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2125 Redefining AmericaQUESTIONS Analyzing Language, Style, and Structure 5. Vocabulary in Context. Explain the significance of the word %u201cneedful%u201d in the title of the poem. Why do you think Gay used it instead of another more commonly used word such as %u201cnecessary%u201d? 6. What role does repetition play in the poem? Consider the ways it mimics natural speech and thought processes. 7. Why might the last four lines of %u201cA Small Needful Fact%u201d be considered ironic? 8. The language of the poem is quite concrete; there is no figurative language at all. Why do you think Gay might have made the decision to be straightforward rather than metaphorical? Does the irony in the final lines strengthen this straightforward tone or soften it? QUESTIONS Topics for Composing 9. Argument. Ross Gay said this poem %u201cwas about a fact of [Eric Garner%u2019s] life, when the dominant fact of his life was feeling like it was becoming his death. And that felt actually counterproductive to all of our rage and sorrow. It felt like what we needed to do was not dwell, but to actually make it make us more capable of loving each other.%u201d Write an essay in which you argue your position on the idea that poetry makes us %u201cmore capable of loving each other.%u201d 10. Connections. %u201cA Small Needful Fact%u201d connects one person%u2019s legacy to the broader fight for social justice, much like Robert Hayden%u2019s 1966 poem %u201cFrederick Douglass.%u201d Write a short response analyzing the stylistic similarities and differences between the poems and how these elements convey each poem%u2019s theme. 11. Creative Writing. Using the title %u201cA Small Needful Fact,%u201d write your own poem to illustrate how the details of someone%u2019s life, which otherwise might be considered insignificant, have universal meaning. You might mimic this poem as a model or create your own structure. Robin Wall Kimmerer, Plant Ecologist, Educator, and Writer 2022 MacArthur Fellow (Photo Courtesy John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation)Asters and Goldenrod Robin Wall Kimmerer Robin Wall Kimmerer, an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, is the author of three books, including Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants . The founder and director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment, Kimmerer has a PhD in Botany from the University of Wisconsin, and she is a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology. In 2022 she received a MacArthur Fellowship %u201cGenius%u201d Grant. KEY CONTEXT In the following essay, which appears in Braiding Sweetgrass , Kimmerer explains her early experiences as an undergraduate student in botany at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY ESF). Asters and goldenrod, the particular flowering plants featured in the essay, both belong to the broader aster family. They bloom later in the summer or early fall, and though Kimmerer writes about purple asters and yellow goldenrod, each plant blooms in a variety of colors. They also attract a variety of wildlife, including butterflies (for the flowers%u2019 pollen) and birds (for the seed of the goldenrod and the insects that feed on the asters). Aster flowers even darken upon pollination to call attention to the lighter unpollinated flowers around them. KEY CONTEXT In the following essay, which appears in Copyright %u00a9 Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. Distributed by Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. For review purposes only. Not for redistribution.