filled my mouth as Mrs. Purdy read from her desk.
All the other kids zoned an hour ahead to 3:15,
but Mrs. Purdy and I wandered lonely as clouds borne
by a breeze off Mount Parnassus. She must have seen
the darkest eyes in the room brim: The next day
she gave me a poem she’d chosen especially for me
to read to the all except for me white class.
She smiled when she told me to read it, smiled harder,
said oh yes I could. She smiled harder and harder
until I stood and opened my mouth to banjo playing
darkies, pickaninnies, disses and dats. When I finished
my classmates stared at the floor. We walked silent
to the buses, awed by the power of words.
Directions: Please post your reactions to this poem. Also, comment on how the form impacted your reactions. Please use "The Poetry Cheat Sheet" as a guide
The Poetry Cheat Sheet
Tone: This is the attitude of the speaker of the poem. You always have to consider the tone of the speaker even if you’re not specifically asked to analyze it. Tone relates to many of elements below. It’s a “big-picture” or “umbrella” concept. (You should have a “bank” of words in mind: angry, happy, carefree, bitter, sympathetic, sad, nostalgic, ironic, satirical, etc.)
Repetition: Poets often rely on repetition. This can be words, phrases, sounds, images, ideas. If a poet repeats something, it takes on more meaning.
Diction: This refers to words. What words does the poet use? Does he repeat any specific words? What connotation do the words have (positive, negative)?
Syntax/Structure: Do the sentences within the poem or stanzas have a recognizable structure? Does the structure or pattern change at a specific moment?
Imagery (sensory details): This refers to the images of the poem, especially those that appeal to many senses (sight, sound, taste, touch, smell).
Sounds: Sound is often conveyed in poetry. Look for rhyme and repetition, and things such as alliteration, consonance, and assonance (which are repetitions of specific types of sound).
Metaphors/Similes: Comparisons are often used to support imagery, but they can also be used to anchor a poem, to convey a poem’s main message. Any time a poet compares something to something else, you should take note of it.
Irony: This is HUGE in poetry. If something is said or happens that is unexpected, it’s ironic. If it’s sarcastic or satirical, it’s ironic. If you can recognize irony, you’re golden.
Allusion: This is a literary or historical reference. It is not as common on the AP exam, but you should know what it is and how it works.
Rhythm/Rhyme: This is covered with other elements above. This just refers to the recognizable pattern of a poem that gives it a sense of rhythm and flow.
Also: Sestet (six line stanza), Octet (eight line stanza), Quatrain (four line stanza), couplet (two line stanza)
ReplyDeleteThe scope overall went from zero to one hundred quite slowly. At first, you think that there is a reassuring teacher/student relationship, but by the mention of, "She must have seen the darkest eyes in the room brim: The next day she gave me a poem she’d chosen especially for me to read to the all except for me white class", the direct use of language and specific terminology (i.e., "all except for me white class") brings up an interesting question regarding the racial landscape of the class where if there were no mention of it, the thought of race would not have come to mind.
I agree that race would not have come to mind in a piece like this for me either unless it was brought up by the composer. This reminds me of the way race was brought up in "Recitatif" since that story was also about young girls, but those girls were quite aware of the role race had in their lives and the problems it could cause. In "Recitatif," the races are more ambiguous, letting readers make their own assumptions while in this poem, the races are assigned. Would this poem seem reasonable if the races were reversed? How different would our reactions have been if no race was assigned at all?
DeleteI think that it is important how you questioned what the racial landscape could be. I found that really interesting as well when I was reading the poem. Like you, I was also surprised by how quickly the poem escalated and found it quite incredible how the narrator was able to achieve this dramatic shift in such a short poem.
DeleteI thought this was a really powerful poem. I related to its commentary on how powerful words are, and I think its form had a lot to do with it. There is a lot of imagery ("wandered lonely as clouds borne by a breeze off Mount Parnassus", "must have seen the darkest eyes in the room brim"), that immersed me into the setting. I thought it was interesting that she used repetition of the word smile. For me, this emphasized the positive feel of the poem and made it a more balanced poem.
ReplyDeleteI like how you pointed out the imagery and how it immersed you into the setting. I believe that the imagery also contributed to the tone of the poem and made it that much more effective in its message.I agree with you that its form had a lot to do with its idea of the power of words, as the imagery, tone, diction, and repetition all make the poem much more powerful.
DeleteI like how you mentioned the imagery. For the most part, I have to read poems a few times before I understand what happened but the imagery in this poem made it very clear the thoughts and feelings of the narrator. Through the poem's imagery, you can really know what is going on in the setting of the narrator.
DeleteIntroduced with a teacher-student relationship, I was convinced of the innocence of the schoolboys and girls. As I continued reading, this innocence, brought about by a calm, composed tone, was diffused by racial tensions and the fact that she viewed herself differently than her white classmates. Marilyn Nelson’s diction, describing instances like the “banjo playing darkies, pickaninnies, disses and dats,” was also very effective in demonstrating the racial makeup of her classroom; it is clear that she was judged by the color of her skin. He teacher, with the unusual descriptions of her smiling, unjustly set her up in front of the class, resulting in everyone “[walking] silent to the buses, awed by the power of words.” Nelson’s tone and diction furthered the affect the poem had on me. I was expecting a poem from the perspective of an innocent girl about the beauty of poetry, but I too was left “[staring] at the floor.”
ReplyDeleteYour comment on the smiling teacher is interesting; I thought it had the implication of the 'obedient child' imagery often associated with slavery, where slaves were seen as childishly content and ignorant of their situation. Obviously, Nelson is a child, but she's singled out for her race and the comparison stood out to me.
DeleteI had a similar experience in that I expected the poem to be about how much Marilyn loved poetry from the moment she discovered it as an innocent, young girl. I think often times I have read poems in class about the wonderful things words can bring when you first discover their power, and that unknowingly became a my single story about these sort of discovering-the-power-of-writing-type pieces.
DeleteYour comment actually changed how I viewed this poem. When I first read it, I thought this was a completely happy poem, and that the teacher was appreciating the student's culture and getting the rest of the class to appreciate it as well when she had her read out "banjo playing darkies, pickaninnies, disses and dats." It wasn't until I read this and heard the class discussion that I realized how racist it was on the teacher's part. At the same time, I wonder whether or not her teacher knew what she was doing. Nelson's repetition of the word smiled should be an important clue to this, but was she smiling because she thought she was being nice, or was she smiling because she enjoyed humiliating Nelson?
DeleteIt’s interesting to see the contrast of how education is experienced by different people depending on race. We like to believe education is blind, we hope that everyone is receiving the same standard of learning, but the reality of it is not so perfect. Nelson seems like a mind above her class classmates, “all the other kids zoned an hour ahead to 3:15, but Mrs. Purdy and I wandered lonely as clouds borne by a breeze off Mount Parnassus.” In the beginning they narrative is relatively blind, the sense of dreaminess floating over it, we see Nelsons mind and not her person. Even during the middle of the poem we feel this encouragement by the teacher to learn, Mrs. Purdy “[smiling] when she told me to read it.” However, as the form progresses the smile becomes a symbols-- an encouragement to Nelson to find her place. The teacher changes from a equal thinker to a superior race in the space of a few lines. Immediately, race is established as a divider- a poem being chosen “especially for me to read to the all except for me white class.” Once race is added, Nelson’s education seems comprises- the teacher “[smiling] harder and harder. Somehow, her race over shadows her mind, making her skin more relevant to the classroom than her ability to learn. In the end there’s this sense of shame surrounding the conversation. Even her white classmates seem to be able to recognize the problem, “[staring] at the floor.” Her skin becomes her only characteristic, and her intelligence simplified to “banjo playing darkies, pickaninnies, disses and dats.”
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ReplyDeleteI appreciated how this piece talked about the power of poetry through a poem. The simile “lonely as clouds”(4) grasped my attention from the start because clouds are the accumulation of many small water droplets overtime and result in storms or showers once humidity reaches 100%. Clouds can be white and clouds can be dark. Clouds can look light and airy and clouds can look heavy and gloomy. When I first read about the clouds, I thought the poem was headed towards a direction where the poetry brought the two lonely clouds together into friendship. As I continued, I picked up on the droplets of skin color brought into the piece and began to read more carefully. The syntax of the phrase “all except for me white class”(8) seemed quite awkward, causing my brain to sort of stumble over it the first time and go back to reread it. This was an extremely clever line since the reader must stop, breaking the natural rhythm of the poem. As I began reaching the end and realizing this was not a piece about friendship, the whole poem changed from being a happy, nostalgic piece to a dynamic, hard hitting piece. It was almost as if I, like the other students in the class, didn’t want to hear or see more. In the end the almost evil, repeating smile of Mrs. Purdy and the averted eyes of the classmates were left as the ghosts of a heartbreaking moment and death of innocence for Marilyn.
ReplyDeleteWhen I think about poetry the first thing to come to mind has never been "soul kissing", but this unique phrase sets up the poem to what you think may be a pure, or even enlightening story of a young child learning to love poetry. The innocence is palpable, as many can reflect on that "ants in my pants" urgency and feeling while waiting for class to be over. However, once I read, "she must have seen the darkest eyes in the room brim", I no longer associated myself with the white class, I did not want to relate to a group of people that could have tortured and teased Nelson, because of the color of her skin. But this is somewhat ignorant, I can't choose to rip myself away from history because it may make me feel uncomfortable, instead I must face it. I wanted to relate to the nervousness and insecurity of presenting in front of your class, but the fear of being called out for stumbling across your words can't compare to the pain and frustration of being mocked based on you race, and I have never felt this.
ReplyDeleteThere was one point in the poem when the teacher went from a positive encourager, "she gave me a poem she’d chosen especially for me to read," to creepily persistent, "she told me to read it, smiled harder, said oh yes I could". The disturbing smile of Pennywise the Dancing Clown from the movie IT kept reoccurring in my mind, convincing me of some sort of evil that the teacher exhibits, but I couldn't put my finger on exactly what that evil was. The ending makes me question how I should feel and how Nelson actually feels by the time the class walks silently to the buses. Is the larger sense of enlightenment the passing moment of acceptance in a white America filled with love for segregation? Or has Nelson created an emphasis on how much race is singled out, not intelligence, kindness, and attitude, in a classroom?
I found it interesting how you found creepiness in how persistent Mrs. Purdy was being. I had not picked up on that. Looking back, I definitely see the persistence, but I do not think it is necessarily creepy. I feel that Mrs. Purdy realizes that there is something special in the narrator, and she really wants her to succeed. I think the creepiness could be because Mrs. Purdy almost wants to scare the narrator because she knows the narrator can succeed with the motivation.
DeleteSusan Matteucci
ReplyDeleteThe structure of the poem gave it a whole new meaning. The whole thing is one stanza and all the lines are around the same length. The easiest way to manipulate a poem it to change the length of the lines. One line is ten words, the next is two. It creates an asymmetrical mindset in the reader, making the second line stand out. Nelson does not use this tool. Each line is between eight and ten words. This makes her line breaks even more important.
I read the poem twice. Once like a book and the second like a poem. Since the lines were so long and even, I was able to read the poem as though it were a book and ignore the line breaks all together. But it changes the feel and meaning of the poem in many places. The first time I read it, it said, “she gave me a poem she’d chosen especially for me to read to the all except for me white class.” When I read this, I thought, wow the teacher is making a statement by having the only black student read a specific poem aloud. The meaning of this line to me was the teacher was trying to teach the entire class a lesson about race. But if I read these two lines as a poem it sounds, in my head, like, “she gave me a poem she’d chosen especially for me……… to read to the all except me white class.” Suddenly these lines displayed the relationship between the teacher and the speaker. The teacher is giving the student a set of wings. She is introducing the speaker to poetry with a poem chosen especially for the them. It is a connection; a task of self discovery. This makes the teacher’s reasurrence and the speaker’s hesitation to preform have a different meaning as well. It isn’t just that the speaker does not want to read in front of the class, the speaker is afraid of the journey they are about to make. And the teacher smiles, telling the speaker “oh yes [they] could”. So, at the end, when the speaker says “my classmates stared at the floor. We walked silent” the first thought is not of the bus stop. It is of a silent contemplation, “wandering as clouds” as the speaker and teacher once did alone, in a march of freedom and self discovery.
I really like how you explain how you read it both as a poem and a book and how the difference between reading the poem to the class is different if you look at the line breaks. I didn't even think to read it like that but I really like how you were able to take it as a book and read it in a completely different way.
DeleteAs I was reading Marilyn Nelson’s poem it reminds me of how everyone has that one favorite teacher and how they transform some part of your education to this positive memory. Whoever the person speaking was and how they were so engaged by this teacher and how the reading seemed to bring them to another place stood out to me as something I think many readers can relate to as they read themselves. Without truly knowing there was an aspect of race behind this poem I would have never suspected anything less. To me the tone of the speaker stood out because it made the connection between them and Mrs. Purdy sound so eloquent and deep. When it said “but Mrs. Purdy and I wandered lonely as clouds borne by a breeze off Mount Parnassus”, you could almost feel as if you were watching the classroom above and there was two spotlights focused on them. However the more I read the poem and began to understand it I saw a student being called out in a class filled with people all of a different race. It says how “She smiled when she told me to read it, smiled harder, said oh yes I could.” You can almost feel the discomfort through Mrs. Purdy, who keeps smiling, and how all the classmates stared at the floor once the poem was over and walked silently to the bus.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you in that the first half resembles a nice student-teacher relationship. The imagery of teacher and student wandering as clouds together, enjoying the poem, does evoke this sentiment. However, I disagree that it is a positive memory. The ending shows how Mrs. Purdy is calling her out to read a racist and insulting poem to the class. The teacher does this on purpose, and by the ending, even the students are ashamed of it. Mrs. Purdy's relationship with Nelson by the end of the poem is very different from the initial line.
DeleteAlthough the poem was short and brief, it is very effective in its message. The tone of the poem that the author writes from gives one a sense that this moment was a very important one to the narrator. It is clear from the beginning that the narrator was different to the rest of the class, as “all the other kids zoned an hour ahead to 3:15” while the narrator and the teacher “wandered lonely.” As the poem continued, the transition into the racial divide of the “all white class,” was very effective as once the narrator read the poem out loud, the class “awed by the power of words.” The diction and the tone together both enhanced the power of this poem, The way the author ends the poem with the students all walking in silence and struck by the power of words is very similar to the effect this poem has on the people who read it.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it interesting to see how Nelson compares the differences in the narrator from his classmates through interest and skin color? Do you think the author purposely revealed this information in this specific order?
DeleteThe way a poem can turn on a dime, and shift the attention of its reader is shown beautifully within this work. The use of imagery, of clouds and mountains and banjos, brought me into a different place, removed from my surrounding temporarily. Ms. Purdy’s has a perfect way of feeding the narrator’s love of poetry, by giving them something which they can identify with. A poem specific to them, one which makes them feel power and show the rest of the first disinterested class how much weight words can really carry.
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DeleteI like how you highlighted that the class was first disinterested, apathetic about the poem the African American girl was reading. However, after her reading, the class was left staring at the floor and walking silently to the buses. I wonder what the poem was actually about. I know that many of the words like "pickaninnies, disses and dats," refer to African American children, but we cannot be sure what it is about. It could be about race or it could be about racism; there is a difference.
DeleteWhen I began reading the poem, I anticipated it to be about a meaningful relationship between student and teacher. However, the shift in tone revealed a deeper meaning when the poem went from describing the school day when “the other kids zoned an hour ahead to 3:15” to a student saying how they were chosen to read to “the all except for [his/her] white class”. I did not expect the poem to take this turn but I really enjoyed how it became something so powerful in such a short period of time. I also really liked how the narrator diction towards the end described the poem that they are saying. Although I did not know what the poem said, I feel as if I understand it on some level.
ReplyDeleteI agree the poem contained a surprising spectrum of feeling for such a short read. Line-by-line it seemed to change from a fond memory to a tense conflict to a stunned silence.
DeleteI can relate to how the author's mention of a "white class" unexpectedly turned the story into another direction. I admire that Nelson was able to do this in a subtle and concise manner, being able to mention these racial differences but still keeping the focus on the narrator's love for poetry.
DeleteMy first reaction to this poem was the strength of the connection between the narrator and Mrs. Purdy, who in my opinion, represents poetry. The description of the narrator’s soul intertwined with Mrs. Purdy’s, “like soul-kissing,” was very effective. That description, the first line in the poem, made me understand this deeper connection. Additionally, Nelson isolates the narrator and Mrs. Purdy from the rest of the class to further strengthen this connection between them. In the beginning of the poem, “the other kids zoned an hour ahead,” so from there on it was just Mrs. Purdy and the narrator. Now, with all distractions aside, the discovery of poetry can begin. After not mentioning anything else besides the narrator and Mrs. Purdy, the closing lines return to the classmates, who walk “silent to the buses.” I found this interesting how Nelson put the story in perspective, isolated the narrator’s connection to poetry, and then returned to the bigger picture. By isolating the narrator and Mrs. Purdy, the discovery of poetry gets even deeper and stronger. What perhaps Nelson is suggesting with this poem, is that to truly discover poetry and experience it fully, one must block out all distractions and read it alone.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about reading in isolation. Sometimes to form your own unbiased opinions you do have to block out the noise from those that surround you. How would the narrator's reaction to poetry be different if she believed it to be boring like the rest of her class?
DeleteTo me, this poem seems to establish a message about the power of words through being rather matter-of-fact. The structure of the poem is unassuming and relaxed which helps the reader lose themselves in the narrative of the poem. In fact, this poem is similar to a very short story. It is a collection of relatively short sentences grouped together in a single block of text. This form helps the poem create feeling because the short sentences create power with every word. Each words hangs heavy on the story. Because of this, the language of the piece is also very important, often by also being matter-of-fact. An example is the narrator’s casual reference to the discriminatory names used by their classmates, “banjo playing darkies, pickaninnies, disses and dats.” The lack of emotion here actually becomes even more sad and powerful because it seems to signal the taunting is so frequent that it is just an accepted fact of life at this point.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I certainly do not mean to claim that the poem is void of emotion. With lines like the opening with poetry being described as "like soul-kissing," there is certainly emotional language to be found in the poem. My only point is that even where emotion is found, it is kept short and sweet which adds to the power of the writing.
DeleteSusan Matteucci
DeleteI think you hit the tone of the poem very well. There is a relaxed, nonchalant feeling to the poem because of the long and even lines and only one stanza. This creates a zen-like feeling to the whole thing, but the language makes it rich. Great job pointing that out, I didn't think about that.
I was immediately drawn in with Nelson’s first line, “It was like soul-kissing…” It was through this simile that spoke the depths of how powerful and influential poetry was to the narrator. Initially, I thought this piece was going in a direction where the narrator focused on an astounding poem he or she had heard. Nelson, however, brings light to the racial setting of the classroom and changes the whole dynamic of the piece; the racial differences in the classroom were not apparent to me until after reading about the “white class” description. Further along reading, I noticed that the language started to shift and it really put the atmosphere into perspective, “...she gave me a poem she’d chosen especially for me to read to the all except for me white class.” I paid a lot attention towards the diction Nelson chose and how the rest of her figurative language fell into place, working around her words. The language of the narrative definitely shifted the scene for me at points and helped create a larger idea of how Nelson wanted for us to imagine it.
ReplyDeleteWhat first struck me while reading this poem was the narrator’s feelings towards hearing the poem read in class. Their passion for poetry is palpable through the imagery as they are described as wandering “lonely as clouds borne by a breeze off Mount Parnassus” while the teacher is reading. As the poem progresses, Nelson begins to separate the eager student from the rest, as they are given a poem and “chosen especially for me to read to the all except for me white class,” leaving them “awed by the power of words.” I was surprised Nelson brought up race in the poem, as it was not something that I would’ve thought of until otherwise mentioned. Adding this feels as though the student is singled out even more, and changes the tone of the poem.
ReplyDeleteI agree that singling out the one African American girl in the all white class changes the tone of the story. It swings it from a focus on innocent school children to a much greater issue they will encounter when they grow up: race. Similar to how the singled-out-girl read this poem to her class, it also has a great, surprising effect on the readers.
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ReplyDeleteAlmost like a play, the poem “How I Discovered Poetry” is structured into two acts where we learn two different lessons from Nelson’s experiences about poetry. The first “act”, from lines one to six, the tone of the poem is light and cheerful. From her point of view, Nelson is enjoying the poem her teacher is reading aloud. While her peers are disinterested, “Mrs. Purdy and [Nelson] wandered…”, comparing her reading experience to Mount Parnassus, a symbol of the Greek Muses. Overall, the first half of the poem is what I would expect from the title. Them, with the introduction of “She must have seen the darkest eyes in the room brim…”, the poem goes into a very different direction. Mrs. Purdy is no longer the friendly, comforting figure in the first act; Because Nelson is black, the teacher pressures her to read an racist poem to the class. In the poem, “She smiled when she told me to read it, smiled harder, said oh yes I could. She smiled harder and harder until I stood…”. The emphasis on the smile, alongside the shift in tone leaves the impression that it isn’t friendly.
Susan Matteucci
DeleteI love how you caught the nod to the Greek Muses. You also related it to a play with a first act and a second act, which connected it again to the Muses. I think this is a great way to look at it.
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