Question

Read "Like Brothers We Meet.”

What does this poem express about the importance of family?

A sense of family can be found in making good friendships.
Families should be there to help each other during hardship.
War occurs so that people can be happy with their families.
Shared trauma creates bonds as strong as those in families.



Read the excerpt from "Elegy for the Native Guards.”

The Daughters of the Confederacy
has placed a plaque here, at the fort’s entrance—
each Confederate soldier’s name raised hard
in bronze; no names carved for the Native Guards—
2nd Regiment, Union men, black phalanx.
What is monument to their legacy?

All the grave markers, all the crude headstones—
water-lost. Now fish dart among their bones,
as we listen for what the saves intone.
Only the fort remains, near forty feet high,
round, unfinished, half open to the sky,
The elements—wind, rain,—God's deliberate eye.

"Native Guard" from Native Guard by Natasha Trethewey. Copyright (c) 2006 by Natasha Trethewey. Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

What does this excerpt express about the struggle for equality?

Even the forgotten find peace at the end of life.
Nature does not discriminate while causing destruction.
Even in death, oppressed people are treated poorly.
At the end of their lives, everybody faces an identical fate.



Read "On Liberty and Slavery” and "Duty.”

How do these poems address the experience of oppression differently?

Horton’s poem focuses on people oppressing people, while Trethewey’s poem focuses on nature oppressing people.
Horton’s poem shows how oppression can be escaped, while Trethewey’s poem shows how hard it is to escape it.
Horton’s poem suggests that oppression brings people together, while Trethewey’s poem suggests how it separates them.
Horton’s poem describes the physical marks of oppression, while Trethewey’s poem describes the emotional toll of it.



Read the excerpt from "One Generation Passeth Away and Another Cometh.”

Vain bird, a while think what am I,
Here entering ‘mid a hawk-like throng;
Quickly hatched out, as quick to fly,
And dare not tarry long.

Where is the mighty and the stout,
Who lived this fading world to crave;
Left and forever gone without
A stone to show their grave.

Used with permission of the Chapel Hill Historical Society

Which universal theme is reflected in the excerpt?

the importance of hope
the desire for honor
the value of learning
the search for meaning

Answer 1

1) Like Brothers We Meet.
Answer: Shared trauma creates bonds as strong as those in families.
Why: The poem presents nonrelated people (comrades) coming together like brothers — their shared hardship forges family-like bonds.

2) Elegy for the Native Guards excerpt.
Answer: Even in death, oppressed people are treated poorly.
Why: The poem shows the Native Guards’ names and graves erased or ignored while Confederate soldiers are memorialized, highlighting continued mistreatment and erasure.

3) On Liberty and Slavery and Duty — how they address oppression differently.
Answer: Horton’s poem describes the physical marks of oppression, while Trethewey’s poem describes the emotional toll of it.
Why: Horton focuses on the bodily, tangible realities of slavery; Trethewey emphasizes erasure, loss, and the emotional legacy of neglect and dishonor.

4) One Generation Passeth Away and Another Cometh excerpt — universal theme.
Answer: the desire for honor
Why: The lines criticize vanity and those who crave worldly fame, only to die forgotten without even a grave marker.