"Storm Ending" Jean Toomer Thunder blossoms gorgeously above our heads, Great, hollow, bell-like flowers, Rumbling in the wind, Stretching clappers to strike our ears . . . Full-lipped flowers Bitten by the sun Bleeding rain Dripping rain like golden honey-- And the sweet earth flying from the thunder. | Jean Toomer, the son of Georgian farmer, was born in Washington, D. C. on the 26th of December 1894 into the emerging modernist age of literature. A man of lighter skin, Toomer nonetheless deeply identified with his African American Heritage, growing up in a predominantly black community and attending the surrounding black high schools. However in 1914 he attended The University of Wisconsin but transferred to the College of the City of New York and finished studying there in 1917. It was here that Jean Toomer began to relinquish his roots for a literary passion above racial discrepancy and boundaries. Toomer pursued his new-found passion for literature in the next four years through writing prose and poetry for literary magazines such as Broom, The Liberator, The Little Review and others, these initiated Toomer into literary society where he associated with several prominent writers, photographers, artists and critics. From here Toomer went on to teach in Georgia for a brief period in 1921, here he once again embraced his roots and it was the people and landscape of the area that inspired the rural and cultural setting of his later poetic anthology “Cane” which was a dictation of this period of his life. It was around this time during his early twenties that Toomer became interested in Unitism, the religion founded Armenian George Ivanovich Gurdjieff. Gurdjieff preached unity, the transcendence of physical appearances and the mastery of one’s self through mental calm and yoga. As a young African-American with lighter skin, struggling to establish an identity in a society of high contrast racial distinctions Toomer saw the appeal in many of Gurdjieff’s ideas. Encouraged by Unitarian ideals Toomer went on to spread them from Harlem to his later home in Chicago, where he developed a cult following. Despite his fascination with his African-American roots, Toomer was castigated for an apparent rejection of his roots in favor of the white literary community. Jean Toomer himself however believed himself to be above racial boundaries and was married to twice both times to white women, this however only increased the condemning of him for “rejecting” his heritage. Throughout his life and through his writing(particularly the long poem “Blue Meridian”) Jean Toomer longed for racial unity and equality, and witnessed the beginning of this movement before his death in 1967 on March 30. |
The structure of Jean Toomer’s poem is not like anything the reader has seen before it is entirely fresh and original, not at all familiar and erupting with individual strength. There is no rhyme scheme and no discernable pattern in the syllables from line to line, eleven is followed by seven which is then followed by five and eight and so on. The meter is trochaic( meaning every other syllable is unstressed), and adds to the overall fluency of the piece with both potent and emphatic intended enunciation. However, despite the lack of classical structure the poem flows gently with ease of language and vivid descriptions.
“Storm Ending” paints an enthralling picture of a dynamic thunderstorm through intricate images of delicate flowers. A combinations of words comprise the piece with both positive and negative connotations, symbolizing both the consequences and effects of the storm. The storm is described with ardent intensity, and visuals of beauty untamed. The first line, “Thunder blossoms gorgeously above our heads,” establishes the reader's presence in the heart of the storm, and zoomorphically personifies thunder as capable of slowing exploding into life, creates a visual image of what is usually only a auditory wonder. It can then be assumed that the thunder is tied in with the “Great, hollow, bell-like flowers” a very ocular description that transforms something that was once considered dainty and frail into something robust and vigorous, the contrast creates an image which is infinitely more memorable. These floral clouds are “Rumbling in the wind,” intriguingly combining both visual and audible imagery in an illustrations of a sound, suddenly thunder is not just a growl in sky but a movement. From these blooming clouds of thunder emerges “Stretching clappers to strike our ears . . .” these clappers, the tongues of the bell-like flowers, are the rods of lightning that have caused the following growls of thunders and help to once again establish us, the readers and the audience as being an active participant in the storm. In the next two lines “Full-lipped flowers, Bitten by the sun” it has been established that these flowers are the clouds and now they experience personification alongside the sun as they become voluptuously full-lipped and are bitten by the sun. It seems this action could easily be either aggressive or intimate, is this bit one of anger or amorous passion? Either way it causes this cloud, imbued with all the femininity of flowers to begin “Bleeding rain,” and then contrastly this negative action becomes the positive one of “Dripping rain like golden honey-”. The first direct reference to the subject of this poem as a storm since the “thunder” of the first line, the energy of the storm subsides from the steady, pumping, flow of blood. The choice of blood for a metaphor for rain, is brilliant it simultaneously implies both the gravity of rain’s importance as water the facilitator of all life and the consequence of thunder and lightning’s aggression. Yet, this dark, sanguine fluid becomes the healing golden liquid that is honey, sweet and rich, in it’s calm flow it brings life where the pace and power of the blood brought destruction. In contradiction, the connotations of this line are definitively positive, hinting at the growth that follows a storm. The final line, “And the sweet earth flying from the thunder.” combines the images and movement of the preceding lines in one bittersweet ending, using both the tranquility of flowing water to bring a endearing quality to the erosions and changes brought on by the strength of this watery deluge. This line concludes Jean Toomer’s composition with a final reminder of the nature of the imagery: a evolution storm with the use of “thunder” from the wild lightning that onsets the pouring rain that fades to a drizzle and ends in tranquility.
“Storm Ending” truly embodies the interdependence and connection between all elements and life upon this earth. Through the ties of beauty Jean Toomer links the delicate grace of flowers with the feral force of a storm, the contrast facilitated by using two things of such definitive connotations to create both visual and audible imagery of such staggering intensity is uniquely gratifying. Toomer requires no calculated structures or rhythms to create riveting and rare fluency in his poetry. His use of free verse form is confident and effective he utilizes the freedom it facilitates brilliantly, creating a piece of singular rapture and impressive imagery.