The Writing on the Wall

Which sentence best expresses one central idea of “The Writing on the Wall”?

• People did not immediately see the value in the poems from Angel Island.

• People should organize efforts to preserve the poems from Angel Island.

• The immigrants who wrote poetry addressed one another in their poems.

• Poetry is a mighty and meaningful way to connect people across time.

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According to “The Writing on the Wall,” who wrote the poems etched into the walls of Angel Island?

• educated men among the Chinese immigrants

• well-known poets among the Chinese immigrants

• bored Chinese Americans waiting to travel back to China

• angry Chinese politicians working for change at Angel Island

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According to “The Writing on the Wall,” which of the following factors made it difficult for people to find the poems on the walls of Angel Island? Choose three options.

• The buildings became derelict.

• The detention center was preserved.

• The army burned down the buildings.

• The barracks were deserted for years.

• The walls were painted over.

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According to “The Writing on the Wall,” why did people decide to preserve the poems on the walls of the detention center?

• The poems are great examples of classical Chinese literature.

• The poems document the experiences of hundreds of immigrants.

• The poems record the history of the Angel Island detention center.

• The poems describe what it was like to be a Chinese American in the early 1900s.

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Which of the following is the feeling most often expressed by the poets quoted in “The Writing on the Wall”?

• anger

• regret

• dismay

• loneliness

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Which quotation from “The Writing on the Wall” best supports the answer to Part A?

• The Chinese immigrants, in particular, raised with a tradition of public poetry, composed carefully crafted verses that drew on Classical traditions, forms, and allusions.

• The poets held at the Angel Island Immigration Station were partaking of a centuries-old tradition, creating a camaraderie far beyond the confines of the walls they found themselves isolated inside.

• Here we are, at least 60 years after this poem was penned, with a man from a different country, reading this lonely man’s words and sharing them with people who have come to read them.

• Because so many of the poets actually spoke to each other in their “posts,” we know that the poems mattered to the people to whom they were addressed at the time.

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The following question has two parts. Answer Part A first, and then Part B. Part A: According to “The Writing on the Wall,” how did the men who wrote poems on the walls of the Angel Island Immigration Station feel about who and what they had left behind them in China?

• They were glad to have severed ties to their former lives.

• They were eager to return to China and to their previous situations.

• They were saddened by memories of their lives in China.

• They were cheered by knowing that people in China were counting on them.

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At the beginning of “The Writing on the Wall,” the author quotes a poem that begins with these lines: Over a hundred poems are on the walls. Looking at them, they are all pining at the delayed progress. Which statement best explains the connection of this quotation to the central idea of the blog post?

• The quotation proves that the poems were written by immigrants detained on the island.

• The quotation illustrates the way the poems captured the experiences of the immigrants.

• The quotation expresses the writer’s hope that more people will read the poems.

• The quotation helps demonstrate how angry the immigrants on the island felt.

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Which quotation from “The Writing on the Wall” best supports the answer to Part A?

• Imagine you saw not just one poem written on or etched into the walls, but hundreds. Imagine nearly every inch of available wall space was taken up by a poem, and there was only a little space left.

• Because so many of the poets actually spoke to each other in their “posts,” we know that the poems mattered to the people to whom they were addressed at the time.

• Or, I should say in the case of the detention center that it was years before anyone who was not being directly addressed recognized the language and understood why it mattered.

• Scholars are researching the poems, and people and poets like me, who need to believe in the power of poetry to speak beyond the here and now, can stand in front of those walls and understand the power of poetry: to calm, to communicate, to commiserate, and to conserve.

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Who was sent to Angel Island and under what circumstances?

• This article describes the poetry that has been inscribed on the walls of a building at the Angel Island Detention Center that once served as the barracks for male detainees. The detainees wrote or carved poetry on the walls to share their experiences with other men like them. Recently, the poems have been preserved as part of the newly-created State Park on Angel Island.

• Poets like her can become inspired to create their own works on similar themes. Other people can learn about the experiences and concerns of immigrants from that time period.

• Any immigrant whose papers were not in order because of health concerns or any other irregularities was sent to Angel Island. Chinese people were especially likely to be sent there because of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882

• The poems were hard to see for several reasons: the carvings and inscriptions were painted over; they were written a long time ago and the walls were in bad condition; and the writers used all the space they could find, so some poems may have overlapped others.

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