Identity

By Julio Noboa Polanco

Let them be as flowers,

always watered, fed, guarded, admired,

but harnessed to a pot of dirt

• Who is “them?”• What does the author’s

tone seem to be so far in the poem?

• Is this an example of simile, metaphor, and/or personification? Why?

• How does the word harnessed add to the imagery?

I’d rather be a tall, ugly weed,

clinging on cliffs, like an eagle

wind-wavering above high, jagged rocks

• Where is an example of a metaphor? A simile?

• Any examples of personification?

• Is there alliteration here? • Where do you see the use

of imagery? • Has the tone changed?

To have broken through the surface of stone

to live, to feel exposed to the madness

of the vast, eternal sky

• Do you see any examples of personification? Alliteration? Onomatopoeia?

• Is this a simile or metaphor? Why?

• What did the author have to “break through?”

• Has the tone changed? How?

To be swayed by the breezes of an ancient sea,

carrying my soul, my seed,

beyond the mountains of time or into the abyss of the

bizarre

• Any examples of personification?

• What is the mood of this poem so far?

• Any use of personification here?

• What could the author mean by “the bizarre?”

I’d rather be unseen, and if

then shunned by everyone,

than to be a pleasant-smelling flower

• What could one possible theme for this poem be?

• Any personification, simile, or metaphor here?

• What is the mood of the poem so far?

• Who is the speaker of the poem?

Growing in clusters in the fertile valley,

where they’re praised, handled, and plucked

by greedy, human hands

• Do you see personification or alliteration? Where?

• How does the author’s tone change when speaking about the “pretty flowers?”

I’d rather smell of musty, green stench

Than of sweet, fragrant lilac

If I could stand alone, strong and free,

I’d rather be a tall, ugly weed.

• How does the author use imagery to convey the message of the poem?

• What is the tone here? Is it consistent with the rest of the poem?

• Alliteration or personification used here?

• What is the mood of the poem? • What is the poem’s theme? • What is the extended metaphor? Examples? • How does the extended metaphor support the

theme?