10 Honors English/AdcockPoetry

Name: _________________________________________________________ Period: ________

10 Honors Poetry Unit Packet

ANALYZING POETRY

Steps to Analyzing a Poem Read once. Read again and decide what you already know. Divide the poem in to parts you are comfortable with (stanzas, lines, etc.). Look for natural

breaks in subject or shifts in form or tone. Look up all words you do not understand. Circle/underline all the examples of sound techniques and figurative language you can find,

paying special attention to patterns between them. Deconstruct any imagery, similes, metaphors or confusing language. Start to draw conclusions. Inject your own perspective!

After you’re finished, your poem should look something like this:

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***IMPORTANT: Remember a poem’s “speaker” is different from its “poet.”A poet can give his character any ideas or beliefs that are necessary to carry out the poem’s purpose. Therefore, we should always remember that the speaker of the poem, the individual doing the talking, realizing or pondering, is NOT always the poet. When analyzing a poem, always refer to this individual as the “speaker” of the poem.

POEM #1

Pre-reading QuestionWhat are some of the things that high school students do to “look good”? How do they figure out what “looking good” should look like?

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"Same Song" by Pat Mora

While my sixteen year-old son sleeps,My twelve year-old daughterStumbles into the bathroom at six a.m.Plugs in the curling iron

5 Squeezes into faded jeansCurls her hair carefullyStrokes Aztec Blue shadow on her eyelidsSmoothes Frosted Mauve blusher on her cheeksOutlines her mouth in Neon Pink

10 Peers into the mirror, mirror on the wallFrowns at her face, her eyes, her skinNot fair.

At night this daughterStumbles off to bed at nine

15 Eyes half-shut while my sonJogs a mile in the cold darkThen lifts weights in the garageCurls and bench pressesExpanding biceps, triceps, pectorals,

20 One-handed push-ups, one hundred sit-upsPeers into that mirror, mirror and frowns too.

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Analysis Questions

1. Identify the speaker in the poem, and briefly describe the subject.

2. What purpose does the stanza break serve?

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3. What does the poem’s title mean?

4. What imagery does Mora use in her poem to help you visualize the two individuals mentioned?

5. What old fairy tale is the poem alluding, or referring, to in lines 10-21?

6. What theme, or message, do you think the poem conveys? Remember theme is stated in a complete sentence (one that does NOT start with “the theme is…”). Is this message true only for young people? Explain.

POEM #2

“Eating Together” by Li-Young Lee

In the steamer is the troutseasoned with slivers of ginger,two sprigs of green onion, and sesame oil.We shall eat it with rice for lunch,

5 brothers, sister, my mother who willtaste the sweetest meat of the head,holding it between her fingersdeftly, the way my father didweeks ago. Then he lay down

10 to sleep like a snow-covered roadwinding through pines older than him,without any travelers, and lonely for no one.

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Analysis Questions

1. Cite three examples of imagery in the poem.

2. What simile tells you what has happened to the father?

3. What is the tone of this poem – the feeling or attitude the speaker takes toward the events he describes? What details especially suggest that tone to you?

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POEM #3

Pre-reading QuestionIf you were asked to name one food you associate with your family or with your childhood, what would it be? Jot down some notes.

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“Grape Sherbet” by Rita Dove

The day? Memorial.After the grillDad appears with his masterpiece -swirled snow, gelled light.

5 We cheer. The recipe'sa secret and he fightsa smile, his cap turned upso the bib resembles a duck.

That morning we galloped10 through the grassed-over mounds

and named each stonefor a lost milk tooth. Each dollopof sherbet, later,is a miracle,

15 like salt on a melon that makes it sweeter.

Everyone agrees - it's wonderful!It's just how we imagined lavender would taste. The diabetic grandmotherstares from the porch,

20 a torch of pure refusal.

We thought no one was lyingthere under our feet,we thought it

25 was a joke. I've been tryingto remember the taste,but it doesn't exist.Now I see why you bothered,

30 father.

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Analysis Questions

1. What metaphor describes the grandmother, in lines 18-21? What is she refusing? Why?

2. Why does the taste of sherbet no longer exist (lines 25-27)?

3. What does the speaker mean when she says, “Now I see why you bothered, father”?

4. What tone do you hear in this poem – what feeling does the speaker reveal toward this family memory?

POEM #4

“Simile” by N. Scott Momaday

What did we say to each otherthat now we are as the deerwho walk in single filewith heads high

5 with ears forwardwith eyes watchfulwith hooves always placed on firm groundin whose limbs there is latent flight

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Analysis Questions

1. Whom is the speaker addressing? Before the poem begins, what has happened?

2. An extended simile continues a comparison for several lines or even through an entire poem. What is this poem’s extended simile?

3. What is the significance of the phrase “latent flight”?

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POEM #5

Pre-reading QuestionIn this poem, Dickinson tells about the conflict between will and emotion, between the thinking mind and the feeling heart. Which do you think is more powerful – the mind or the heart? Does one control the other, or are they completely separate systems?

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“Heart! We will forget him!” by Emily Dickinson

Heart, we will forget him!You and I – tonight!You may forget the warmth he gave – I will forget the light.

5 When you have done, pray tell meThat I may straight begin!Haste! lest while you're laggingI remember him!

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Analysis Questions

1. How is personification being used in the poem? What is being personified and for what purpose? Explain.

2. What is the mood, or underlying feeling, of the poem?

3. If you had to guess, what would you say is the poem’s theme?

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POEM #6

Pre-reading QuestionBefore you read this poem, consider this: why would someone want to compare the person he or she loves to a summer’s day?

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Directions: Mark up the following poem as you read through it.

“Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day?” by William Shakespeare

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate.

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer's lease hath all too short a date.

5 Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimmed;

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance or nature's changing course untrimmed;

But thy eternal summer shall not fade

10 Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;

Nor shall Death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st:

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

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Analysis Questions

1. What makes this poem a sonnet?

2. In lines 3-8, the speaker continues to think about his comparison. What imagery does he use to show that summer weather is unpredictable?

3. Explain the metaphor and personification in lines 5-8? Why is the “eye of heaven” neither constant nor trustworthy?

4. In the third quatrain (lines 9-12), the speaker makes a daring statement to his beloved. What does he claim will never happen?

5. What does the speaker mean by “eternal lines to time” (line 12)? What is the connection between those eternal lines and the prediction he makes in lines 9-11?

6. Would you say that this sonnet is a love poem, or is it really about something else? Explain your interpretation.

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POEM #7

Pre-reading QuestionIf you could talk directly to a beloved article of clothing, what might you say?

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“Ode to My Socks” by Pablo Neruda

Mara Mori brought mea pair of sockswhich she knitted herselfwith her sheepherder's hands,

5 two socks as soft as rabbits.I slipped my feet into themas if they were two casesknitted with threads of twilight and goatskin,Violent socks,

10 my feet were two fish made of wool,two long sharkssea blue, shot throughby one golden thread,two immense blackbirds,

15 two cannons,my feet were honored in this wayby these heavenly socks.They were so handsome for the first timemy feet seemed to me unacceptable

20 like two decrepit firemen,firemen unworthy of that woven fire,of those glowing socks.

Nevertheless, I resisted the sharp temptationto save them somewhere as schoolboys

25 keep fireflies,as learned men collectsacred texts,I resisted the mad impulse to put themin a golden cage and each day give them

30 birdseed and pieces of pink melon.Like explorers in the junglewho hand over the very rare green deerto the spit and eat it with remorse,I stretched out my feet and pulled on

35 the magnificent socks and then my shoes.

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The moral of my ode is this:beauty is twice beautyand what is good is doubly goodwhen it is a matter of two socks

40 made of wool in winter.

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Analysis Questions

1. Make a list of all of the poem’s similes and metaphors. **Star the ones that are extended over several or more lines.

2. What do you think Neruda’s stated moral in lines 36-40 means?

3. Do you think Neruda intends this ode to be taken seriously, or is he writing a parody of an ode? (A parody is a humorous imitation of a serious work of literature, art, or music) Explain your choice.

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POEM #8

Pre-reading QuestionDo animals have feelings? Can they, for example, feel love or fear? Do they have thoughts and memories? Jot down some opinions.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………Note: Like many contemporary poems, Nye writes in free verse. Free verse attempts to imitate the natural rhythms of speech. Read the poem aloud to hear its conversational rhythm.

“The Flying Cat” by Naomi Shihab Nye

Never, in all your career of worrying, did you imaginewhat worries could occur concerning the flying cat.You are traveling to a distant city.The cat must travel in a small box with holes.

5 Will the baggage compartment be pressurized?Will a soldier’s footlocker fall on the cat during take-off?Will the cat freeze?

You ask these questions one by one, in different voicesover the phone. Sometimes you get an answer,

10 sometimes a click.Now it’s affecting everything you do.At dinner you feel nauseous, like you’re swallowingat twenty thousand feet.In dreams you wave fish-heads, but the cat has grown propellers,

15 the cat is spinning out of sight!

Will he faint when the plane lands?Is the baggage compartment soundproofed?Will the cat go deaf?

“Ma’am, if the cabin weren’t pressurized, your cat would explode.”20 And spoken in a droll impersonal tone, as if

the explosion of cats were another statistic!

Hugging the cat before departure, you realize againthe private language of pain. He purrs. He trusts you.He knows little of planets or satellites,

25 black holes in space of the weightless rise of fear.

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Analysis Questions

1. What anxiety is the speaker sharing with you?

2. What does the speaker ask you to realize about the cat at the end of the poem?

3. Explain what you think the speaker means by “the private language of pain” (line 23).

4. Is this poem about more than the cat? How does the last stanza extend the meaning of the poem?

POEM #9

Pre-reading QuestionHow important are school athletics to you? Do you think they prepare young people for life? Explain.

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“Ex-Basketball Player” by John Updike

Pearl Avenue runs past the high-school lot,Bends with the trolley tracks, and stops, cut offBefore it has a chance to go two blocks,At Colonel McComsky Plaza. Berth’s Garage

5 Is on the corner facing west, and there,Most days, you'll find Flick Webb, who helps Berth out.

Flick stands tall among the idiot pumps—Five on a side, the old bubble-head style,Their rubber elbows hanging loose and low.

10 One’s nostrils are two S’s, and his eyesAn E and O. And one is squat, withoutA head at all—more of a football type.

Once Flick played for the high-school team, the Wizards.He was good: in fact, the best. In ’46

15 He bucketed three hundred ninety points,A county record still. The ball loved Flick.I saw him rack up thirty-eight or fortyIn one home game. His hands were like wild birds.

He never learned a trade, he just sells gas,20 Checks oil, and changes flats. Once in a while,

As a gag, he dribbles an inner tube,But most of us remember anyway.His hands are fine and nervous on the lug wrench.It makes no difference to the lug wrench, though.

25 Off work, he hangs around Mae’s Luncheonette.Grease-gray and kind of coiled, he plays pinball,Smokes those thin cigars, nurses lemon phosphates.Flick seldom says a word to Mae, just nodsBeyond her face toward bright applauding tiers

30 Of Necco Wafers, Nibs, and Juju Beads.

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Analysis Questions

1. What are some examples of internal rhyme in the poem?

2. What are some examples of alliteration in the poem?

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3. What is an example of personification in the poem?

4. Look back at the opening description of Pearl Avenue. How can this street be seen as a metaphor for Flick’s life?

POEM #10

Pre-reading QuestionIn the space below, list some of the events, objects, people, and places you can remember most vividly.

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“Remember” by Joy Harjo

Remember the sky that you were born under,know each of the star’s stories.Remember the moon, know who she is.Remember the sun’s birth at dawn, that is the

5 strongest point of time. Remember sundownand the giving away to night.Remember your birth, how your mother struggledto give you form and breath. You are evidence of her life, and her mother’s, and hers.

10 Remember your father. He is your life, also.Remember the earth whose skin you are:red earth, black earth, yellow earth, white earthbrown earth, we are earth.Remember the plants, trees, animal life who all have their

15 tribes, their families, their histories, too. Talk to them,listen to them. They are alive poems.Remember the wind. Remember her voice. She knows theorigin of this universe.Remember that you are all people and that all people

20 are you.Remember that you are this universe and that thisuniverse is you.Remember that all is in motion, is growing, is you.Remember that language comes from this.

25 Remember the dance that language is, that life is.Remember.

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Analysis Questions

1. How is repetition used in this poem?

2. What message is the speaker trying to convey to readers?

3. Which lines from the poem do you think are especially important in delivering this message?

4. What elements of nature does the speaker personify?

5. List three metaphors used in the poem.

POEM #11

“We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks

The Pool Players.Seven at The Golden Shovel.

We real cool. WeLeft school. We

Lurk late. WeStrike straight. We

Sing sin. WeThin gin. We

Jazz June, WeDie soon.

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Analysis Questions

1. What purpose do the two lines immediately below the title serve?

2. Where does the poet use alliteration?

3. Describe the poem’s unusual use of rhymes.

4. List any examples of assonance/consonance in the poem.

5. How would you describe the poem’s tone, the poet’s attitude toward the characters and subject? What words would you use to describe the speaker’s tone?

POEM #12

Pre-reading QuestionChoose a kind of music that you know and like. What sounds do you associate with that music?

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Note: A fantasia is an unrehearsed, spontaneous musical composition with a structure determined by the composer’s fancy.

“Jazz Fantasia” by Carl Sandburg

Drum on your drums, batter on your banjoes,sob on the long cool winding saxophones.Go to it, O jazzmen.

Sling your knuckles on the bottoms of the happy5 tin pans, let your trombones ooze, and go husha-

husha-hush with the slippery sand-paper.

Moan like an autumn wind high in the lonesome treetops, moan soft like you wanted somebody terrible, cry like a racing car slipping away from a motorcycle cop, bang-bang! you jazzmen, bang altogether drums, traps,

10 banjoes, horns, tin cans — make two people fight on the top of a stairwayand scratch each other's eyes in a clinch tumbling down the stairs.

Can the rough stuff . . . now a Mississippi steamboat pushes up the night river with a hoo-hoo-hoo-oo . . . and the green lanterns calling to the high soft stars . . . a red moon rides on the humps of the low river hills . . .

15 go to it, O jazzmen.

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Analysis Questions

1. What are some examples of onomatopoeia in the poem?

2. What other sound effects can you identify?

3. Why is the poem’s irregular rhythm appropriate, given the poem’s subject?

4. Which examples of imagery convey the roughness and power of jazz?

5. Where does the poet use similes, metaphors, and personification to describe the jazzmen and their music?

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WRITING HAIKUS

Haikus

Haiku is a Japanese poetry from. When written in Japanese, the haiku has seventeen syllables arranged in three lines. The first line has five syllables, the second line has seven syllables, and the third line has five syllables. When haikus are translated from Japanese into other languages it is difficult, if not impossible, to maintain the syllable count while conveying the appropriate meaning. Therefore, translators concentrate on capturing the mood and imagery of the original poem. Poets writing haiku in languages other than Japanese tend to emphasize content rather than syllable count. Most haikus express a deep affection of nature and how humankind is apart of the “bigger picture.” When writing a haiku, as with any other form of poetry, remember that the thought should come first. Then consider adjusting the syllable count. Below are some examples.

Gentle raindrops fall.Reflected in the puddles, Thirsty flowers drink.

When winter arrivesTrees change into dark shadowsIn my neighbor’s yard.

Tiny hummingbirds Dart from flower to flower Rainbows in motion.

In freezing weather, Little snowflakes start falling.Catch them on your tongue.

On sparkling spring dayI saw a tiny spiderSpin a web of silk.

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