For a Lady I Know - Countee Cullen
1. What is Cullen's message?
The message that Cullen is trying to convey is that the person, a woman who is most likely white, believes that even in heaven the black people are servants to the white people.
2. How would you characterize the tone of this poem? Wrathful? Amused?
The tone of the poem from the white person's point of view would be amused. The woman is amused at thinking that even in heaven, the situation is the same as it is on earth.
For my Daughter - Weldon Kees
1. How does the last line of this sonnet affect the meaning of the poem?
The last line reads, “I have no daughter, I desire none,” and it is confusing compared to the rest of the poem because he is talking earlier of his daughter. The text does not say, “I had a daughter,” but rather, “I have no daughter.” The text is in present tense leading one to believe he has lost his daughter and never wants another child and it brings the bleak and sad situation to a bitter end.
2. “For My Daughter” was first published in 1940. What considerations might a potential American parent have felt at that time? Are these historical concerns mirrored in the poem?
During 1940, parents had very little or no services available for hospital care. Doctors had very little means or methods regarding diseases in the 1940 to be able to cure them. These historical concerns are portrayed in this poem, watching helplessly while the child is sick and there is nothing that can be done. It had to be the worst feeling in the world.
3. Donald Justice has said that “Kees is one of the bitterest poets in history.” Is bitterness the only attitude the speaker reveals in this poem?
Bitterness is not the only attitude revealed in this poem; compassion, hopelessness, sadness and hurt are also attitudes that are apparent in this piece of work.
1. How does the last line of this sonnet affect the meaning of the poem?
The last line reads, “I have no daughter, I desire none,” and it is confusing compared to the rest of the poem because he is talking earlier of his daughter. The text does not say, “I had a daughter,” but rather, “I have no daughter.” The text is in present tense leading one to believe he has lost his daughter and never wants another child and it brings the bleak and sad situation to a bitter end.
2. “For My Daughter” was first published in 1940. What considerations might a potential American parent have felt at that time? Are these historical concerns mirrored in the poem?
During 1940, parents had very little or no services available for hospital care. Doctors had very little means or methods regarding diseases in the 1940 to be able to cure them. These historical concerns are portrayed in this poem, watching helplessly while the child is sick and there is nothing that can be done. It had to be the worst feeling in the world.
3. Donald Justice has said that “Kees is one of the bitterest poets in history.” Is bitterness the only attitude the speaker reveals in this poem?
Bitterness is not the only attitude revealed in this poem; compassion, hopelessness, sadness and hurt are also attitudes that are apparent in this piece of work.
Doo Wop - Kevin Young
1. What is the tone of this poem- comic? serious? both at once?
Both at once. The poem seems serious to me, about a man that has been wronged by a woman.
2. How many instances of plays on words, and playing with the sounds of words, can you find in the poem?
I think every line is a pun or a play on words.
3. Beyond the author's exuberant delight in language, what do you think "Doo Wop" is about?
I think "Doo Wop" is about a man who had a lovely woman and either the woman was from Alabama or the women and a man from Alabama were writing to one another and the women ended up breaking her lovers heart by going with another man.
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