In some families, it is a tradition to pass along items from generation to generation, ranging anywhere from a piece of jewelry, to, like in Marilyn Nelson’s poem, “The Century Quilt,” a blanket. Because the blanket is not passed along to her, the speaker decides to make her own quilt. In “The Century Quilt,” Marilyn Nelson uses imagery, symbolism, and theme to signify the importance of the quilt in the speaker’s life. Imagery was heavily used in the poem to present to the readers a description of the quilt and how it related to the speaker’s life. In lines 15-17, (Six Van Dyke brown squares…the yellowbrown of Mama’s cheeks,” the speaker provides us with a vivid description of the squares of the quilt she has made. These squares, varying