HOW I DISCOVERED POETRY
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| Photo Retrieved from Goodreads.com |
Nelson, Marilyn. HOW I DISCOVERED POETRY. Ill. by Hadley Hooper. Dial Books: New York, NY, 2014. ISBN 9780803733046
B. REVIEW AND CRITICAL ANALYSIS
A powerful and memorable collection of fifty short poems, delivered as a compact autobiography of a short time period in Marilyn Nelson’s childhood life during the Civil Rights era. She takes the reader along for her ride as a child from 1950 to 1959, as she travels with her family during military relocations across the country. Told from a first person perspective, Nelson provides an intimate look into the years she developed as a young African-American girl during a turbulent time period for America. She gently touches on the beginnings of her passion for writing through non-rhyming sonnets based on her childhood experiences and the time period.
While the Civil Rights era has been presented through a number of generations and formats by other writers, Nelson delivers an innovative perspective in her collection. Without using inappropriate language, she hints at the derogatory terms often associated with the time period with her literary devices, and her perception of what those words implied. Nelson also gives the interesting viewpoint as an African-American girl growing up around white children in different geographical locations, and how she struggled with her identity during that time. Young adults experiencing military relocation will bond to Nelson, as well as young developing writers. Nelson also connects the reader to common childhood experiences, such as having to leave family pets behind and playing on a schoolyard playground. The innocent misunderstandings of a young mind, and the lack of knowledge of the turmoil surrounding the innocence of childhood is the highlight of Nelson’s craft in this collection. In “Caucasian Dinner,” Nelson writes about how they are the first African-American family in Kittery Point, Maine, and the “Caucasian” dinner they have that day.
The cover of the book is fascinating. Pictures of Nelson and her family are strung across a clotheslines, attached with clothespins. Behind the pictures and the title are very light colored significant words from the book. These words are a great reflection piece after the book has been read. Inside the book, the poems are arranged across a two-page spread, some accompanied by illustrations, and some not. Hadley Hooper incorporates real life black and white photography, and also illustrates using blues and yellows. Each title of the poem is printed in a grayish-blue cursive text, and is followed by the location and year for which the poem is written about. At the end of the collection is an author’s note, which explains how and why the book was written. An added feature is the “Who’s Who” in the family photo note, and original publication for some of the poetry contained in the collection.
C. HIGHLIGHT POEM AND POETRY BREAK
Sinfonia Concertante
(Fort Worth, Texas, 1959)
Daddy’s here on temporary duty,
So Mama’s piano is in storage.
Home is a four-room third floor apartment
In a Negro quarter of the city.
My all-black classmates act like I’m from Mars.
Are you the girl from California?
Talk for us. And these boys act like I’m cute!
Miss Jackson saw me pretend piano
And had me put into a music class.
String quartet: two violins, cello,
And on viola, me, sawing away.
Daddy says my squawks set his teeth on edge,
So I practice out on the balcony,
Genius on view all up and down the block.
Read the poem aloud as a class during a Poetry Break for a unit on the Civil Rights Era or Black History Month. Discuss the ways in which Nelson is like the other children she is with, and how is she different. Pose these discussion questions:
- Is she connecting to her peers in this poem?
- Do you think they accept her, even though they are also African-American?
- What experiences have changed the way she relates to her peers?
- Since she plays on the balcony, what do her neighbors think about her family?
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