The Poetry of Ada Limón Lesson Plan

Why do you think Limón divided “The Hurting Kind” into six sections? Do you see the section breaks as having a significant impact on how you read and interpret the poem? Explain.

First of all, it is a long poem, so breaking it up into smaller, more digestible chunks can easily make it less intimidating to readers. Also, much like a novel is broken up into chapters, breaking a poem up into sections helps keep the ideas/narratives organized. The sections of the poem are connected to one another, and there is a narrative thread that runs through them. Yet each section focuses on different ideas or aspects of a theme, and having different sections can help readers to...