What does this poem mean to you? How did you determine its meaning? (Paragraph) “In the walled garden, surrounded by cold marble
and rows of sanctioned lime trees, I grow

defenseless against desire—I almost touch
myself remembering your scent, time zones away,

clean first, then that sourness
after sex. My eye is a slow thief, it stops

for so little: under the orange tree, a young woman
lifts from her lover’s hair a praying mantis,

its green intelligence like calligraphy
on her hand. Children scream, a man wipes

oil with bread—people still go to lunch
within a war, can you believe it?

It is here I understand I am free, I am perpetual,
because it is you who hungers me.”

frances ellen watkins harper writing was influenced by: b. the education she received growing up in the north.

she was born in baltimore, maryland, on september 24, 1825. after the death of her parents, her uncle reverend william watkins, a teacher at the academy for negro youth, raised and educated her. she also continued educating herself by accessing a library of the family she worked for, beginning writing poetry afterwards. as a civil rights activist and abolitionist, watkins greatly influenced her life and work.

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explanation:

the significance of the title, "the passing", is related to the fact that the main characters, who are three african-american descendant women, are passing as white. this means that, because of their light-coloured skins they look like white women. one of the three friends, clare, is married to a white man and she lives in a white community and she has never told her husband that she is black. the title can easily be connected to the idea of pretending to be someone you are not and of losing your real identity in order to be accepted by society.