Wingfoot Lake

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1986

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Themes

Generational Differences

People are shaped by the time period in which they grew up, and this is no less true in Beulah’s case. One of the only things directly communicated about her self-conception is that she feels that “she came from [. . .] the past” (Lines 32-33). While Beulah’s disconnection from the present is beneficial insofar as it allows her to see the repetition and continuation of past injustices in the present, it also alienates her from her daughters and the life they aim to live.

Beulah’s disconnection is partially due to Thomas’s passing, as suggested by the sudden move back in time after Beulah considers, “he was dead for the first time / on Fourth of July—ten years ago” (Lines 14-15). However, the past is more than a place to which Beulah escapes. Instead of telling a straightforward narrative about Beulah’s experience at her son-in-law’s “company picnic” (Line 9) in 1964, the poem—and Beulah herself—uses the past to provide context. The poem’s juxtaposition of the present with Beulah’s past experience demonstrates how Beulah uses the past as a lens through which to view the present. This way of interacting with the world is not unique to Beulah. Part of growing up in a particular time is adopting its norms and values.

This generational perspective comes into conflict when trying to communicate ideas across generations. Beulah is critical of Joanna’s attempt to reclaim and celebrate her heritage by exclaiming, “we’re Afro-Americans now!” (Line 25). This statement surprises Beulah and appears to add to her grief and discomfort as she contemplates the modern terms that attempt to define her identity.

Perpetuated Injustice

This summary’s longer analysis focuses mostly on the way “Wingfoot Lake” engages with America’s past of racial segregation. This engagement makes up part of the poem’s theme of historical and contemporary injustices and how they feed into one another. Though there are many reasons why Dove chose to juxtapose the particular times and events that the poem depicts, her choice results in a clear-cut depiction of racial injustice as it takes different forms throughout the years.

The most interesting aspect of Dove’s exploration of injustice is that she demonstrates how covert it can appear and how it morphs over generations. While the comparison between the first stanza’s pool and the second stanza’s picnic shows how the poem engages with racial segregation, the two depictions are not identical. The picnic is not the anxiety-ridden scene that made Beulah tell Thomas to “drive on, fast” (Line 7) in the first stanza; members of Beulah’s family and Goodyear’s white employees occupy the same space, however, Beulah cannot help but notice the division at the picnic, the “white families on one side and them / on the other” (Lines 10-11).

Prejudice and injustice are still present at the picnic. The first stanza’s overt segregation creeps into society’s structures and operates through corporate, rather than legal, channels.

Independence

Independence Day celebrates America’s declaration of independence from British rule. In American culture, independence is often seen as an uncomplicated good. Dove’s “Wingfoot Lake” works to complicate and criticize that normative notion of independence and to show it in several lights.

The poem’s most prominent critique of independence comes from how it shows that the freedom claimed by American Independence is unequally distributed. This appears in the racially segregated swimming pool with its “white arms jutting / into the chevrons of high society” (Lines 4-5), suggesting that the simple act of swimming is one controlled and meted out to particular groups. This idea is also reflected in the “white foot / sprouting two small wings” (Lines 36-37), which suggests that the “white foot,” like a bird, has a freedom of movement granted by its “small wings.” Put simply, the poem presents a history of segregation and Black oppression by the “white streets of government” as an alternative form of rule that squashes Black independence in favor of white independence.

The poem also presents similar arguments about the role of the working class. The speaker describes Wingfoot Lake as having “a rowboat pushed under the pier” (Line 28). The rowboat, which would normally be a method of transferring physical labor—or rowing—into a mode of navigating the lake, has been subdued. Instead of allowing labor to be a means of free navigation, the boat is stuck under the pier. The word “pushed” suggests that the boat has been intentionally hidden away by an outside force. Like the contemporary modes of segregation, however, Beulah notices the boat.

Even with this critique of American independence, however, it is not clear whether the poem sees complete independence as a good thing. The other side of independence is loneliness, and outside of the race- and class-based struggles, Beulah also struggles with Thomas’s death. A prominent example of Beulah’s loneliness comes when she describes “Last August,” when she “stood alone for hours / in front of the T.V. set” (Lines 19-20). “Last August” refers to the March on Washington in August of 1963, in which approximately 250,000 people protested against racial discrimination. It was during this event that Martin Luther King, Jr. made his “I Have a Dream” speech; in the chronology of the poem, Thomas did not get to witness these monumental events with Beulah before his death. This ironic juxtaposition between Beulah’s individual independence as a widow and the national celebration of independence is made explicit when the speaker states “So he was dead for the first time / on Fourth of July” (Lines 14-15).