Vorawan Chanvorawit 1

Outline
I.

Introduction
A. Thesis statement: Marilyn Nelson expresses the value of lives through her poems
by using images of nature such as crow, gold, and rain

II.

Body Paragraph #1
A. Topic sentence: Marilyn Nelson expresses the value of lives through her poems
by using image of crow
B. Supportingevidence:
i. The foods here of the first crow to arrive, / numbers two and three at a safe
distance, / then approaching the hand-created taste / of leftover coconut
macaroons.
ii. What if to taste and see, to notice things, / to stand each is up against
emptiness / for a moment or an eternity / images collected in consciousness /
like a tree alone on the horizon/is the main reason were on the planet.
iii. The instant sparks in the earths awareness.
C. Clincher sentence: Whether ones action is noticed by anyone or
not, at least the earth is aware of ones value and return changes in
life.

III.

Body Paragraph #2
A. Topic sentence: Marilyn Nelson expresses the value of lives through her poems
by using image of gold
B. Supporting evidence:
i. If someone at auction is worth her weight in gold, / how much would she be
worth by pound? By ounce?
ii. If I owned an unimaginable quantity of wealth, / could I buy an iota of
myself?
iii. I auction myself. And I make the highest bid.
C. Clincher sentence: The value of life is not in its duration, but in its
donation. You are not important because of how long you live, you are
important because of how effective you live (n.d.). Ages cannot
determine the value of lives, but the action is.

IV.

Body Paragraph #3
A. Topic sentence: Marilyn Nelson expresses the value of lives through her poems
by using image of rain
B. Supporting evidence:
i. When did my knees learn how to forecast rain, / and my hairbrush start
yielding silver curls? / Of late, a short walk makes me short of breath, / and every
day begins and ends with pain.
ii. All I ask of life is to be of use. / Therell be time to be careful when Im

Vorawan Chanvorawit 2
dead.
iii. Birth is a one-way ticket to the grave: / Ive learned that much slowly, over
the years, / watching my body age. Time is a thief, / and what we give away is all
we can save. / So bring on the runaways! I know no fear. / Let life have meaning,
if it must be brief.
C. Clincher sentence: Life is short, but one has time to take the actions in order to
make his/her life to be meaningful and valuable.

V.

Conclusion
A. Rephrased thesis statement: In Marilyn Nelsons poems, crow, gold, and
pain are the examples of images of nature that she uses in asserting the value of lives

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Treasured Life

The childhood lives of each person are different. Some people might live in the place
where they grow up while some people might move around and live in many places. Marilyn
Nelson is one of those people who have to move around to different places due to her father job
as a military air force serviceman (Poetry Foundation). Since elementary school, she started to
write a poem. As she moves around, she might meet with various kinds of people with different
perspective and new surroundings that could give the images in her poems. Marilyn Nelson
expresses the value of lives through her poems by using images of nature such as crow, gold, and
rain
In Nelsons poem, Crows (2016), she expresses the value of lives through her poems by
using image of crow. Nelson describes the way people around the world live and use the example
of crow to illustrate value of lives. She mentions the crows in this poem, The foods here of the
first crow to arrive, / numbers two and three at a safe distance, / then approaching the handcreated taste / of leftover coconut macaroons (line 7-10). The image of crow represents human
who live on earth while the food is like the goal that a person sets. The goal that a person would
achieve waits for him/her to come. As well as the crows, a person has to starts his/her action or
do something that will make him/her reach our goals. However, in order to reach for the
achievements, courage and time are necessary. As a human, people cant see what their future
will be like and still wondering how long they will live for. Although it might be risk to do
something whether its worth for ones goals or not, a person should take the risks and go on
before he/she run out of the time. For the second and the third crows that approach to the

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macaroons leftover, these demonstrate the people who are not courage enough to take the risks.
Instead of taking risks, they do things more carefully in order to avoid the problems that would
occur. In other words, they do it in that way to make them safe, but they wont get what theyre
expected to have, or they would only get what is left. These situations describe how people gain
their benefits from chances that could come anytime and create ones values. Furthermore, in the
first part of the poem seems to support the idea of value of lives. Nelson says, What if to taste
and see, to notice things, / to stand each is up against emptiness / for a moment or an eternity /
images collected in consciousness / like a tree alone on the horizon/is the main reason were
on the planet (line 1-6). Normally, humans have the five senses to hear, see, smell, taste, and
touch. People only have a job to avoid emptiness in an absence of something, which meaningful
for lives, and be conscious about their actions. The tree act as ones database that collects a
persons memories while images show ones remembrance of his/her action. The way people act
will reflect to their values. Thus, Nelson expresses, The instant sparks in the earths awareness
(line 11). As it is mentioned before that people should be conscious of their actions, the instant
sparks represent to something noticeable. Whether ones action is noticed by anyone or not, at
least the earth is aware of ones value and return changes in life.
Nelson also expresses the value of lives through her poems by using image of gold. One
of her poems, Worth (2012), it relates to the human trafficking in America in which can be
reflected to value of lives. Whether a person is forced or given some benefits, human trafficking
has an image of selling people for any uses. It is similar to a situation when one goes to the
butcher shop for some meat. Not only he/she needs to estimate the amount that he/she wants,
he/she also has to looks into its quality before buying it. Nelson shows the example, If someone
at auction is worth her weight in gold, / how much would she be worth by pound? By ounce?

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(line 3-4). Gold is a natural product that considered being valuable in a society, but in contrast,
humans are worth more than that. A person has his/her own decisions to choose either let others
evaluate his/her value or makes his/her own value in oneself. In this situation of the poem, a
woman considers herself as a gold that waits to be estimated her value. But, is it worth to let
others judge one? One should consider that theres difference in opinions among people. To be
specific, a person may receive both positive and negative reflections about him/herself from
other people. The positive reflections can make a person feels good about him/herself while
negative reflections will leave ones to be depressed; letting others judge a person is one way to
know oneself and it can also be one of the way to decrease oneself values if it goes in the
negative way. In another situation, a person is the one who estimate the value of him/herself.
Nelson says, If I owned an unimaginable quantity of wealth, / could I buy an iota of myself?
(line 5-6). Although a person has the right in owning his/her body, mind, or other things, but
he/she might not own all of them. Similarly, a person can use his/her body while the thoughts
flows in the brain. But, when it comes to ones preference or personality, he/she might not able
answer it. Its like even people are grown up, they cannot understand some part of them and what
they really are. Whether ones value is self-evaluated or others evaluated, the value is determined
by effort in his/her actions. Nelson explains, I auction myself. And I make the highest bid (line
14). She expressed through her poem that ones should put an effort to their actions and make
themselves to be valuable. There is a quote written by Myles Munroe says that, The value of life
is not in its duration, but in its donation. You are not important because of how long you live, you
are important because of how effective you live (n.d.). Ages cannot determine the value of lives,
but the action is.
Nelson expresses the value of lives through her poems by using image of rain in the poem

Vorawan Chanvorawit 6
titled Conductor (2015). In this poem, she talks about time, which involved in every situation
in human life. For example, When did my knees learn how to forecast rain, / and my hairbrush
start yielding silver curls? / Of late, a short walk makes me short of breath, / and every day
begins and ends with pain (line 1-4). The rain represents the unexpected things that would
happen anytime. People can forecast the daily weather, but they couldnt know whether its going
to happen or not. In the same way, humans cant predict the day of their death and there is no
guarantee that human can live long forever. Time always goes as the world orbit around itself;
there might be no time to make one to be valuable it he/she wait for the time to be prepared.
Nelson says in another part of the poem, All I ask of life is to be of use. / Therell be time to be
careful when Im dead (line 11-12). The phrase Life is to be of use represents to one life that
used in doing something that will either benefit oneself or another. Similar to cogs, every single
one has a job to run a machine. If one breaks, others will also stop. She tries to say that people
needs to make themselves valuable in some way so there would be a plenty of time to recognize
death that would come anytime. Nelson also explains, Birth is a one-way ticket to the grave: /
Ive learned that much slowly, over the years, / watching my body age. Time is a thief, / and
what we give away is all we can save. / So bring on the runaways! I know no fear. / Let life have
meaning, if it must be brief (line 13-18). The cycle of life is the same as always, born and dies.
Image of thief shows that time always passes and it will steal the time in life to do something
worth to value one life. Life is short, but one has time to take the actions in order to make his/her
life to be meaningful and valuable.
With the experience in moving around, Nelson writes a lot of poems related to nature,
which reflect to human activities and one values. In Marilyn Nelsons poems, crow, gold, and
pain are the examples of images of nature that she uses in asserting the value of lives. The

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chances to improve ones meaning of life come over time that is limited in different people. It
depends on a person whether he/she will choose to grab the chance and do it or not. Not only the
actions, but ones effort in the action also determines the how meaningful of ones life.

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References
(n.d.). Marilyn Nelson. Poetry Foundation. Retrieved May 24, 2016 from
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poets/detail/marilyn-nelson
Nelson, M. (2016). Crows. Poem-a-Day. Retrieved May 24, 2016 from
https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/crows
Nelson M. (2012). Worth. Faster Than Light: New and Selected Poems, 1996-2011. Retrieved
May 25, 2016 from http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-andpoets/poems/detail/57034
Myles Munroe. (n.d.). BrainyQuote.com. Retrieved June 10, 2016 from
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/mylesmunro700001.html
Nelson M. (2015). Conductor. My Seneca Village. Retrieved May 25, 2016 from
https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/conductor