I love that something so small like a handful of flowers can have so much more meaning than the physical flowers themselves.

A smile can often express just as much pain as it can joy. People smile through the pain all too often, and the bleeding and torn hearts they are smiling despite how much it hurts.

In reference to the video we watched in class, the criminalization of black people so as to put them in prison is a blatant extension of slavery.

This line felt very familiar when I read it, because I knew I had heard similar words before. It is such a strong phrase because the caged bird might sing beautifully but it will never be truly happy because it isn't free.

This line stuck out to me so strongly because so many people have tried to force the forgetting of slavery, by omission of the history in school, or outright denying, or the insistence of forgetting it because it was in the past. It should not be forgotten, and the fact that people are so willing to say it was just the past is honestly kind of frightening.

I like that with this line we are able to get a better idea of what the scene looks like, because just by saying the moon looks like a half closed eye we are able to determine the phase it is in and how much light it would be providing and so on.

I love this line because he wants so badly to ask for a kiss but he decides not to for the comfort of his sweetheart, and wears a "mask" so as not to upset her. This desire to give his love consent in this relationship is definitely not something we have read a lot of so far and this change is nice.

As a few other people have mentioned, this is a line reminiscent to the phrase "the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice" which I mostly associate with Hairspray during a song sung by the character Motormouth Mabel who is such a powerhouse of a woman, and who uses that phrase as a means of saying she is proud of who she is and other people should be too, or get over it.

There is so much power in the word king. A king is never challenged, he is in charge, he is empowered.

I think it's really interesting that Nellie Bly gets called high-browed, yet she's cheating with Johnny. Also, that that's the worst of insulting it gets for her, she's not really talked about as being an active member in the cheating so much as an accessory to it.

As hard as it would be to hear, it's for the better that bartender told Frankie what he knew, and that he also agreed that Johnny was acting wrongly.

This ending really caught me off guard in the best way, because I'm not sure if I was expecting more of a solid conclusion or for there to be a little more to the story of Frankie, but it just cut off and tells the listeners that there isn't an end at all. It's more accurate this way, because there's not always some kind of resolution.

I'm really really glad that Bel also highlighted this, because I knew I wanted to say something about this sentence but I didn't know what. It's so touching in a lot of ways, to see how everyone reacts to his going away, being the first person to go to school, when they never thought they'd live to see the day.

I couldn't help but laugh a little at this because it's such a realistic reaction to have- and yet at the same time, leaving the cabin means going back into the woods with even less protection. But it's what so many people would do though. They'd rather face snakes they can't see than be trapped in a house with one that they can see

After waiting so long for freedom, it's hard to imagine that anyone would want to choose to use the surname of their former enslaver. Yet it's something that I didn't really even think about until reading this

So many people take their education for granted, and think of it as a chore rather than the gift it would be to so many other people.

Mary, attempting to be cruel is punished immediately for that action by falling into the water and nearly drowning (if not for some people being nearby to pull her out) and yet she goes and makes another attempt to be cruel, having not learned any kind of lesson. This one is unfortunately successful.

This poem leads us into the first chapter by helping to set the tone as being one of sadness because something has been lost and changed her forever. And then immediately into chapter 1, Mag is described as lonely, having a heavy heart and downcast eyes. The poem helps to prepare the reader ahead of time and also give us context without being specific.

I loved this line here, because these are two completely opposite things being brought together for a moment. Few things are truly completely opposite, but you can't get more separate than things that can end and things that can't.

The start of this poem is very powerful because the speaker is talking not only of relying on himself but also of relying on God at the same time, but on no one else. God will give him strength, but it is on him to use that strength.

I remember last year in American Novel, we talked a lot about this line in particular, and the audience it shows that she is desperately trying to reach. This book is for people who have the ability to make a change but are not. People who have the power to help, but are not. By sharing this story with those who could be helping, she is almost forcing them to take action. She is showing them that by remaining inactive, they are guilty of allowing things like this to keep happening.

This law, especially concerning our reading from earlier this week of Clotel, makes sense to have had in place as horrible as it is. I actually didn't know that it was a crime to reveal this, but on top of protecting the identity of a father from having to take responsibility (or face their wife, really. Because responsibility in this case is less responsibility more so ownership) but also takes away the ability and power of the slave woman to be able to name the man who raped her. This completely rips away all power she could have possibly had left over herself, as little as it was.

This preface is so incredibly important to include before the narrative begins, for a lot of reasons. So much of her story is so horrifying that it almost doesn't seem real (although we all know the reality of slaves was truly this terrible) and by addressing the readers at the beginning she leaves no chance of them disbelieving these instances as anything but fact. It takes away any opportunity for mental escape by the reader, because you are made aware that the person who wrote this, lived this. Beyond that, she continues by saying that she did not conceal names for her own secrecy but for out of consideration for the others involved-- now, there is no doubt that she had to use a pseudonym for her own safety, because frankly just by writing this she was putting herself in danger. However, by saying that she is doing this to be considerate to those others involved, she is blatantly telling them that they should be ashamed of their actions, and that she is doing them a favor by not naming them because to do so would ruin them.

The pact that a dove was chosen reminds me very much of religion, especially having long been "cooing" for someone and making the sound of liberty. This particular passage is so hopeful and very much presents the idea of not being alone.

This section really stood out to me because of the imagery that comes with the wording. The black cloud retreating is so visual, you can almost see the sun coming back after so long hidden behind darkness, allowing the light to come to the poor and freeing them. And now they may find each other and be at peace.

I love the sensation of sound that comes through this section of the poem, and how the night itself feels alive through these creatures. They are all singing, not just making noise. The night hawk has a "note" and the noisy insect sounds of drums, meanwhile the bee hums. It makes the nighttime feel less like the quiet night you expect and more like a beautiful, natural concert of sounds.

This line exemplifies that wisdom is the goal, something high up that should be desired. A fool can want wisdom, or believe that they already have it, but they can't reach it because they just aren't wise enough to get there.

I find it so interesting to end the poem by saying that these themes are too noble to be discussed with these words. She tells the muse to cease and the poem ends with this, which makes the poem feel like it's being written in time with the reader reading it.

Nature here seems to be coming to the aid of the captured and chained. Breaking bands and then the flora resumes her reign