Aimee Nezhukumatahils Are All the Break-Ups in Your Poems Real? and The Woman Who Turned Down a Date with a Cherry Farmer

I want to hear your thoughts on and interpretations of the texts, not SparkNotes, not Shmoops. Therefore, if I find plagiarized, paraphrased or summarized material from a study aid site or another resource of that nature, I will write you up for academic dishonesty, EVEN IF YOU CITED THE MATERIAL. This course is not about your ability to copy and paste another persons interpretation of a text but your ability to interpret and analyze a text. Peer-reviewed secondary sources (articles in refereed journals, available through the library databases), ARE allowed in your papers, but they must be incorporated and cited properly, whether paraphrased, summarized, or directly quoted, both in-text and on a Works Cited page.

CHOOSE ONE OF THE TWO PROMPTS

Prompt 1: Imagery:

Both of these poems include imagery that appeals to the senses. Picking one poem, focus on the imagery used. Identify what senses are evoked through the imagery and discuss how those concrete images help develop the poems purpose/theme.

Prompt 2: Speaker and Audience:

Both of these poems are responses to something stated by an unseen listener (not you as the reader). However, the poems are ultimately responses directly to you as the reader. Discuss the techniques and devices the speaker uses in these two poems to speak directly to the reader and identify what the intended reaction of the reader may be. Then, discuss whether you reacted the way you think the speaker intended. If so, how did that reaction fulfill the poems purpose; if not, did the speaker still get her point across? How?