18 pages • 36 minutes read
Harryette MullenWe Are Not Responsible
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2002A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Further Reading & Resources
Related Poems
“Sleeping with the Dictionary” by Harryette Mullen (2002)
This is the titular poem from Mullen’s book that also contains “We Are Not Responsible.” Both poems are one-paragraph justified prose works. Unlike “We Are Not Responsible,” the Poetry Foundation website keeps the one-paragraph format from the book intact for “Sleeping with the Dictionary.” It illustrates Mullen’s passion for words, and hints at some of the Oulipo constraints that involve replacing words in a poem by applying a mathematical equation (such as n+7, which Mullen uses in other works) to the dictionary.
“Way Opposite” by Harryette Mullen (2002)
This poem is on the opposite page of “We Are Not Responsible.” It is, in contrast to both “We Are Not Responsible” and “Sleeping with the Dictionary,” lineated in the book as well as in the online reprint. Mullen’s lineation is inspired by the poet in her epigraph (the italicized line of dedication), Richard Wilbur. Both “Way Opposite” and “We Are Not Responsible” deal with color. For instance, in “Way Opposite,” “red” appears in the sixth line, and is implied through the homophone of “read” in the fifth line. “We Are Not Responsible” echoes this implied usage of red in “gang color” (Line 16).
“Undertaker” by Patricia Smith (1998)
This poem illustrates the subject at which Mullen hints in her poem: violence against Black men. Rather than a look at the “we” of systemic racism like Mullen, Smith chooses to focus on the experience of an undertaker trying to prepare bodies of Black men that have been shot for open-casket funerals. This is a poem that explores the feelings of the dead Black men’s mothers rather than explores the system that enables and fuels racism.
Further Literary Resources
"Postcards to the Future: LEGACY Harryette Mullen" (2020)
Kore Press featured Mullen’s poem as part of their Postcards to the Future project. The prose version of the poem can be read on this website, as well as how they highlight one sentence (line) from the poem in the postcard format. Kore Press is an intersectional-feminist literary arts organization.
This page includes samples of Mullen’s writing, as well as an artist’s statement and biographical information. Mullen won the Foundation for Contemporary Arts (FCA) grant in 2004, shortly after publishing Sleeping with the Dictionary.
Modern American Poetry (2021)
The Modern American Poetry Site, or MAPS, is a project from scholars at Framingham State University. This page includes criticism of Mullen’s work, as well as links to information about one of the schools of poetry of which she is a part, the Language, or L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E, school.
“THE LARGEST GANG RAID IN NYC HISTORY SWEPT UP DOZENS OF YOUNG PEOPLE WHO WEREN’T IN GANGS” by Alice Speri (2019)
This article from The Intercept looks back on the arrests and trials of the Bronx 120, the “largest gang takedown in NYC history.” This raid showcases the phenomena Mullen describes in her poem—the systemic power of the police and racial biases, as well as the lasting destruction of a community caused by the actions of law enforcement. The Bronx 120 are also relevant (but not particularly notable, as it is common practice of law enforcement) due to the arrests being purely motivated by association, location, and race.
Listen to Poem
Poet Douglas Kearney recites and offers commentary on Mullen’s poem for the Library of Congress’s Poetry and Literature Program. The site also includes the lineated version of Mullen’s poem, as well as a poem by Douglas Kearney.
Related Titles
By Harryette Mullen
