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INTRODUCTION
Understanding the real identity of authors and characters in works of literature is crucial, more
so if poetry is concerned. This is because some poets can at times seem to be quite vague to new
readers who are yet to grasp the identity-dynamics involved. Many authors and poets tend to
mirror some of their personal life experiences in their works of art. For this essay I will examine
the life and works of two renowned poets; focusing on how their identities have impacted on the
personas they create in their poems. The two poets are Richard Blanco and Olive Senior. Both
these esteemed writers faced harsh conditions in their native homes when growing up, and it is
this commonality that made me chose to focus on their poems.
Richard Blanco has received numerous awards and honourees for his unrelenting pursuit of
self-expression in various fields, but it is perhaps his background that laid the foundation for all
his creativity. In many of his works we see him highlighting the plight of immigrant families and
refugees in the US. Having moved to the States at a tender age with is then exiled parents and
extended family members; he had a front row seat of the daily struggles that were encountered.
In one of his most famous poems ‘América’ we can see how the persona laments about the poor
state of affairs, especially regarding food, (Blanco 34).

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Blanco’s rough upbringing is echoed by ‘América’; where he constantly juxtaposes the life of
other Americans compared to immigrant families. In the fourth stanza, the persona tries to
convince his family members to fries a turkey for Thanksgiving, (Blanco 64). This depicts how
difficult it is for foreigners to adjust to a new environment (country) completely. Apart from the
financial constraints that haunt the persona’s family, they are still skeptical about the holiday and
even prefer pork over turkey. Blanco brings this moment of sharing to life with his simplistic
approach that shades in a more serious mood; aimed an invoking the sense ok disparity in social
order or levels.
The correlation of the poem and Richard’s experiences in Miami Florida are astonishing. He
too was a victim of circumstances of sorts, when he moved to the US from Cuba. Although he
only when back to Cuba later in his life, Blanco’s love for his motherland resonates across many
of his love poems. In his poem ‘The Island within’ we get to know more about the author and his
passions in life; in a rather satirical way, he manages to weave a poetic narration of his adoration
for Cuba. He compares his connection to his native home with the love that binds two lovers
together like glue. The readers are bound to be swallowed whole by the poems mystic mood that
the poet invokes through his vivid memories of his childhood days.
The poem ‘The Island within’ is part of the book ‘City of A Hundred Fires’ which has other
poems written by this great poet. Being his first published book, it gives us plenty of background
information about, who Richard Blanco is. He openly writes about being raised as CubanAmerican in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Having acquired this knowledge, it does reading and
understanding the poems easier. This cuts across all other forms of literature publications that
have been created by this particular writer; this would include his novels, short stories, and other
poems.

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The second poet is Mrs. Olive Senior, who is a famous Jamaican writer and journalist who has
received worldwide recognition as a profound articulator of events and occurrences. Through her
poems, she has managed to discuss severe societal topics without causing massive unrest from
the critics or readers of the published works. Her most famous works are undoubtedly her
memoirs of the Caribbean life from the perspective of a native before the coming of the British
and Spanish, (Senior 45). Her passion for what she writes is quite apparent in all her poems, to
achieve this she uses a range of styles and poetic devices to captures the reader's undivided
attention.
In the poem, 'Meditation on Yellow' Mrs. Senior speaks about her native home of Jamaica,
and the West Indies in general. With surgical precision, she attacks the slavers and colonial
powers that brought turmoil to the formerly serene envir...