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Natasha Trethewey   ■   Pilgrimage  171                                  UNIT 2


                                                                                                  INTRODUCING THE TEXT
                                                                                                Have students explore a brief historical time line of
                 Pilgrimage                                                                     the American Civil War, asking them to specifically
                                                                                                note the Siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi (May 18,
                 Natasha Trethewey                                                              1863–July 4, 1863). As a class, discuss the
                                                                                        IDEAS IN LITERATURE
                                                                                                significance of this campaign to the war as a whole.
                                                                                                Alternatively, explore the city of Vicksburg,
                 THE TEXT IN CONTEXT                                                            Mississippi, on Google Earth or Google Maps,
                       Copyright (c) 2023 Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. Uncorrected proofs were used with this sample chapter.
                 A two-time U.S. poet laureate, Natasha Tretheway (b. 1966)                     noting the geographic and topographic influences,
                 writes powerfully about African American working-class men                     especially the Mississippi River and the existence
                 and women in the South, southern history, and the lives of                     of underground cave systems.
                 mixed-race individuals. The latter reflects her own childhood
                 and experiences as the daughter of mixed-race parents:
                         Distributed by Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution.
                 a  couple who had to travel to Ohio to wed because their                         IDEAS IN THE TEXT
                   marriage was illegal in their native Mississippi. Tretheway’s     Stephen Voss/Redux Pictures      History      Reverence
                 poetry  collections include Domestic Work (2000), Native Guard                    Death             Ritual
                 (2006), and Thrall (2012). She’s also the author of the memoir
                 Memorial Drive: A Daughter’s Memoir (2020). In “Pilgrimage,”                       Life               War
                 which appeared in Native Guard, the speaker meditates on the history of Vicksburg,       Reflection
                   Mississippi (the site of a pivotal Civil War battle) and the Mississippi River. The poem
                 exemplifies Trethewey’s skill at evoking the past in the present.
                                                                                                  LITERARY CONCEPTS
                    Pilgrimage                                                                      Speaker            Comparison
                 1  Vicksburg, Mississippi                                                          Perspective        Simile
                     ic
                      ksbur
                    V
                           Mississippi
                         g,
                                                                                                    Tension            Antecedent
                 2  Here, the Mississippi carved                                                    Shift              Referent: Pronoun
                    Here, the Mississippi carved
                       its mud-dark path, a graveyard                                               Imagery
                      its mud-dark path, a graveyard
                    for skeletons of sunken riverboats.
                       Here, the river changed its course,
                                                                                                  TEXT RESOURCES
                   5  turning away from the city                                                 TRM The following reusable graphic
                 3     as one turns, forgetting, from the past
                      as one turns, forgetting, from the past —
                                                                                                organizers can be found in the Teacher’s
                    the abandoned bluffs, land sloping up
                 4  the abandoned bluffs, land sloping up                                       Resource Materials on the digital platform.
                      above the river’s bend—where now
                       above the river’s bend — where now                                           Describing a Character’s Perspective
                    the Yazoo fills the Mississippi’s empty bed.
                    the Yazoo fills the Mississippi’s empty bed.                                    Analyzing Shifts and Contrasts
                  10     Here, the dead stand up in stone, white                                    Explaining the Function of Words and Phrase
                                                                                                    Explaining the Function of Comparisons
                 5  marble, on Confederate Avenue. I stand
                    marble, on Confederate Avenue. I stand
                 6     on ground once hollowed by a web of caves;
                      on ground once hollowed by a web of caves;
                 7  they must have seemed like catacombs,
                    they must have seemed like catacombs,
                      in 1863, to the woman sitting in her parlor,
                       in 1863, to the woman sitting in her parlor,
                                                                                                 4   IMAGERY  Imagery describing the setting
                  15  candlelit, underground. I can see her                                     initially alludes to the eerie physical emptiness of
                       listening to shells explode, writing herself
                                                                                                Vicksburg; however, the rest of the text reveals
                                                                                                a contrast in that the city is brimming with
                                                                                                memories of the dead and living tourists.
                                                                                                 5   PRONOUNS  By using first-person singular
                                                                                                pronouns, the speaker reveals that her experience
         03_williamlit1e_46174_ch02_116_207.indd   171                               22/09/22   9:47 AM
                                                           1   TENSION  The author sets the scene by first   with the history of Vicksburg affects her as an
                    CREATIVE WRITING
                                                          identifying the location. Vicksburg, Mississippi,   individual.
                    The “Ghosts of History”               is the site of the 1863 Siege of Vicksburg in the
                                                                                                 6   SIMILE  First, the speaker uses a play on
                    Ask your students if they have visited the site of a   American Civil War; the Union victory here was a   words (“hollowed” ground as opposed to the
                    historical event. Ask if their city has any historical   contributing factor to ending the war.   traditional turn of phrase “hallowed” ground)
                    significance. Ask them to write a poem as if the   2   IMAGERY  The opening image of the Mississippi   to preface the distinction of both purpose and
                    “ghosts of history” (as Trethewey calls them in   River (and its visceral effect on the landscape) as   perception between caves and catacombs.
                    “Pilgrimage”) comment on what is now a tourist   a graveyard introduces the connection between
                    attraction. Encourage them to use what they   place, history, war, and death.  7   ANTECEDENT  The woman, as identified by her
                    have learned about the effect of language                                   diary writings later in the text, was Emma Balfour,
                    techniques such as perspective, contrasts,   3   TENSION  The comparison of the river to one   who was wife to a prominent Confederate general
                    associations, and comparisons. Students also   who turns away from history and forgets it is one   involved in the Siege of Vicksburg. As the siege
                    may wish to write a monologue by the “ghost of   that reveals another tension within the text: to   began, Emma Balfour (like other noncombatants in
                    history” or a dialogue between the tourist and the   what extent does history affect the present and   Vicksburg) was forced to evacuate and seek shelter
                    “ghost.”                              what is the role of the living in experiencing and   from the violence in the caves beneath the city.
                                                          remembering the past?
                                                                                               Natasha Trethewey    Pilgrimage  171


          03_williamlitte1e_47545_ch02_116_207_3pp.indd   171                                                                   08/12/22   5:34 PM
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