Poetry Activity – To Kill A Mockingbird
So far in To Kill A Mockingbird, you have read a great deal about where the main chracters are from. Jem, Scout, and Dill are young children. Their environment has a significant impact on the way they view the world. Life in Maycomb is all Jem and Scout know. Dill, through his travels, has seen a bit more of the world. To better understand this, we will be writing poems using a mentor text.
Your assignment is to first write a poem about yourself, using the “Where I’m From” poem as a guide. You do not need to follow it exactly. It is there to help give you ideas. After writing a “Where I’m From” poem about your own childhood, write another for Scout, Jem, or Dill. Include details from the novel that demonstrate your understanding of what we’ve read. Pay attention to what is most important, memorable, and interesting to your character. Remember to write from your character’s point of view. “Climb inside his/her skin and walk around in it,” as Atticus would say.
Due Wednesday, October 27th
Poem Template:
I am from ______(specific ordinary item), from ______(product name) and ______.
I am from the ______(home description... adjective, adjective, sensory detail).
I am from the ______(plant, flower, natural item), the ______(plant, flower, natural detail)
I am from ______(family tradition) and ______(family trait), from ______(name of family member) and ______(another family name) and ______(family name).
I am from the ______(description of family tendency) and ______(another one).
From ______(something you were told as a child) and ______(another).
I am from (representation of religion, or lack of it). Further description.
I'm from ______(place of birth and family ancestry), ______(two food items representing your family).
From the ______(specific family story about a specific person and detail), the ______(another detail, and the ______(another detail about another family member).
I am from ______(location of family pictures, mementos, archives and several more lines indicating their worth).
Original Poem:
Where I’m From
by Gerogie Ella Lyons
I am from Clothespins,
from Clorox and carbon-tetrachloride.
I am from the dirt under the back porch,
(Black, glistening
it tasted like beets)
I am from the forsythia bush,
the Dutch elm
whose long gone limbs I remember
as if they were my own.
I’m from fudge and eyeglasses,
from Imogene and Alagair
I’m from the know-it-alls
and the pass-it-ons,
from perk up and pipe down.
I’m from He restoreth my soul
with a cottonball lamb
and ten verses I can say myself.
I’m from Artemus and Billie’s Branch,
fried corn and strong coffee.
From the finger my grandfather lost
to the auger
the eye my father shut to keep his sight.
Under my bed was a dress box
spilling old pictures
a sift of lost faces
to drift beneath my dreams.
I am from those moments –
snapped before I budded-
leaf-fall from the family tree.