How I Discovered Poetry by Marilyn Nelson

Watch and analyze a campaign commercial (embedded below) for Dwight Eisenhower for president in 1952. Daddy says, “ Woman, you just think he’s cute!” Why do you think the Federal Civil Defense Department chose to use a turtle for this advertisement?.Discuss whether this advertisement would ease your fears about a hydrogen bomb attack.Who is the audience for this advertisement?.What do you notice that you can’t explain?.What do you notice that you didn’t expect?.Study an image of Bert the Turtle promoting “duck and cover” as part of the Federal Civil Defense advertising campaign. “I read while the television talker talks about career and the hide drajen bomb…We ducked and covered underneath our desks, hiding from drajen bombs in school today.”

Why would Marilyn Nelson describe herself as the “new girl in Dick and Jane country?”.What do you see on the page besides writing?.What do you see that looks strange or unfamiliar?.How much of the text can you read? What does it say?.Analyze not only the illustrations but also the text. “I am the new girl in Dick and Jane country.”Įxamine an image from a Dick and Jane book. There are three parts of the poem where primary sources can provide background knowledge and a framework for Marilyn Nelson’s poem. As Marilyn and her family travel through the United States, her narrative becomes as beautiful as the landscape she sees from her window.įor this primary source pairing, focus on the poem “Bomb Drill” Lackland AFB, Texas, 1952, page 10. A first-person account of African-American history, this is a book to study, discuss, and treasure.Įach poem by poet Marilyn Nelson is rich with emotion, memory, and hints of history.

Readers are given an intimate portrait of her growing self-awareness and artistic inspiration along with a larger view of the world around her: racial tensions, the Cold War era, and the first stirrings of the feminist movement.

Looking back on her childhood in the 1950s, Newbery Honor winner and National Book Award finalist Marilyn Nelson tells the story of her development as an artist and young woman through fifty eye-opening poems. Written by Marilyn Nelson, Illustrated by Hadley Hooper

How I Discovered Poetry by Marilyn Nelson