Handmade Responses to Stephen Dobyns’

“Fear”

Examples from students in ENG 2328: Introduction to Literature

and Creative Writingcollected 09/13/2011

Fear His life frightened him. The sun in the sky,the man next door--they all frightened him.Fear became a brown dog that followed him home.Instead of driving it away, he became its friend.The brown dog named fear followed him everywhere.When he looked in the mirror, he saw it underhis reflection. When he talked to strangers,he heard it growl in their voices. He had a wife:fear chased her away. He had several friends:fear drove them from his home. The dog fearfed upon his heart. He was too frightenedto die, too frightened to leave the house.Fear gnawed a cave in his chest where itshivered and whined in the night. Whereverhe went, the dog found him, until he becameno more than a bone in its mouth, until fearfixed its collar around his throat, fixedits leash to the collar. The dog named fearbecame the only creature he could count on.He learned to fetch the sticks it threw for him,eat at the dish fear filled for him. See himon the street, seemingly lost, nose pressedagainst the heel of fear. See him in his backyard,barking at the moon. It is his own face hefinds there, hopeless and afraid, and he leaps at it,over and over, biting and rending the night air.

Stephen Dobyns

Timeline

Seesaw

Freytag’s Pyramid

Freytag’s Pyramid

Timeline

Seesaw

Organizational Chart

Before & After

Equation

Comparison/Contrast

Freytag’s Pyramid

Timeline

Timeline