Exploring the Text

Access the text here.

  1. The epigraph of Brian Turner’s collection in which this poem appears is from the Iraqi poet Al-Bayati: “I embrace the frightful and the beautiful.” How does “At Lowe’s Home Improvement Center” embrace the frightful and the beautiful?

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exploring the Text: - The epigraph of Brian Turner’s collection in which this poem appears is from the Iraqi poet Al-Bayati: “I embrace the frightful and the beautiful.” How does “At Lowe’s Home Improvement Center” embrace the frightful and the beautiful?
  2. Why do you think Turner set this poem in a Lowe’s Home Improvement Center? How is it both a literal setting and also, perhaps, a play on words?

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exploring the Text: - Why do you think Turner set this poem in a Lowe’s Home Improvement Center? How is it both a literal setting and also, perhaps, a play on words?
  3. Modern American warfare is said to differ from warfare of the past in that soldiers now spend more time patrolling and identifying enemies than they do fighting. How does this poem reflect that distinction?

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exploring the Text: - Modern American warfare is said to differ from warfare of the past in that soldiers now spend more time patrolling and identifying enemies than they do fighting. How does this poem reflect that distinction?
  4. Trace the ways that Turner moves from the safety of the home improvement center to the danger of the speaker’s war experience. How does he make those transitions? What is the effect of the transitions?

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exploring the Text: - Trace the ways that Turner moves from the safety of the home improvement center to the danger of the speaker’s war experience. How does he make those transitions? What is the effect of the transitions?
  5. Turner has said that he believes “the poem finishes in the reader.” How does this poem finish in you?

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exploring the Text: - Turner has said that he believes “the poem finishes in the reader.” How does this poem finish in you?