8th Grade English - Mrs. Sarah Blum

Last week, Mrs. Blum's 8th grade English classes read and analyzed the poem "Mother to Son" by Langston Hughes.  After a few close readings, we looked at we call "golden lines:" these are lines that catch our attention for one reason or another.  This helped us identify the metaphor and figure out what the poem is about.  We talked about the speaker of the poem (not the poet, of course) and whom he/she is addressing.  We noticed that the line, "Life for me ain't been no crystal stair" repeated itself twice in the poem, once at the beginning and once at the end.  This repetition signified importance and the poem's theme and message.  We compared these "bookends" to the two inverted "nuns" that appear in Sefer Bamidbar.  At first, the students connected this theme to the African American experience.  Upon further analysis, we discussed that this theme is timeless and can be applied to the Jewish experience in history as well to our lives today.  This poem helped us realize that poetry is accessible and filled with beautiful language.