Natasha Trethewey often writes about the relationship we have with the past, a shared history that many wish to remember and forget at the same time. This internal conflict of memory presents itself throughout “Pilgrimage” in unexpected contrasts,...

Finding and picking a flower may be a plain and straightforward task for many, but Natasha Trethewey suggests a deeper consequence in her poem “Genus Narcissus.” Trethewey employs the many different metaphors of a daffodil in tracking the...

Poetry has been used since its inception to send strong messages about current and historical issues, and these are often political in nature. In their poems “next to of course god america i” and “King Cotton, 1907” from “Scenes from a Documentary...