The Gathering Place

The “We” adds to the development of the author’s message mainly by---

• creating a sense of community amongst the people at the gathering place

• giving the poem a musical sound by repeating words that start with “w”

• making it unclear who the poet is speaking to

• indicating that the speaker is part of an exclusive club

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E2.8D

What can the reader most likely infer from lines 18-21?

We strike our plans into stone
and from this we build a summit worth climbing,
a goal worth reaching,
a world worth building.

• The group decides together how they want to create meaning in the world.

• The group sees itself as a force of good in the world.

• The group has already agreed to a plan, and has “struck it in stone.”

• The group cannot agree on what the best course of action is to create good.

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E2.4F

What is most closely the central idea of lines 36-49?

Today
in the spine of this meeting ground,
new city, new village, we’ve reached a summit,
and are ready to loudly name another.
This be hope, this be home,
we are hope, we are home,
we be vigilant,
we be united, we be good,
we do good, we are good,
as we should
in the place where a millennium stood
for what we understood
was
right.

• The group has already achieved all of its goals.

• The group has been waiting for change for over a millennium.

• The group feels unsure about change.

• Those at the “meeting ground” have good intentions for their community.

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E2.4G

E2.6A

Which of these lines (1-5) best supports the central idea of the poem?

• “for what we understood / was / right.”

• “in the spine of this meeting ground, / new city, new village, we’ve reached a summit,”

• “we do good, we are good,”

• “This be hope, this be home,”

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E2.5C

Match the following

• rhyme

• we be vigilant, /we be united, we be good,

• metaphor

• meet among the music of concrete and steel / where subway cars, ride the beat of hustle and heel.

• imagery

• Under congested incandescence of pulsing city

• assonance

• Every idea an open sea /Every voice a boat voyaging the bank of blue.

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E2.5D

NARRATIVE: U.S. Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman performed this poem at the Social Good Summit to convey her perspective on how to create meaningful change so that the world can become a better place. Write a narrative involving a setting, real or imagined, that conveys your ideal world.

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E2.10A