Elements of Poetry Stanza: Group of lines that make up a section of a poem, separated with a line space.

There may be one or many.

Blank Verse: A poem with no rhyme, but with a set rhythm or beat.

Free Verse: A poem with no rhyme and no set pattern.

Speaker: The persona taken by the poet

Tone: The poet’s attitude toward the subject of the poem or the reader of the poem.

Mood: Overall feeling a reader senses when reading a poemExample: Anger, sarcasm, loneliness, grief, sadness

Repetition: Repeating the same lines or phrases or words for emphasis.

Imagery: A picture created through the use of language. Simile: A comparison of unlike things using “like” or “as.”

Example: The subway train rolled like thunder.

Metaphor: A comparison of two unlike things:Example: His face was a wrinkled prune.

Personification: Giving a non-human object human qualities.Example: The sun winked at the children playing in the yard.

Alliteration: Repeating the same beginning sounds in a line of words.Example: So smooth, so sweet, so silv’ry is thy voice.

Theme: The main idea or message of the poem.

Symbol/Symbolism: An object or act that represents an idea, an emotion, or another object.Example: Doves represent peace and freedom.

Hyperbole: Bold, deliberate exaggeration for emphasis

Internal Conflict: A character experiencing two opposite emotions or desires within him or herself.

External Conflict: A character’s involvement in a struggle with outside forces.

Allusion: A figure of speech that refers to a well-known story, event, person, or object in order to make

a comparison in the reader’s mind. Example: “…one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice

for all.”

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Types of Poetry

Narrative: A poem in which the author tells a story. Such poems may be ofany length or any level of complexity. Types of narrative poetry include epics and ballads.

Epic: A long poem that tells of the life and works of a heroic or mythological person or group of persons.Example: The Odyssey

Ballad: A poem that tells a dramatic story that usually involves a romantic, historical, or supernatural setting. Often a tragedy is revealed. Popular ballads often have a rhyme scheme of abcb or abab.

Lyric: Usually a short poem expressing the speaker’s thoughts or feelings.Lyric poetry was originally accompanied by a lyre. Types of lyric poetry include the sonnet, the ode, the elegy, and the haiku.

Sonnet: A fourteen line poem, usually in iambic pentameter, with avaried rhyme scheme. The two main types of sonnet are the Petrarchan (or Italian) and the Shakespearean. Shakespearean sonnets are composed of three quatrains and a final couplet, with a rhyme scheme of abab cdcd efef gg.

Haiku: A style of lyric poetry borrowed from the Japanese thattypically presents an intense emotion or vivid image of nature. Haiku is a fixed poetic form, consisting of seventeen syllables organized into three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables.

How to Read Poetry (Adapted from Shmoop )

There’s really only one reason that poetry has gotten a reputation for being so darned “difficult”: it demands your full attention and won’t settle for less. Unlike a novel, where you can drift in and out and still follow the plot, poems are generally shorter and more intense, with less of a conventional story to follow. If you don’t make room for the experience, you probably won’t have one.

Aside from its demands on your attention, there’s nothing too tricky about reading a poem. Like anything, it’s a matter of practice. But in case you haven’t read much (or any) poetry before, we’ve put together a short list of tips that will make it a whole lot more enjoyable.

Follow Your Ears. It’s okay to ask, “What does it mean?” when reading a poem. But it’s even better to ask, “How does it sound?” If all else fails, treat it like a song. Even if you

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can’t understand a single thing about a poem’s “subject” or “theme,” you can always say something – anything – about the sound of the words.

o Does the poem move fast or slow? o Does it sound awkward in sections or does it have an even flow? Do certain words

stick out more than others? o Trust your inner ear: if the poem sounds strange, it doesn’t mean you’re reading it

wrong. In fact, you probably just discovered one of the poem’s secret tricks!

Read It Aloud. OK, we’re not saying you have to shout it from the rooftops. If you’re embarrassed and want to lock yourself in the attic and read the poem in the faintest whisper possible, go ahead. Do whatever it takes, because reading even part of poem aloud can totally change your perspective on how it works.

Become an Archaeologist. When you’ve drunk in the poem enough times, experiencing the sound and images found there, it is sometimes fun to switch gears and to become an archaeologist (you know -- someone who digs up the past and uncovers layers of history).

o Treat the poem like a room you have just entered. Perhaps it’s a strange room that you’ve never seen before, filled with objects or people that you don’t really recognize. Maybe you feel a bit like Alice in Wonderland. Assume your role as an archaeologist and take some measurements.

What’s the weather like? Are there people there? What kind of objects do you find? Are there more

verbs than adjectives? Do you detect a rhythm? Can you hear music? Is there furniture? Are there portraits of past poets on the walls? Are there

traces of other poems or historical references to be found?

Don’t Skim. Unlike the newspaper or a textbook, the point of poetry isn’t to cram information into your brain. We can’t repeat it enough: poetry is an experience. If you don’t have the patience to get through a long poem, no worries, just start with a really short poem. Understanding poetry is like getting a suntan: you have to let it sink in.

Be Patient. You can’t really understand a poem that you’ve only read once. You just can’t. So if you don’t get it, set the poem aside and come back to it later. Don’t rush it. It’s a much bigger accomplishment to actually enjoy a poem than it is to be able to explain every line of it. Treat the first reading as an investment – your effort might not pay off until well into the future, but when it does, it will totally be worth it. Trust us.

“Look Who’s Talking.” Ask the most basic questions possible of the poem. Two of the most important are: “Who’s talking?” and “Who are they talking to?” If it’s a Shakespeare sonnet, don’t just assume that the speaker is Shakespeare.

o The speaker of every poem is kind of fictional creation, and so is the audience. o Ask yourself: what would it be like to meet this person? What would they look like?

What’s their “deal,” anyway?

And, most importantly, Never Be Intimidated. Regardless of what your experience with poetry in the classroom has been, no poet wants to make his or her audience feel stupid. It’s just not good business, if you know what we mean. Sure, there might be tricky parts, but it’s not like you’re trying to unlock the secrets of the universe.

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Poetry is about freedom and exposing yourself to new things. In fact, if you find yourself stuck in a poem, just remember that the poet, 9 times out of 10, was a bit of a rebel and was trying to make his friends look at life in a completely different way. Find your inner rebel too. There isn’t a single poem out there that’s “too difficult” to try out – right now, today.

American poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti was one of the founders of the Beat movement in San Francisco in the mid-1950s. He was born on March 24, 1919, in Yonkers, New York. In 1953, he opened the City Lights Pocket Book Shop, a gathering place for the literary avant-garde and a focal point of the Beat movement. In 1955, his new City Lights Press published his poetry collection Pictures of the Gone World. His collection, A Coney Island of the Mind (1958), became the best-selling book by any living American poet in the second half of the 20th century. Ferlinghetti has also released works of prose and drama and has maintained a successful career as a painter.

Constantly Risking Absurdity (#15) (1958)

Constantly risking absurdity1

and death whenever he performs above the heads of his audience the poet like an acrobat climbs on rime to a high wire of his own makingand balancing on eyebeams above a sea of faces paces his way to the other side of day performing entrechats2

and sleight-of-foot tricksand other high theatrics and all without mistaking any thing for what it may not be

For he's the super realist who must perforce3 perceive taut truth before the taking of each stance or stepin his supposed advance toward that still higher perchwhere Beauty stands and waits with gravity to start her death-defying leap1 Absurdity: the quality or state of being ridiculous or wildly unreasonable. 2 Entrechat: a classical ballet term meaning “interweaving” or “braiding” of the legs.3 Perforce: to express necessity or inevitability.

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Answer the following questions in complete in sentences with adequate detail.

1. Who is waiting for the poet on the other side of the high wire? Why is the poet not certain he will catch this figure?

2. In what ways is “truth” like a tightrope?

3. How does the poem’s form, or look on the page, reflect the actions it describes?

And he a little charleychaplin4 man who may or may not catch her fair eternal form spreadeagled in the empty air of existence

William Blake was a late 18th/ early 19th century writer and artist who is regarded as a seminal figure of the Romantic Age. His writings have influenced countless writers and artists through the ages, and he has been deemed both a major poet and an original thinker. Born in 1757 in London, England, William Blake began writing at an early age and claimed to have had his first vision, of a tree full of angels, at age 10. He studied engraving and grew to love Gothic art, which he incorporated into his own unique works. A misunderstood poet, artist and visionary throughout much of his life, Blake found admirers late in

life and has been vastly influential since his death in 1827.

The Lamb and The Tyger (1776, 1794)

4 Charlie Chaplin: an English comic actor and filmmaker who rose to fame during the silent film era. 5 | P a g e

The LambLittle Lamb who made theeDost thou know who made theeGave thee life & bid thee feed.By the stream & o'er the mead;Gave thee clothing of delight,Softest clothing wooly bright;Gave thee such a tender voice,Making all the vales rejoice:  Little Lamb who made thee  Dost thou know who made thee  Little Lamb I'll tell thee,  Little Lamb I'll tell thee:He is called by thy name,For he calls himself a Lamb:

The TygerTyger Tyger. burning bright,In the forests of the night:What immortal hand or eye,Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies.Burnt the fire of thine eyes!On what wings dare he aspire!What the hand, dare sieze the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art,Could twist the sinews1 of thy heart?And when thy heart began to beat,What dread hand? & what dread feet?What the hammer? what the chain,In what furnace was thy brain?What the anvil2? what dread grasp,Dare its deadly terrors clasp!

When the stars threw down their spearsAnd water'd heaven with their tears:Did he smile his work to see?Did he who made the Lamb make

Answer the following questions in complete in sentences with adequate detail.

1. Provide an example of imagery that is used in each poem “The Lamb” and “The Tyger”? Explain.

2. Compare and contrast the speaker of each poem (Remember that they are the same person, one in a state of innocence, the other in a state of experience).

3. What is the effect of the rhetorical questioning in each poem?

4. How do these poems reflect the theme of the awe and mystery of creation and the creator?

5. How do these poems reflect the concern with the nature of good and evil?

1 Sinews: a piece of tough fibrous tissue uniting muscle to bone or bone to bone; a tendon or ligament.2 Anvil: a heavy steel or iron block with a flat top and typically a pointed end, on which metal can be

hammered or shaped.W.H. Auden was a British poet, author and playwright best known as a leading literary figure in the 20th century for his poetry. W.H. Auden, also known as Wystan Hugh Auden, was a poet, author, and playwright born in York, England, on February 21, 1907. Auden was a leading literary influencer in the 20th century. Known for his chameleon-like ability to write poems in almost every verse form, Auden's travels in countries torn by political strife influenced his early works. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1948.

Musee de Beaux Arts5 (1938)

About suffering they were never wrong,The Old Masters: how well they understoodIts human position; how it takes placeWhile someone else is eating or opening a window or justwalking dully along;How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waitingFor the miraculous birth, there always must beChildren who did not specially want it to happen, skatingOn a pond at the edge of the wood:They never forgotThat even the dreadful martyrdom must run its courseAnyhow in a corner, some untidy spotWhere the dogs go on with their doggylife and the torturer’s horseScratches its innocent behind on a tree.In Breughel’s Icarus6, for instance: how everything turns awayQuite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman mayHave heard the splash, the forsaken cry,But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shoneAs it had to on the white legs disappearing into the greenWater; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seenSomething amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on

5 Musee des Beaux Arts Museum of Fine Arts in Brussels, Belgium, which contains Brueghel’s Icarus. 6 Brueghel’s Icarus The Fall of Icarus, a painting by Flemish painter Pieter Brueghel (1525-1569). In Greek mythology, Icarus flies too close to the sun. The wax of his artificial wings melts, and he falls into the sea.

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Answer the following questions in complete in sentences with adequate detail.

1. Who are the Old Masters? What did the Old Masters understand about suffering?

2. Choose either the “ploughman” and the “ship” or the nearby children. How do their responses contrast with the gravity of the event?

3. (a) Analyze: Look at Brueghel’s The Fall of Icarus. What does the artist imply by showing only Icarus’s legs in the right corner of the picture? (b) Infer: What does the Brueghel, an Old Master, realize about the place of suffering in the world?

The Unknown CitizenThe Unknown Citizen by W.H. Auden

(To JS/07/M/378 This Marble Monument is Erected by the State)(1939)

He was found by the Bureau of Statistics1 to beOne against whom there was no official complaint,And all the reports on his conduct agreeThat, in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word, he was a saint,For in everything he did he served the Greater Community.Except for the War till the day he retiredHe worked in a factory and never got fired,But satisfied his employers, Fudge Motors Inc.Yet he wasn’t a scab or odd in his views,For his Union reports that he paid his dues,(Our report on his Union shows it was sound)And our Social Psychology2 workers foundThat he was popular with his mates and liked a drink.The Press are convinced that he bought a paper every dayAnd that his reactions to advertisements were normal in every way.Policies taken out in his name prove that he was fully insured,And his Health-card shows he was once in hospital but left it cured.Both Producers Research and High-Grade Living declareHe was fully sensible to the advantages of the Instalment PlanAnd had everything necessary to the Modern Man,A phonograph3, a radio, a car and a frigidaire4.Our researchers into Public Opinion are content That he held the proper opinions for the time of year;When there was peace, he was for peace: when there was war, he went.He was married and added five children to the population,Which our Eugenist5 says was the right number for a parent of his generation.And our teachers report that he never interfered with their education.Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd6:Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.

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Answer the following questions in complete in sentences with adequate detail.

1. How does the state identify the unknown citizen in the poem’s subtitle? What do these numbers and letters suggest?

2. In what ways is the citizen “unknown”?

3. What societal flaw or folly is the object of Auden’s poem?

4. In what ways is official knowledge of the unknown citizen limited? Do you think deeper knowledge of citizens by government or corporate institutions is either possible or desirable in a modern society? Explain.

5. Who is the speaker, or narrator, of this poem and what is his or her tone? Please cite three examples of word choice in the poem that support your assertion. What view of

1 Bureau of Statistics: a unit of the U.S. Department of Labor. It is a fact-finding agency in the field of labor economics and statistics.

2 Social Psychology: branch of psychology that deals with social interactions, including their origins and their effects on the individual. 3 Phonograph: a record player4 Frigidaire: home appliance brand5 Eugenics: the science of improving a human population by controlled breeding to increase the occurrence of desirable heritable characteristics. 6 Absurd: wildly unreasonable or

Langston Hughes was an American poet, novelist, and playwright whose African-American themes made him a primary contributor to the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s.Langston Hughes was born on February 1, 1902, in Joplin, Missouri. He published his first poem in 1921. He attended Columbia University, but left after one year to travel. His poetry was later promoted by Vachel Lindsay, and Hughes published his first book in 1926. He went on to write countless works of poetry, prose and plays, as well as a popular column for the Chicago Defender. He died on May 22, 1967.

I, too, sing America.(1926)

I, too, sing America.I am the darker brother.They send me to eat in the kitchenWhen company comes,But I laugh,And eat well,And grow strong.

Tomorrow,I’ll be at the tableWhen company comes.Nobody’ll dareSay to me,“Eat in the kitchen,"Then.

Besides, They’ll see how beautiful I amAnd be ashamed1—

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Answer the following questions in complete in sentences with adequate detail.

1. Why does the speaker eat in the kitchen? What does the kitchen represent?

2. What is the significance in the tone shift from “I, Too, Sing America” to “I, too, am America”?

3. How is the speaker’s description of being the “darker brother” in line 2 ironic?

4. The historical context of the time when Hughes wrote his famous work was characterized by a period of racial segregation and extreme discrimination. One might argue that while clear civil rights progress has been made, there is still inequality that exists today. How do you suppose Hughes might respond to contemporary society if he were alive today? Would he praise the progress of civil rights or would he be critical?

______________________________1 Ashamed: embarrassed or guilty because of one’s actions, characteristics, or associations

William Butler Yeats was one of the greatest English-language poets of the 20th century and received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923. Born in Ireland in 1865, William Butler Yeats published his first works in the mid-1880s while a student at Dublin's Metropolitan School of Art. His early accomplishments include The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems (1889) and such plays as The Countess Kathleen (1892) and Deirdre (1907). In 1923, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Yeats, who died in 1939, is remembered as one of the leading Western poets of the 20th century.

When You Are Old (1893)

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,And nodding by the fire, take down this book,And slowly read, and dream of the soft lookYour eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,And loved your beauty with love false or true,But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,Murmur1, a little sadly, how Love fledAnd paced upon the mountains overheadAnd hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

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Answer the following questions in complete in sentences with adequate detail.

1. What does the speaker ask the subject of the poem to do in lines 3-4?

2. Why does love flee in stanza 3?

3. What is the significance of Yeats’ characterization of the subject as a “pilgrim soul” in Line 7?

4. What is the overall theme in the poem? Provide textual evidence from the poem.

5. How does the last stanza shape the overall meaning of the poem? Support your answer by citing evidence from the text.

___________________1 Murmur: a soft, indistinct sound made by a person or group of people; a quiet or subdued expression (of a particular feeling) by a group of people.

James Baldwin was an essayist, playwright and novelist regarded as a highly insightful, iconic writer with works like The Fire Next Time and Another Country. Born in 1924 in New York City, James Baldwin published the 1953 novel Go Tell It on the Mountain, going on to garner acclaim for his insights on race, spirituality and humanity. Other novels included Giovanni's Room, Another Country and Just Above My Head as well as essay works like Notes of a Native Son and The Fire Next Time. Having lived in France, he died on December 1, 1987 in Saint-Paul de Vence.

The Giver (For Berdis)(1982)

If the hope of givingis to love the living,the giver risks madnessin the act of giving.

Some such lesson I seemed to seein the faces that surrounded me.

Needy and blind, unhopeful, unlifted,what gift would give them the gift to be gifted?The giver is no less adriftthan those who are clamouring1 for the gift.

If they cannot claim it, if it is not there,if their empty fingers beat the empty airand the giver goes down on his knees in prayerknows that all of his giving has been for naught2

and that nothing was ever what he thoughtand turns in his guilty bed to stare

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at the starving multitudes standing thereand rises from bed to curse at heaven,he must yet understand that to whom much is givenmuch will be taken, and justly so:I cannot tell how much I owe.

______________________1 Clamouring: the state of shouting loudly and insistently; making a heated protest or demand.2 Naught: nothing; the digit 0.

American writer, poet and critic Edgar Allan Poe is famous for his tales and poems of horror and mystery, including "The Fall of the House of Usher," "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Raven." Edgar Allan Poe (January 19, 1809 to October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, critic and editor best known for evocative short stories and poems that captured the imagination and interest of readers around the world. His imaginative storytelling and tales of mystery and horror gave birth to the modern detective story. Many of Poe’s works, including “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Fall of the House of Usher,” became literary classics. Some aspects of Poe’s life, like his literature, is shrouded in mystery,

and the lines between fact and fiction have been blurred substantially since his death.

A Dream Within a Dream (1849)

Take this kiss upon the brow!And, in parting from you now,Thus much let me avow1 —You are not wrong, who deemThat my days have been a dream;Yet if hope has flown awayIn a night, or in a day,In a vision, or in none,Is it therefore the less gone? All that we see or seemIs but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roarOf a surf-tormented shore,And I hold within my handGrains of the golden sand —How few! yet how they creep

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Answer the following questions in complete in sentences with adequate detail.

1. Infer the meaning of the giver’s “madness”. How might the giver cure this insanity?

2. Baldwin presents readers with two interpretations in his poem: a surface level and a deeper, in-depth level.

a. Surface: Infer the impact the “receiver” has upon the “giver”. b. What cultural implications could Baldwin be suggesting about the white and black

race relations?

3. What is the meaning behind his last line: “I cannot tell how much I owe”?

Answer the following questions in complete in sentences with adequate detail.

1. How is this poem about both the nature of reality and the nature of loss?

2. What does the narrator in the poem think about his fate and life in general? In the context of this poem, can we control our fate? Explain and cite evidence from the text.

3. Describe the thematic message

of the poem.

4. Cite a personified concept. What is being personified and how does

Through my fingers to the deep,While I weep — while I weep!O God! Can I not grasp Them with a tighter clasp?O God! can I not saveOne from the pitiless2 wave?Is all that we see or seemBut a dream within a dream?

____________________1 Avow: to assert or confess openly; declare.

2 Pitiless: showing no pity; cruel. Rudyard Kipling was an English author famous for an array of works like 'Just So Stories' and 'The Jungle Book.' He received the 1907 Nobel Prize in Literature. Rudyard Kipling was born on December 30, 1865, in Bombay, India. He was educated in England but returned to India in 1882. A decade later, Kipling married Caroline Balestier and settled in Brattleboro, Vermont, where he wrote The Jungle Book (1894), among a host of other works that made him hugely successful. Kipling was the recipient of the 1907 Nobel Prize in Literature. He died in 1936.

If (1895)

If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, 5 Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,Or being hated, don’t give way to hating, And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master; If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim; 10If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken Twisted by knaves1 to make a trap for fools,Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, 15 And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

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Answer the following questions in complete in sentences with adequate detail.

1. The poem begins by describing conditions and ends by describing consequences. In which line does it shift from describing conditions to describing consequences?

2. Based on lines 5 and 6, what can you conclude about the speaker’s values?

3. What is the speaker probably urging the reader/audience to do in lines 29 and 30?

4. Re-read lines 10 – 16. What does the poet personify in these lines?

5. What does the speaker declare will be “yours” in line 31?

6. Based on the last line of the poem, what can you conclude about who the speaker of this poem is? Support your answer with evidence from the text.

If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breathe a word about your loss; 20If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, 25 Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, If all men count with you, but none too much;If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run, 30Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it, And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

___________________________1 Knave: a dishonest person; tricky.

William Ernest Henley was a British poet, critic and editor remembered chiefly for his poem "Invictus.” After a disease forced the amputation of one foot and radical surgery on the other leg, William Ernest Henley began writing free-verse impressionistic poems about hospital life that established his poetic reputation, including “Invictus” (1875). He later edited several journals, including the Scots Observer, which published the early work of Thomas Hardy, George Bernard Shaw, and Rudyard Kipling.

Invictus (1875)

Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings1 of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed2.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears Looms3 but the Horror of the shade, And yet the menace of the years Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate,

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I am the captain of my soul.

__________________________________1 Bludgeon: to beat (someone) with an object. 2 Unbowed: not yielding or submitting to defeat or subjugation.3 Looms: to appear or come into sight (often in a threatening way).

Marge Piercy was born in Detroit, Michigan, on March 31, 1936. She won a scholarship to the University of Michigan and was the first member of her family to attend college. She subsequently earned a master’s degree from Northwestern University. She has published numerous books of poetry, including Made in Detroit (Knopf, 2015), The Crooked Inheritance (Knopf, 2013), and The Hunger Moon: New and Selected Poems, 1980-2010 (Knopf, 2012). She is also the author of a collection of essays on poetry, Parti-Colored Blocks for a Quilt (1982), and many novels, including Sex Wars: A Novel of Guilded Age New York (William Morrow, 2006).

Barbie Doll (1971)

This girlchild was born as usualand presented dolls that did pee-peeand miniature GE stoves and ironsand wee lipsticks the color of cherry candy.Then in the magic of puberty, a classmate said:You have a great big nose and fat legs.

She was healthy, tested intelligent,possessed strong arms and back,abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity1.She went to and fro apologizing.Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs.

She was advised to play coy,exhorted to come on hearty,

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Answer the following questions in complete in sentences with adequate detail.

1. What do these words personify or symbolize? • Night • Darkness• Pit • Shade

2. What is the thematic message of the poem? Find evidence.

3. Interpret the meaning behind the speaker’s confession that he has “an unconquerable soul” (line 4).

4. When the author refers to “circumstance” and “chance,” what might he be referring to in his own life?

exercise, diet, smile and wheedle2.Her good nature wore outlike a fan belt.So she cut off her nose and her legsand offered them up.

In the casket displayed on satin she laywith the undertaker’s cosmetics painted on,a turned-up putty nose,dressed in a pink and white nightie.Doesn’t she look pretty? Everyone said.Consummation3 at last.To every woman a happy ending.

____________________________1 Dexterity: a skill in performing tasks, especially with the hands.2 Wheedle: to use flattery to persuade someone to do something or to give something. 3 Consummation: the point in which something is complete or finalized.

Colleen McElroy was born in St. Louis, Missouri, to a military family that moved often. She earned a PhD in ethnolinguistic patterns of dialect differences and oral traditions from the University of Washington. McElroy has written short stories, plays, television scripts, and nonfiction; her collections of poetry include Winters without Snow (1979); Queen of the Ebony Isles (1984), winner of the American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation; What Madness Brought Me Here: New and Selected

Poems, and Sleeping with the Moon (2007), winner of the 2008 PEN Oakland National Literary Award.  

For My Children(Unknown)

I have stored up tales for you, my childrenMy favorite children, my only children; Of shackles and slaves and a bill of rights. But skin of honey and beauty of ebony beginsIn the land called Bilad as-Sudan1, So I search for a heritage beyond St. Louis.

My memory floats down a long narrow hall, A calabash2 of history.Grandpa stood high in Watusi3 shadowsIn this land of yearly rituals for alabaster4 beauty; Where effigies5 of my ancestors are captured In Beatle tunes, And crowns never touch Bantu6 heads.

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Answer the following questions in complete in sentences with adequate detail.

1. The woman of this poem is first presented with dolls and miniature stoves and irons. What do these toys say about gender roles and expectations of girls early on in life?

2. What is the tone of this poem, and how does the speaker of this poem feel about this woman’s life? How does he/she feel about gender roles?

3. Do you think the speaker is a male or female? Why?

4. Describe irony in the last line of the poem: To every woman a happy ending.

5. Barbie doll is never mentioned in the poem. What is the possible purpose of titling the piece Barbie Doll?

Answer the following questions in complete in sentences with adequate detail.

1. Which details in the first stanza reflect the children’s roots in Africa?

2. What has the speaker stored up for her children?

3. What physical connections to Africa does the speaker see in the children’s faces?

4. What examples of pride in physical appearance do you find in the poem? Explain.

5. In what specific ways might educating children about their heritage affect the

My past is a slender dancer reflected brieflyLike a leopard in fingers of fire.The future of Dahomey6 is a house of 16 doors, The totem7 of the Burundi8 counts 17 warriors—In reveres generations.While I cling to one stray Seminole9.My thoughts grow thin in the urge to travelBeyond Grandma’s tale Of why cat fur is for kitten britches;Past the wrought-iron rail of first stairsIn baby white shoes,To Ashanti10 mysteries and rituals. Back in the narrow hallway of my childhood. I cradled my knees.In limbs a smooth and long as the neck of a bud vase, I began this ancestral search that you children yield now In profile and bustBy common invention, in being and belonging.

The line of your cheeks recalls Ibo11 melodiesAs surely as oboe and flute.The sun dances a honey and cocoa duet on your faces.I see smiles that mirror schoolboy smiles

In the land called Bilad as-Sudan; I see the link between the Mississippi and the Congo.

Adrienne Rich is a U.S. poet, scholar and critic whose work exhibits her commitment to the women's movement and a lesbian/feminist aesthetic influence. Adrienne Rich, U.S. poet, scholar and critic, was born on May 16, 1929, in Baltimore, MD. She was a college student when her poems were chosen for publication. Rich's increasing commitment to the women's movement and a lesbian/feminist aesthetic influenced much of her work. She also wrote compelling books of nonfiction.

What Kind of Times Are These(1995)

There's a place between two stands of trees where the grass grows uphilland the old revolutionary road breaks off into shadowsnear a meeting-house abandoned by the persecutedwho disappeared into those shadows.

I've walked there picking mushrooms at the edge of dread, but don't be fooledthis isn't a Russian poem, this is not somewhere else but here,our country moving closer to its own truth and dread,its own ways of making people disappear.

I won't tell you where the place is, the dark mesh of the woodsmeeting the unmarked strip of light—ghost-ridden crossroads, leafmold1 paradise:

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1 Bilad as-Sudan: an Arabic expression by which Arab geographers referred to the settled African countries north of the southern edge of the Sahara. 2 Calabash: a tree that produces spherical fruit. 3 Watusi: a people of east-central Africa4 Alabaster: a mineral or rock that is soft and often used for carving. 5 Effigies: images or likeness, especially of people.6 Dahomey: old name for Benin, in west-central Africa 7 Totem: a natural object or animal believed to have spiritual significance 8 Burundi: country in east-central Africa9 Seminole: Native American tribe

I know already who wants to buy it, sell it, make it disappear.

And I won't tell you where it is, so why do I tell youanything? Because you still listen, because in times like theseto have you listen at all, it's necessaryto talk about trees.

______________________________1 Leafmold: a soil consisting mostly of decayed leaves; a fungal disease of plants in which mold develops on the leaves.

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Answer the following questions in complete in sentences with adequate detail.

1. What types or groups of people are being persecuted in the poem?

2. What does the speaker mean when she says, our country is “moving closer to its own truth and dread”?

3. What does the speaker warn us about throughout the poem? What does she implore us to do at the end of the poem? Why?

4. Why must you listen in “times like these”? 5. What societal issues that the author presents

seem to be the most important to you as a reader (consider current social issues in our world today)?