A Wreath for Emmett Till

(source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/04/24/RVGCTC9H0N1.DTL)

Citation: 

Nelson, Marilyn. A Wreath for Emmett Till. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2005. Print.

Annotation:

Marilyn Nelson approaches a historic event in “A Wreath for Emmett Till” by using poetry. Emmitt Till was a Chicagoan young teen visiting family in the heart of the segregated south in 1955. A group of white men beat him to death  for the supposed crime of whistling at a white woman. Nelson weaves that event, his mother’s sorrow and a nation’s shame together in a series of heroic sonnets. This form follows the basic structure of sonnets with the added twist of creating a group of 15 linked sonnets. The last line from the previous poem becomes the first line of the next poem. The final sonnet is the first line of each other preceding sonnets. The poems take on additional depth when they are overlaid vibrant artwork.

Nomination thoughts:

I found this to be a fresh examination of the Emmett Till killing. The beginning of the book offers an explanation of heroic poems and the end goes into more details about word choice, symbolism and art meaning. I would recommend this book as a nomination with a couple caveats. This book needs scaffolding, more so than other texts that may be read in class. The poet has to work within a very specific framework and thus students need to see how the sonnets are linked. This set of poems will keep a mind busy wondering what to make of the figurative language. Once again, the back of the book is critical for understanding the writer’s intent and helping the reader come to their own ideas about the book. Lastly I want to mention the gorgeous art work. I almost got as much emotion from it as with the poems themselves. Together they make a powerful statement about hate, hope and a mother’s grace. This book will take extra work to break down but is worth the effort. 

Please note: I originally bought it on Kindle and can not understate my disappointment in that version. The artwork and text has a totally different appearance on the Kindle- completely disjointed from each other. I actually went out and bought a paper book once I realized how negatively my reading experience was affected by the poor layout.