Identify the meaning of passages; analyze the point of view; connect poetry to real life and make current connections (Grades 7 and 11).
11. Develop a unit on Civil War Poetry. Although Kentuckian Theodore O’Hara’s poem, The Bivouac of the Dead, was written about the Mexican War, verses from it were featured on many Civil War monuments in Kentucky. Research Civil War poetry on the Internet and in the library. Ask students to select their favorite poems and complete one of the following assignments:
1) read the poem for the class;
2) type the poem on the computer and print it out on paper, illustrating the poem on the page;
3) write an essay about the feelings the poem expresses, how it reflects
Civil War events, and what the poem means to you. Collect copies of the students’ favorite poems, along with their writings in a bound volume for the school library.
12. Read the biography of Joseph Seamon Cotter, Sr., included in the African American Biography chapter of this packet. Feature his Civil War poems, Grant and Lee and The Old Negro Soldier of the Civil War, reproduced on following pages, in class. Also include the Civil War poems of another African American poet, Paul Laurence Dunbar, The Unsung Heros and The Colored Soldiers. How do these poems express the African American experience of the War? Compare these poems to Confederate poems or to Civil Rights poems of the 20th century.
Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906) was the first nationally acclaimed African American poet. Although he was born after slavery and the Civil War had ended, his poetry often addresses the African American experience during this period of history. Dunbar’s mother was a former slave, and his father had escaped slavery to serve in the United States Colored Troops. Both of his parents were native Kentuckians.
Dunbar was born in Dayton, Ohio, and his home there is preserved as a historic site. His mother worked as a washerwoman to support the family, a typical occupation for black women in the 1800s. She loved poetry, and her encouragement led Dunbar to begin writing at age 6. He excelled as a student, and was the only African American in his class at Dayton Central High, where he edited the school paper and served on the literary and debate societies. Orville and Wilbur Wright were his friends and classmates.
Dunbar worked as an elevator operator until he could establish himself as a writer. He published his first collection of poems in 1892. In his short life he published 12 books of poetry, four books of short stories, one play, and five novels, earning national and international attention for his work. In poor health the final years of his life, Dunbar died in 1906 at age 33. At one time, an elementary school in Louisville was named for him.
Materials originally produced for a 1999 Kentucky State Fair
curriculum piece, A Century of Change: New Strategies for Teaching About Kentucky in the 1800's.
