16 pages • 32 minutes read
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.
"Burning the Old Year" by Naomi Shihab Nye (1995)
Nye’s short poem about the experience of facing a new year is full of rich imagery as she finds poetry in unexpected places and examines the passage of time and its effect on humanity.
"Blood" by Naomi Shihab Nye (1995)
Nye’s poem examines the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as well as her Arab American roots, describing a childhood experience of coming to understand her identity. The poem ends with a set of questions born out of desperation: “Who calls anyone civilized? / Where can the crying heart graze? / What does a true Arab do now?”
"Sky" by William Stafford (1998)
Nye’s mentor, National Book Award winner William Stafford, shared her sense of poetics and often looked for poems in unexpected places. This poem, which Nye read at a 2010 Poets Forum discussion on inspiration, functions on multiple levels, as a direct address to the sky but also as a rumination on human relationships.
"Ars Poetica" by Archibald MacLeish (1985)
A classic example of the Ars Poetica form, MacLeish’s version ends with his famous lines: “A poem should not mean/but be” (Lines 23-24).
By Naomi Shihab Nye
300 Goats
300 Goats
Naomi Shihab Nye
Alphabet
Alphabet
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