Unit 7: PoetrySpring is like a perhaps hand

By E.E. CummingsOnline audio@

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZpdYB8HQ7A

or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BPaXcjlGwk

Elegy for the Giant TortoisesPoem by Margaret Atwood

Atwood reading another poem, Morning in the Burned House @

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeKrB5i2cH4

TodayPoem by Billy Collins

Billy Collins Poetry brought to animated life@

http://www.openculture.com/2011/04/billy_collins_poetry_brought_to_animated_life.ht

ml

Essential Question: What is the benefit of thinking out of the box? Are you an innovative thinker?

Common Core Standards: RL.4 Analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone. RL.10 Read and comprehend poems.

Introduction: Some of the most incredible ideas that have changed the world forever were originally deemed insignificant or impossible. Take the Apple Computer for example. When Steve Jobs created the Apple computer concept, some people told him it would never work and that he would fail. Many out-of-the-box thinkers, or innovators, have been told the same thing about their ideas and inventions.New ideas and creativity make the world a more interesting place. Creativity is a poet’s bread and butter. The best poets look at things through new lenses to find a ways to share their ideas creatively. In this lesson, you will read three poems in which the poets demonstrate some out of the box thinking.

Make the Connection: With a small group of your peers, design a new kitchen cooking utensil. Then share your invention with other groups. Present a diagram or visual and provide an explanation of how it works.

Poetic Form: ElegyAn elegy is a specific type of lyric poem. In an elegy, the speaker reflects on death, typically in honor to one has recently died. Generally the tone is serious and the diction is formal. The second poem you read in this lesson is an elegy.

Analyzing the Text: DictionPoetry is recognized for its concise and exact use of language. When reading poetry, notice the diction (word choice) and syntax (the order in which words appear). For instance, in “Today,” Billy Collins describes his reaction to a spring day:

…it made you want to throw open all the windows in the house

This specific use of words creates a sense of joy, freedom, and movement – much more so than simply saying he felt like opening a window. Collin has chosen his words very carefully to create an intended effect. As you read the poems in this lesson, pay attention to the diction and the effects it creates for the reader.

Skills for Reading: ParaphrasingOccasionally, poems cab be especially challenging because of an unusual sentence structure. When you paraphrase a line or stanza in a poem, you rephrase the poet’s words with your own. Different from a summary, paraphrasing is not necessarily shorter than the original text; it’s simply a re-forming of the same ideas. To successfully paraphrase you should:

Rewrite sentences in standard, subject-verb order Find the main ideas and important details Think of simpler or more familiar ways of saying what the writer has written

While reading the poems in this lesson, create a graphic organizer / chart in which you analyze the challenging passages. Read an example of paraphrasing in the chart below.

=

Example from “Elegy for the Giant Tortoises”Original Wording Paraphrasing

“on a road where I standthey will materialize,/plodding past me in astraggling line/ awkwardwithout water

They [the tortoises] will appear on the road where I stand,walking slowly by in a scattered line, looking clumsy because theyare not in the water.

About the Authors

E.E. Cummings (1894-1962)

Learn More about this poet @ http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/e-e-

cummingsA popular poetic pioneer, the critics who praise Cummings rank him among the most innovative 20th Century poets. Cummings believed in individuality and free expression. He experimented with language, shaping it to fit his ideas. Though one of the most experimental of poets, he was exceptionally well-liked by the general public.

Margaret Atwood (Born 1939)

Learn More about this poet @ http://margaretatwood.ca/

Atwood is a much celebrated poet, novelist, essayist, and short story writer. She has been referred to as “a national heroine of the arts” in her native country Canada, where she has gained the status typically bestowed only to movie stars and musicians. Her novels feature female characters searching for their own identity in a largely confusing and dangerous world.

Billy Collins (Born 1941)

Learn More about this poet @ http://www.billy-collins.com/

Called the “most popular poet in America” by one critic, Collins’s poetry appeals to a wide and consistently growing audience of high school students, other poets, literary critics, and the general public. He is a graduate of U.C. Riverside. As Poet Laureate from 2001-2003, he developed “Poetry 180” a website (http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/ ) presenting one poem for each day of the school year. He encourages students and teachers to read aloud a poem a day.

Poem #1Spring is like a perhaps hand

By E.E. CummingsDirections: Read the poem below twice and read the poem once aloud. Complete the close reading activity.

Sounds of Spring (2010) ISABELLE DUPUY

Spring is like a perhaps hand(which comes carefully out of Nowhere)arranginga window, into which people look (whilepeople starearranging and changing placingcarefully there a strangething and a known thing here)and

changing everything carefully

spring is like a perhapsHand in a window(carefully toand fro moving New andOld things, whilepeople stare carefullymoving a perhaps

Close Read

1. Analyze Visuals: What springlike elements do you find in this painting? State your answer in terms of subject matter, color, shape, and texture.

2. Diction: Reread the highlighted lines. What do the words fraction and inch suggest about the concept of spring presented in the poem?

fraction of flower here placingan inch of air there)and

without breaking anything.Poem #2

Elegy for the Giant TortoisesBy Margaret Atwood

Directions: Read the poem below twice and read the poem once aloud. Complete the close reading activity.

Let others pray for the passenger pigeonthe dodo, the whooping crane, the eskimo;

everyone must specialize

I will confine myself to a meditationupon the giant tortoises

withering finally on a remote island.

I concentrate in subway stations,in parks, I can't quite see them,

they move to the peripheries of my eyes

but on the last day they will be there;already the event

like a wave travelling shapes vision:

on the road where I stand they will materializeplodding past me in a straggling line

awkward without water

their small heads ponderingfrom side to side, their useless armour

sadder than tanks and history,

in their closed gaze ocean and sunlight paralysedlumbering up the steps, under the archways

toward the square glass altars

where the brittle gods are kept,

Close Read

3. Paraphrase: Paraphrase the highlighted lines. What does “the last day” refer to?

4. Elegy: Reread the highlighted lines. Notice the religious language –alters, gods, relics, and holy. Why is such

the relics of what we have destroyed,our holy and obsolete symbols.

language suiting in an elegy?

Poem #3Today

By Billy CollinsDirections: Read the poem below twice and read the poem once aloud. Complete the close reading activity.

If ever there were a spring day so perfect,so uplifted by a warm intermittent breeze

that it made you want to throwopen all the windows in the house

and unlatch the door to the canary's cage,indeed, rip the little door from its jamb,

a day when the cool brick pathsand the garden bursting with peonies

seemed so etched in sunlightthat you felt like taking

a hammer to the glass paperweighton the living room end table,

releasing the inhabitantsfrom their snow-covered cottage

so they could walk out,holding hands and squinting

Close Read

Flowers (1964) by Andy Warhol

5. Diction: Reread the highlighted lines. What words does the speaker use to characterize the inhabitants of the glass paperweight?

6. What sense or feeling is evoked by this language?

into this larger dome of blue and white,well, today is just that kind of day.

Reading for Information: Getting the Word Out

Magazine Article: Many poets in Unit 7 have served as a U.S. Poet laureate. Read the article below from the Library of Congress to learn more about this honorable and worthwhile position. The article can also be found @ http://www.loc.gov/poetry/about_laureate.html

About the Position of Poet Laureate Consultant in PoetryThe Poetry and Literature Center at the Library of Congress

The Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress serves as the nation's official lightning rod for the poetic impulse of Americans. During his or her term, the Poet Laureate seeks to raise the national consciousness to a greater appreciation of the reading and writing of poetry.

The Poet Laureate is appointed annually by the Librarian of Congress and serves from September to May. The position has existed under two separate titles: from 1937 to 1986 as "Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress" and from 1986 forward as "Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry." The name was changed by an act of Congress in 1985.

The Laureate receives a $35,000 annual stipend funded by a gift from Archer M. Huntington. The Library keeps to a minimum the specific duties in order to afford incumbents maximum freedom to work on their own projects while at the Library. The Laureate gives a reading to open the Library’s annual poetry series and a lecture to conclude the series, the oldest in the Washington area and among the oldest in the United States. This annual series of public poetry and fiction readings, lectures, symposia, and occasional dramatic performances began in the 1940s. Collectively the Laureates have brought more than 2,000 literary writers to the Library to read for the Archive of Recorded Poetry and Literature.History of the Poetry Consultantship

Close Read

7. Paraphrase: How is the Poet Laureate chosen?

8. What is their main task?

9. Paraphrase: What are some of the unique initiatives of former Poet Laureates?

10. Conclude: Why is the position of Poet Laureate important? Explain your answer.

Robert Frost and Carl Sandburg in the Library's Whittall Pavilion, May 2, 1960

Those interested in reading a more detailed history of the poetry consultantship at the Library of Congress should refer to William McGuire's Poetry's Catbird Seat: The Consultantship in Poetry in the English Language at the Library of Congress, 1937-1987(Washington: Library of Congress, 1988. http://lccn.loc.gov/87033876).Each Laureate brings a different emphasis to the position. Joseph Brodsky initiated the idea of providing poetry in airports, supermarkets and hotel rooms. Maxine Kumin started a popular series of poetry workshops for women at the Library of Congress. Gwendolyn Brooks met with elementary school students to encourage them to write poetry. Rita Dove brought together writers to explore the African diaspora through the eyes of its artists. She also championed children's poetry and jazz with poetry events. Robert Hass organized the "Watershed" conference that brought together noted novelists, poets and storytellers to talk about writing, nature and community.

After Reading Questions

Common Core Standards: RL. 4 Analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone. RL. 10 Read and comprehend poems. W. 1b Develop claims fairly, citing evidence for each. W.9a (RL.10) Draw evidence from poems to support analysis and reflection.

1. Recall: When does the speaker of “Elegy for the Giant Tortoises” expect to actually see these reptiles?2. Clarify: In “Today,” what does “this larger dome” refer to?3. Clarify: What is the hand in “Spring is like a perhaps hand” doing?4. Paraphrase: Examine your paraphrasing Charts. Then read aloud one of your paraphrases and the original

passage. Which version has the stronger impact?5. Analyze Diction: What phrases or words in each poem stand out to you as especially vibrant or strange? What

effect do they have on your comprehension of the poem’s meaning?6. Examine an Elegy: Revisit the definition of an elegy. What qualities of an elegy are present in “Elegy for Giant

Tortoises”? Why might Atwood have picked his form for a poem about an endangered animal?7. Come to Conclusions: What characteristics of spring does the speaker stress in “Spring is like a perhaps

hand”?8. Compare and Contrast: Recall that tone is an expression of the writer’s attitude toward his or her subject. For

each of the three poems, choose an adjective that accurately describes the tone, such as hostile, gloomy, upbeat, or humorous. Next, list the words and phrases in each poem that help communicate the tone. Which two poems are the most opposite in tone? Explain your answer. Use the graphic organizer to help organize your ideas.

“Spring is like a perhaps hand”

Tone:

Words or Phrases:1.2.3.

9. Enduring Understanding: Reread the essential questions and think about the poems you’ve read in this lesson. Why is innovative thinking so important? Explain your answer.

The Reading – Writing Connection

Writing Task Revising Suggestion

Extended Constructed Response: OpinionWhich of the poems demonstrates the most creativity or innovation in its treatment of its subject? Write three to five paragraphs. Cite evidence to support your perspective throughout the bodies of your composition.

Reread your response. Did you evaluate each poem in terms of its creativity or innovation? Did you include supporting evidence such as diction, imagery, and figurative language? If such evidence is missing from your composition, revise your essay.