This personal depression by extension is about the depression of an entire people, marginalized in the back waters, stricken with poverty, homelessness, suffering social injustice, discrimination, and now hit with this catastrophic natural disaster. The scene is set with the terrific storm by the female speaker, so depressed that she canвЂ™t even get out of the door. I think in the best identity poems that the self represents something much larger than the self. But the second strophe, the second stanza, we turn inward, and itвЂ™s about personal disaster: I woke up this morning canвЂ™t even get out of my door, I woke up this morning canвЂ™t even get out of my door. I mean, first, it sets up a terrible storm when it rained five days and the skies turned dark as night, when it rained five days and the skies turned dark as night. There was evidence of lynchings and unspeakable killings and terrible acts against the black community.

They relocated the white folks in an expedient manner but corralled the black folks into abysmal camps. There were reports that officials behaved in a discriminatory fashion. Nonetheless, when she recorded it in 1927 вЂњBackwater BluesвЂќ became an anthem for the great Mississippi River Flood. The blues artists who wrote and sang in this era there are famous names in this era such as Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, Howling Wolf, and of course, Bessie Smith, who is one of my favorites.Д«essie actually wrote вЂњBackwater BluesвЂќ for the Cumberland River flood that hit Nashville on Christmas morning 1926. This incident gave birth to an important blues era, now known as the Delta Blues era. Entire black neighborhoods were wiped out. Almost a million people became homeless for a time. Almost half a million homes were destroyed. About a thousand people lost their lives. The Mississippi River flood of 1927 was horrific. CommentaryД«essie Smith recorded вЂњBackwater BluesвЂќ in 1927, and it became an anthem for one of the most devastating national disasters in US history. There ainвЂ™t no place for a poor old girl to go вЂ™Cause my house fell down and I canвЂ™t live there no more Then looked down on the house were I used to liveД«ackwater blues done call me to pack my things and go Then I went and stood upon some high old lonesome hill ThereвЂ™s thousands of people ainвЂ™t got no place to go When it thunders and lightninвЂ™ and the wind begins to blow

When it thunders and lightninвЂ™ and when the wind begins to blow I packed all my clothes, throwed them in and they rowed me along Then they rowed a little boat about five miles вЂ™cross the pond There's been enough trouble to make a poor girl wonder where she want to go I woke up this morninвЂ™, canвЂ™t even get out of my door Then trouble's takin' place in the lowlands at night When it rains five days and the skies turn dark as night Backwater Blues When it rains five days and the skies turn dark as night

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