They Feed They Lion

Levine returned to his hometown of Detroit after its devastating 1967 riots (See: Historical Context) and resolved to write something that seemed like an incantation, magical charm, or spell, to explain the causes of the event. Levine hoped to shed light on the economic and social problems that existed long before the city went up in flames. The poem encompasses a litany of how dissent evolves, whether “out of” (Lines 1-4, 6-10) or “from” (Lines 14-17, 19-23, 26-31). This list has a cumulative effect showing how the experience of many hardships can build oppression resulting in the need to “Rise Up” (Line 22). The Detroit riots broke out in an African American neighborhood and Levine deliberately uses African American Vernacular English (AAVE) to capture a true voice.

The first stanza details the impoverishment of the industrial worker. Their resentment comes “out of burlap sacks, out of bearing butter” (Line 1). Levine noted in an interview in The Atlantic that the title came from a memory of a co-worker he had, “a black guy named Eugene” (See: Further Reading & Resources). Eugene and Levine were moving car parts onto “burlap sacks” (Line 1) in the 1950s.