Poetry & the Pictures it Paints

I’m studying for my Literature class and need an explanation.

Read the following four poems. Then, read them again. Read each of them aloud (which might help you to feel out the sounds in the poem).

Poem #1 – “Naming the Heartbeats” by Aimee Nezhukumatathil (this is a prose poem.)

Poem #2 – “Let America Be America Again” by Langston Hughes (read more about the poet here.)

Poem #3 – “won’t you celebrate with me?” by Lucille Clifton (read more about the poet here.)

Poem #4 – “Every Morning” by Mary Oliver (read more about the poet here).

Next, describe (in one paragraph/per poem) the pictures these poems create in your mind. Make specific reference to each poem’s use of imagery. Try to be as specific as you can. Pull out passages, words or details that particularly impact you. Or, if something confuses or boggles you, feel free to share that too.

What we want to do here is simply begin to engage with a poem and try to understand what it’s made of; we’ll start with the images in a poem and what those images lead to in terms of meaning.

For each poem, write ONE paragraph about what you ‘see’. Your post should consist of no fewer than four paragraphs and 400 words. Your response needs to include ONE scholarly source per paragraph, with properly formatted in-text citations and end references.