Unit 2: Selection Vocabulary 1

But we loved with a love that was more than love—
I and my Annabel Lee—
With a love that the wingèd seraphs of Heaven
Coveted her and me.

But we loved with a love that was more than love—
I and my Annabel Lee—
With a love that the wingèd seraphs of Heaven
Coveted her and me.

So that her highborn kinsmen came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.

So that her highborn kinsmen came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.

And neither the angels in Heaven above
Nor the demons down under the sea
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee

but it was just that every morning I awoke to these
october ripened canvases

how you shaped patterns square and oblong and round

how the thread darted in and out
galloping along the frayed edges

whether to shape a five-point star from the
somber black silk you wore to grandmother's funeral

you were the caravan master at the reins
driving your thread needle artillery across the
mosaic cloth bridges

oh mother you plunged me sobbing and laughing
into our past
into the river crossing at five

into braids and muslin dresses
sewn hard and taut to withstand the thrashings of
twenty-five years

My mother keeps her promise and lets my hair grow long, but I am only half of her; my thin brown braids will reach the middle of my back, and in maturity will look like tiny garden snakes.

I like to share her stories with other people, and chatter like a monkey when I am able to command adult attention.

“She left the reservation when she was sixteen years old,” I tell my audience.

Sixteen sounds very old to me, but I always state the number because it seems integral to my recitation.

I am the timid daughter who can rage only on paper.

They thought their one particular life was of the utmost significance.

“We honor you,” she continues, “because you are a creature of great endurance and great generosity. You provided us with so many things that helped us to survive..."