Sample question

While some poems focus exclusively on personal or private experience, others reflect on the place of the individual in the larger human community. In the work of at least two poets, explore the ways in which poems have conveyed the poet’s sense of the world beyond the private sphere


In one of Naomi Shihab Nye's poems, she talks about the world that has a fig tree, which is more like her father's world. She's talking about her father's world that includes fig tree as a significant object. On that fig tree, it has the largest, fattest, sweetest fig in the world. This poem's name is " My father and the fig tree", her father always talks about the fig tree, even in his folktales he will involve a fig tree in his story. In the poem, one line is that" weaving folktales like vivid little scarves." to express that Naomi Shihab Nye's father likes fig and fig tree very much. Not only because of the fig as a fruit, but also because her father likes the taste, look, and some other reasons. Naomi Shihab Nye's father won't plant one, because he doesn't want to broke the rule and traditions. Then he finally moves to the middle of Dallas, Texas to see and stay with the largest, fattest, sweetest fig together. At the end of the poem, it says that" plucking his fruits like ripe tokens, emblems, assurance of a world that was always his own." to show her father's happiness and she sees this action as a symbol. When her father picking up the fig it's kind of pleasure. We can clearly know that Naomi Shihab Nye's father enjoys staying in the world that only has himself and fig tree. The second poem is " my grandmother in the stars" this poem can also show that Naomi Shihab Nye and her grandmother are living in a different world. From the title, we can clearly notice that her grandma has already died. In the poem, Naomi Shihab Nye states that" Then there is only the sky, tying the universe together. Where we live in the world" This shows that although Naomi Shihab Nye and her grandma can meet again on earth, they can still meet in the memory because " only memories making them rich" She missed her grandma so much, Naomi Shihab Nye wrote her grandma when she is still alive. Naomi Shihab Nye states that in her opinion her grandma is an experienced woman. In her grandma's world, Naomi Shihab Nye's grandma is like a woman can do anything. I think in this poem she also talks about the world of memory. Because of one of the lines in this poem," Take this home with you,
never again, and only memory making us rich." This line shows her happiness to meet her grandma in memory.