Poetic New Orleans

Does Wolfe's poem still speak to us about New Orleans?

© Holly Pettit

Jun 23, 2006

Did you enjoy Mona Lisa Saloy's Red Beans and Ricely Yours? Thomas Wolfe's prose also captured New Orleans in almost lyric fashion.


Here is an excerpt of Wolfe's writing entitled, "New Orleans -- River."

*

And he looked upon

The huge yellow snake of the river,

Dreaming of its distant shores,

The myriad estuaries

Lush with tropical growth that fed it,

All the romantic life

Of plantation and canefields that fringed it,

Of slow lights on the gilded river-boat,

And the perfumed flesh of black-haired women... (1)

*

1. Wolfe, Thomas. A Stone, A Leaf, A door: Poems. New York: Macmillan. 1945. 65.

Questions:

Does Wolfe's poem still speak to us about New Orleans -- how it was, and how it is now?

How differently would Wolfe's work be executed if he were writing today?

If you are unfamiliar with Mona Lisa Saloy and her work, please click To embed a link to a URL:

for an article on her prize-winning book Red Beans and Ricely Yours.


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