poems about immigrants

Descended from Native Americans and Central Europeans, Joseph Bruchac writes about "Ellis Island." Phillis Wheatley was taught to read and write by her masters and shared her thoughts "On Being Brought from Africa to America." Born in New York to Russian immigrants, David Ignatow compares his father's experiences to his own in "Europe and America."

Here are all the word lists to support the reading of Grade 11 Unit 1's texts from SpringBoard's Common Core ELA series: A Cause Greater Than Self, The New Colossus, The Statue of Liberty Address, poems about America, America, America and I, What Is an American, Growing Up Asian in America, Let America Be America Again, The Four Freedoms, The Bill of Rights, What Is Freedom, Is the American Dream Still Possible, The Declaration of Independence, poems about immigrants, Money, A Raisin in the Sun, Who Burns, Roberto Acuna, Barack Obama, The Right to Fail
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. quarantine
    isolation to prevent the spread of infectious disease
    Beyond the red brick of Ellis Island
    where the two Slovak children
    who became my grandparents
    waited the long days of quarantine
  2. decade
    a period of 10 years
    Like millions of others,
    I too come to this island,
    nine decades the answerer
    of dreams.
  3. native
    belonging to one by birth
    Another voice speaks
    of native lands
    within this nation.
  4. mercy
    something for which to be thankful
    'Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land
  5. benighted
    lacking enlightenment or knowledge or culture
    Taught my benighted soul to understand
  6. redemption
    the act of delivering from sin or saving from evil
    Once I redemption neither sought nor knew
  7. sable
    a very dark black
    Some view our sable race with scornful eye
  8. anxiety
    a vague unpleasant emotion in anticipation of a misfortune
    My father brought the emigrant bundle
    of desperation and worn threads,
    that in anxiety as he stumbles
    tumble out distractedly
  9. anguish
    extreme distress of body or mind
    my father
    who lives on a bed of anguish for his daily bread
  10. leisure
    time available for ease and relaxation
    and I who tear money at leisure by the roots,
    where I lie in sun or shade
Created on 十一月 8, 2014 (updated 十一月 9, 2014)

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