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Naomi Shihab NyeA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Naomi Shihab Nye primarily writes free-verse poetry full of images inspired by everyday life. Her most well-known poems, “Famous” and “So Much Happiness,” remain well-loved in part for their hopeful perspective on normal life and the significance of its minutiae. “Alphabet” explores the more anxious side of this recurring theme in Shihab Nye’s work. Whereas the imagery in “So Much Happiness” portrays the inevitability of happiness, even amongst “soiled linens” and “noise and dust,” the imagery in “Alphabet” lingers on concrete objects as lingering reminders of loss. The speaker in this poem feels disconnected from the past and from broader humanity—and their smallness begins to feels ominous as they think of what the future holds. If read in the context of Shihab Nye’s writing on immigrant and child-of-immigrant identity, one might see a secondary loss present in the poem: not only the loss of knowledge of this neighborhood but also the loss of inherited traditions from older relatives with closer connections to past homes.
In the 2011 poem “Refugee Not Always,” Shihab Nye writes of her father, Aziz Shihab, who was born and raised in Jerusalem.
By Naomi Shihab Nye
300 Goats
300 Goats
Naomi Shihab Nye
Blood
Blood
Naomi Shihab Nye
Burning the Old Year
Burning the Old Year
Naomi Shihab Nye
Different Ways to Pray
Different Ways to Pray
Naomi Shihab Nye
Famous
Famous
Naomi Shihab Nye
Gate A-4
Gate A-4
Naomi Shihab Nye
Jerusalem
Jerusalem
Naomi Shihab Nye
Kindness
Kindness
Naomi Shihab Nye
Making a Fist
Making a Fist
Naomi Shihab Nye
Morning Song
Morning Song
Naomi Shihab Nye
My Uncle’s Favorite Coffee Shop
My Uncle’s Favorite Coffee Shop
Naomi Shihab Nye
Shoulders
Shoulders
Naomi Shihab Nye
The Art of Disappearing
The Art of Disappearing
Naomi Shihab Nye
The Rider
The Rider
Naomi Shihab Nye
The Turtle of Oman
The Turtle of Oman
Naomi Shihab Nye
The Words Under the Words
The Words Under the Words
Naomi Shihab Nye
Valentine for Ernest Mann
Valentine for Ernest Mann
Naomi Shihab Nye