Choose a poem from the Album entitled, “Homelands”. Establish how the short story, A Wall of Fire Rising 412 written by Edwidge Danticat frames its narrative with a past history of Haiti and interacts with that past. Bring in that story as a frame and example for what is taking place in the poem you have chosen to analyze. Analyze this poem in order to come to a definitive conclusion about what the poem means based on questions such as the following. 1. Whose voice can you hear in the poem? How is this speaker revealed to readers? How do we come to know and understand this figure? Please note that the narrator is almost always distinct from the author even in a first person narration. 2. How is the poem organized? How does it begin? Where does it go next? Is there a distinct plot or a desсrіption of a place, person, event, or mood? How is this plot or desсrіption connected to the organization or structure of the poem? 3. What is the relationship of each stanza to the whole poem? How are the stanzas related to each other? How do they reference the historical context of the poem? Do the stanzas develop the context, bring in re-readings of the history, or comment on it any which way? Explain. 4. What kind of language does the author use to describe, narrate, explain, or otherwise create the theme he/she wishes to convey? More specifically, what images, similes, metaphors, symbols appear in the work? What is their relation to the historical background of the poem? Explain how it relates to a past “homeland”. Your analysis must be organized in a formal essay with an introduction and a clear thesis, body paragraphs which develop, sustain, and illustrate your thesis, and a final definitive conclusion that sums up your essay and provides a clear statement about what you think is the meaning and interpretation of the work. Your essay must be at least 6 pages long and must be double-spaced. Please provide a Works Cited page according to MLA guidelines.
