Module 4 Poetry Break: Biographical Poem

Module 4 Poetry Break
Poetry 5663
Diana Stephens











http://www.lladro.com/sculptures/imgCat/imagennor/01012507.jpg

“Earliest Memory”
By Marilyn Nelson and illustrated by Deborah Dancy
From The Freedom Business: A Narrative of the Life & Adventures of Venture, a Native of Africa

Introduction: I am sharing a poem with you today by Marilyn Nelson, called “Earliest Memory,” from this little book called, The Freedom Business: A Narrative of the Life & Adventures of Venture, a Native of Africa. Have you ever thought about your earliest memory? Think about it. Would anyone tell about it? (I will affirm the responses.)

This poem is the earliest memory of a five year old African boy, in Africa, in the year 1735, approximately. Now his culture is very different from ours, but some problems stay the same. His parents are fighting.
Also, think about, what kind of poetry is this?
Listen while I read aloud.

“Earliest Memory
(ca. 1735)” by Marilyn Nelson

Among the Dukandarra any man
who can afford to marries many wives.
Each wife has her own house and her own land,
and honor. A man marries first for love,
then for desire, or to beget sons.
By custom, the first wife has to approve
of the co-wives, who will learn their husband’s snore,
his taste for spices. They will be co-wives for life.

Rashly, my father married a glowing, black
sixteen-year-old girl. When the news broke at home,
with her infant tied in front and her lap child on her back,
my mother took my hand and walked toward the morning sun.
We walked and walked and walked and walked and walked.
When we were hungry my mother set us down
and gathered fruit. At night, under an arc
of Divine Protection, we lay down and slept on the ground,

to the uneasy music of distant roars.
At dawn my mother woke us to walk on.
Five days in the desert, then the green answer to prayers:
a vast open land as beautiful as our own.
My mother arranged to leave me in the care
of a wealthy farmer, far from my home and kin.
Then she walked away and left me standing there.
For the first time in my life, I was alone.


Extension: First of all, let’s identify the kind of poetry? (It’s narrative, telling a story, and it’s free verse.) Do you like it? What questions do you have about the content of the poem? (We discuss these.) What do you like or not like about it? (Affirm responses.) How do you feel at the end of this poem? (Afraid, probably.) Let’s read it again, with three volunteer readers, one for each verse.

In my earliest memory, I, too, am alone, only I don’t remember feeling afraid. I remember feeling unsupervised, sort of free, because my mother was incapacitated with sea-sickness, lying on the bunk bed with my baby brother, while I played on the floor. (We were on a military ship sailing from Los Angeles to Adak, Alaska, which is an island in the Pacific. I was about two and a half.) How many of our earliest memories have strong emotional content? Is that why we remember them? Could you write a poem about your earliest memory, or about a time when you were alone?

I want to tell you about the boy and this book, The Freedom Business: A Narrative of the Life & Adventures of Venture, a Native of Africa. It is the true story of a slave named Venture. His story is the only one recorded in history that tells of being in Africa and America, and it’s absolutely fascinating reading. I could not put it down. What this man suffered is horrible. I couldn’t believe how evil both white and black people were to him, yet he never gave up. His original story, in his own voice, is on the left hand side of the page, with a newly written poem about the events he is narrating, on the right side of the page. It also has this nice art on the pages that unifies the book and makes me feel sad. If you want to find out what happens to him, you will have to read it. I recommend it to you.

Nelson, Marilyn. (2008). The Freedom Business: A Narrative of the Life & Adventures of Venture, a Native of Africa. Illustrated by Deborah Dancy. Honesdale, Pennsylvania: Wordsong.