1. Read through Dunn’s poem, The Insistence of Beauty, focusing on Imagery and symbolism. Discuss how each image or symbol makes you feel. To what words or images is your attention drawn? What associations do you make from them?
2. Read Gwendolyn Brooks’ poem “We Real Cool.” (https://poets.org/poem/we-real-cool) This short poem accomplishes a lot with its short lines and enjambment. Reflecting the theme of rebellion, each line ignores standards of syntax and ends on a word that actually starts the next sentence. The enjambment places stress on the word “We” and therefore emphasizes the will of the speaker to identify the group.
What else do you think this poem accomplishes with its lines?
If the poem is laid out so that each sentence falls on its own line, what happens to the poem’s energy? Music? Tone? Or what if you place one-and-a-half sentences on each line?
Try rearranging the lines differently and comment on any change of tone or meaning.
