Problem
In Chapter Eight of The Norton Introduction to Literature, Mays suggests one way to approach poetry is to try to answer the following questions:
1. Why should the poem matter to anyone other than the poet, or what might the poem show and say to readers?
2. What problems, issues, questions, or conflicts does the poem explore that might be relevant to people other than the speaker(s) or the poet--to humanity in general, to the poet's contemporaries, to people of a certain type or in a certain situation, and so forth?
3. How is each problem or conflict developed and resolved over the course of the poem, or how is each question answered? What conclusions does the poem seem to reach about these, or what are its themes?
4. in poem"Gretel Advises America" by Lauren K. Alleyne, What does this poem mean to you? What lines or elements of the poem help to create the meaning? To be clear: your main post should be your own analysis of the poem's meaning, with examples (direct quotes) of lines that support your point of view.
5. Reference: Mays, Kelly J., editor. The Norton Introduction to Literature. Portable 13th ed. W.W. Norton 2019.