The Surrender Tree


The Surrender Tree


A.    Bibliography: Engle, M. (2010). The surrender tree: poems of Cuba's struggle for freedom. New York: Henry Holt and Company. [9780805086744]

B.     Plot Summary: The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom, is a series of poems told from five different views about Cuba’s wars for independence. Engle’s poems alternate among five perspectives, those of Rosa, her husband José, a slave hunter known as Lieutenant Death, Captain-General Valeriano Weyler y Nicolau, Marquis of Tenerife, Empire of Spain, and a young girl named Silvia.  Rosa is a medicine woman who can heal with natural remedies, many believed she was a witch. Rosa uses her skills to help anybody in need, including enemies.  Rosa falls in love with Jose, a slave who she marries.  They work together as nurses. The poems portray Rosa’s life from when she was a child to adulthood.



C.    Critical Analysis- The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom is a wonderfully written historical account about Cuba’s journey to freedom. Margarita Engle use of poems to convey a central moment of Cuba’s history is such a unique way. Engle uses Rosa’s life to describe the journey including all her feelings and emotions. When reading you can feel the happiness, sadness, fear, hope and so many more feelings.  The reader can visualize the refugees fleeing when Rosa says “I climb down from the palm tree/and slip away, back to the forest, / wishing I could take them all with me, / all the refugees flocking like birds/ lost in a storm, / flying to the mountains/ to find the trees that look like sturdy guardians” (Engle 91).

In addition, you can also feel these emotion from other characters like Lieutenant Death, who is out to get Rosa also is determined to kill her “I ask myself how many years will pass before I finally have my chance to kill Rosa the Witch” (Engle, 75). This book is deals with death and details that might make it unsuitable for young readers. I would say this book is best for middle and high school students.  

D.    Review excerpts

  • Newbery Honor
  • Pura Belpré Award
  • Américas Award
  • Jane Addams Award
  • Claudia Lewis Poetry Award

“The poems offer rich character portraits through concise, heightened language, and their order within the cycle provides suspense” KIRKUS REVIEW

E.     Connections

Other Margarita Engle poetry books

Engle, M. (2011). The poet slave of Cuba: a biography of Juan Francisco Manzano. New York: Square Fish. (9780312659288)

Students will write about what they think it would be like to be Rosa.  

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