Forms are Fun
Which kind of sonnet is "From a Dark Tower" and why did Countee Cullen choose this form?
What is "Petrarchan"? The speaker longs for a time in the future when the black race will be equal to the white, which parallels the longing felt by Petrarch toward his love, who was distant and out-of-reach. Cullen also wants to show mastery of a traditionally white form in order to prove his point that black artists are just as accomplished as whites.
In the context of the poem in which it appears, explain the hyperbole in the line "He slept like a rock or a man that's dead."
What is "though the blues singer presumably sings in order to release himself from his pain as a black man in the time of Jim Crowe, this line suggests that he has internalized his suffering to the point that he is emotionally ruined"?
Which is the movement dedicated to exploring issues of concern to Puerto Ricans in NYC?
What is "Nuyorican poetry"?
Who are the authors of the following poems and which came first? "The Red Wheelbarrow" and "Song of Myself"
What is "Song of Myself"? WC Williams (Red Wheelbarrow - Modernism) and Walt Whitman (Song of Myself - between Romantic and Modernist movements)
Name three themes that the pantoum and villanelle might lend themselves to and why?
What is "memory, loss, feeling stuck" (other possibilities)? Both poems evoke a cyclical feeling and exhibit a lack of forward momentum due to the constant repetition.
What is the central conceit of "Diving into the Wreck"?
What is "the diver is a feminist heroine on a quest to uncover the wreck, a metaphor for the omission of female and minority voices from the English cannon"?
In which movement might one find allusions to Greek and Roman Gods?
Who are the authors of the following poems and which came first? "From the Dark Tower" and "We Real Cool"
What is "From the Dark Tower"? (Countee Cullen, Harlem Renaissance; Gwendolyn Brooks, Black Arts Movement)
In what form is "The Author to Her Book" and why is this important in the context of her poem?
What is "heroic couplets"? Her lines and end rhymes are nearly perfect and neat, which contradicts her insistence that her writing needs work. This contradiction points to the impossibly high standard that women held themselves to as writers before the 20th century.
What are three effects of the enjambment in "We Real Cool"?
What is "1.the slight pause after 'we' gives their voices attitude, 2. the repetition of "we" emphasizes the collective posturing of the teenage boys, 3. the absence of "we" in the final line "die soon" suggests that each of these boys will eventually suffer on their own for their choice to drop out of school"?
What was the principal aesthetic concern of the Modernist movement?
What is "to break from established poetic traditions and to refresh language, freeing it from hackneyed associations and symbolism"?
Who are the authors of the following poems and which came first? "Red Beans" or "Puerto Rican Discovery #3: Not Neither" and "America"?
What is "America"? ("America" - Allen Ginsberg, Beat movement of 1940s-1960s "Red Beans" by Victor Hernández Cruz and "Not Neither" by Sandra María Estevez of the Nuyorican movement 1970s-2000s)
Why does Ginsberg choose to use free verse in "America"?
What is "his poem is a stream-of-consciousness rant expressing his deep, personal anger towards himself and his country"? Also what is "as a Beat poet, he was interested in breaking all traditional rules in society and language"?
Besides "O Captain, My Captain," what is another example of apostrophe in Whitman's elegy?
What is "Oh heart, heart, heart!" or "Exult, o Shores and ring, oh bells"?
Why is Beat poetry called Beat poetry?
What is "this term refers to the way in which the generation after World War II felt beaten down by their experiences, much like the generation after World War I"? Also, wha is '"beat" is short for "beatnik," which means a person outside of mainstream society'?
Who are the authors of the following poems and which came first? "Batter My Heart" and "Rape of the Lock"
What is "Batter My Heart"? John Donne ("Batter My Heart", metaphysical poetry of 1600s) and Alexander Pope ("Rape of the Lock," satirical poetry of 1700s)