Benito Cereno Lesson Plan

“Captain Amasa Delano’s Dilemma”

Kind of Activity:

Group Discussion

Objective:

To read and analyze a poem inspired by Benito Cereno and discuss how it can illuminate aspects of the text.

Common Core Standards:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.7

Structure:

In 1996, American Poetry Review published a poem by African American poet Yusef Komunyakaa called “Captain Amasa Delano's Dilemma”. Komunyakaa won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1994.

Komunyakaa views his own work as an indirectness, or an "insinuation." He writes, “Poetry is a kind of distilled insinuation. It’s a way of expanding and talking around an idea or a question. Sometimes, more actually gets said through such a...