sample question

While some poems focus exclusively on a 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. 

As an Arabic who is born in the United States and have a diverse family with a heavy sense of culture environment, Naomi Shihab Nye has lots of experiences that can reflect the idea that though people have different identities, they are still all humans no matter what. More specifically, in her poems ‘My father and the Fig Tree’ and ‘The words under the words’, she expresses the idea that all humans try to adapt to different environment, even though it can be difficult. 

In the poem ‘The words under the words’ Naomi has a detailed description of her grandmother’s life in the U.S. After reading this poem, it appears to me that Naomi tries to emphasise the idea that humans can adapt in a new environment, but at the same time remain their own culture. In the first stanza, the poet says that whenever she is sick, she will use the old Arabic way to cool her down, which is to use a damp shine of a goat’s new skin. As a person who is born in the U.S but uses the traditional Arabic way to cure fevers, Naomi shows her way of mixing the Arabic and the American lifestyle. The second stanza contains lots of information about Naomi’s grandmother’s life in the U.S; She first starts by saying that her grandmother has a slow pace lifestyle, ‘a round pat-pat and the slow baking’, which is in contrast with the fast pace life of the typical American. She then mentions the moment when her grandmother sees a car goes by and describes it as ‘strange’, which suggests that her grandmother is still not familiar with the modern technology. The poet also shows the excitement of her grandmother when she receives a mail; though she is not literate enough to read the letter, she is still excited to understand the content and ‘listens to it read again and again’. The sense of excitement shows that her grandmother is still happy to adapt to the new lifestyle by trying to understand the English content of the letter. The theme of religion is also used to express her central idea. In the last stanza, she writes that ‘My grandmother’s eyes say Allah is everywhere…’ This shows that no matter where she is, her religious belief will always be with her. However, her grandmother is still a bit lonely since she does not have her husband with her. In the second last stanza, she writes ‘Farewell to the husband’s coat, the ones she’s has loved and nourished…’ This quote shows her loneliness while trying to adapt to the new environment. Overall, in this poem by using the example of her grandmother, Naomi shows her thought that in a large environment, people will all try to adapt to the new ones even when it can be challenging sometimes

The second poem ‘My father and the fig tree’ also shows how an individual can eventually fit into the new environment. By using the example of fig tree, Naomi expresses her father’s emotion, which is missing his own country. Fig tree, as a type of fruit that grow the most in Arab, represents  her home country. In the first stanza, in order to set up her father’s obsession of Fig tree, describes how much her father loves Figs. For instance, he says ‘See those? I wish they were figs.’ Naomi is very smooth with the transition of emotions throughout the poem. She first uses the first two stanza to show her father’s opinion on figs, then she says that her father thinks there’s no place like home that can grow the ‘largest, fattest, sweetest figs’; for example, she uses repetition of different fruit they had grew in their backyard, with the exception of figs to show that her father misses his home country- ‘beans, zucchini, parsley, beets.’ Her mother finds out her father’s feeling of figs and their home country, and describes him as ‘a dreamer’. This downward slope of emotion is for the transition in the last stanza, which says that her father finally finds a perfect place to plant figs, which is Dallas. Her father is so happy that he starts to sing a home country song, which means to him finally finds the feeling of home. In conclusion, Naomi does a great job of using transition of emotion to show the idea that though people are away from home, they can still find the feeling of it. 

Like Naomi, as a person who is far from home, I myself have experienced some emotional turmoil of missing home. But eventually I found more people like me and became friend with them. I realised that no matter where you are, you can always find the feeling of home.