Week 6: Natasha Trethewey

Week 6: College Reading and Writing: Suffolk County House of Corrections at South Bay

Natasha Trethewey: Annotating, Summarizing, Analyzing, Imitating

to annotate: to make notes on something to help you understand it better

to summarize: to put something in your own words

to analyze: to consider a question on the text, providing supporting examples from the text

to imitate: to create an original piece of writing based on something you have read

Exercise: Read and annotate

1. Read the poem out loud and underline any words you need to look up

2. Write any questions you have in the margins, the white space on the page

3. Put tricky parts into your own words in notes in the margins, the white space on the page

Repentence by Natasha Trethewey
After Vermeer’s “Maid Asleep”
To make it right   Vermeer painted   then painted over
this scene   a woman alone at a table   the cloth pushed back
rough folds at the edge    as if    someone   had risen
in haste   abandoning the chair   beside her    a wineglass
nearly empty   just   in her reach      Though she’s been called
idle and drunken   a woman drowsing    you might see
in her gesture    melancholia              Eyelids drawn
she rests   her head   in her hand    Beyond her    a still-life
10) white jug    bowl of fruit    a goblet overturned     Before this
a man stood    in the doorway     a dog lay  on the floor
Perhaps   to exchange    loyalty     for betrayal
Vermeer erased  the dog      and made   of the man
a mirror     framed    by the open door               Pentimento
the word       for a painter’s change     of heart    revision
on canvas     means the same    as remorse     after sin
Were she to rise        a mirror     behind her     the woman
might see    herself     as I did     turning    to rise
from my table   then back as if    into    Vermeer’s scene
20) It was after    the quarrel        after     you’d had   again
too much  to drink   after  the bottle     did not shatter   though
I’d brought it   down hard      on the table   and the dog
had crept       from the room  to hide         Later    I found
a trace    of what   I’d done     bruise  on the table        the size
of my thumb       Worrying it     I must have looked   as she does
eyes downcast    my head   on the heel   of my palm    In paint
a story can change      mistakes be     undone       Imagine
Still-Life    with Father    and Daughter             a moment so
far back    there’s still time      to take the glass   from your hand
30) or mine

Exercise: Questions for Comprehension

1. How does the poem compare the speaker's experience to the changes in the painting? 

Exercise: Summarize the poem

Write a paragraph summarizing the poem with quotations, in-text citation, and a Work Cited Page

example summary, incorporating quotation and in-text citation:

Natasha Trethewey's poem "Repentence" describes "Vermeer's scene" and the changes he made in it (line 19).  The speaker reflects on fighting with her father after he'd had "too much   to drink" (Trethewey lines 20-21).  She concludes by "[i]magin[ing]" the scene earlier, "so/far back there's still time" to make things better (Trethewey lines 27-30). 

Work Cited Page

Trethewey, Natasha. The New Yorker. November 20, 2017.

Exercise: Analysis

Question for analysis: How does the form and spacing of the poem change how you read it? Use quotation and summary to support your answer. 

Exercise: Imitation

Write your own poem comparing a scene from your life to that same scene, perfected.  Include "Still-Life," and the nouns "trace," "gesture," and "moment."