Frank X Walker
Murphy, Isaac Burns (1861-1896)
Isaac Murphy was born on April 16, 1861 as Isaac Burns near Frankfort, Kentucky on a farm to parents James Burns and a mother whose name is unknown. Murphy was the first American jockey elected to Racing’s Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, New York and only one of two black jockeys (Willie Simms is the other) to have received this honor.
Please read Isaac Murph Burns biography and create a character sketch.
I Dedicate This Ride
Isaac Murphy
When I come barreling down the stretch, I always think
about my daddy, a runaway slave turned soldier.
At the start of every race, I pretend he’s in the crowd,
standing at attention, watching me ride for the first time,
his brass belt buckle gleaming like his proud mouth.
I tell myself, I don’t dare lose that this race is for the union,
for all ex-slaves who joined up, who stole away with their families.
Those fathers showed us what real men do, taught us about sacrifice,
dug trenches, carried supplies and ate a whole lot of rebel bullets
just so they could keep the freedom they hungered so much for.
Just so their children could dream. So I could ride horses and enjoy
true quiet and these visits with him in the middle of all this noise.
When I come barreling down the stretch, I always think
about my daddy, a runaway slave turned soldier.
At the start of every race, I pretend he’s in the crowd,
standing at attention, watching me ride for the first time,
his brass belt buckle gleaming like his proud mouth.
I tell myself, I don’t dare lose that this race is for the union,
for all ex-slaves who joined up, who stole away with their families.
Those fathers showed us what real men do, taught us about sacrifice,
dug trenches, carried supplies and ate a whole lot of rebel bullets
just so they could keep the freedom they hungered so much for.
Just so their children could dream. So I could ride horses and enjoy
true quiet and these visits with him in the middle of all this noise.
Frank X Walker
“I Dedicate This Ride” is from I Dedicate This Ride: The Making of Isaac Murphy (Old Cove Press, 2010).
Please use the skills you developed as a "reader of a writerly kind" to analyze Walker' poem. I Dedicate this Ride.
Think about the genre of theater/drama/plays. How do monologues differ character sketches?
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