Professional Documents
Culture Documents
included find several poems that I taught and thought were successful. I would suggest limited the schema
that the students focus on to five main aspects. I used speaker, setting, imagery, mood/tone, theme. You
may even want to cut out theme. The students can examine these five dimensions at the beginning of every
poem analysis. then go into the poem in more detail. rather than grouping poems according to forms and
structure (like sonnets and limericks), maybe than can be grouped and taught according to idea. For
example, “Slim Cunning Hands” and “At the San Francisco Airport” could be good for ambiguity and
double-meaning. “The Bells” and “We Real Cool” would be good for rhythm and tone.
Walter De La Mare
pre-reading vocab:
pun, ambiguity
cunning: (adj, n) skilled in deception; pretty or cute
cozening: (adj) deceitful
fair: beautiful, just, impartial
This poem is a very very good introduction to ambiguity. “cunning” can be deceitful or pretty,
“loved too wildly” by both the speaker and others, “lies” as both lying down and telling untruths, “fair” can
be beautiful and impartial (she was impartial about who she loved).
You can also examine sounds (the similarly in sound and rhythm between “cunning” and
“cozening” ties those words together).
Also contrast images of “granite” and “stone” with that of “flowers” and how the disparity mirrors
the speaker’s own mixed feelings about the woman.
──Yvor Winters (1900-1964) 伊沃爾‧溫斯特(美國詩人 1900-1968)
terminal: (n) limit, boundary, end, final; station at the end of a transportation line
old/young, light/dark, past/present, security/adventure
fear: small, contained fragile contrasted with great planes
Examine double meaning of “terminal.” Use a graphic organizer to analyze the many dichotomies
present in this poem. The cold, hard light represents the reason and control that the speaker is trying to
maintain over his roiling emotions as his daughter leaves.
I read aloud “The Bells,” by Edgar Allan Poe and students graphed the rather obvious changes in the “tone”
of the poem (y-axis was happiness level, x-axis was time). Even if you didn’t understand English, how
could you know that the tone of the poem was changing? How did the rhythm change? (It slows down a
great deal and becomes more laborious)
by Gwendolyn Brooks
We Real Cool
Speaker: From the sentence, “We / Left school,” the reader knows that the speakers are still young enough
that they should be attending school, but are skipping out instead. Therefore, they are probably group of
rebellious teenagers.
Setting: The setting is a pool hall, where the teenagers “strike straight” at the pool table.
Mood/tone: The tone is initially one of the self-confidence as the speakers proudly proclaim, “We real
cool.” The poem continues to carry a haughty tone as the speakers brag about their exploits. However, the
tone shifts abruptly with the last line of the poem: “Die soon.” Suddenly, the mood becomes somber and
sad. Thus, the poem is mixed between pride and regret, liveliness and death.
Theme: Though a life of youthful rebellion may initially be filled with pride and excitement, it can
ultimately end in tragedy and disappointment.
I emphasized the sound and rhythm of this poem, and actually did the scansion for this poem for
the students to see how it was rhythmically organized. We also tapped the rhythm of the poem out on the
desks. Every line except the first and last are stressed, stressed, unstressed. Why did the poet use only
single-syllabic words? What effect does that have on the rhythm?
I also taught some Emily Dickenson poems, which didn’t work out well because the kids had a real hard
time understanding her language. I believe I’ve already given you stuff on “Tableau” and “Barbie Doll”.
In my blue ethnic lit textbook, I also did “We Wear the Mask” and “Sonrisas.” “We Wear the Mask” was
good because the students all wrote about what “masks” they wear, and their essays were remarkably
candid. “Sonrisas” was good for exploring the difference “spaces” that literature can conjure; by
contrasting the diction between different stanzas, the poem strikes two very different moods in very
different spaces.
"Still I Rise"
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.
This is a great poem to teach. First, it sounds great when read aloud. Then, look at the imagery. The
speaker compares herself to all sorts of natural images (dust, air, moons, sun, ocean). What do these
images have in common? The moon waxes and wanes, the sun rises and sets, the ocean waves rise and fall.
How does that tie into the speaker’s conception of history and the title of the poem, “Still I Rise”? How
about “dust” and “air”? How do these ephemeral images represent the resilience and constancy of black
women’s spirit?
I spent class discussion focused on comparing/contrasting stanzas 2, 5, and 7 (above). The parallelism
should be clear. her “sassiness” is seen in her “walk”, her “haughtiness” is evident in her “laugh”, her
“sexiness” is present in her “dance” and “at the meeting of [her] thighs”.
Now switch to looking at the spaces in which her positive qualities reside: “living room,” “back yard,”
“meeting of my thighs.” Why not front yard? It’s because these are intensely private spaces.
Now look at the third lines of stanzas 2, 5, and 7. First “oil,” then “gold,” then “diamonds.”
These are all natural resources, listed in increasing value. What do these natural resources have in
common? They are hidden beneath the earth, hidden from sight, and they have to be mined in order to be
discovered. The same is true of black women’s natural resources (the sassiness, haughtiness, and sexiness).
Their qualities are not evident to the casual observer; they are hidden in private spaces. Just as people must
dig to discover the richness of black women, so must the reader dig to discover the hidden richness of the
poem.
My Papa's Waltz, by Theodore Roethke
passivity of the mother: her countenance (rather than herself) can’t unfrown (why phrased in the negative?)
itself
why use extended metaphor of the waltz? how is it ironic?
what does “palm caked hard by dirt” suggest about the father’s social class?