Our first literary texts will be the collections of poetry and prose poems by Khalil Gibran and Mikhail Naimy.

You will have two tasks for this discussion topic after carefully reading and rereading their poems:

1) Select a poem by each that you think deserves special attention in class discussion. Explain why you made your choice.

2) Comment on the collections as a whole, particularly in terms of Walt Whitman's preface to Leaves of Grass. What qualities in their poem reflect Whitman's recommendations for American poetry?