Family Affairs

Question 1

you let down, from arched

Answer 1

• seperation

- reference to Rapunzel (princess, superior, fairy-tale life)

Question 2

Windows,

Answer 2

-

Question 3

Over hand-cut stones of your

Answer 3

• value and preciousness

Question 4

Cathedrals, seas of golden hair.

Answer 4

• metaphor

- precious

Question 5

While I, pulled by dusty braids,

Answer 5

• force

- difference

Question 6

Left furrows in the

Answer 6

• way she was dragged

- efforts of resistance

Question 7

Sands of African beaches.

Answer 7

• dispossessed and dislocated

Question 8

Princes and commoners

Answer 8

• desirability

Question 9

Climbed over waves to reach

Answer 9

• convoy

Question 10

Your vaulted boudoirs.

Answer 10

• enshrined behind closed doors

Question 11

As the sun, capriciously,

Answer 11

• Impulsively
• merciless
• personification

Question 12

Struck sliver fire from waiting

Answer 12

• alliteration

- harshness and violence

Question 13

Chains, where I was bound.

Answer 13

• vast difference of experiences

Question 14

My screams never reached

Answer 14

• fear and helplessness

Question 15

the rare tower where you

Answer 15

• amplifies the divide

Question 16

Lay, birthing masters for

Answer 16

• perpetuation of oppression

Question 17

My sons, and for my

Answer 17

-

Question 18

Daughters, a swarm of

Answer 18

-

Question 19

Unclean badgers, to consume

Answer 19

• seen as unclean
• persecuted
• imposed by the ‘masters’

Question 20

Their history.

Answer 20

• power destroyed a history

- dispossessed

Question 21

Tired now of pedestal existence

Answer 21

• tired of being placed on a pedestal

Question 22

For fear of flying

Answer 22

• lofty height of the white woman

Question 23

And vertigo, you descend

Answer 23

• lofty height of the woman

Question 24

And step lightly over

Answer 24

• lack of concern for what has happened

Question 25

My centuries of horror

Answer 25

• was tormentful and scarring

Question 26

And take my hand,

Answer 26

• goes past the bad and straight to the good, no build up

Question 27

Smiling, call me sister.

Answer 27

• distance

Question 28

Sister, accept

Answer 28

• sarcastic and ironic tone

Question 29

That I must wait a

Answer 29

• things do not happen instantly

Question 30

While. Allow an age

Answer 30

• time required to heal the memories

Question 31

Of dust to fill

Answer 31

• displacement

Question 32

Ruts left on my

Answer 32

• left her own country

Question 33

Beach in Africa

Answer 33

• was her beach

Question 34

Overview

Answer 34

• enslavement
• divide of black and white families
• free verse
• enjambment reinforces the length of time