English, 28.11.2021 01:00 zalliagessnerp5fuj9
Read the poem “Thanks” by Yusef Komunyakaa, then choose one of the following questions to respond to:
Based on the poem, what do you think was most responsible for the speaker’s survival: luck, skills, a higher power, or something else?
Choose one image from the poem that you found particularly powerful. Explain what makes this image compelling to you.
What can you infer about how the speaker feels about his time as a soldier?
Write a paragraph explaining your answer. Support your response with details from the text.
Thanks
Yusef Komunyakaa
Poet Yusef Komunyakaa served as a soldier in the US Army during the Vietnam War. In this poem, the speaker expresses gratitude for the forces—both physical and spiritual—that he thinks kept him alive during war.
Thanks for the tree
between me & a sniper’s bullet.
I don’t know what made the grass
sway seconds before the Viet Cong
raised his soundless rifle.
Some voice always followed,
telling me which foot
to put down first.
Thanks for deflecting the ricochet
against that anarchy of dusk.
I was back in San Francisco
wrapped up in a woman’s wild colors,
causing some dark bird’s love call
to be shattered by daylight
when my hands reached up
& pulled a branch away
from my face. Thanks
for the vague white flower
that pointed to the gleaming metal
reflecting how it is to be broken
like mist over the grass,
as we played some deadly
game for blind gods.
What made me spot the monarch
writhing on a single thread
tied to a farmer’s gate,
holding the day together
like an unfingered guitar string,
is beyond me. Maybe the hills
grew weary & leaned a little in the heat.
Again, thanks for the dud
hand grenade tossed at my feet
outside Chu Lai. I’m still
falling through its silence.
I don’t know why the intrepid
sun touched the bayonet,
but I know that something
stood among those lost trees
& moved only when I moved.
Answers: 3
English, 21.06.2019 22:00
Which two passages in this excerpt from the death of ivan illych does leo tolstoy use to suggest that ivan ilych feels like his life is slipping away from him? "what's the use? it makes no difference," he said to himself, staring with wide-open eyes into the darkness. "death. yes, death. and none of them knows or wishes to know it, and they have no pity for me. now they are playing." (he heard through the door the distant sound of a song and its accompaniment.) "it's all the same to them, but they will die too! fools! i first, and they later, but it will be the same for them. and now they are merry . . the beasts! " anger choked him and he was agonizingly, unbearably miserable. "it is impossible that all men have been doomed to suffer this awful horror! " he raised himself. "something must be wrong. i must calm myself—must think it all over from the beginning." and he again began thinking. "yes, the beginning of my illness: i knocked my side, but i was still quite well that day and the next. it hurt a little, then rather more. i saw the doctors, then followed despondency and anguish, more doctors, and i drew nearer to the abyss. my strength grew less and i kept coming nearer and nearer, and now i have wasted away and there is no light in my eyes.
Answers: 3
English, 22.06.2019 02:00
Correct the sentence below: the pizza delivery boy was neither early nor late he was right on time. a: correct as it is b: the pizza delivery boy was neither early nor late, he was right on time. c: the pizza delivery boy was neither early nor late; and he was right on time. d: the pizza delivery boy was neither early nor late: he was right on time.
Answers: 2
English, 22.06.2019 02:00
In the metaphor or language as a layer cake ( presented in your study unit), which of the following words could be considered a "frosting" word? a. frequently b. occasionally c. prescient d. honestly
Answers: 1
Read the poem “Thanks” by Yusef Komunyakaa, then choose one of the following questions to respond to...
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