American Poetry: Maxwell's Juniors

"Still I Rise" (p.16)

1. Who do you think the "you" is in this poem? Explain your answer and provide specific support from the poem.

2. Who is the persona and what is her tone? Provide textual evidence for support of your answer.

3. How does the use of repetition strengthen the message of the poem?

4. Choose TWO examples of figurative language (metaphor, simile, or personification) and analyze them. Discuss their implications & connotations and then apply to the meaning.

"America" (p.2)

1. What is this poem saying about consumerism in America? Support your answer with convincing textual evidence and analysis.

2. Why is it significant that the student wears "phony ghetto clothes"? How does that detail fit in with the rest of the poem?

3. What does this poem suggest about an individual's IDENTITY in America? Explain your answer.

4. Write your OWN interpretive question and answer it.

"Prospective Immigrants Please Note" (p.23)

What do you think "this door" is? Explain and support your answer.

"Let the Healing Begin" (p.21)

1. What does this poem say about RACE in America? Support your answer with specific textual evidence.

2. Explain the significance of the title.

"When in Rome" (p.9)

1. To what cliché saying does the title of the poem refer? Why do you think Mari Evans titles her poem this?

2. Who are the 2 speakers in the poem, and how do you know? (who is "Mattie" and to whom is she speaking?)

3. What is Mattie's attitude toward the other person in the poem and how do you know?

"The Slave's Dream" (pp.25-26)

Choose one of the following devices, identify where it is in the poem, and explain how it adds to the poem's meaning: metaphor, imagery, or personification.

[If you are the first person for this post, your task is different. You get to answer these 5 literal-level questions so that everyone who follows you understands what's literally happening in the poem: 1 - Where is the slave when the poem begins? and What is his physical condition?; 2 - What/where is his "Native Land"?; 3 - Stanzas 2 - 7 all take place where?; 4 - What do lines 17-18 reveal about the slave? (how are these lines different from the rest of the stanzas surrounding them?; 5 - Why didn't the slave "feel the driver's whip" (last stanza)?]

"American Classic" (p.28)

1. Explain the significance of the title.

2. How does the use of punctuation in the poem contribute to its meaning? Provide specific examples.

3. What does this poem say about American society? Provide specific support for your answer.

"Traveling Through the Dark" (p.27)

1. Explain the significance of the title. (Think beyond the literal level, of course.)

2. What is this poem suggesting about Americans' relationship with Nature?

"Frederick Douglass" (p.22)

1. Given what you know about Frederick Douglass, how does this poem truly honor him? or What is this poem saying about freedom for African-Americans?

2. Choose two words or phrases in the poem, discuss their connotations and then connect to the poem's portrayal of Frederick Douglass.

"I Hear America Singing" (p.24)

1. What is this poem celebrating about America? Use quotes for support.

2. Describe how the poem is formatted on the page (what it looks like) and how that contributes to its meaning.

"I, Too, Sing America" (p.24)

1. Langston Hughes was another preeminent writer of the Harlem Renaissance. What is his poem criticizing about America?

or

What is the persona's attitude toward America, and toward himself?

2. Identify and discuss the effect of repetition in the poem. Connect to meaning.

3. How is this poem a response to Whitman's poem? i.e. explain the title

"O Captain! My Captain!" (p.29)

1. What is the tone of this poem (the persona's attitude toward his subject) and how do you know? Provide quotes to support your answer.

2. What is the extended metaphor in this poem, and what ideas about Abraham Lincoln does it convey? What does it also suggest about America?

3. Choose any ONE of the following poetic devices, identify where you see it in the poem (quotes), and connect to meaning: punctuation, capitalization, imagery, alliteration, apostrophe, or the imperative.

"When Death Comes" (p.13)

1. How does the speaker feel about death, and how do you know? OR: How does the speaker feel about life, and how do you know?

2. Choose one of the following devices, identify it in the poem, and connect it to meaning: metaphor, repetition, simile, imagery.

Dickinson's "Part One:Life" (p.14)

1. How is this a poem about Isolation/Alienation? Individualism and its Loss?

2. This poem uses a whole lot of paradox. Can you make sense of the apparent contradictions? Consider what she might be saying about the power of majority opinion on all of us.

"A Noiseless Patient Spider" (p.15)

1. Identify one of our unit's themes in this poem and explain where you see it.

2. Choose one of the following devices, identify it in the poem, and connect to meaning: metaphor, alliteration, repetition, consonance, apostrophe, imagery

"Do Not Weep, Maiden, for War is Kind" (p.18)

What is this poem saying about war? (hint: pay attention to the tone of the poem) Support your answer with specific textual evidence and explanation.

"Concord Hymn" (p.20)

1. This poem was written in honor of a monument commemorating the Revolutionary War. Do a little research on the Battles of Lexington & Concord and apply what your research tells you to specific lines in the poem.

2. Choose one of the following devices, identify it in the poem, and connect it to meaning: hyperbole, alliteration, imagery, apostrophe, allusion, metaphor, assonance

"In a Station of the Metro" (p.7)

1. What does this poem say about city life? Explain your answer with textual evidence

2. Choose a word or phrase in the poem, discuss its connotations, and connect to meaning.

"Fog" (p.8)

1. What does this poem convey about the urban landscape?

2. What is the extended metaphor in the poem, and what does it suggest about the fog?

"Man-Moth" (pp.11-12)

1. How does this poem address the theme of loss of individuality? the Urban Landscape?

2. Choose one of the following devices, identify it in the poem, and connect it to meaning: simile, imagery, metaphor,

"A Supermarket in California" (p.10)

1. What is the speaker's attitude toward America, and how do you know?

2. Choose one of the following devices, identify it in the poem, and connect it to meaning: apostrophe, imagery, rhetorical questions, metaphor, alliteration, allusion.

"Trees" by Joyce Kilmer (p.5)

1. What ideas about Nature are conveyed in this poem? Choose one idea and explain how you came to that idea. Use quotes in your response.

2. Identify 2 examples of personification in the poem and discuss what ideas about trees/nature that personification conveys.

"Song of the Open Road" (p.5)

1. This poem is a follow-up poem to Kilmer's "Trees," one Nash wrote over 50 years later. What is Ogden Nash saying about both Nature and society? (You have to understand Kilmer's poem to understand Ogden's clever response.)

2. Discuss the function and/or image of a billboard. What do you think the billboard is a symbol of in this poem? Explain.

Emily Dickinson's #74 (p.3)

1. What is this poem saying about Nature?

2. Choose one of the following devices, identify it in the poem, and connect it to meaning: personification, alliteration, capitalization, punctuation, allusion.

"Stopping by Woods. . . " (p.4)

1. How is the setting important to the poem's meaning?

2. Choose one of the following devices, identify it in the poem, and connect it to meaning: imagery, personification, alliteration, consonance. (or, challenge question: what do you think "sleep" is a metaphor for? explain your answer.)