Read the excerpt from "Elegy for the Native Guards.” The Daughters of the Confederacy has placed a plaque here, at the fort’s entrance— each Confederate soldier’s name raised hard in bronze; no names carved for the Native Guards— 2nd Regiment, Union men, black phalanx. What is monument to their legacy? All the grave markers, all the crude headstones— water-lost. Now fish dart among their bones, as we listen for what the saves intone. Only the fort remains, near forty feet high, round, unfinished, half open to the sky, The elements—wind, rain,—God's deliberate eye. What does this excerpt express about the struggle for equality?
Read the excerpt from "One Generation Passeth Away and Another Cometh.” Vain bird, a while think what am I, Here entering ‘mid a hawk-like throng; Quickly hatched out, as quick to fly, And dare not tarry long. Where is the mighty and the stout, Who lived this fading world to crave; Left and forever gone without A stone to show their grave. Which universal theme is reflected in the excerpt?
Read the excerpt from "Pilgrimage.” At the museum, we marvel at their clothes— preserved under glass—so much smaller than our own, as if those who wore them were only children. We sleep in their beds, the old mansions hunkered on the bluffs, draped in flowers—funereal—a blur of petals against the river’s gray. The brochure in my room calls this living history. The brass plate on the door reads Prissy’s Room . A window frames The river’s crawl toward the Gulf. In my dream, The ghost of history lies down beside me, rolls over, pins me beneath a heavy arm. What does this excerpt express about the impact of the past on the present?
Read the excerpt from "Pilgrimage.” Here, the Mississippi carved its mud-dark path, a graveyard For skeletons of sunken riverboat. Here, the river changed its course, Turning away from the city as one turns, forgetting, from the past— The abandoned bluffs, land sloping up above the river’s bend—where now The Yazoo fills the Mississippi’s empty bed. Which universal theme is shown in the excerpt?
Read the excerpt from "Like Brothers We Meet.” The soldier no longer shall roam, But soon shall land safely ashore, Each soon will arrive at his own native home, And struggle in warfare no more. The union of brothers is sweet, Whose wives and children do come, Their sons and fair daughters with pleasure they greet, When long absent fathers come home. Which universal theme is shown in the excerpt?
Read "Like Brothers We Meet.” What does this poem express about the importance of family?
Read the excerpt from "Duty.” When he tells the story now he’s at the center of it, everyone else in the house falling into the backdrop— my mother, grandmother, an uncle, all dead now—props in our story: father and daughter caught in memory’s half-light. What does this excerpt express about the importance of memory?
Read the excerpt from "South.” Where the roads, buildings, and monuments are named to honor the Confederacy, where that old flag still hangs, I return to Mississippi, state that made a crime of me—mulatto, half-breed—native in my native land, this place they’ll bury me. Which universal theme is shown in the excerpt?
Read "South.” What does the poem express about the tension between appearance and reality?
Read "South.” What does this poem express about the individual’s search for home?
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