(1) Assess realistic details in the stylized portraiture of “Fern” in Toomer’s Cane, Edgar Lee Masters’s Spoon River Anthology, and Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio.
(2) Express Toomer’s vision in “Blue Meridian.” Determine the practical means by which he hoped to “uncase the races,” “open the classes,” and “free man from his shrinkage.”
(3) Determine the purpose of the tightly controlling parallelism and fearful imagery in Toomer’s “Portrait in Georgia.”
(4) Contrast the focus on light imagery in “Karintha” and “Song of the Son.” Express Toomer’s concern that the “New Negro” is fated to lose the sensuality, grace, and loveliness of a simpler, less frenetic time.
(5) Discuss how World War I serves as a backdrop to “Seventh Street.” How does the war influence the poem?
