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Poetry in Six Dimensions
Poetry in Six Dimensions
Poetry in Six Dimensions is a collection of poems that reflects the rich ethnic
voices of the American continents. Because diverse cultures share ideas
and customs, this book is organized thematically so that readers can savor
poems on similar topics from many points of view.
The thematic structure and the reader support provided in this collection
will help demystify poetry for young adult readers.
Perfection Learning®
Introduction xv
Tools for Reading Poetry xvii
Set 2. Legacy
ELIZABETH BISHOP, Sestina 9
ROSARIO CASTELLANOS, Elegy 10
GENNY LIM, Sweet ’n Sour 11
NANCY MOREJÓN, Mother 12
SHARON OLDS, The Bathrobe 12
Set 3. Change
DAVID MURA, Relocation 14
HOWARD NEMEROV, To David, About His Education 16
SHARON OLDS, Rites of Passage 17
CAROLE OLES, The Magician Suspends the Children 17
CATHY SONG, Who Makes the Journey 19
v
Set 4. Loss and Restoration
JOAN ALESHIRE, Slipping 21
MARGARET ATWOOD, Death of a Young Son by Drowning 22
GABRIELLE GLANCY, The Lost Boy 23
JAIME JACINTO, The Beads 23
STANLEY KUNITZ, Father and Son 24
JANET LEWIS, For the Father of Sandro Gulotta 26
Set 5. Reverence
CAROL CLARK, Nesting 27
NIKKI GIOVANNI, A Poem for Carol 28
LI-YOUNG LEE, Early in the Morning 29
JOSEPHINE MILES, Family 30
SHARON OLDS, Bathing the New Born 31
JOHN CROWE RANSOM, Bells for John Whiteside’s Daughter 32
ELLEN BRYANT VOIGT, Farm Wife 32
ROBERTA HILL WHITEMAN, Star Quilt 33
Set 2. Survival
MARGARET AVISON, July Man 56
JOSEPHINE MILES, Housewife 57
vi CONTENTS
ALDEN NOWLAN, Warren Pryor 57
JOHN UPDIKE, Ex-Basketball Player 58
Set 3. Patterns
LOUISE BOGAN,Women 59
GWENDOLYN BROOKS, The Rites for Cousin Vit 59
DIANA CHANG, Implosion 60
DIANA CHANG, Second Nature 61
AMY LOWELL, Patterns 62
RICHARD WILBUR, She 65
CONTENTS vii
Set 7. Eccentrics
OLGA OROZCO, Miss Havisham 85
THEODORE ROETHKE, Frau Bauman, Frau Schmidt,
and Frau Schwartze 86
MURIEL RUKEYSER, A Charm for Cantinflas 87
ALICE WALKER, Revolutionary Petunias 87
viii CONTENTS
Set 4. Survivors
DIANE ACKERMAN, Spiders 128
W.S. MERWIN, Leviathan 128
N. SCOTT MOMADAY, The Bear 130
MARIANNE MOORE, The Frigate Pelican 130
MARY OLIVER, The Hermit Crab 132
Set 5. Transformations
ROSARIO CASTELLANOS, A Palm Tree 134
FRAN CLAGGETT, Poem for an Afghan Hound 134
LOUISE ERDRICH, Whooping Cranes 136
BARBARA MEYN, Changing 137
SYLVIA PLATH, Medallion 137
SYLVIA PLATH, Sow 139
CHARLES WRIGHT, Saturday Morning Journal 140
Set 6. Wonder
RICHARD EBERHART, This Fevers Me 142
GABRIELLE GLANCY, Deer on the Way to Work 142
LINDA HOGAN, Small Animals at Night 143
LINDA HOGAN, Small Life 144
OCTAVIO PAZ, Lake 145
LESLIE MARMON SILKO, In Cold Storm Light 146
GARY SNYDER, Hay for the Horses 147
WALLACE STEVENS, The Bird with the Coppery, Keen Claws 148
ROBERTA HILL WHITEMAN, The Recognition 149
JAMES WRIGHT, A Blessing 149
CONTENTS ix
GENNY LIM, Portsmouth Square 173
GABRIELA MISTRAL, The House 173
CARLOS PELLICER, Wishes 174
ALEJANDRA PIZARNIK, Exile 175
RICHARD WILBUR, Digging for China 176
Set 2. Mood
JORGE LUIS BORGES, Houses Like Angels 177
LUIS CABALQUINTO, Blue Tropic 177
JACINTO JESU′ S CARDONA, La Coste, Texas 179
LANGSTON HUGHES, Juke Box Love Song 179
THEODORE ROETHKE, Dolor 180
CARL SANDBURG, Jazz Fantasia 180
ANNE SEXTON, The Starry Night 181
XAVIER VILLAURRUTIA, Cemetery in the Snow 182
Set 3. Geography
ELIZABETH BISHOP, The Map 183
JOY HARJO, White Bear 184
DENISE LEVERTOV, A Map of the Western Part of the
County of Essex in England 185
GARY SOTO, The Map 186
Set 4. History
ROSARIO CASTELLANOS, The Empty House 188
A.M. KLEIN,Indian Reservation: Caughnawaga 189
ALAN LAU, ashes and food 190
GARY SOTO, Small Town with One Road 191
DEREK WALCOTT, The Virgins 192
Set 5. Contrasts
A.R. AMMONS,The City Limits 194
GWENDOLYN BROOKS, the birth in a narrow room 194
GWENDOLYN BROOKS, kitchenette building 195
THEODORE ROETHKE, Root Cellar 195
x CONTENTS
The Fifth Dimension: Culture
Set 1. Mythic Patterns
W.H. AUDEN, Musée des Beaux Arts 211
KENNETH FIELDS, Stringing the Lyre 211
W.S. MERWIN, Odysseus 212
N. SCOTT MOMADAY, Carriers of the Dream Wheel 213
WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS, The Dance 214
WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS, Landscape with the Fall of Icarus 214
Set 2. Portraits
PAULA GUNN ALLEN, Kopis’taya (A Gathering of Spirits) 216
CECILIA BUSTAMANTE, Nobel Peace Prize 217
JACINTO JESU′ S CARDONA, Avocado Avenue 218
TESS GALLAGHER, Some Painful Butterflies Pass Through 219
GARY SNYDER, As for Poets 220
ALFONSINA STORNI, Men in the City 222
CARMEN TAFOLLA, Allí por la calle San Luis 223
JEAN TOOMER, Reapers 223
Set 3. History
MAYA ANGELOU, The Caged Bird 224
MAYA ANGELOU, My Guilt 225
COUNTEE CULLEN, Yet Do I Marvel 226
E.E. CUMMINGS, [plato told] 226
PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR, We Wear the Mask 227
LANGSTON HUGHES, The Negro Speaks of Rivers 228
SHIRLEY KAUFMAN, Relics 228
SHIRLEY KAUFMAN, Stones 229
WENDY ROSE, Long Division: A Tribal History 230
ALICE WALKER, Women 231
Set 4. Transition
MARILYN CHIN, We Are Americans Now, We Live
in the Tundra 232
CONTENTS xi
LOUIS ERDRICH, Dear John Wayne 233
M. CARL HOLMAN, Mr. Z. 234
LANGSTON HUGHES, Dinner Guest: Me 235
DIANE MEI-LIN MARK, Suzie Wong Doesn’t Live Here 236
CATHY SONG, Lost Sister 237
GARY SOTO, Who Will Know Us 239
KITTY TSUI, Chinatown Talking Story 240
Set 5. Upheaval
JOY KOGAWA, Hiroshima Exit 242
SHIRLEY GEOK-LIN LIM, Pantoun for Chinese Women 243
DAVID MURA, The Natives 244
SHARON OLDS, Things That Are Worse Than Death 245
RICHARD WRIGHT, Between the World and Me 246
xii CONTENTS
Set 3. Hopes and Dreams
JACINTO JESU′ S CARDONA,
De Vez En Cuando 277
TOM DISCH, The Crumbling Infrastructure 277
Set 4. Preservation
ROSARIO CASTELLANOS, Silence Concerning an Ancient Stone 280
LINDA HOGAN, Saving 281
GWENDOLYN MACEWEN, Inside the Great Pyramid 282
PABLO NERUDA, Things Breaking 283
ALICE WALKER, While Love Is Unfashionable 284
CONTENTS xiii
Introduction
Poetry in Six Dimensions is a collection of poems that record the rich eth-
nic variety of voices heard on the American continents. Because diverse
cultures share ideas and customs, this book is organized thematically so
that readers can savor poems on similar topics from many points of
view. The six topics, or dimensions, include Family, Portraits, Nature,
Places, Culture, and Time; and these sections are further subdivided
into thematic categories called sets. At the end of each of the six sections
of the book, you will find questions on each of the poems, thematic
questions related to entire sets, and—for some of the poems—sugges-
tions for comparative reading and/or topics for compositions.
The poems represent a variety of voices of African-American,
Asian-American, European-American, Hispanic-American, and Native-
American cultures. Although most of the poems in this book are from the
United States, there is also a representation of poets from Canada, Mexico,
Argentina, Chile, Cuba, Paraguay, Peru, El Salvador, and the Caribbean.
As Americans in a highly mobile society, we face the wonder and
confusion of living in a complex of identities, diverse in race, ethnicity,
language, politics, social causes, and issues of gender and generations.
You will read about the straddling of Chinese and American traditions,
the fragility and durability of natural creatures, the pain and victory
that can meet in loss, the renewing power of cycles in time, place, and
experience, the memorable impression of an individual, and the signif-
icance of ordinary things.
As you move through this collection, you will meet both new and
familiar people, traditions, places, and ideas. These poems can awaken
your senses to myriad stimuli from the vivid imaginations of the poets
and from your own interaction with the poems. Relish the words, pic-
tures, textures, and sensory experiences of people writing in the twenti-
eth century.*
xvi INTRODUCTION
Tools for Reading Poetry
Meaning
What is the overall effect on you, the reader of the poem? What is the
poem saying to you about its subject; how does it say it?
Literary tools described below (voice and speaker, language, struc-
ture and form, and tone) will help you understand the poem’s meaning.
Language
• What kinds of words do you notice? Circle the most important ones.
• Is the language formal, informal, or a combination of both?
xvii
• Is the speaker using concrete or abstract words or both?
• Do the words express an experience related to nature, love, learning,
spirituality, relationships, geography, business, violence, and so on?
• Is the poet manipulating words in unusual or interesting ways? For
example, do you find nonsense words, double meanings, puns, or
figures of speech such as metaphor, simile, personification, allusion,
and so on? Does one figure of speech lead to another? Do the
relationships among the words form a pattern that suggests a
particular meaning? In the margin next to the poem, write down
the patterns you identify and draw lines to the words that form the
patterns.
Tone
• Do you sense an attitude, an emotion, mixed or changing emotions?
What words trigger your recognition of these changes?
xviii INTRODUCTION
The Fifth Dimension:
Culture
E ach of the following poems reflects an attitude toward a specific
racial, ethnic, national, or mythological identity or cultural heritage.
As you read, consider the ways in which poets use language and form to
reflect personal identity and the human condition in the context of his-
tory, culture, and tradition.
Set 3. History
224 T W E N T I E T H - C E N T U RY V O I C E S
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard 35
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.
1983
My Guilt
M AYA A N G E L O U
My guilt is “slavery’s chains,” too long
The clang of iron falls down the years.
That brother’s sold. This sister’s gone
My bitter wax, lining my ears.
My guilt made music with the tears. 5
21
Vesey—Denmark Vesey, a self-educated African-American slave who purchased his own
freedom in 1800 and later planned a slave revolt in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1822.
22
Turner—Nat Turner, an African-American slave who led a major slave revolt in 1831 in
Virginia, and who helped to change whites’ perception of slaves as a docile people accepting
of their servitude.
23
Gabriel—Gabriel Prosser (1775–1800), a slave who planned a major slave revolt in
Virginia, hoping to make Virginia a free state for Blacks.
24
Malcolm—Malcolm X, a major American leader in the Civil Rights Movement, eventually
assassinated in 1965.
25
Marcus—Marcus Garvey, a Jamaican Black nationalist active in the early efforts for African-
American rights, eventually deported from the United States.
26
Martin King—Martin Luther King, Jr., an African-American clergyman and a major leader
of the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s, and a devoted follower of Ghandi’s
theory of passive resistance as an effective political weapon. He was assassinated in 1968.
T H E F I F T H D I M E N S I O N : C U LT U R E 225
I do it to impress the crowd.
My sin lies in not screaming loud. 15
1971
Yet Do I Marvel
COUNTEE CULLEN (1903–1946)
I doubt not God is good, well-meaning, kind,
And did He stoop to quibble could tell why
The little buried mole continues blind,
Why flesh that mirrors Him must some day die,
Make plain the reason tortured Tantalus 5
Is baited by the fickle fruit, declare
If merely brute caprice dooms Sisyphus
To struggle up a never-ending stair.
Inscrutable His ways are, and immune
To catechism by a mind too strewn 10
With petty cares to slightly understand
What awful brain compels His awful hand.
Yet do I marvel at this curious thing:
To make a poet black, and bid him sing!
1925
[plato told]
E.E. CUMMINGS (1894–1963)
plato told
him: he couldn’t
believe it (jesus
told him; he
wouldn’t believe 5
it) lao
tsze
certainly told
him, and general
(yes 10
226 T W E N T I E T H - C E N T U RY V O I C E S
mam)
sherman;
and even
(believe it
or 15
not) you
told him: i told
him; we told him
(he didn’t believe it, no
sir) it took 20
a nipponized bit of
the old sixth
avenue
el;27 in the top of his head: to tell
him 25
1944
T H E F I F T H D I M E N S I O N : C U LT U R E 227
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask!
1896
1926
Relics
SHIRLEY KAUFMAN (b.1923)
29
Herod’s bath house flakes
in the sun and the round stones
stay where the Romans hurled them,
ballista wound like a clock and suddenly
28
W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963)—African-American educator, author, and founder of the
NAACP.
29
Herod’s bath house—Herod was King of Judea in 40–4 B.C. and was known for his tyranny
and violence. The ruins of his bath house by the sea still exist in modern Israel.
228 T W E N T I E T H - C E N T U RY V O I C E S
released 5
on roofs on walls astonished faces.
1969
Stones
SHIRLEY KAUFMAN (b.1923)
When you live in Jerusalem31 you begin
to feel the weight of stones.
You begin to know the word
was made stone, not flesh.
30
Alki—a coastal town in Israel.
31
Jerusalem—a city in Israel, known for its famous “wailing wall” to which this poem refers
in line 7.
T H E F I F T H D I M E N S I O N : C U LT U R E 229
They stare at the sun without blinking
and when they’ve had enough, 15
make holes in the sky
so the rain will run down their faces.
1969
32
Sierras—a mountain range in California.
230 T W E N T I E T H - C E N T U RY V O I C E S
Year after year we give,
harpooned with hope, only to fall
bouncing through the canyons,
our sings decreasing 25
with distance.
I suckle coyotes
and grieve.
1990
Women
(b.1944)
A L I C E WA L K E R
They were women then
My mama’s generation
Husky of voice—Stout of
Step
With fists as well as 5
Hands
How they battered down
Doors
And ironed
Starched white 10
Shirts
How they led
Armies
Headragged33 Generals
Across mined 15
Fields
Booby-trapped
Ditches
To discover books
Desks 20
A place for us
How they knew what we
Must know
Without knowing a page
Of it 25
Themselves.
1972
33
Headragged—a reference to the headdress of a cloth turban worn by female slaves in the
American South.
T H E F I F T H D I M E N S I O N : C U LT U R E 231
2. How has the observer given importance to the making and selling of corn
tortillas? Despite the brevity of the poem, how does it expand the reader’s
understanding of social history?
1. In a few words, Jean Toomer, creates a vivid picture. What effect do the
visual images and sound devices such as alliteration and consonance have
upon the reader?
2. How does the use of the word “black” contribute to the sense of
momentum in the poem, and the human silence in contrast to the squeal
of the rat?
Comparison: William Carlos Williams, “The Dance”
THEMATIC QUESTION: In this section the word “portrait” pertains,
with one exception, to groups rather than specific individuals and
identifies them with their work, their setting, or even their spirits. What
kind of cultural portrait develops through the images of “spirit voices,”
“Mother Theresa,” Chinese men, kinds of poets, and “men in the city”?
Set 3. History
1. What contrast between the free bird and the caged bird does the speaker
establish in the first two stanzas?
2. Considering Maya Angelou’s interest in American culture and the history
of African Americans, what do you think the caged bird represents? What
images can you draw on to support your idea?
Comparison:
Countee Cullen, “Yet Do I Marvel”
Tess Gallagher, “Some Painful Butterflies Pass Through”
1. For what historical conditions does the speaker express her guilt in the
first stanza? To what practice does “hanging from a tree” (11) refer?
2. What attitudes toward the suffering of African Americans does the
speaker emphasize in the repeated use of “My”?
252 T W E N T I E T H - C E N T U RY V O I C E S
Yet Do I Marvel COUNTEE CULLEN
1. What assertion does the speaker make indirectly in the first eight lines
(octave) of this sonnet? Identify the following allusions: “Tantalus” (5) and
“Sisyphus” (7). What do these allusions and the images “buried mole” (3)
and “flesh that mirrors Him” (4) have in common? Of what significance
are these four figures to the speaker’s assertion in the octave?
2. How do the remaining six lines (sestet) provide another perspective on the
relationship between God and human beings described in the octave?
3. Explain the irony expressed in the last two lines and its commentary on
the history of African Americans. How would you describe the tone of this
poem?
Comparison:
Maya Angelou, “The Caged Bird”
Kitty Tsui, “Chinatown Talking Story”
1. Identify the following figures in history: “plato” (1), “jesus” (3), “lao/tsze”
(6–7), and “general . . . sherman” (9–12). What do these men have in
common? What do you think each of them “told” (1) “him” (2), and
whom does the “him” in the poem represent?
2. What is the effect of the parenthetical phrases and other innovations in
grammar or format in this poem?
3. To what extent does the poem serve as a warning to the reader about an
essential historical truth?
Composition: Write a poem about “history repeating itself” in a current
event that you have read about or witnessed.
1. What features characterize the mask to which the speaker refers, and what
does the mask hide?
2. How would you describe the tone of the poem, and what does it reflect
about the conditions for African Americans at the end of the nineteenth
century when the poem was written?
Comparison:
M. Carl Holman, “Mr. Z.”
Langston Hughes, “Dinner Guest: Me”
T H E F I F T H D I M E N S I O N : C U LT U R E 253
The Negro Speaks of Rivers LANGSTON HUGHES
1. Whom does the “I” in the poem represent, and what attitude does this
speaker express toward the history of the African-American race?
2. To what specific events or periods in history does the speaker allude in the
following references to rivers: “Euphrates” (5), “Congo” (6), “Nile” (7),
“Mississippi” (8)?
3. Explain the last line of the poem. Why is the river an effective metaphor
for the subject of this poem?
Comparison: Gwendolyn MacEwen, “Inside the Great Pyramid”
1. What are the relics the speaker has discovered in the Israeli landscape?
Why is their association with King Herod and Roman history significant
to modern Israel?
2. What ideas about the speaker’s view of history and culture do the
following images convey: “ballista wound like a clock” (4), “on roofs on
walls astonished faces” (6), “globes with the map of the world/turned
black” (11–12), “there are no trees here” (13)?
3. In what ways do references to light and dark contribute to the poem’s
meaning?
Comparison: Shirley Kaufman, “Stones”
1. What qualities of stones does the speaker describe, and how are these
qualities associated with the physical landscape of Jerusalem?
2. What metaphorical associations develop from the physical description of
the stones? What do these metaphors tell us about the history past and
present of the Jewish people?
3. How do the following biblical and historical allusions and figures of
speech enrich the meaning of the poem: “the word/was made stone, not
flesh./ They dwell among us.” (3–5), “the small slips of paper” (9),
“nothing can grow.” (13), “They want/to be water,” (19–20)?
What connections is the speaker making between nature and history?
Comparison: Shirley Kaufman, “Relics”
254 T W E N T I E T H - C E N T U RY V O I C E S
Long Division: A Tribal History WENDY ROSE
Set 4. Transition
T H E F I F T H D I M E N S I O N : C U LT U R E 255