National Black Poetry Day: "Banneker" by Rita Dove

This poem describes some scenes from the life of Benjamin Banneker (1731–1806), the astronomer, farmer, surveyor, and son of a former slave who helped design Washington, D.C. Read the full text here.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. cloak
    a loose outer garment
    What did he do except lie
    under a pear tree, wrapped in
    a great cloak, and meditate
    on the heavenly bodies?
  2. meditate
    reflect deeply on a subject
    What did he do except lie
    under a pear tree, wrapped in
    a great cloak, and meditate
    on the heavenly bodies?
  3. venerable
    profoundly honored
    Venerable, the good people of Baltimore
    whispered, shocked and more than
    a little afraid.
  4. capacious
    large in the amount that can be contained
    Neither
    Ethiopian nor English, neither
    lucky nor crazy, a capacious bird
    humming as he penned in his mind
    another enflamed letter
    to President Jefferson—he imagined
    the reply, polite and rhetorical.
  5. inflame
    arouse or excite feelings and passions
    Neither
    Ethiopian nor English, neither
    lucky nor crazy, a capacious bird
    humming as he penned in his mind
    another enflamed letter
    to President Jefferson—he imagined
    the reply, polite and rhetorical.
  6. rhetorical
    relating to using language effectively
    Neither
    Ethiopian nor English, neither
    lucky nor crazy, a capacious bird
    humming as he penned in his mind
    another enflamed letter
    to President Jefferson—he imagined
    the reply, polite and rhetorical.
  7. likeness
    similarity in appearance or nature between persons or things
    Those who had been to Philadelphia
    reported the statue
    of Benjamin Franklin
    before the library

    his very size and likeness.
  8. stew
    cook slowly and for a long time in liquid
    At dawn he milked
    the cows, then went inside
    and put on a pot to stew
    while he slept.
  9. whittle
    cut small bits or pare shavings from
    The clock
    he whittled as a boy
    still ran.
  10. quilt
    bedding made of layers stuffed and stitched together
    Neighbors
    woke him up
    with warm bread and quilts.
  11. stalk
    go through (an area) in search of prey
    At nightfall he took out

    his rifle—a white-maned
    figure stalking the darkened
    breast of the Union—and
    shot at the stars, and by chance
    one went out.
  12. assure
    inform positively and with certainty and confidence
    Had he killed?
    I assure thee, my dear Sir!
  13. rot
    the state or process of decay
    Lowering his eyes to fields
    sweet with the rot of spring, he could see
    a government’s domed city
    rising from the morass and spreading
    in a spiral of lights.
  14. morass
    a soft wet area of low-lying land that sinks underfoot
    Lowering his eyes to fields
    sweet with the rot of spring, he could see
    a government’s domed city
    rising from the morass and spreading
    in a spiral of lights.
  15. spiral
    a plane curve traced by a point circling about a center
    Lowering his eyes to fields
    sweet with the rot of spring, he could see
    a government’s domed city
    rising from the morass and spreading
    in a spiral of lights.
Created on Tue Oct 10 10:57:00 EDT 2023 (updated Tue Oct 10 16:55:40 EDT 2023)

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