In today's lesson, you will practice analyzing poetry. You will begin by reading and briefly examining three poems.. Then, you will choose one of the three poems to analyze in detail.
(1.) Begin by reading the poem and briefly summarizing each poem and it's theme/message (minimum of 5 sentences).
POEM #1:
"Autumn Begins in Martins Ferry, Ohio"
By James Wright
In the Shreve High football stadium,
I think of Polacks nursing long beers in Tiltonsville,
And gray faces of Negroes in the blast furnace at Benwood,
And the ruptured night watchman of Wheeling Steel,
Dreaming of heroes.
All the proud fathers are ashamed to go home.
Their women cluck like starved pullets,
Dying for love.
Therefore,
Their sons grow suicidally beautiful
At the beginning of October,
And gallop terribly against each other's bodies.
Student Summary:
______
______
______
______
______
______
______
______
Continue to Next Page
POEM #2:
"Cutting Torch"
By Henry Taylor
I wait between darkness and light, at the door
to a blackened machine shop, the noon parking lot
behind me, and squint into the gloom at a man
with a torch. e leans to his work, a strip
of steel marked with chalk, lowers the goggles
from their resting place on his forehead.
e eases the flames to one end of the chalk line.
A small spot turns red, and as droplets of metal
begin to shiver in the blast from the torch,
sparks fall and splash at his feet. All these years
he has studied the shapes flame can make;
he bores hole, works design in sheet metal,
even joins, with melting rods of brass and steel,
what another time and purpose put asunder.
You get used to burned-out trouser cuffs,
he says, and hot drops of steel in your sleeve,
but no one gets quite good enough to remember,
always, which pieces are still too hot to pick up.
Student Summary:
______
______
______
______
______
______
______
______
Continue to Next Page
POEM #3
"Jack"
By Billy Collins
Just when I am about to telephone her
so she can hear me swallowing my pride,
a thing the size of a watermelon,
a giant barges out of a fairy tale,
picks up the house by the chimney
and carries it off laughing like thunder.
She will never believe this I tell my self.
From the window sills where I hang on
I can see geysers of plumbing,
the exposed basement embarrassed by it’s junk,
snapped telephone wires on the lawn,
and the neighbors looking up with little
apocalypse expressions on their faces.
I realize on the way up the beanstalk
apologizing over the phone was a bad idea.
A letter provides a more reflective means
of saying hard things, expressing true feelings.
If there is a pen and paper in this kingdom,
I plan to write her a long vivid one
communicating my ardor, but also describing
the castle floating in high clouds,
the goose, the talking musical instruments,
and the echo of enormous shoes.
In fact, to convince her of my unwavering love,
I will compose it while pacing back and forth
in his palm.
Student Summary:
______
______
______
______
______
______
______
______
Continue to Next Page
(2.) Next, using the "Inspiration" app or the "Popplet" app, you will create a graphic organizer that reflects your analysis of the poem in greater detail.
(A.)Begin by drawing or downloading a picture to represent your poem.
(B.) Create graphic organizer by identify the following for each element of your analysis
1. Title
2. Setting - minimum of 2 aspects
3. Speaker - minimum of 3 aspects
4. Situation - minimum of 3 aspects
5. Key images - minimum of 1 aspect
6. Key figurative language - minimum of 1 aspect
7. Repetition - minimum of 1
8. Title relates - minimum of 1 sentence
9. Theme - A Complete Sentence
(B.)Use the photo below as a template to guide the creation of your graphic organizer.
The End