Cross

The poem ‘cross’ by Albert Wendt I believe is about Christianity coming in and taking over Albert’s land ad beliefs. The first stanza of the poem is Albert blaming Christianity. This is a very strong first stanza as the reader straight away knows his feelings toward Christianity and what the poem is about. When Albert says “cross I hate you” the reader assumes he is talking about the cross itself. It is only when he says “you are destroying my traditions” that the reader realizes it is about Christianity coming in and destroying his own culture. The second stanza is also very strong. It talks about Christianity thinking it’s better than him. The line “and never bother about me and my traditions” really sticks out to me. It shows that in this time his traditions and culture were really put down and not valued by Christianity. He also talks about Christianity seeing him as “ignorant”, “primitive” and his traditions being “disgusting”. This also emphasized how much he, his people, and their culture were looked down upon. The third stanza the goes on to Albert telling the cross to “run away”. What Albert means by this is that he doesn't want Christianity. This is also shown when he mentions civilization. This gives the idea that at the time of civilization no one wanted them there. They just came in and took over. I think this is a really strong and meaningful poem and makes the reader think about how Albert’s people would have felt at the time their traditions and culture were being taken over.