The Star-Spangled Banner

by Denise Duhamel

The Star-Spangled Banner, Denise Duhamel's sixth book of poems, is about falling in love, American-style, with someone who is not American.

In the title poem, a small American girl mishears the first line of "The Star-Spangled Banner" as "José, can you see?", which leads her to imagine a foreign lover of an American woman dressed in a star-spangled gown. The misunderstandings caused by language recur throughout the book: contemplating what "yes" means in different cultures; watching Nickelodeon's "Nick at Nite" with a husband who grew up in the Philippines and never saw The Patty Duke Show; misreading another poet's title "The Difference Between Pepsi and Coke" as "The Difference Between Pepsi and Pope" and concluding that "Pepsi is all for premarital sex. / The Pope won't stain your teeth." Misunderstandings also abound as characters mingle with others from different classes. In "Cockroaches," a father-in-law refers to budget-minded American college students backpacking in Europe as cockroaches, not realizing his daughter-in-law was once, not so long ago, such a student/roach herself.

With welcome levity and refreshing irreverence, The Star-Spangled Banner addresses issues of ethnicity, class, and gender in America.

Genres: Poetry

80 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Denise Duhamel's most recent books are Ka-Ching! (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2009), Two and Two (Pittsburgh, 2005), Mille et un Sentiments (Firewheel, 2005); Queen for a Day: Selected and New Poems (Pittsburgh, 2001); The Star-Spangled Banner (Southern Illinois University Press, 1999); and Kinky (Orchises Press, 1997). A bilingual edition of her poems, Afortunada de mí (Lucky Me), translated into Spanish by Dagmar Buchholz and David Gonzalez, came out in 2008 with Bartleby Editores (Madrid.) A recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, she is an associate professor at Florida International University in Miami.

Reviews

[Talia · Rating 1 out of 5]

It was way too much prose and even as prose it seemed unrevised. A lot of it seemed like it was brainstorming exercises that maybe could've become poems, but were just so full of words the idea of poetry got lost. Most of what she said was amusing, if at times too much info (which I sort of wondered if she would be so open if she weren't calling her writing "poetry?"

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Duhamel does what I probably like best about ‘confessional’ poetry, though I find almost any category self-negating. She dives deep into experience, presumedly her own, the challenge her own reactions and reach into ideas that are so worthwhile to find, revelations and challenges to easy conclusions. Of course, many of her poems traipse along with ‘taboo’ subjects—race, anal sex, pornography—not just to shock, except maybe if we need to be shocked, but to play with our sensibilities that say this is not a subject for poetry. As Sekou Sundiata so wisely put it when the overriding white voices were denouncing the appearance of The Roots at a Dodge Festival (an error that the Dodge Foundation replicates festival after festival by continuing to avoid such a circumstance again), “If you were offended, maybe you needed to be offended.” Duhamel puts up a mirror to our embarrassment so we can hopefully find it as funny as she does. Not that she is superior to it, I don’t think, but that she is at least willing to examine it. These poems go through exquisitely structured ramblings that suddenly plunge you into a history of sadness, or laughter, the way an interesting figure at the bar or a party makes you suddenly glad (or later glad) idled to mosey up and make a motion towards empty chatter that she quickly disavowed the notion of.

[JKT · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I had a nickel for each time I’ve read this! This is neck and neck with Sharon Olds, Satan Says for my favorite book of poems.

[Cheryl Valentine · Rating 4 out of 5]

First read 1999.

[Kzp · Rating 1 out of 5]

I looked up Denise Duhamel when I saw she'd been nominated for National Critics Circle Award and came across a poem she'd written about National Book Award Winning Poet Ai and it is titled Ai. (I went to the late Ai's reading at the Award reading and she was a brilliant poet.)


This is excerpted from Duhamel's poem titled Ai


Ai

"There is a chimp named Ai who can count to five.
There's a poet named Ai whose selected poems Vice
just won the National Book Award."

Denise Duhamel


I wonder when DID Duhamel consider the racist stereotype and implication of the image of chimp or ape as metaphor to African Americans in reference to bi-racial Award-winning poet Ai -even though she professes to "love" the work of Ai. Of course she considered this implication.


More from Duhamel's poem Ai

"I wonder if Ai the poet is happy she shares a name with a gifted chimp.


"She crawls into the hearts of the cruelest men and writes about what it is like to be them,

while I mostly curl in the bellies of the shattered women."

"There's no evidence that one approach is better than the other."




THAT last sentence --is the crux and agenda of this poem ---boring stupid jealousy. And yes, there is evidence. Ironically, Ai the late poet's work is still vibrantly alive and compelling, and I wonder if the same can be said of Duhamel?



Denise Duhamel's poetry
"crawls in to the hearts of the cruelest men" "mostly curl in the bellies of shattered women"

in my humble opinion--these phrases are a string of sophomoric, clunky, prosaic, cliches an eighth grader would be embarrassed to pen, and this-- a signature of Duhamel, does not remotely --approach the poetic genius of Ai.

From poet Ai

"Even my name suggested wings,
wicker cages, flight.
Come, sit on my lap, you said.
I felt as if I had flown there;
I was weightless."


I would have more respect for Duhamel's work--even lacking in craft, without useless comparisons and snipes at other poets who are more adept in language and craft and content. It reeks of sour grapes-and the unfortunate comparison of a chimpanzee --only mirrors back to Duhamel. If she's "mostly curling in the bellies of shattered women"---this kind of practice---certainly cannot help.

[Patty · Rating 4 out of 5]

At first, I thought, "ugh. more domestic poetry." and normally, i despise poems with feminine napkins in them. but somehow, over the course of this book she creates this mood, and you begin to see the world through her eyes. it's very comical and endearing and lifelike. i can't wait to read it again.

[SmarterLilac · Rating 4 out of 5]

Creative and fun look at some tough subject matter. I like this author and had read many of the pieces in this book in other publications, but still found the other poems included here to hold surprises. I really love her poems on menstruation, as well as her perspectives on women's issues. Good stuff.

[Cristina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is definitely on my list of favorites, possibly at the top. I should have added a long time ago, for those of us Spalding folk, that her poem "The Difference Between Pepsi and Pope" stars our very own Molly Peacock:)

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

You know, I really liked this. I think I'd go a little closer to 3 1/2 than 4 stars, but whatever. It was conversational, irreverent, at times really, really funny; at times, beautiful.

[Bronwen · Rating 4 out of 5]

More great poems, including on about communicating across cultural, gender, and marriage lines.

[Amy Kitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved her long lines...entertaining prose.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I were forced to read only one poet for the rest of my life, I would choose, without much hesitation, Denise Duhamel.