“The Portrait” – Kunitz

Time and Space is apparent in this poem in how the author begins with a description of how his father killed himself in the spring during his mother’s pregnancy. He also goes on to say that it is currently sixty four years later and he still feels the sting of his mother’s slap from when he was a young boy. The sting of the slap is poignant because it was such an impact that after all these years he still feels the pain of his mother, the pain she feels and her anger toward his father. It is never easy to forgive someone for taking their life, but as being one survived by a person who has committed suicide are we to forgive them? This presents the poets experience, the motivation. He is describing his experience as a boy without a father as insight to his own life so that readers can relate and understand. We are left with the feeling of the same sting.

“A Poem for Myself (Or Blues for a Mississippi Black Boy) – Knight

This poem has insight to motivation; it depicts the author’s insight to experience. A young boy leaves home and travels North to freedom. He is leaving to experience new things and a life he’s never had. This is poignant because he leaves at such a young age and at the mere age of twelve he could see that the life that he had as a black boy in the south was not what he wanted at the time. It shifts however, when after seeing all these places and being in the north, he ends up back home. The place he once left, the Mississippi south, he finally returned to; he returned home. It is the marker of his selfhood. He grew up there and ultimately decided that he would live there, or die there, all in the Mississippi mud.

"Frederick Douglass" - Hayden

This poem depicts a man who chose to and succeeded in his defiance of society in order to contribute back that same society he defied. The wisdom of this poem proves that with freedom comes consequences. “This liberty. This beautiful and terrible thing” shows that being free is not always easy. It is poignant in a way that shows a white girl that being a newly freed black man is difficult but eventually allows for a vision of a better future. In my life, freedom is second nature, not having to worry about the still existing prejudice against me. Frederick Douglass didn’t have it as easy, but he chose to continue living and continue his dream. This entire poem is testimony to the author’s knowledge of Douglass and the period in which he lived.