Knoxville, Tennessee

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1968

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Themes

Sensation

In the context of "Knoxville, Tennessee," sensation primarily relates to food, which is freely and abundantly found:

“and okra

and greens

and cabbage

and lots of

barbecue

and buttermilk

and homemade ice-cream” (Lines 5-11).

Listing these gustatory images, the speaker details a small feast in which anyone would be fortunate to partake. But the poem’s speaker originally discovers these foods through kinship. Her father first introduces her to the crops from his private garden; here, the speaker learns to freely take and eat what her father lovingly provided for her. As the listing of tasty foods continues, the reader realizes that the foods and vegetables mentioned are not only for her, the speaker, but for a greater community bound together by a shared sense of spirituality.

In the next lines, sensation becomes equated with sweetness (rather than with wholesome vegetables), which is associated more with public festivity than the private pleasures discovered in the speaker’s father’s garden:

“[...] buttermilk

and homemade ice-cream

at the church picnic” (Lines 9-11).

This sensation of sweetness—which is quite different from that offered by fibrous vegetables—is specific to a certain place. It's at the church that the speaker experiences this sensation, and it’s contextualized as food shared by a whole community. The kind of community manifested by the church is not specifically rooted in spirituality. A sense of community is initially shared not through doctrine or denomination, but through good, sweet foodstuffs. It is also reasonable that the young girl in the speaker’s memory would focus on sugary, dessert flavors, since most children are prone to seek such culinary delights.

An added pleasure to the sensation of eating and tasting refers back to the way one makes food. The father's garden and the "homemade" ice cream are both lovingly sourced, cultivated, and shared. The delight specific to eating is possible because of the people who made the food, and the dedication they have to making their homes abundant with tasty items they can share. Many people equate making and sharing food as an act of love and service; thus, the listing of all the edible items in the opening half of the poem indicate that the speaker felt full—of both food and of love. It is easy for the reader—despite their own background or experience—to grasp this concept in the first part of Giovanni’s poem.

Spirituality

Giovanni introduces the spiritual aspect of the poem starting in Line 13:

“and listen to

gospel music

outside

at the church” (Lines 13-16).

Moving from descriptions of eating and the kind of community made possible around this activity, the act of listening transports the speaker and the others surrounding her to a transcendent place. The presence of gospel music indicates a movement from the immediate sensation of eating toward a more metaphysical form of being together; experiencing music as a collective group can be a transcendent experience on varied levels of understanding. Listening to music is another sensation; because it is gospel music discussed here, it necessarily speaks to the pervasiveness of an intangible, living presence (i.e. god and salvation). This kind of sensation points toward what one cannot physically see, yet which can be transcribed into music in song. It makes sense, then, that the poem’s speaker should experience this form of music "outside / at the church / homecoming" (Lines 15-17), and not in the privacy of her home or her father’s garden.

Music—particularly gospel music—is a crucial and integral part of many spiritual communities. Giovanni only quickly mentions it in “Knoxville, Tennessee,” but it’s one of two references to things her speaker loves about summertime that directly connect to her church. In this way, the reader understands that the speaker’s spiritual life was abundant and brought her joy.

Community

The two aforementioned themes would make little sense without the theme of community. Community, of course, is not only the central theme of the poem, but an overarching theme in Giovanni's larger body of work. It's the sense of a shared identity amongst many coming together as one that makes simple pleasures like eating or hearing the divine beauty of gospel music so profoundly enjoyable. The theme of community is often implicit in the imagery of the poem; the only specific reference the speaker makes to doing something with another person is when she goes:

“[…] to the mountains with

[her] grandmother

and go barefooted

and be warm

all the time” (Lines 18-22).

It is the simple transitional word "with" that offers such a graceful impact. The use of enjambment—when a line of poetry continues onto the next line with no end stop punctuation—offers the initial two lines an intimate link. In effect, the grandmother is emotionally equated with the mountains—not only because she shows the speaker how to travel the paths, but because she is likely viewed as firm and inviolable as a mountainous landscape. With this, the speaker’s grandmother, insofar as she becomes equated with mountains, also indicates safety. The speaker can walk "barefooted" (Line 20) with her grandmother, and "be warm / all the time" (Lines 21-22). The kind of time indicated here is not something that momentarily passes, but an enduring presence, like the mountains that adorn the hillside, or the grandmother whose warmth is felt even as the speaker of the poem sleeps. This succinct and subtle description indicates the importance of the speaker’s grandmother in her personal community.