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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
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