Nelson, Marilyn. 2015. My Seneca Village. South Hampton, NH: Namelos. ISBN 9781608981977.
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| Image courtesy Amazon.com |
Marilyn Nelson is the 2017 recipient of the NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children. Nelson's previous works, Carver: A Life in Poems and A Wreath for Emmett Till have garnered Nelson significant recognition as a National Book Award finalist, Newbery Honor Book medalist, Coretta Scott King Honor Book medalist, Printz Honor Book medalist, and a Lee Bennet Hopkins Poetry Award Honoree (Nelson 2017).
Her 2015 book My Seneca Village tells the story of a multicultural community in Manhattan in an area that was taken over by the city government to become a part of Central Park. Set in the years 1825 - 1855, Nelson reveals the history of Seneca Village through a series of forty-one poems narrated by a community of characters, ranging from a bootblack to a young schoolboy to historical figures like Maria Stewart and Fredrick Douglass. Nelson based many of the events in the poems on what her imagination conjured after reading census records from Seneca Village, but some of the events are fictionalized accounts of real historical occurrences. Such events are indicated with italicized notes at the end of the poems with the factual information available.
My Seneca Village has a table of contents listing every poem. Following the table of contents, Nelson includes a "Welcome to Seneca Village" to explain the community and how she became acquainted with the villagers that eventually narrate her poems. On the right side of each spread, Nelson sets the scene for the poem, explaining what she "sees" or introducing a character or setting. The poem is then printed on the left side of each spread. The book closes with a helpful "About the Poems" section in which she explains the varying formats and rhyme schemes she uses. Her explanation is very helpful for people (like me) who may not recognize the structures and rhymes of classic poetic styles or for budding poets who want to try their hand at writing a terza rima sonnet or a found poem.
The majority of the poems are composed in quatrains with various rhyme schemes and styles. For example, the opening poem "Land Owner" uses both exact rhymes like "wage/sage" and "vote/boat" and slant rhymes like "work/talk" and "Canal/heel" in each stanza. Other poems, like "Sisters of Charity" use what Nelson calls "conceptual rhyme" where the connection between the words is not a shared sound, but a shared idea. In "Sisters of Charity," she uses opposites to form the conceptual rhyme, pairing concepts like "day/night," "more/less," and "poor/rich."
Nelson works in several other poetic forms in addition to the rhyming quatrains. She includes sonnets like "Address" and "Pigs on the Ice" as well as a poem written to imitate a wedding announcement. In "The Park Theatre" and "The Shakespeare Riot," both poems about Shakespearean plays, Nelson pays homage to the iambic pentameter of William Shakespeare. She even invented a poetic form for one character, and all poems narrated by that character take on the form she calls "Tildie."
The language of My Seneca Village maintains a more conversational style, reflective of characters narrating their daily lives. But even within these conversations, Nelson drops in tantalizing bits of alliteration and imagery to create strong images for readers. For example, in "Council of Brothers," the youngest of five brothers refers to "a growling gut" and "wearing Hugh's smelly, outgrown, leaky boots," creating an image of the impoverished life the young men have been living.
My Seneca Village is recommended for children in fifth grade and up. The lack of illustrations, more complex vocabulary, and cover of muted colors clearly mark this as a book for older students. In the library, this book would probably need special promotion, for its outward appearance truly belies the fascinating history and skilled poetry inside.
Example Poem
15¢ Futures
Epiphany Davis, 1825
I set up my cash box and my bones and cards
on Broadway, most days, offering what I see
of what's to come. For a donation, words
fall from my mouth, surprising even me.
Uncle Epiphany doesn't forecast death
or illness worse than gout or a broken bone.
The sailors stop. They listen with caught breath
as I tell them some girl's heart is still theirs alone.
(... or not. Young love is such a butterfly.)
Girls come, arms linked, giggling behind their fans.
The sad come. Uncle Epiphany does not lie.
I close shop, and come back up here to my land.
It's a new world up here, of beggar millionaires:
neighbors who know how we all scrimped and saved
to own this stony swamp with its fetid air,
to claim the dream for dreamers yet enslaved.
I'm Epiphany Davis. I am a conjure-man.
I see glimpses. Glass towers ... A horseless vehicle ...
An American President who is half African ...
Until you pay me, that's all I'm going to tell.
Activity
This poem would work well with an 8th grade U.S. history class, especially as they begin to study events leading up to the Civil War. To introduce the poem, set up the historical context, explaining when and where Seneca Village is set. Ask students to share what they know about the time period, and then read Nelson's vision for the scene and provide students an introduction to the narrator, Epiphany Davis. Since the poem is longer, I recommend providing students a written copy of the poem so they could read along.
After reading the poem aloud, determine if students know what the word "epiphany" means and explain if they do not. Have students share if they believe Epiphany Davis really has epiphanies. What makes them question him? What makes them believe him? Invite students to think of other parts of modern American life (other than skyscrapers, cars, and President Obama) that Epiphany and the other residents of Seneca Village might find surprising.
As an extension, students may want to choose other historical figures like Clara Barton, Abraham Lincoln, or Wilbur Wright to write a monologue about what type of "glimpses" of the future that person might wish see. These monologues could then be shared as part of a living history event students share with younger grades, parents, and the community.
Sources
Nelson, Marilyn. 2017. "About - Biography." Accessed February 14. http://marilyn-nelson.com/bio.html.
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