Call Us What We Carry: List 3

by Amanda Gorman
This collection of poetry reflects on more than a century's worth of American history, exploring a variety of topics including racism, the 1918 influenza pandemic, climate change, and the AIDS epidemic.

This list covers "Atonement."

Here are links to our lists for the book: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4
40 words 144 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. bearing
    the direction or path along which something moves or lies
    But I am hunting for something—anything—
    to give me some bearing, since I am,
    metaphorically speaking, at sea, having cut
    myself off from the comfort and predictability
    of my own language—my own meaning.
    —M. NourbeSe Philip, Zong!
  2. undercurrent
    a feeling or tendency that is not explicitly expressed
    It’s not erasure, but expansion, whereby we seek the underwriting, the undercurrent beneath the watered surface of the words.
  3. evoke
    call forth, as an emotion, feeling, or response
    Hereby the pen looks to enhance, evoke, explore, expose the bodies, the truth, the voices that have always existed but have been exiled from history & the imagination.
  4. scourge
    something causing misery or death
    Our scourge was to tell
    The death of Cecilia—

    Impossible

    This plague attacked
  5. afflict
    cause physical pain or suffering in
    A sort of epidemical cold
    Has seized every business &
    Establishment our health afflicted
  6. turmoil
    a violent disturbance
    It’s nearly impossible to track
    Tragedy & turmoil.
  7. taut
    subjected to great tension; stretched tight
    Still there was a tautness wild circulating terrible things—whatever they might be, the people had made up our minds to meet.
  8. disquiet
    make uneasy or cause to be worried or alarmed
    Night returned disquieted, but not depressed
  9. corporal
    a noncommissioned officer in the armed forces
    Corporal Plummer served in France in Company C of the 506th Engineer Battalion, which built roads, fortifications & conducted other manual labor that was essential to the army.
  10. fortification
    a defensive structure
    Corporal Plummer served in France in Company C of the 506th Engineer Battalion, which built roads, fortifications & conducted other manual labor that was essential to the army.
  11. exemplify
    clarify by giving an illustration of
    His background as a clerk is exemplified by his precise understanding of grammar (he often crosses out or corrects himself, as if aware that someone else will be reading his work), impeccable handwriting & clear-cut descriptions of his experiences.
  12. impeccable
    without error or flaw
    His background as a clerk is exemplified by his precise understanding of grammar (he often crosses out or corrects himself, as if aware that someone else will be reading his work), impeccable handwriting & clear-cut descriptions of his experiences.
  13. provision
    a stipulated condition
    There was this provision: "The walking of white soldiers with colored women or colored soldiers with white women within the limits of this camp is strictly prohibited."
  14. plucky
    showing courage
    Though the colored troops are not equipped with guns, according to all reports, they behaved themselves most bravely and pluckily against the Marines.
  15. incite
    provoke or stir up
    The Sgt then really informed his men and incited a riot.
  16. promiscuous
    not selective of a single class or person
    The Marines, it seems, began to promiscuously beat up every soldier of color that happened to be alone and the colored boys reciprocated.
  17. affray
    a noisy fight
    One colored soldier of Co. "A" 506, stabbed by a bayonet in the affray, died at the Camp Hospital about half an hour later.
  18. fracas
    a noisy, angry argument or fight between people
    The fracas caused quite a stir.
  19. delinquency
    a tendency to be negligent and uncaring
    Post up delinquency records in forenoon. Very busy these days.
  20. armistice
    a state of peace agreed to between opponents
    Many rumors about returning home ever since armistice was signed.
  21. reprimand
    an act or expression of criticism and censure
    There comes to mind in the way of a severe reprimand, this little verse:
    "Count that day lost
    Whose low descending sun
    Views from thy hands
    No worthy action done."
  22. malady
    impairment of normal physiological function
    More than 60 men of Company "A" are in the Camp Hospital with the new malady.
  23. concise
    expressing much in few words
    In writing in Corporal Plummer's voice, I wanted to do so in a form that embodied his concise language.
  24. shackle
    restrain with or as if with fetters
    Life leaves us gasping.
    Ships carry us to U.S.
    Our wrists still shackled.
  25. intrinsically
    with respect to its inherent nature
    The 1918 influenza killed 50 million people (though some scholars suggest it could be 100 million), far more than those killed in World War I. The death toll of the influenza was intrinsically tied to warfare.
  26. dredge
    remove with or as with a power shovel
    The British pioneered cable cutting during WWI, using the CS Alert to dredge Germany’s underwater telegraph cables.
  27. sedition
    an illegal action inciting resistance to lawful authority
    Wartime censorship also slashed communication & truth-telling; the US Sedition Act of 1918 outlawed speech or expression that damaged the country’s image or war effort.
  28. grievous
    causing fear or anxiety by threatening great harm
    The First World War was once called “Great,”
    So named “The War to End All Wars.”
    Ha.
    What is called “great”
    Is often grievous & gruesome
  29. aperture
    a natural opening in something
    Aperture:
    The hole in the eye
    Through which light travels.
  30. lamented
    mourned or grieved for
    Humanity must be universal & lamented, a moral and religious duty which may, without exaggeration, be the greatest on earth.
  31. idyllic
    excellent and delightful in all respects
    As you are aware, Panpax, our idyllic country, has finally reopened its gates to outsiders.
  32. reclusive
    withdrawn from society; seeking solitude
    We’ve heard that in Pandem all forms of gathering are prohibited, its reclusive citizens don’t even go so far as to share the same sidewalk, let alone breathe the same air.
  33. acclimate
    get used to a certain environment
    Panpax City Commissioners have conducted a series of interviews to document the unique transitional experience of Pandem refugees now living in Panpax. Our hope is that these condensed answers will help you acclimate to our abundant nation.
  34. respective
    considered individually
    For their privacy, the names of roe interviewees have been replaced with their respective numbers.
  35. concession
    a point that is yielded
    That ceding of the walkway
    Was the concession of the world
    To another’s age-old white rite of passage.
  36. perturb
    disturb in mind or make uneasy or cause to be worried
    Why it’s so perturbing for privileged groups to follow restrictions of place & personhood.
    Doing so means for once wearing the chains their power has shackled on the rest of us.
  37. marginalize
    relegate to a lower or outer edge, as of groups of people
    To be kept to the edges of existence is the inheritance of the marginalized.
  38. dwindle
    become smaller or lose substance
    For what does the Karen carry but her dwindling power,
    dying & desperate?
  39. murky
    dark or gloomy
    How far Sisyphus pushes that rock
    Up its murky mound,
    As well as the route it rolls down again.
  40. succumb
    give in, as to overwhelming force, influence, or pressure
    Even when we’ve succumbed,
    We have not surrendered.
Created on Mon Mar 14 17:35:30 EDT 2022 (updated Fri Apr 08 17:55:55 EDT 2022)

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