No. 5 from Simple Verses has a core theme of nature with the outter theme of war. A line from this poem that supports it the most is "Sprouting flowers from my hilt". This talks about nature and war. The sprouting Flowers being the nature part. The hilt then would be the war part because a hilt is part of s sword.  This relates to Cuba because Cuba was very into there environment and during this period of time they were going to war. Another example is the poem talks about a how his poetry is lika a mountain because Cuba is very mountainous. He also compares his poetry to a dagger. This line relates to his culture because as metioned before Cuba was going to war at that time so he choose a weapon used in the war. He later goes on and compares his poetry to a wounded deer looking for sanctuary. This also ties into his culture because there are many deer in Cuba. He writes my poems please the brave probably saying brave because he sees his fellow Cubans as being brave because they are fighting for there independance.  He then metions a sword which is another weapon used during that time, so it relates back to his culture. Jose Marti relates his poems to his Cuban culture in many ways. 

 This poem reflects how it relates to the culture that the poem came from and has a reaction from its culture. One example in the poem is "For the sincere friend who gives me his hand frankly." In South America, there's people who are very truthfull and will sacrifice alot for others. In lines 5 and 6, the poem states "And for the cruel person who tears out the heart with which I live,". This stands for the people who dictated over his native country Cuba, or anyone else that treated him with an enormous amount of hate. Another example is "I cultivate a white rose." The white rose is what Cuba can be at its full potential, a beautiful powerful country. A reaction in this poem is "I cultivate neither nettles nor thorns". This line says Cuba was not a violent country. Finally, the poem in line 2 states "In July as in January".

 The poem "I'll Never Forget" reflects Cuban culture. Some examples of this is is in line 2 and 3 were it states "that fall morning when I saw a new leaf grow" in Cuba the weather is differnt. Where we live the leafs would be dieing not growing. Also in lines 7 and 8 it says "a girl stands beside an old man, and his sought." In Cuba the elder is very important to the younger people. Even if they dont know each other they act like they do. And in line 6 it say "by a stove whose flame had died". In Cuba they have the older typs of stoves with a real flame. This poem is about death and morning the dead, in cuba morning is very important to their culture. They have to pay their respects to the dead. This poem shows alot of the Cuban culture in it.