Read the excerpt from "Pilgrimage.”At the museum, we marvel at their clothes— preserved under glass—so much smallerthan 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 blurof petals against the river’s gray. The brochure in my room calls thisliving history. The brass plate on the door reads Prissy’s Room. A window framesThe 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.Pilgrimage, "Elegy for the Native Guards", "South" from Native Guard by Natasha Trethewey. Copyright (c) 2006 by Natasha Trethewey. Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
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.Used with permission of the Chapel Hill Historical Society
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.Used with permission of the Chapel Hill Historical Society
Read the excerpt from "Pilgrimage.”Here, the Mississippi carved its mud-dark path, a graveyardFor 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 nowThe Yazoo fills the Mississippi’s empty bed.Pilgrimage, "Elegy for the Native Guards", "South" from Native Guard by Natasha Trethewey. Copyright (c) 2006 by Natasha Trethewey. Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
Read "Like Brothers We Meet.”What does this poem express about the importance of family?
Read the excerpt from "Elegy for the Native Guards.”The Daughters of the Confederacyhas placed a plaque here, at the fort’s entrance—each Confederate soldier’s name raised hardin 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."Native Guard" from Native Guard by Natasha Trethewey. Copyright (c) 2006 by Natasha Trethewey. Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
Read "On Liberty and Slavery” and "Duty.”How do these poems address the experience of oppression differently?
Read "The Southern Refugee.”What does this poem express about the individual’s search for home?
Read "The Southern Refugee” and "South.”How do both poems address the individual’s search for home?
Read "South.”What does this poem express about the individual’s search for home?
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