the rites for Cousin Vit

At first, Cousin Vit doesn’t have much agency since death controls her. However, the speaker reveals that death “can’t hold her” (Line 2). It cannot repress Cousin Vit’s individuality. She retrieves her agency, “rises in the sunshine” (Line 6), and returns to her life.

At the same time, it’s possible to argue that Cousin Vit never has agency. Death supplants it, and then something else propels her. For a person to have sovereignty, they must have the power to act and think as they wish. While Cousin Vit appears to have this, the word “haply” (Lines 13 and 14) calls this into question. Life is too disorderly or hysterical for a person to control it absolutely. First, death possesses Cousin Vit. Then, the happy life—a product of luck and not intention—overtakes her.

Although Brooks never mentions Cousin Vit’s race, one can conclude that Cousin Vit is a Black woman. One critical clue is “snake-hips” (Line 10), the dance Cousin Vit performs. The Black performer, Earl Tucker, created the snakehips dance in the 1920s and ’30s. Tucker could roll his hips so far to the side that his torso took on an S shape and looked like a snake. The dance has a specific link to Black people and culture.