Passive Voice
Laura Da’
I use a trick to teach
students
how to avoid passive voice.
how to avoid passive voice.
Circle the
verbs.
Imagine inserting “by zombies”
after each one.
Imagine inserting “by zombies”
after each one.
Have the words been
claimed
by the flesh-hungry undead?
If so, passive voice.
by the flesh-hungry undead?
If so, passive voice.
I wonder if these
sixth graders will recollect,
on summer vacation,
as they stretch their legs
on the way home
from Yellowstone or Yosemite
and the byway’s historical marker
beckons them to the
site of an Indian village—
sixth graders will recollect,
on summer vacation,
as they stretch their legs
on the way home
from Yellowstone or Yosemite
and the byway’s historical marker
beckons them to the
site of an Indian village—
Where trouble was
brewing.
Where, after further hostilities, the army was directed to enter.
Where the village was razed after the skirmish occurred.
Where most were women and children.
Where, after further hostilities, the army was directed to enter.
Where the village was razed after the skirmish occurred.
Where most were women and children.
Riveted bramble of
passive verbs
etched in wood—
stripped hands
breaking up from the dry ground
to pinch the meat
of their young red tongues.
etched in wood—
stripped hands
breaking up from the dry ground
to pinch the meat
of their young red tongues.
– "Passive
Voice" from Tributaries by Laura Da,’2015.
As we English instructors
well know, in general we tend to prefer the use of the active voice.
That is when a subject does an action to an object. APA format
stresses using the active voice to make it clear to the reader who
is taking action in the sentence. Therefore,
English gives preference to the active voice, making it easier for
the reader to understand the message.
The passive voice is used
when we want to emphasize the action (the verb) and the object of a
sentence rather than subject. This means that the subject is
either less important than the action itself or that we
don’t know who or what the subject is.
Consider these contrasting
examples:
Passive: Napa Valley is
known for its excellent wines.
Active: (Many people) know
Napa Valley for its excellent wines.
Passive: Twenty civilians
were killed in the bomb explosion.
Active: (Someone) killed
twenty civilians in the bomb explosion.
In her poem “Passive
Voice,” Laura Da’ recounts a sixth-grade grammar lesson on
detecting the use of passive voice by inserting the phrase “by
zombies” after each verb. The poem was inspired by her research
into the use of language when describing mass atrocities and “how
often they’re are marked by passive voice where nobody is held
accountable, even through the grammar of how these events are
memorialized,” she said.
In this manner, Da'
constructs an interactive poem – a simple exercise in English usage
and a powerful statement on historical accountability. As readers
perform her grammatical “trick,” Da' forces them to confront the
subject of the despicable actions of the past. She closes the poem
with the powerful images of passive hands “stripped” of liability
“pinching the meat of young red tongues.” These “zombies” –
“the flesh-hungry undead” – continue to gorge on the young
lifeblood of American Natives.
A poet and a public-school
teacher, Laura Da’ studied creative writing at the University of
Washington and the Institute of American Indian Arts. A member of the
Eastern Shawnee Tribe, she received a Native American Arts and
Cultures Fellowship. Da’ has also been a Made at Hugo House fellow
and a Jack Straw fellow. She lives in Newcastle, Washington, with her
husband and son.
When Da' started at the
Institute of American Indian Arts, she says she had “an idea that
she wanted to be involved in museum studies,” but then she met poet
Arthur Sze, who was an instructor at the school and “a really
incredible poet.” Inspired by his work, Da' recounts …
“I was 17 and in
college and that’s when I started writing poetry. I changed majors
almost instantly … I really like the ambiguity of poetry and I also
hate to be told what to do, ever. So poetry is really appealing to
me.”
As a Native, Da' sees no
borders and claims she wished everyone could see through these eyes.
Of her perspective,
Laura Da' says ...
“ I think about my
First Nations relatives to the north and our relatives from south of
these man-made borders in what is known as México. I think about the
caravan of relatives traveling north, the voter suppression of
Indigenous people in North Dakota and of our Black relatives in
Georgia, and the heavy history of a country that has weaponized words
in so many unspeakable ways.
“These times where my
heart struggles to speak are when I need poetry the most.”
As a Shawnee poet, Da'
claims she struggles with language – the English that America
force-fed down her ancestors’ throats during assimilation and the
Boarding School Era. She says she struggles to reclaim the language
of her indigenous ancestors as she tries to learn words in her mother
tongues.
“To walk
a parallel path through life as a citizen of many nations …
[and] to
discover a route that allows to maintain curiosity, dignity, and
identity.
For me,
this has been poetry.”
– Laura
Da’
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