An American Sunrise

1. Carefully select three consecutive lines of the poem in which you replace the plural first-person pronouns with singular ones (“I” instead of “we,” “me” instead of “us”). Rewrite these lines, adjusting verbs and phrases accordingly; then read the lines aloud to yourself. In a brief essay, discuss differences in theme, tone, style, and/or subtext between the original and revised lines. Which version more strongly conveys the mood of struggle, power, and hope? Quote phrases from the poem and its altered version to support your response.

2. Joy Harjo is the 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States and the first Native to serve in that role. Explore this resource on the Library of Congress website to investigate Harjo’s work as Poet Laureate. In a list of 6-8 brief bulleted points, summarize Harjo’s signature project. Be sure to “Explore the Story Map” and “Explore the Collection” as you investigate and summarize. To conclude your investigation, discuss in a brief paragraph how the goals of Harjo’s signature project connect to her complex messages in “An American Sunrise,” especially the poem’s ideas regarding the “Other.”

3. Joy Harjo wrote “An American Sunrise” for an anthology of poems that incorporate the words of Gwendolyn Brooks’s well-known work “We Real Cool.” (This specific poetic form, which was first popularized by Terence Hayes’s “The Golden Shovel,” has come to be known as the Golden Shovel form. The specific intent of poems built with this form is to borrow from and pay homage to “We Real Cool.”)

Read and listen to Brooks’s “We Real Cool.” Consider the similarities in tone and connotation between “An American Sunrise” and Brooks’s poem, and look at the specific words from “We Real Cool” that Harjo uses. In a brief piece of freewriting, brainstorm possible messages Harjo might be trying to communicate to Brooks and/or through Brooks’s words to relevant audiences. Then, in a brief paragraph, address the ways in which the “we” voices differ by the ends of each poem. Incorporate examples from both.

4. Read “Invisible Fish” by Joy Harjo. In a list, note themes and ideas you think Harjo evokes through her imagery and word choice. Then use a Venn Diagram or other simple graphic organizer to account for the ways in which both similar and contrasting themes and ideas are evident in “An American Sunrise.”