I think the author means by this whole section on sex that their society is relatively free from sin; people aren't sexually repressed, etc. An almost ideal world, in the author's opinion.

Yeah I figured this was it. Many prosper here while others suffer at our expense. Is it moral to continue with our prosperous and happy lives while others suffer for us? I think that's the question the author is getting it. I don't really think this is a good analogy because everyone suffers, and everyone knows that life is full of pain as well as happiness. There is no one person or group that acts as a scapegoat. Most of us are in the same boat. Even the ultra-rich suffer, although they can do away with some of their pain more easily. I think the real evil is within every person. This is not to say that we shouldn't make sacrifices and do our best to help those who are needy and suffering, but I think the metaphor of Omelas misunderstands human nature, life, and suffering.

We might ask, who set the terms? I think that's part of the point of the story. I believe Omelas is supposed to be a metaphor for modern society. Is it worth many people prospering at the cost of one suffering?

A sign of starvation

Nakedness can represent innocence. This fits the mood of the city that the author is describing--colorful, beautiful, free.

I wonder if the poem is strictly about real ships, or if it is about a higher metaphor. The ships might represent freedom and a way out from the misery he describes in other poems.

Here is the repeated theme of the mask. I'm not sure what it means in this context.

I like the transliterated dialect in this piece because it makes it easier to imagine the speaker reciting the poem, almost like a blessing over their child.

What an image! And maybe a reference to the Book of Life, in which the names of believers are written in heaven.

Possibly a reference to scripture, where the serpent bruises the hell, but the heel crushes the head of the serpent--ultimately a metaphor for God defeating evil.

The famous line! The metaphor here for the enslaved and suffering black people is clear.

The rhythm of this poem is like a song.

A powerful line.

The masks remind me of the KKK.

The rope--for hanging, perhaps.

This is likely something he did not commit, aka the crime of being black.

I think the mask is the human tendency to pretend that we are not full of the evil of human choices and suffering, particularly slaves and former slaves.

alliteration - wistful and wander

alliteration

We don't usually hear ballads like this nowadays. There are other ways of telling stories through songs, although in today's world they are usually much simpler to fit the short, radio format that conforms most modern songs.

I think it's interesting that the singer admits that the song has no moral, but even more so that the song has no end. It may be a throwaway line not meant to carry greater significance, but it also may mean that the story of two-timing will always be kept alive because people still often cheat.

This makes me wonder more about the identity of the Smoke King. Who is he that he whitens black men and blackens white men? And what does this mean? I think the next line helps somewhat in understanding this.

A rhetorical question. He's saying there's no advantage to either one.

These words really roll off the tongue. It could definitely be sung.

This is a complicated and much-discussed question, but I think it has less to do with Africa and more to do with Europe. There are several places that could have been the 'center' of the civilized world, but the randomness of events in history determined that it would be Europe. It could have been anywhere--Egypt, the Indus Valley, Mesopotamia, and the other early civilizations all had the potential to produce the center of the civilized world.

The spirit of the true song is preserved even if no one is able to translate the words.

He's saying that despite the "vulgar" renditions of African American songs performed on the minstrel stage, the true spirit of their song is preserved in the memories and emotions of those who have already heard them as well as in the African American community itself. Both whites and blacks alike can partake in that preservation.

Why does he think this? What does he mean by "vigor and ingenuity"?

Most people can likely agree this is a universal truth. It's intriguing to see Washington's unique experiences back up this wisdom.

education = power

This must have been one of the single greatest influences in developing Washington as the orator and writer he became.

Wow. They offered their former owners mercy. That's incredible.

I think other narratives have implied this fact, but this narrative is the first to assert it clearly.

It's interesting to hear how the war affected social dynamics between the slaves and the masters.

I've grown up learning how important this can be to having close family ties. I can't imagine never having the opportunity at all.

I have always wondered about this, since slaves were often barred from learning to read. Word of mouth was the best way they could learn.

The cold must have been almost unbearable. A simple log cabin with open windows, an insufficient door, and a hole in the wall for the cat already offers only minimum protection from the elements, but dirt floors sap away all the body heat humans can produce, especially without beds, as the narrator later mentions.

Slavery drove people into corners, forcing them to make decisions that they would normally never choose except under such extreme circumstances.

This is a common theme among many of the slave narratives we've read so far.

I understand that the author is talking about the terrible violence of racist crimes, but I'm not sure what conclusion she wants the reader to draw from the poem. The poetry vs. rhetoric theme is unclear to me.

The meaning of this is unclear to me. Don't poetry and rhetoric overlap significantly? Why is the implication of poetry that you are willing to kill yourself, and the implication of rhetoric that you're willing to kill your children?

The tone is very pessimistic.

Loving one's country is hard when different leaders and politicians make choices you would never make, or when you see so many terrible things reported on the news, and so on. The author is saying these events fill you up and make you too 'heavy' to move.

I acknowledge my bias but I don't really think this is poetry. The way it's been formatted is poetic prose. Rambling prose doesn't make poetry. Just my hot take, I don't mind if people disagree.

This is what the poem is really about. The buildup with the passive voice is supposed to make us use the zombie technique here to realize that the sign informing visitors about the razing of the Native American settlement uses passive voice, directing the responsibility away from the aggressors. "The army was directed to enter" instead of "The governor/the president directed the army to enter", "the village was razed after the skirmish occurred" instead of "the army razed the village after emerging victorious from the skirmish".

I must have read this poem before because I remember this analogy! One of my English professors drilled this idea of avoiding passive voice into my brain and it's helped me improve my writing.

I looked up the definition of this word but it didn't shed much light on the poem's meaning

cryptic

not sure about this...are they literal broken windows or does this mean a TV, or eyes, etc...?

economics?

I get the sense that the author is talking about the dangers or approaching dangers in modern society surrounding technology and politics, hence the news stations, the "crisis", the "1.9% annually" which sounds like an economic statistic, and "datebook chips in the soft skin of our wrists", but overall I don't think it is clear what the poem is actually about and what the author is trying to say. I did some looking around online to see if Warren had commented on this poem and I had trouble finding anything.

:(

This shows the incredibly narrow view that many whites held about Christianity, faith, and the church, in regards to race

This shows how all of the evils that have befallen her, along with the actions she has taken that she regrets, have made her feel intense guilt or worthlessness

Hope and Mercy are personified here, but cannot reach the places that need it the most

The other female African American writers we've read have been stuck in similar positions, sometimes forced or almost forced into a relationship because it's their only means of survival.

I could already tell at this point in the reading that she would probably undergo the same hardships as other African American women we've been reading.

Maybe purple with wine as well as rage. He seems drunk. Edit: I just double checked the passage in Esther which tells this story, and it says he was definitely inebriated.

Basically the king was telling her to strip at his banquet, if I'm understanding correctly.

'Rude' here can mean vulgar or inappropriate.

If he really valued her, he wouldn't have thrown her out and replaced her!

This poem is about the Persian queen Vashti, as recorded in the book of Esther in the Bible. The events of the poem are in the first chapter: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Esther+1&version=NIV

I like this imagery. Pleasure is like flattery--it means little and cannot sustain or last.

relief, aid, or help (Merriam-Webster)

The people of Israel were enslaved in both Egypt and Babylon. The author is rightly saying that the trans-Atlantic slave trade inflicted more severe evils on African American slaves than even the Israelites underwent.

They are all made in God's image, but in an act of ultimate hypocrisy and heresy, enslave their brethren in Christ by pretending they aren't equally humans.

Black and white people fought together against the British but it only cemented slavery's hold on America.

'Wear' is a good word here because it implies that there's no essential difference between different races, and that skin color is a shallow difference which is 'put on' in a way.

green in tint or color; green with growing plants (from Merriam-Webster)

Personification here of sin and woe. A consort is a companion or close friend.

You sow what you reap. She is saying God will enact judgment.

This reminds me of the current immigration crisis.

Their solidarity with these women should come from their being made in the likeness of God, just like white women.

A significant line

The river brings to mind the Jordan, the crossing of which symbolizes death.

This is a prayer.

I love this imagery of the mother's love as precious, life-giving water in the desert of the landscape of slavery.

As others have mentioned, this is because the child of a slave could be taken from their mother at any time. Additionally, I'm reminded of the fact that many of the children were products of rape by their mother's master.

a long gown or dress worn by women (from the Merriam-Webster)

The divine standard can't be manipulated or unbalanced. Justice will be executed perfectly on both men and women.

"A man reaps what he sows." - Galatians 6:7

I believe she's asking whether people would blame her if she were driven to such despair to commit suicide (hence the coroner).

I know this was/has been commonplace for a long time, but the first example I think of is Penelope, the wife of Odysseus. If she were to have been unfaithful to Odysseus while he was away for a decade after the Trojan War, she would have been called a harlot. She was surrounded by suitors that wanted her or Odysseus' estate for years and resisted every temptation and snare. Meanwhile, Odysseus slept with both Calypso and Circe with zero consequences. I still enjoy the Odyssey as a classic work of literature, but I've always been irked that Odysseus could get away with sleeping around while his wife was held to a much higher standard.

The first sign of hope. Abuse from humans vs love from God

"to honor or commemorate with a fete; to pay high honor to" (from the Merriam-Webster)

I think this has changed too. But there is no one general view on how poetry should be structured anymore.

I think this has changed. I see people mocked for having a religion far more often than being criticized for atheism.

But it is! :(

Wow. A powerful line.

The fact that they had papers to prove that they were freedmen, which were sometimes not even honored or were destroyed (Twelve Years a Slave), is disgusting. Even when they were free they were still considered ownerless property.

This seems to extend beyond white slaveowners.

Powerful language

from the Merriam-Webster: "a compost or layer composed chiefly of decayed leaves; a mold or mildew that affects foliage"

I love the language and imagery in this poem. So powerful and passionate.

The caged bird has never experienced these things, and yearns for freedom above all else. The free bird may not value freedom to the same extent that the caged bird does because it has never been without it.

I think 'sing' here can mean protest in any form of expression. Poetry, prose, speeches, marches, any form of resistance. I think that singing implies it is not a type of protest that is physical violence, however.

I read up on some of Angelou's background. She worked under Dr. King and Malcolm X!

What a powerful poem. It reads like a song because of its rhythm.

This must have done awful things to her body, as she mentioned. There are many accounts of Jews put in similar situations during the Holocaust, who emerged form hiding with permanent deformities and poor health because of how long they were confined in small spaces without exercise.

How could you sit with another woman, even a child, listen to her tell you that your husband groomed and sexually abused her, and pity yourself?

There is no excuse of ignorance here.

One drop of black blood would make the child a slave.

This summarizes the treatment of female slaves compared to male slaves. In another passage, Jacobs mentions that while male slavery is terrible, female slavery is far worse because of the abuses specifically targeted at women, i.e. sexual assault/abuse/rape. While it is true that the gift of beauty proved to be a curse for enslaved women at the time, women who were not considered beautiful were abused as well at their masters' whims.

This is one of the differences I see between Jacobs' narrative and other slave narratives we have read. She grew up unaware of her enslavement because she was treated well as a child, rather than being taken from her homeland and sold into slavery, or born into a truly abusive situation.

I love the imagery of the different creatures of summer--the night-hawk (a nocturnal bird from the nightjar family), the insects and the bees, and the mother bird. Each of the creatures are somewhat personified.

From Merriam-Webster: "parched with heat especially of the sun" or "giving off heat"

I found this poem to be very moving. He's envisioning a time when soldiers and families from both the north and the south will not struggle together in war, but will leave in unity and happiness, like heaven. His ability to see beyond the two sides, as well as the horrors of slavery and the war over which slavery was being fought, is very striking to me.

Here, and throughout the rest of the poem, Horton expresses the deep longing he feels to pursue his calling (stanza 3). He is inspired by "the strains of ancient lore", but which he may mean history, ancient poetry and songs, etc. I think his desire to explore the world and feed his empty mind is not expressed only in that he has a desire to physically travel, but also that he wants to read and learn more and more, to fill that longing. As a writer, I understand that deep desire as well, and I feel that this poem is an articulation of the emotions I have surrounded my life, my writing, and my inner desires.

This sounds like the biblical description of Satan as the dragon in the book of Revelation. From the ESV: "And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth."

They are self-destructive; their own moral failings led to their downfall.

I like that each stanza begins with "Weep for...". It makes the poem sound like a song, and the rhythm is very clear if you read the piece out loud.

This personification of wisdom and virtue is similar to the biblical book of Proverbs, which uses the same literary device to describe wisdom. Because of the background we have on Wheatley, it is possible she had this in mind when composing the poem.

The definition from Merriam-Webster is "an identifying name or title".

This reminds me of Psalm 23. "Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever."

In "On Imagination", she also personifies imagination as a bird-like, winged queen.

Her use of paradoxical imagery here is powerful. Fetters that bind, but are made of silk, imply that there is power in fancy/imagination that is not the physical kind, but something stronger.

I like to define unfamiliar words when annotating poetry. This definition is from Merriam-Webster: "a radiant or resplendent quality or state".

Wow! Beautiful imagery. Her personification of Imagination as a winged creature gives me a sense that it is light, alive, free, and active. Especially with the last line of the stanza, "with new worlds amaze th' unbounded soul".