Teacher's Curriculum Institute

In Chapter 25, you learned about the Aztec Empire, which lasted from 1428 to 1519. The Aztecs valued poetry highly. Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, was primarily a spoken language. Aztec poets created verses to sing the praises of the gods, to tell stories, and to celebrate the natural world. They sang their poems or recited them to music. Sometimes actors performed them.

Poetry was typically created by well-educated Aztec nobles. Nezahualcoyotl was an Aztec ruler and poet. He lived before the arrival of the Spanish in 1519. He is considered to be one of the greatest Aztec poets of the 15th century.

Aztec poetry often celebrated the short-lived nature of life on earth. Below is an excerpt from a poem by Nezahualcoyotl. Is this a sad poem or a joyful poem? Why do you think so?

We Live Only in Your Book of Flowers

With flowers You paint,
O Giver of Life!
With songs You give color,
with songs You shade
those who will live on the earth.
Later You will destroy eagles and tigers:
we live only in Your painting
here, on the earth.

With black ink You will blot out
all that was friendship,
brotherhood, nobility.
You give shading
to those who will live on the earth.
We live only in Your book of paintings,
here on the earth.

Source
Carnaval.com, "Aztec Poetry," http://www.carnaval.com/dead/aztec_poetry.htm.

Investigating Literature

Create a poem about a subject in nature. Follow this format for your poem:

Line 1: Name your subject.

Line 2: List three adjectives to describe your subject.

Line 3: Write a sentence praising your subject.

Line 4: Write a sentence describing how things in nature don't last forever

Here is an example of such a poem:

Flower
Small, vulnerable, flexible.
You are so subtle and rewarding!
I can smell you still, even though you are no more.

History Alive! The Medieval World and Beyond, Investigating Literature