A Wreath for Emmett Till

A Wreath for Emmett Till by Marilyn Nelson
Illustrated by Philippe Lardy
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company 2005

Coretta Scott King Honor Award
Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature from the American Library Association

This book takes on an important issue of the civil rights movement: Emmett Till and his lynching. I feel the author's explanation of her purpose for wiring this story into poetry is best explained through her own words. Regarding the writing of the poem she says, "I was nine years old when Emmett Till was lynched in 1955. His name and history have been a part of most of my life. When I decided to write a poem about lynching for young people, I knew I would write about Emmett Till. he was lynched when he was the age of the young people who might read my poem. After revisiting what I knew about lynching, reading more about it, and growing increasingly depressed, I also knew that I would write this poem as a heroic crown of sonnets. A sonnet is a fourteen- line rhyming poem in iambic pentameter. The rhyme scheme I chose to use in these sonnets is called Italian, or Petrarchan. A crown of sonnets is a sequence of interlinked sonnets in which the last line of one becomes the first line, sometimes slightly altered, of the next. A heroic crown of sonnets is a sequence of fifteen interlinked sonnets, in which the last one is made up of the first lines of the preceding poem".

This novel was difficult to read, but it gave a new perspective on an important issue of America's history. It would be a great mentor text or contributing text for a study on the civil rights for older students. The novel contains abstract imagery with colors that set the mood for each of the sonnets. At the end, an acrostic poem is formed, showing another type of poetry that students can utilize. It also provides notes on each of the sonnets she references in her poetry along with a brief story of Emmett Till.

I found a great online resource for using this piece of poetry in the classroom!

This piece of literature shows that poetry has the power to express even the darkest of things in a new light.

Nelson, M., & Lardy, P. (2005). A wreath for Emmett Till. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.