the library, she would go out and get books and she would talk about all the places you
could go to see, when you went to Paris. My grandmother never did get a chance to get
to go to Paris, but when I went to Paris, I went there for her the first time. When I saw
these women walking the streets of Paris who knew how to stand up under the, what shall
we say, the appreciation of a glance or a stare. They knew how to do it. And I thought,
my grandmother would have felt right at home here. Looking at other people is a
municipal sport in Paris, it is not impolite to look. The women who were looked at and
bore it with the most grace were those women from the islands—from Martinique and
Réunion.
What I found interesting when reading this poem was in fact the "grace" with which the women from the islands bore those stares. The last clause in the poem is "unless you life feeling unnecessary." Obviously, there is a certain danger that goes hand in hand with the colonial mystique that surrounds these women. Furthermore, there is a mention of Parisian landmarks such as "the Quai de la Rappe" and the "Pont Neuf." To some extent, one could infer that "feeling unnecessary" could drive someone to suicide. This could be Dove's attempt to surround the subject of this poem with a voodoo-like impression that only adds to them "gliding" from sidewalk to sidewalk. It would be an image that most Parisians would have of these women if they saw them. Hence, Rita Dove describes these women in such a manner.
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