Comments on: Dope – Amiri Baraka

By: David

David — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 21:23:29 +0000

Brilliant reading. I feel that the uuuu almost sounds like a monkey noise in the beginning of the poem, and crying near the end. It makes sense that it would be the sounds of ecstasy as has been described but it also seems to enforce the view that the “rich folk” referred to in the poem have of the speaker.

By: rich quatrone

rich quatrone — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 03:33:54 +0000

I’ve known Amiri a very long time and have heard him read this to a small class I was teaching back in the 80s at Passaic High School. The uuuuuus are the sounds of ecstasy a man makes when shooting up. The entire poem is about religion (the opiate of the people) and its nefarious collaboration with the oppression of the people.

By: admin

admin — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:16:39 +0000

I believe the track originally comes from this album – “Poets Read Their Contemporary Poetry: Before Columbus Foundation” which was published in 1980. – http://www.folkways.si.edu/albumdetails.aspx?itemid=1654 – however, I’m not sure where this reading was recorded.

By: Archie

Archie — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 16:41:54 +0000

Hi, great comments.

When and where did Amiri Baraka read this poem in the audio clip?

By: admin

admin — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 21:24:45 +0000

No problem. His performance is impressive and is instrumental to the poem (well, in my opinion!).

By: J

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 17:12:16 +0000

Sorry – I didn’t see the audio performance clip up at the top!

By: J

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 17:11:31 +0000

Baraka’s performance of this is very enlightening and incredible. Seek it out.

By: admin

admin — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:44:07 +0000

interesting. i think it’s good to tie it back into the title.

By: shmike

shmike — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 16:40:58 +0000

when first I heard the poem I figured the uuuuu’s were the sound a dope fiend makes when he’s either fiending or in his dopified stupor. I figured the whole poem takes place during a very exciting (but in reality destructive) drug binge, which serves as the obvious metaphor for opiatic religiousness

By: admin

admin — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 13:58:55 +0000

re: audio – some poems benefit from the reading more than others – but I’ll try to include it whenever possible. i enjoy being able to interact with the poem in multiple contexts.

re: “uuuuu” – no real answers here, but some ideas – they seem to be transitional (coming at the beginning and the end). at the beginning of the poem the narrator doesn’t truly launch into his sermon until the end of those noises – when he exclaims – “it must be the devil!”

and at the end of the poem “uuuuu”’s are preceded by the mantra – ‘go back to sleep, go back to work’ and the speaker begins to fade away. I almost imagine some inflatable person – at the beginning of the poem he’s inflating and at the end he’s deflating.

the other thing the “uuuu’s” made me think of was meditation and the monotone “oooohm” that can accompany meditation. the speaker’s noises here (and his whole sermon) could be seen as an inversion of that.