November Cotton Flower
by Jean Toomer
Boll-weevil's coming, and the winter's cold,
Made cotton-stalks look rusty, seasons old,
And cotton, scarce as any southern snow,
Was vanishing; the branch, so pinched and slow,
Failed in its function as the autumn rake;
Drouth fighting soil had caused the soil to take
All water from the streams; dead birds were found
In wells a hundred feet below the ground--
Such was the season when the flower bloomed.
Old folks were startled, and it soon assumed
Significance. Superstition saw
Something it had never seen before:
Brown eyes that loved without a trace of fear,
Beauty so sudden for that time of year.
Made cotton-stalks look rusty, seasons old,
And cotton, scarce as any southern snow,
Was vanishing; the branch, so pinched and slow,
Failed in its function as the autumn rake;
Drouth fighting soil had caused the soil to take
All water from the streams; dead birds were found
In wells a hundred feet below the ground--
Such was the season when the flower bloomed.
Old folks were startled, and it soon assumed
Significance. Superstition saw
Something it had never seen before:
Brown eyes that loved without a trace of fear,
Beauty so sudden for that time of year.
Discussion Questions
- Students will take turns reading the poem aloud.
- Discuss the poem's rhythm.
- What makes the cotton stalks look "rusty?"
- Discuss the phrase "cotton scarce as southern snow." How often does it snow in the southern states?
- What is the autumn rake? Why does it fail in its function?
- Where does the soil get its water? Why? What is the significance of dead birds in wells?
- Why were the "old folks" startled by the blooming flower?
- Identify the poetic style.
- Identify any use of simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification and idiom in this poem.