Here are a few more poems to read to give you ideas for Paper #2, and to read/enjoy in general. Again, you can read ANY of the poems in the book, but these are ones that I hope to discuss in class, and I feel are a little easier to get into than the rest. But they're just suggestions--read more if you like!
POEMS: Trethewey, Elegy (83-84); Young, Crowning (86-87); Ewing, Requiem for Fifth Period and the Things That Went On Then (90-93); Phillips, Mercy (96-97) Sacfidi, For the Last American Buffalo (pp.107)
Answer TWO of the following:
Q1: What theme do you see connecting some or all of these poems? The chapter is entitled "One Singing Thing," which comes from the poem on page 107. What do you think that means?
Q2: Two of the poems, "Elegy" and "Mercy" are about remembering one's parents now that the children have become parents themselves. What regrets does each poet seem to have now that they're grown up, and see their parents differently now? What might one or both of them have done differently?
Q3: Many of the poems in this section are about children as well. What are the poets trying to show us about children and childhood in this poems, esp. one like "Requiem for Fifth Period"? What do we miss (or misunderstand) about childhood now that we're adults? What do we forget?
Q4: In the last poem, "For the Last American Buffalo," the poet says, at the end, that the world doesn't care whether we live or die. Nevertheless, he says, "Tell is you do and why" (107). What do you think he means by this? Why should we tell the world--or anyone--that we "do and why"?
No comments:
Post a Comment