Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.
- Of what or whom is "Portrait in Georgia" a portrait? Why do you think Toomer chose to call this poem a portrait?
- Who is painting the portrait? What is our speaker like? Can we learn anything about them from the poem?
- What is the gender of the victim in this poem? How do you know? Is gender important?
- Why is this portrait in Georgia, rather than any other state in the United States?
- What effect do dashes have in this poem? Why do you think our speaker uses them?
- What are the sentences like in this poem? Are they all the same? Do they change? Are they complete (do they have verbs, adjectives, adverbs, subjects, etc.)?
- Why does the speaker begin by noticing the hair, followed by the eyes, lips, breath, and body? What, if anything, is significant about this order?
- Which of the five senses does our speaker use?
- Why do you think this poem is so short?