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Worksheet 7: Finding Evidence for Two Readings of “Tenebris”

Like Countee Cullen’s poem, “Uncle Jim,” discussed on Monday, Angelina Grimke’s poem, “Tenebris” is deliberately ambiguous. In both cases, the author’s decision to end the poem with a question is not meant to leave the poem open to any interpretation we wish to impose on it, but is instead meant to highlight for us the co-existence of two different perspectives.

For this worksheet, we’ll be practicing a key skill of close reading or critical thinking, which is the skill of identifying evidence for a thesis within a literary text. I will write two theses for you—these theses describe two different ways of interpreting the central image of this poem. Underneath each thesis, please write 3-6 sentences which supports that thesis by quoting and interpreting evidence from the text. In some cases, you may find yourself quoting the same evidence for both theses, but offering a slightly different interpretation of it each time.

Thesis A:

In “Tenebris,” Grimke’s central image of a tree’s shadow moving against a white man’s house illustrates the white man’s fear of Black violence against him—a fear the poem suggests is paranoid and born of the white man’s guilty conscience.

Thesis B:

In “Tenebris,” Grimke’s central image of a tree’s shadow moving against a white man’s house illustrates the patient, subtle work of Black people to tear down the structures of white supremacy that threaten them.