1.

New year l Bei dao

 Overview
- Describes Chinese New Year while representing new year as a whole
- Thought proving and impactful imagery
- Tries to convey passing of time
- Significance of both the new year beginning and time following it
 First stanza
- Child walking – coveys forward movement
- Child carries flowers – new year is welcome
- Time of new year – shortest pause – only detectable by a conductor
 Second stanza
- Lion dance – Chinese traditional dance – 2 people in lion costumes perform ceremonial dances
– brings good luck in the New Year
 Final stanza
- Gives poem a sense of completion with line “each and every moment is a shortcut” – each
opportunity we have in the future brings us forward
- Concludes with” closing death’s door” – emphasizing on surviving 1 year – a big thing in our
chaotic world
2. Praise song or the day l Elizabeth Alexander
 Author
- Born May 30 1962 New York
- American poet essayist, playwright and poet
- President of Andrew w Mellon Foundation
- Professor for 15 yrs. at yale
- Currently professor in Columbia
- Her parents brought her to the march to Washington D C’s I have a dream speech site
- Also studied in yale and did her Masters in Boston university
- PhD in English from university of Pennsylvania
- Her brother Mark C Alexander – senior advisor to Barack Obama’s Presidential campaign
- The execution of the poem at the inauguration – too much like prose + Lacked drama
 Overview
- Asked by Barack Obama to write it for 2009 Presidential inauguration
- Discusses how American tend to live lives today
- Each stanza represents a different part of that picture
- Consists of 14 unrhymed 3 line Stanzas and a one line coda – conclusion
- Have hope during rough times
 Stanza 1
- How Americans walk past each other every day – sometimes noticing and politely making eye
contact and sometimes not
 Stanza 2
- Tells us about the noises we hear each day – sometimes pay attention and sometimes not
- After reading first 2 para’s – we only do our own work and we take some things for granted and
don’t appreciate them
 Stanza 3
- About working people – doing a task they might not want to might not find very difficult –
someone with a tire which needs to be [patched and are stuck alone not knowing how to while
a person somewhere does – taking capabilities for granted
 Stanza 4
- Talks about how there will be somewhere in the us where people make music with what they
have – there is always someone making music – ability taken for granted
  Stanza 5
- About occupations like mom, teacher and farmer – many are not able to work their dream jobs
– taken for granted in the US
 Stanza 6
- All of the words we hear – sometimes remember and sometimes don’t
- Describes the different ways in which we hear words that are spoken
 Stanza 7 and 8
- ollowing goals of the industrial revolution – do everything in the quickest and most efficient
way possible
- In stanza 7 “then others, who said I needed to see what’s on the other side” – represents
innovators trying to accomplish the fastest or most efficient way to do something
- In stanza 8 – “I know there is something better down the lane” – taking about the future
 Stanza 9
- “Sing the names of the dead who have brought us here” – her method of appreciating the
ancestors to give us the world we live in today
 Stanza 11
- Repeats the phrase “Praise song for” multiple times – emphasizes the method of praising and
appreciating all the achievement the US has achieved
- Some of these achievements – moral values developed for the nation over time – “Love the
neighbour as thyself”
 Stanza 12
- Brings up all the moral values
- First introduces the concept of love – the mightiest word
 Stanza 13
- Adds to the importance of love by repeating it
- Also aims to eliminate the hate clogging in our minds
 Ending
- Inspiring that we choose a path that leads us to the future
- “In today’s sharp sparkle” – Today’s society is sharp or harsh; But more advanced and
wonderful or sparkle
- “Anything can be made, any sentence begun” – incorporates motivation to strive toward a
beautiful future
 Starting
- a group called we – doesn’t interact enough with each other but they make music and repair
what needs to be repaired
- “we encounter each other in words, spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed – making group
foreign to us
 9 para and after
th

- Major tone shift, beginning with “say it plain, many have died from this day”
- Told that those who “laid train tracks raised bridges, picked cotton the cotton and lettuce” – we
now know “we” are the African Americans
- Alexander celebrates new age of America – one with man African American president
- Also asks us to recognise their struggle
- Then she says “praise song for struggle, praise song for struggle” – reflect on importance of
having Obama as president using words related to religion
 Summary
- Significance of Obama as president – poem of celebration
- Asks what the future of Obama as president may bring
3. Burning the old year l Naomi Shihab Nye
 About Author
- Born – March 12, 1952 to a Palestinian father and American mother
- Began writing poems from 6 and has over 30 volumes
 - A poet, song writer and novelist whose works also included young-adult fiction and picture
books
- She calls herself a wandering poet
- Received NSK Neustadt Prize for children’s literature
 Overview
- Talk about how things we use throughout the year are fragile, temporary and irrelevant
- Rhyme scheme – free verse
- Good use of imagery – “burning paper” – burning the past and forgetting about it
- In one year we lose so much we change and don’t accomplish some thing we wanted to
- Burning these things give us a fresh start and not dwell on the past
 Stanza 1
- Compares burning of letters and paper to how moth wings disintegrate when they die
- Fire burning paper – smoke in the air – paper is marrying the air
 Stanza 2
- “So much of any year is flammable” – any year can be deleted and erased from your mind easily
- There are so many partial things to be finished from the previous year – “lists of vegetables” –
little to do lists in life
- Then explain how we are “swirling” with task – so much to accomplish in so little time
- “ so little is a stone” – we have to do little things in life to survive
 Stanza 3
- Describes losses in life – there was something and then you lose it – leaves an empty space –
always there
- Begin again with something or someone less
 First 3 stanzas
- Deals with flammable things – discussing how the existence of an item is fleeting
- These items include notes from friends, list of food and half completed poems
- Items are set ablaze and talks about how nye feels about it
- When there is nothing “an absence shouts, celebrates leaves a space” – represents small
moment between old year and new year – where people rejoice the new year has begun also a
pause
- Following line “I begin with smallest numbers” – literal about how dates start also how the year
starts with small things which build up to bigger things
 Final stanza
- Makes a comment on human psyche as a whole “Only things I didn’t do crackle after the blaze
dies”
- Crackles represent memories- we only remember things we didn’t do while others are set in
flame
- Describes losses and changes that are sudden – by referring to words life “quick dance”;
“shuffle”
4. Urban renewal l Yusef Komunyakaa
 About Author
- Born 29 April 1941 (Louisiana)
- Original name – James William Brown Jr
- American poet who teaches at NYU
- Member of fellowship of Southern Writers
- Served in military 1 tour of south Vietnam during the Vietnam war
- Published stories on Vietnamese history – earned him a brown star
- Arresting poetic
- imagery his trademark

 Overview
- Comment on construction industry – taking down building to replace them with new ones
 - The process destroys the heart and soul out of the old building – excessive harm to the
ecosystem of the building
- Phrases “even when backbones/ are I-beams braced for impact” ; “wrecking crews/ men unable
to catch sparrows without breaking/ wings into splinters”
- The phrases convey the aggressive, almost disfiguring nature of destroying a building – better
to preserve it
- Affects pigeon and other animals
5. Poetry l Marianne Moore
 Author
- Well known American poet, modernist, critic, Translator and editor
- Her poetry is known for formal innovation, precise, diction, irony and wit
- Regularly revised poetry she publishes
- 1887 – 1972
- Characterised by linguistic precision, keen and probing descriptions and acute observations of
people, places, animals and art
- Her poems reflect – preoccupation with the relation between the common and uncommon,
advocates discipline in both art and life
 Overview
- Revised 6 times
- Conveys that even when the poem is published it continues to evolve in the poet’s mind
- We can only admire thing we understand – hand are important only because they are useful
- If one reads poem with “contempt” – discover something genuine in it
 1st version
- 12 lines long
- We write poetry about things we know
- We don’t find enigma entertaining
 2nd version
- Over 30 lines long
- Elaborates on the first version and adds examples
- Concludes, Those who look for raw feeling behind poetry as well as all that makes it poetry are
truly interested in it
 3rd version
- 3 lines
6. An essay on criticism l Alexander pope
 Author
- 1688 – 1744
- One of the greatest English poets and foremost poet of 18 th century
- Best known for satirical and discursive poetry
 Overview
- Discusses how critics should criticise work of other authors, mainly poets
- Made use of heroic couplets (Pair of adjacent rhyming lines of iambic pentameter)
- Bad criticism worse than bad poetry
- However criticism is still important
 Part 1
- Deals with what critics should do and how taste is important
- Important to value tradition – ancient greeks
- It is also important to break some rules
 Part 2
- Criticism of critics – bad habits while criticising work
- Also things that shouldn’t be praised like small segments of great writing; ornamentation; a
fancy style that doesn’t convey anything or dragging something out of proportion
7. Fledgling l Kevin Phan
  Overview
- Giving advice to younger individual
 First half
- Rinse burns with vinegar
8. Battle of adwa
- Italian war – Ethiopia
-