Reading Poetry

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Reading Poetry

• Strategies for Understanding Poems

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1. Identify the Speaker

• Who is saying the poem?
• The speaker isnt always the poet

• from Fireflies by Paul Fleischman
• Light
• is the ink we use
• Night
• Were
• fireflies
• flickering
• flashing
• fireflies
• gleaming
• Insect calligraphers
• Copying sentences
• Six-legged scribblers

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Speaker

• The speaker is the imaginary voice you hear when
  you read a poem who is saying the poem.

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Who do you think the speaker is in this poem?
If I were in charge of the world Id cancel
oatmeal, Monday mornings, Allergy shots, and
also Sara Steinberg. If I were in charge of the
world Thered be brighter night lights, Healthier
hamsters, and Basketball baskets forty-eight
inches lower.
If I were in charge of the world You wouldnt
have lonely. You wouldnt have clean. You
wouldnt have bedtimes. Or Dont punch your
sister. You wouldnt even have sisters. If I
were in charge of the world A chocolate sundae
with whipped cream and nuts would be a
vegetable. All 007 movies would be G. And a
person who sometimes forgot to brush, And
sometimes forgot to flush, Would still be allowed
to be in charge of the world.
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Speaker Answer

• The speaker is probably a young boy, about 10-13
  years old.
• We can tell this by the things he would change if
  he were in charge of the world.
• The height of basketball hoops
• The treatment of his sister
• The rating of 007 (James Bond) movies

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2. Use Your Senses

• Poetry uses all 5 senses
• Use the sounds, smells, etc. to help yourself
  paint a mental picture of what the poem is
  describing

• Basho
• An old silent pond
• A frog jumps into the pond,
• splash! Silence again.
• Soseki
• Over the wintry
• Forest, winds howl in a rage
• With no leaves to blow.

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3. Listen

• Much poetry is musical its designed to be
  heard rather than read.
• Either read the poem aloud or listen to someone
  else read it.

• Boa Constrictor by Shel Silverstein
• Oh, Im being eaten
• By a boa constrictor,
• A boa constrictor,
• A boa constrictor,
• Im being eaten by a boa constrictor
• And I dont like it one bit.
• Well, what do you know?
• Its nibblin my toe.
• Oh, gee,
• Its up to my knee.
• Oh my,
• Its up to my thigh.
• Oh, fiddle,
• Its up to my middle.
• Oh, heck,
• Its up to my neck.
• Oh, dread,
• Its upmmmmmmmmmfffffffff...

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4. Read According to Punctuation

• On the Skateboard by Lillian Morrision
• Skimming
• An asphalt sea
• I swerve, I curve, I
• Sway I speed to whirring
• Sound an inch above the
• ground Im the sailor
• And the sail, Im the
• Driver and the wheel
• Im the one and only
• Single engine
• Human auto
• mobile

• Pause at commas, semicolons, and end marks
  (?,!,.)
• Only pause at the end of the line if it has a
  comma, semicolon, or end mark at the end of it.

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Onomatopoeia

• Onomatopoeia is a word that imitates a sound.
• Examples crash, bang, plop

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What examples of onomatopoeia are in the
following excerpt?

• Bram rackety-am-m, OM, Am
• All r-r-room, r-r-ram, alabaster
• Am, the worlds my oyster.
• I hate plastic, wear it black and slick,
• Hate hardhats, wear one on my head,
• Thats what the motorcycle said.

• Answers
• bram
• r-r-room
• r-r-ram

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Personification

• Personification gives human characteristics of a
  nonhuman object.
• Example The wind whispered in the trees. The
  stars danced in the skies.

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Explain the personification in the poem below

• Once a snowflake fell
• On my brow and i loved
• It so much and i kissed
• It and it was happy and called its cousins
• And brothers and a web
• Of snow engulfed me then
• I reached to love them all
• And i squeezed them and they became
• A spring ran and i stood perfectly
• Still and was a flower

• Answers
• Both snowflakes and the flower are being
  personified
• Snowflakes dont have families and cant call
  them
• Flowers cant kiss and squeeze the snow

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Explain the personification in the poem below

• Late that mad Monday evening
• I made mermaids come from the sea
• As the black sky sat
• Upon the waves
• And night came creeping up to me

• Answer
• The black sky sat upon the waves
• The sky cant sit.
• Night came creeping up to me
• The night doesnt creep.

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Rhythm

• Rhythm is the pattern of beats in a poem.
• The pattern is formed by stressed and unstressed
  syllables.
• Not all poems have a rhythm pattern.

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Limerick

• A limerick is a short, usually funny poem with a
  very specific form
• The 1st, 2nd, and 5th lines rhyme and have 3
  stressed syllables.
• The 3rd and 4th lines rhyme and have 2 stressed
  syllables.
• There was an old man from Peru
• Who dreamed he was eating his shoe
• He awoke in the night
• With a terrible fright
• To discover it was totally true

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• There was a young fellow named Hall
• Who fell in the spring in the fall
• Twould have been a sad thing
• To have died in the spring
• But he didnt he died in the fall
• An epicure dining at Crewe
• Found quite a large mouse in his stew
• Said the waiter, Dont shout!
• And wave it about
• Or the rest will be wanting one too!

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Haiku

• Haiku is a Japanese form of poetry with a
  specific rhythm
• 1st line five syllables
• 2nd line seven syllables
• 3rd line five syllables
• Haiku are often about nature and the five senses.

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• Basho
• An old silent pond
• A frog jumps into the pond,
• splash! Silence again.
• Soseki
• Over the wintry
• Forest, winds howl in a rage
• With no leaves to blow.

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Metaphor

• A metaphor is the comparison of two objects
  without using the words like or as.
• Instead of one object being similar to another,
  one object IS another.
• Example This room is a pigsty!

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What is the metaphor in this poem?

• The rose is a rose,
• And was always a rose.
• But the theory now goes
• That the apples a rose,
• And the pear is, and sos
• The plum, I suppose.
• The dear only knows
• What will next prove a rose.
• You, of course, are a rose
• But were always a rose.

• Answer
• Various fruits (apple, pear, plum) are compared
  to a rose.
• The reader is also compared to a rose.

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What is the metaphor in this poem?

• Seeing that theres no other way,
• I turn his absence into a chair.
• I can sit in it,
• gaze out through the window.
• I can do what I do best
• and go out into the world.
• And I can return then with my useless love,
• to rest,
• because the chair is there.

• Answer
• The persons absence is compared to a chair. The
  speaker doesnt have to wallow about the loss of
  love because the chair will stay while the
  speaker goes into the world.

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Simile

• A simile is a comparison of two objects using
  the words like or as.
• Example She is as blind as a bat.

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What is the simile in the following excerpt?

• Oh, my loves like a red, red rose
• Thats newly sprung in June.
• O, my love is like the melody
• Thats sweetly played in tune.

• Answers
• Love is compared to a newly blossomed rose.
• Love is compared to a sweet melody.

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Metaphor and Simile

• Remember these are comparisons, not
  descriptions. The object should be compared to
  another object, not described with an adjective.

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Identify the metaphor and simile in this poem

• Forgetfulness is like a song
• That, freed from beat and measure, wanders.
• Forgetfulness is like a bird whose wings are
  reconciled,
• Outspread and motionless
• A bird that coasts the wind unwearyingly.
• Forgetfulness is rain at night,
• Or an old house in a forest, - or a child.
• Forgetfulness is white, - white as a blasted
  tree,
• And it may stun the sybil into prophecy,
• Or bury the Gods.
• I remember much forgetfulness.

• Similes
• Forgetfulness is compared to a wandering song
• Forgetfulness is compared to a bird coasting in
  the sky.
• Metaphors
• Forgetfulness is compared to rain at night, an
  old house in a forest, and a child.

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Alliteration

• Alliteration is the repetition of consonant
  sounds at the beginning of words.
• Example With blare of brass, with beating
  drums.
• Often used in tongue twisters.

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Find the alliteration in this excerpt

• Little hoppy happy
• Toad in tweeds
• Tweeds
• Little itchy mouses
• With scuttling
• Eyes rustle and run and
• Hidehidehide
• whisk

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Alliteration is underlined

• Little hoppy happy
• Toad in tweeds
• Tweeds
• Little itchy mouses
• With scuttling
• Eyes rustle and run and
• Hidehidehide
• whisk

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Find the alliteration in the poem below

• He clasps the crag with crooked hands
• Close to the sun in lonely lands,
• Ringd with the azure world, he stands.
• The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls
• He watches from his mountain walls,
• And like a thunderbolt he falls.

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Alliteration is underlined

• He clasps the crag with crooked hands
• Close to the sun in lonely lands,
• Ringd with the azure world, he stands.
• The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls
• He watches from his mountain walls,
• And like a thunderbolt he falls.

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Theme

• The theme is the moral or lesson its what the
  poet is trying to teach the reader.

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What is the theme of this poem?

• The summer
• Still hangs
• Heavy and sweet
• With sunlight
• As it did last year.
• The autumn
• Still comes
• Showering gold and crimson
• As it did last year.
• The winter
• Still stings
• Clean and cold and white
• As it did last year.
• The spring
• Still comes
• Like a whisper in the dark night.

• Answer
• Although the seasons remain the same from year to
  year, the speaker changes as time passes.

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What is the theme of this poem?

• Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
• And sorry i could not travel both
• And be one traveler, long I stood
• And looked down one as far as I could
• To where it bent in the undergrowth
• Then took the other, as just as fair,
• And having perhaps the better claim,
• Because it was grassy and wanted wear
• Though as for that the passing there
• Had worn them really about the same,
• And both that morning equally lay
• In leaves no step had trodden black.
• Oh, I kept the first for another day!
• Yet knowing how way leads onto way,
• I doubted if I should ever come back.
• I shall be telling this with a sigh

• Answer
• In this poem, the two roads symbolize two
  different ways to live life. One is the
  traditional path that everyone takes the other
  is one less commonly taken. The theme is that
  the speaker has found it more beneficial in life
  to take risks and do things in life that are not
  necessarily traditional or safe. Being unique
  rather than a follower has made a difference in
  his life.

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Tone

• Tone is the speakers attitude or emotions
  communicated in the words of the poem

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What is the tone of this poem?

• I like the plates on the ledge
• of the dining room wall (to the north)
• standing on edge,
• standing as if they thought they could stay.
• Confident things can stand and stay!
• I am confident.
• I always thought there was something to be done
  about everything.
• Ill stay.
• Ill not go pouting and shouting out of the city.
• Ill stay.
• My name will be Up in Lights!
• I believe it!
• They will know me as Nora-the-Wonderful!
• It will happen!
• Ill stay.
• Mother says You rise in the morning

• Answer
• The tone of this poem is confident, even bragging
  at times.

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Imagery

• Imagery is the mental pictures the words of the
  poem create in the readers mind.

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What imagery does this poem contain?

• a gallon of
• rich
• country cream
• hand-whipped
• into stiff
• peaks
• flung
• from the beater
• into dollops
• across the blue oilcloth

• This poem, about cumulus clouds, evokes the image
  of someone taking fresh whipped cream and
  flinging it from the beaters into the sky to
  create the clouds.

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What imagery does this poem contain?

• who knows if the moons
• a balloon, coming out of a keen city
• in the sky filled with pretty people?
• (and if you and i should
• get into it, if they
• should take me and take you into their balloon,
• why then
• wed go up higher with all the pretty people
• than houses and steeples and clouds
• go sailing
• away and away sailing into a keen
• city which nobodys ever visited, where
• always
• its
• Spring) and everyones
• In love and flowers pick themselves.

• This poem evokes the image of the moon turning
  into a hot air balloon that takes people over a
  city into a new place in which everyone is happy.
  The imagery of flowers picking themselves is
  particularly strong.