Poetry for Students, Volume 31

Strength
The speaker of this poem mentions the strength
of her grandmothers in several different ways.
First, she talks about physical strength. These
women plow the earth, turning it up to reinvigo-
rate it. Then they bend their backs as they sow
the seeds. Her grandmothers’ rough hands are
proof of how hard they have worked.

The grandmothers possess more than just
physical power, as they also have psychological
and emotional strength. Whether they sing while
they work or after they have eaten dinner and
washed up, the fact that they can sing implies
that they have the strength and perspective to

objectify their experiences. They might sing sad

lyrics, or spiritual verses, or even lively happy

tunes. They might have sung alone or in harmony

with others. The singing, no matter what type of

song, is a creative act. The women use their voices

to make music. While involved in a work of art,

one tends to step out of the personal realm and

enter a space that is more universal. Through

song, people can forget their personal troubles

and connect with others on a larger scale.

The poet further implies that the grandmothers

do not curse their past circumstances. They use

clean language, the poet says, to express themselves.

This clean language is more than just not speaking

TOPICS FOR

FURTHER

STUDY

 Walker and the poet Nikki Giovanni often

met to talk about their shared philosophies

of life and literature. Read several of each

writer’s poems and compare them. How are

their voices similar and different? What about

their tone and the topics? Can you tell that

there is a difference in their ages? How do the

times they have lived in seem to affect their

writing? Read some of the interviews between

these two poets to help inform your research,

then write an essay discussing your findings.

 Walker has stated that although she admired

many of the black women writers who matured

in the 1960s, she did not admire some of the

writers’ language. She said the language of the

1960s was too vulgar for her taste, specifically

referring to Alice Walker’sThe Color Purpleas

an example. Read this novel, studying not only

the specific language but also the way in which

Alice Walker portrays the pain that is suffered

by her various characters. Margaret Walker

subdues her images, hiding the pain inside

her characters. How does Alice Walker dem-

onstrate the suffering her characters endure?

Which narrative method do you prefer? You

might want to read Margaret Walker’s novel

Jubileeto better inform your conclusions. Give

an oral presentation on the topic.

Ask four or five of your classmates to join a

panel. Assign each member, yourself included,

to a particular period in the history of black

people in the United States. Periods might

include the arrival of the first slaves; life for

slaves on plantations leading up to the Civil

War; Reconstruction and life for freed slaves;

the period of Jim Crow laws in the South lead-

ing to the civil rights movement; and the

progression from Martin Luther King, Jr.’s

assassination to Barack Obama’s election as

president. Have each panel member prepare a

ten-minute synopsis of his or her assigned era.

After the presentation, take questions from the

rest of your class.

Hand out copies of ‘‘Lineage’’ to as many

students as you can. Be ready with a survey

of questions to ask them after they read it.

Some questions you might ask are: Does the

reader feel that his or her grandparents were

stronger than him or her? Can they guess the

decade in which this poem was written? Can

they guess the gender and ethnicity of the

poet? Add some of your own questions.

After taking your survey, compile the results

in a chart and discuss their implications in a

report.

Lineage