Painted into the Picture: A Review of Tracy K. Smith’s Wade in the Water

by Deja Spruill (‘24)

Slavery is not only extremely relevant to the foundations of American history, but it is also extremely relevant to the social and political structures we see today. The treatment of enslaved African Americans has left so much blood on America’s hands, that it’s dripped into future generations. In Wade in the Water, Tracy K. Smith eloquently describes the pain and the pride that exists in the African American experience. And while her content is jaw dropping, her skill steals the show as she plays with diction and form to make true poetic art.

Smith does a masterful job of portraying the daily interactions and feelings of African Americans. She describes the bodily comfort that African Americans feel in the presence of other African Americans and why it is bittersweet that this comfort can’t be found everywhere. In “Driving to Ottawa,” she describes it as “The momentary kind / Of love two strangers share, / Pushing out those long sighs / And then rushing to fill the lungs / Again with weightless clear air.” Smith transports readers to the moments when it feels like you can breathe again in a world where it often feels like you can’t.

In the titular poem “Wade in the Water,” Smith describes how love is what African Americans need and have always needed. It’s a heavy weight to constantly extend love to strangers when you come from an oppressed group of people. “I love you in the rusted iron / Chains someone was made /” Smith writes, “To drag until love let them be.” Today, African Americans live in a society with opportunities that their ancestors did not have, and Smith acknowledges the plight that it took to finally be free and share “I Love you’s”. Smith reminds African Americans of their history and offers an understanding as to why it is sometimes hard to love in a society that hasn’t always loved you back.

 In “Declaration,” Smith uses the poetic technique of erasure on the Declaration of Independence to reveal an underlying message. She uses the grievances that the Colonists expressed to the British to expose the similarities of these grievances to those that enslaved African Americans experienced: “He has / sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people… He has plundered our— / ravaged our— / destroyed the lives of our— / taking away our—…Our repeated / Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury.” Here again, Smith highlights the ties of African American suffering to America’s foundation. Elsewhere, in “Unrest in Baton Rouge,” Smith writes: “Our bodies run with ink dark blood. / Blood pools in the pavement’s seams.” Word choice is important in these lines. Smith doesn’t say “Our blood”; she just says “blood” because it doesn’t matter whose blood it is. We’re all human beings.

While painting the picture may be good enough for some poets, Tracy K. Smith paints you into the picture and holds you in place until the poem is over. “Is it strange to say love is a language / Few practice, but all, or near all speak?” In Wade in the Water, Smith asserts that love freed enslaved people from their chains and shackles, so maybe it can free their descendants from theirs.

Deja Spruill is a senior at Detroit Mercy, double majoring in English and Political Science. She enjoys reading and writing, and recently began working as a first grade Assistant Teacher. She feels every book offers the opportunity to explore new worlds and enjoy new experiences without leaving your seat.