Next Week's Packets

Remember to pick up your Michael Longley (Tuesday) and Ciaran Carson (Thursday) reading in the copy room box. It will be available by 3 PM Friday.

Seamus Heaney

Read "Funeral Rites," "Bog Queen," "The Grauballe Man," "Punishment," and "Act of Union" from North.

Then watch these videos of additional Heaney poems for Tuesday, March 30.

"The Road to Derry" on Bloody Sunday with archival video of the road, burial, and memorial

"Digging" montage of archival footage

"The Tollund Man" recitation and video montage

Natasha Trethewey

For Tuesday, read:

"Again, the Fields"
Read this page on Winslow Homer, paying attention to the painting "The Veteran in a New Field" (1865).

"Scenes from a Documentary History of Mississippi"


"Native Guard"
Read a history of the Native Guard.

"Southern History"
Here is a helpful synopsis of the film and its contexts.

Amiri Baraka

Read "Somebody Blew Up America" here and print it off to bring as a hard copy to class on Thursday. Then, browse Baraka's website and watch the recording of this poem.

Bring two thesis statements to class on Thursday for your participation credit. Both should be on Amiri Baraka and will be used to prompt discussion. You may include ideas derived from either the print or recorded versions of the poem. These will be turned in at the end of class, so make sure they are typed.

Yusef Komunyakaa

Read these poems from your Komunyakaa book for Tuesday. Supplemental links to help contextualize some of the poems are listed below their titles. Reviewing this material is necessary for you to be fully prepared.

"How I See Things"

The Beatles' "Strawberry Fields Forever"


Across the Universe adaptation of "Strawberry Fields Forever"


"1984"

"Heartbreak Hotel" by Elvis


Skim The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Trailer for Dr. Strangelove


"You and I Are Disappearing"

Photo from My Lai Massacre

"Report from the Skull's Diorama"

MLK Jr. Explaining why he is against the Vietnam War

Lucille Clifton

Watch Lucille Clifton read her famous poem "homage to my hips":



You'll read "homage to my hips," "malcolm," and "lost baby poem" for Tuesday.

The packet in the copy room also includes your reading for Thursday - Ishmael Reed's "I am a cowboy in the boat of Ra." Please read the biographical information provided.

Next Week's Readings

Look in the copy room of the English department (I sent you an email a few weeks ago with its location) for your readings for next week. They should be available by 5 PM on Friday, February 5.

As per your concerns, I've limited our readings to a few poems for each class. We may not make it through every poem, but be prepared to discuss them. If it helps you, go through the list of terms I indicated in my previous post and note examples.

Generate one thesis statement to bring to class on Tuesday on one of the poems assigned for that day. Consider this additional practice after our conversation today. Students who did not turn in thesis statements to me today should turn them in to me via email. In the future, all assignments - including impromptu exercises - should be typed and handed in. If you turned in thesis statements to me today, expect written feedback on Tuesday.

Impromptu exercises are done for your benefit. They will allow you to practice skills you will be graded on during formal writing assignments. Remember, they are assignments designed to help you and count as part of your participation grade.

If you have concerns about your first grade or would like to workshop your upcoming short paper, contact me at amy.hildreth@emory.edu and we can schedule a time. Please contact me as soon as possible, as I am not available on weekends.

Sonia Sanchez and Audre Lorde

Check out the Audre Lorde Project.

Watch Sonia Sanchez perform "Middle Passage," a poem not in our packet for Thursday.

Gwendolyn Brooks

For Tuesday, watch "4 Little Girls" at the library and read "A Bronzeville Mother Loiters in Mississippi. Meanwhile, a Mississippi Mother Burns Bacon." and "The Last Quatrain of the Ballad of Emmett Till" from your Gwendolyn Brooks collection.

Additional information on the Sixteenth Street Bombing:

About the 1963 Birmingham Bombing
by Modern American Poetry

Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Bombing
from The Birmingham Public Library Digital Collections

A video on the death of Emmett Till:

David Henderson

This post links to references in David Henderson's poetry.

"Neon Diaspora"

The Drifters:
"There Goes My Baby"
"Up On The Roof"
"On Broadway"

Read the Apollo Theater's history here.

"Boston Road Blues"

Read about Isiah Brunson.
Watch Pat Boone.
See "Tutti Frutti" as an example of music performed by both black and white singers.

"Keep On Pushing"

Instead of "Summer '64" by Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions, see "Keep On Keepin' On".
Consider the stage directions for Gypsy Rose.
Visit a site that contains Korean War photography.

Walt Whitman

Read "Europe: The 72d and 73d Years of These States" by Walt Whitman, and then browse his archive. Find one thing you can speak about that you found in the digital archive.

When reading, ask yourself the following questions:

1. What or who is the subject of the poem?
2. What is the form of the poem?
3. What does this poem want?