Exploring the Text

1. In a review of Duende, the collection in which this poem appeared, critic Cindra Halm notes that one of “Smith’s strengths is the quiet slide into surprising metaphor.” Find the “surprising metaphor[s]” here, and explain why you agree or disagree with the reviewer that they are a strong part of Smith’s writing.

   Question

   ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=

   Exploring the Text: - In a review of Duende, the collection in which this poem appeared, critic Cindra Halm notes that one of “Smith’s strengths is the quiet slide into surprising metaphor.” Find the “surprising metaphor[s]” here, and explain why you agree or disagree with the reviewer that they are a strong part of Smith’s writing.
2. Tracy K. Smith plays with the interaction between speaker and audience. How do you read it? Who is the photojournalist—the speaker or “you”? Explain your answer.

   Question

   ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=

   Exploring the Text: - Tracy K. Smith plays with the interaction between speaker and audience. How do you read it? Who is the photojournalist—the speaker or “you”? Explain your answer.
3. Why do you think Smith wrote this poem largely in couplets (two-line rhyming stanzas)? What is the effect of that choice? What function do the two single-line stanzas (ll. 11 and 34) have?

   Question

   ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=

   Exploring the Text: - Why do you think Smith wrote this poem largely in couplets (two-line rhyming stanzas)? What is the effect of that choice? What function do the two single-line stanzas (ll. 11 and 34) have?
4. Look carefully at lines 22–24, in which the speaker asks if the work of the photojournalist is important and whether, like art, it will last. What do you think? Do you think photojournalism is a form of art? Explain why or why not.

   Question

   ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=

   Exploring the Text: - Look carefully at lines 22–24, in which the speaker asks if the work of the photojournalist is important and whether, like art, it will last. What do you think? Do you think photojournalism is a form of art? Explain why or why not.
5. Who do you think is the blind king the poem alludes to in line 27? Explain what the allusion adds to the poem.

   Question

   ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=

   Exploring the Text: - Who do you think is the blind king the poem alludes to in line 27? Explain what the allusion adds to the poem.