Poems that are related to English Themes
These are two poems that made me think about slavery, the civil rights movement, racial inequality in America, and especially RESISTANCE. They are actually from a book of poems that my mom checked out from the Marlborough Library, the book is called… “The Best-Loved Poems of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis”. The poems were selected and introduced by Caroline Kennedy and I thought that they really related to what we are talking about in English.
Tableau (Pg. 78)
Countee Cullen
For Donald Duff
Locked arm in arm they cross the way,
The black boy and the white,
The golden splendor of the day,
The sable pride of night.
From lowered blinds the dark folk stare,
And here the fair folk talk,
Indignant that these two should dare
In unison to walk.
Oblivious to look and word
They pass, and see no wonder
That lightning brilliant as a sword
Should blaze the path of thunder.
Merry – Go – Round
Langston Hughes
Where is the Jim Crowe section
On the merry-go-round,
Mister, cause I want to ride?
Down South where I come from
White and colored
Can’t sit side by side.
Down south on the train
There’s a Jim Crowe car.
On the bus we’re put in the back—
But there ain’t no back
To a merry-go-round!
Where’s the horse
For a kid that’s black?
