary. The speaker assures readers that “all else will come / naturally” (Lines 43-44) if they can first love themselves.

Freedom of the Imagination

The speaker asks readers whether they think, wonder, or imagine. The first part posits a hypothetical. She can’t know if the reader has done these things. The repetition of “stopped” in the poem implies that readers would need to cease activity—perhaps cease the movement of history or stop complying with a capitalist, Eurocentric America. The verbs think, wonder, ask, see, want, and know all describe the power of the imagination and independent thinking. By asking readers if they have done these things, the speaker is asking if readers have developed a mind of their own, a mind that can see a world beyond what is right in front of their faces, and consider an alternate future and an alternate past.

The poem’s repetitive questions suggest the speaker invites readers to think about the past, presupposing readers might already have these ideas and visions on their own. The first set of questions point to a true, knowable past. Before the arrival of Europeans, there was no asphalt, no roads, no stock exchange. However, the later questions depict more fantastical, imaginative scenes.

In the third stanza, the speaker includes idyllic scenes of nature and playful animals coexisting with everyday human spaces like “the third floor apartment” (Line 36). This is the poem’s most fantastical stanza, depicting a reality that has never existed and never could. The “tall Birch trees with sycamores / touching hands” (Lines 31-32) is a real image one might see in many parts of the United States but not in Times Square, because the area is so paved over with asphalt and crowded with people.

However, “gazelles running playfully / after the lions” (Lines 33-34) depicts a scene that goes against the typical power dynamics of nature. Usually, predators like lions run after gazelles. By reversing this expectation, the speaker is inviting the reader to imagine possible what they might otherwise deem impossible. The lion and gazelle might also be emblematic of all predators and prey. Inviting the reader to imagine the gazelle running after the lion “playfully” (Line 33) is tantamount to asking the reader to imagine a world where everyone is safe and nobody kills or gets killed. Likewise, when the speaker asks the reader if they have “[heard] the antelope bark / from the third floor apartment” (Lines 35-36), the speaker posits a world in which human beings and animals live close together, a world where people have advanced to the point of developing shelter while also maintaining relationships with animals.

The last question—“ever think its possible / for us to be / happy” (Lines 61-63)—suggests that radical freedom can lead to happiness. The question implies that there are those who have never stopped to consider that they could be happy, and there are many who believe it is too late or too difficult to be happy. Still, the speaker assures readers that freedom and happiness are easy to obtain, or at least they can be easy, if individuals love themselves and others. The last question, and the poem as a whole, leaves the choice of how to answer this question up to the reader.