15 pages • 30 minutes read
The Rider
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Background
Literary Context
Poems about loneliness are common in the literary canon, particularly poems about multiculturalism and immigration. Immigration poems have expanded the literary context of poems about loneliness; often immigrants have a feeling of existing between two worlds. Naomi Shihab Nye is no exception. Raised in both America and Palestine, she grew up in two worlds. Her poems, starting with her first collection Different Ways to Pray (1980), consider the many cultures, religions, borders, and people that make up our global earth.
Nye’s poem “Kindness” is a strong example of a poem that explores multiculturalism, loss, and loneliness. The poem opens by saying that loss prefaces a knowledge of “what kindness really is.” (Nye, Naomi Shihab. “Kindness.” 1995. Poets.org). Using a second-person point of view, the poem tries to foster empathy between the reader and those of different cultural backgrounds and experiences: “[Y]ou must travel where the Indian in a white poncho / lies dead by the side of the road. / You must see how this could be you” (Lines 14-16). The poem concludes with the concept of kindness, genuine care for others from different cultures, and ultimately compassion.
“The Rider” also explores isolation. In “The Rider,” loneliness is shadowlike, a dark feeling to escape from. Like “Kindness,” “The Rider” addresses the reader. In her poems, Nye calls on her audience to see the beauty, kindness, and compassion in the world. Both “Kindness” and “The Rider” explore negative feelings, feelings often felt by those who feel out of place. They also reveal ways to transcend to positivity, growth, possibility, and love. Nye, who has traveled extensively in Asia, Europe, Canada, Mexico, and the Middle East, “uses her writing to attest to our shared humanity” (“Naomi Shihab Nye.” Steven Barclay Agency. Barclayagency.com). As a poem in the context of literary work about loneliness and immigration, “The Rider” conveys how loneliness and feeling out of place are human feelings that all experience regardless of cultural upbringing, religion, or race.
Historical Context
The historical context of “The Rider” is closely linked to Nye’s personal history as a “wandering poet” (“Naomi Shihab Nye.” The Poetry Foundation. Poetryfoundation.org). “The Rider” is a poem about atomization and trying to escape this feeling. However, it is also about sharing. The boy in stanza one shares the key to escaping loneliness. The speaker takes his information and transforms it into their own experience, that of outracing loneliness on their bike.
Nye, as a poet and a person, values others and their stories. In an interview with UT-Dallas, Nye explains how she feels about identity and encountering others of different cultures: “I do believe our sense of cultures grows, or should grow, as we live longer lives, by way of exposure, empathy, care” (“Resonant Vagabond: An Interview with Naomi Shihab Nye.” Reunion, 2006). In “The Rider,” the speaker cares about the boy’s perspective, so much that they try his method of escaping loneliness. While the poem does not share anything about the boy or his cultural upbringing, Nye explores concepts of acceptance and sharing that lead to happiness and freedom.
Nye carries different cultures within her; she is neither one nor the other; she is both. In addition to being a multicultural poet, Nye is also an extensive traveler, having taught writing workshops to students of all ages in many countries throughout the world, including in Asia and the Middle East. In her poems Nye champions the fact that all humans share lived and emotional experience, despite race, gender, nationality, or any other cultural or religious difference.
By concluding “The Rider” in the second person, Nye passes the boy’s experience along to the reader, who can also escape pain just as the boy and speaker do. “The Rider” creates a sense of unity between the boy, the speaker, and the reader—despite any cultural differences that may exist. In contrast to the azalea petals “that have never felt loneliness,” (Line 12), all are human.
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By Naomi Shihab Nye
