Post for Monday at 5:00 p.m. on Nye's poetry

Please select ONE of the prompts below and comment on it thoughtfully and mindfully.

1.On pages 36-37 of the text you will find the poem from which the book's title is culled. Kindly interpret the final three lines in the context of the poem, and, therefore, from their speaker's perspective; what do the lines mean literally? What is the speaker saying?
After doing this, please write another reading of the final three lines in terms of the poem's narrator. What could and do these lines mean to the narrator of the poem, given the rest of the poem and what you learn about the narrator? Finally, think about these final three lines in terms of the poet, given that she used words from these lines to title her book.
Why is the book titled Words Under the Words? How does this title work (or not work for this text)? How does this title illuminate other topics we have discussed in this course?

2. What do you learn about this Palestinian-American poet from reading this text? How is this work relevant to the issues of our class? Cite evidence from the poems for your answer.

Class Discussion Question

Examining all the stories in Lahiri's interpreter of maladies ( or at least thinking about them) , what do you think these stories argue regarding the creation of human identity?
Let me put my question in very simple terms: According to all the stories, or at least to the majority of them, what is the foundation of human identity or what makes up human identity? What are its necessary ingredients? Does Lahiri see human identity as positive or negative? As conformist or non-conformist? As all of the above or as none of the above?
When you formulate your response, make sure you have solid evidence for your perspective.
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What role does ethnicity play in one's identity? How important are one's religious and local origins in Lahiri's book? Explain.