Make bullet points for the main idea
WILSON J. MOSES
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I saw the face of Freedom- And I died.
The poem calls to mind the Egyptian myth in which Isis, the Nile ascends the heavens to do battle with Ra, the sun god, to force him to In order to create the world of "Children of the Moon." Du Bois his name. tend
not only upon his knowledge of black Christian nationalism but also Greek and Egyptian mythology. The narrator is reminiscent of is, the moon goddess, patroness and eacher, Magna Mater of ancient Egypt and Isis represents the Nilotic Africans whom Du Bois believed to have brought the Egyptians the civilizing arts. She was conceived by Du Bois a black woman. Born a woman, Isis was later elevated, according to the mythographers, to divine status. The goddess is an appropriate sym the spirit of black civilization within Du Bois's poetic system. She becoтия the Moon hotele u Isis the Great Mother of ancient Egypt. "Isis, the the dark cond Du Boisis titular goddess, in thought if not in name, of the dark continent."
ar goddess, invided one clue to the mythology of "Children of the Moon when he spoke, in a later essay, of Ethiopian history as "the m Moon" of Negro culture, from the Mountains of the Moon to the Mediterranean, blossoming on the lower Nile, but never severed from the Great Lakes of Inner Africa." The Children of the Moon are described "moving shadows." They live in a "twilight land," and they labor beneath the "burning shadow" of a peak. One suspects that this land in which they live is to be associated with Ethiopia, the land of shadows, mentioned in Isaiah and referred to as "Ethiopia, the shadowy," in The Souls of Black Folk. Throughout the tradition references to Ethiopia were meant to include all African
peoples, of course. Du Bois's interest in Ethiopian rhetoric made itself felt in much of h writing, as for example, in the herald's oration in the lost pageant Star Ethiopia:
Hear ye, hear ye! All them that come to know the truth and listen to the tale of the Wisest and Gentlest of the Races of Men whose faces be Black. Hear ye, hear ye! And learn the ancient Glory of Ethiopia, All-Mother of men, whose wonders men forgot. See how beneath the Mountains of the Moon, alike in the Valley of Father Nile and in ancient Negro-land and Atlantis the Black Race ruled and strove and fought and sought the Star of Faith and Freedom even as other races did and do. Fathers ofThe Poetics of Ethiopianiam
Men and Sires of Children golden, black and brown, keep silence and hear this mighty word.
The Mountains of the Moon referred to in the above passage and in Children of the Moon" are a semi-fictitious range, first mentioned in Polemy's Geographica Recent scholarship associates them with the of the Moon are blacks from central Africa, the area of the Nile-Congo watershed. They can be seen either as Congolese Ruvenzori Range. The Children Nilotics, therefore, which makes them symbolic of two of the great branches of African people: not only those who went down the Nile to Egypt but also those who followed the Congo, which "passed and sunlight-thundered to rose red and the sea thundered through the sea in one long line of blood, with tossing limbs and echoing cries of pain." The reeking in the s Children of the Moon symbolized not only the ancient Ethiopians bu twentieth-century Afro-Americans as well. And the moon goddess is n more Isis than she is the afflicted womanhood of Harlem.
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re [the tedious tower building in "Children of the Moon" parallels the tow building in "Star of Ethiopia ular ye hear ye! All them that dwell by t Rivers of Waters and in the beautiful, the Valley of Shadows, and listen w Ring of this tale. Learn Sisters and Brothers, how above the Fear of G Labor doth build on Knowledge; how Justice tempers Science and how Be Lall be crowned in Love beneath the Cross. Listen, O Isles, for all the page returns in dance and song to build this Tower of Eternal Light beneath Stat." The Tower of Eternal Light, built in "Star of Ethiopia," like the te that the Children of the Moon build is reminiscent of Obelisk, whicks Egyptians saw as representing a petrified sun's ray. It leads upward toward sun, for which the Egyptians used the symbol of a winged disk. In 191 adaption of the symbol, in which the solar disk is replaced by the face of a man, was printed on the cover of the Crisis, the official organ of the Ne Association for the Advancement of Colored People, edited by Du Boi black face surrounded by wings is, of course, the terrible vision that the p finally approaches in "Children of the Moon." The wings are the w Ethiopia, mentioned by Isaiah in one of Du Bois's favorite Biblical pass
Ah! Land of the buzzing wings Which lies beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, That sends ambassadors by sea, In papyrus vessels on the face of the waters: To a nation tall and sleek, To a nation dreaded near and far, To a nation strong and triumphant.
- The poem "Wilson J. Moses" draws on Egyptian mythology and the myth of Isis and Ra.
- The narrator of the poem is reminiscent of Isis, the moon goddess and patroness of ancient Egypt.
- The Children of the Moon in the poem symbolize not only ancient Ethiopians but also twentieth-century Afro-Americans.
- The Tower of Eternal Light, built by the Children of the Moon, is reminiscent of the Obelisk, a symbol of the sun's ray for the Egyptians.
- The wings mentioned in the poem symbolize Ethiopia, mentioned in Isaiah and a favorite biblical reference for Du Bois.
Simplify
- "Wilson J. Moses" poem references Egyptian mythology, specifically the myth of Isis and Ra.
- The narrator is like Isis, the moon goddess and teacher of ancient Egypt.
- The Children of the Moon represent both ancient and modern African people.
- The Tower of Eternal Light, built by the Children of the Moon, is similar to the Egyptian Obelisk symbol.
- The wings mentioned symbolize Ethiopia, which is a significant reference for Du Bois.