Essential question
How can a sequence of questions function as an accusation?
Marked passage
- Start anchor
- How would you have us, as we are?
- End anchor
- Or tightening chains about your feet?
Poem - complete poem
Ways to teach it
Listening
Listen; same evidence task.
Solo
Read independently.
Supported
Narration + highlighting.
Teacher guide
Close
Name the single detail that most changed or sharpened your interpretation, and say why.
Evidence
Use one early either/or question and the final image of wings and chains.
Mark
Underline each either/or pair. Circle words of upward or forward motion. Box words of burden or restraint. Star the final image where the consequence shifts onto America.
Instructional move
Analyze how rhetorical questions force an audience to confront consequences
Notice
• Which alternatives describe the group addressed as us? • Which alternatives describe America’s own future? • Why does the final pair make oppression self-defeating?
Strong answer
The questions function as an accusation because each pair demands that America recognize the consequences of its choices. The poem argues that restricting Black Americans does not merely harm them; it becomes a chain around the nation’s own feet.
Think
Answer provisionally: How can a sequence of questions function as an accusation? Choose the strongest interpretation you can defend from this passage alone.
Watch for
Do not answer each question literally. Explain what the sequence makes the audience responsible for choosing.
Why this passage
Every line is phrased as a question, but the poem is not seeking information. Each paired alternative makes neutrality impossible: progress or despair, rising or falling, strength or restraint. By the final image, America’s treatment of “us” is shown as affecting America itself.
Write
Write a short evidence-based response. Use at least two details from the assigned passage and explain how they support your interpretation.
Student tasks
Close
Name the single detail that most changed or sharpened your interpretation, and say why.
Mark
Underline each either/or pair. Circle words of upward or forward motion. Box words of burden or restraint. Star the final image where the consequence shifts onto America.
Notice
Which alternatives describe the group addressed as us? Which alternatives describe America’s own future? Why does the final pair make oppression self-defeating?
Think
Answer provisionally: How can a sequence of questions function as an accusation?
Write
Write a short response using at least two pieces of evidence from this passage.