PoetryWhether telling a story, capturing a single moment, or describing nature in a completely new way, poetry is the most musical of all literary forms. These terms will help you discuss the variety of poetry you’ll encounter in this unit:Narrative - tells a story with ___________, a _________ and a
_________ Lyric - expresses _________ and ________________
Form - describes the _________ of a poem. Some poems are written in regular groups of lines called ___________. Others, like __________ follow strict syllable and line counts.
Rhythm, rhyme, and sound devices,- such as _____________________ and _______________________, give poetry a musical quality.
Figurative Language - such as __________, ____________, and _____________ – allows the poet to draw vibrant and creative comparisons.
Haiku
A haiku poem has ________ lines, where the _______ and _______ lines have __________ moras, and the _________________ line has ____________. The pattern in this Japanese genre is __-___-___.
Stanza
In poetry, a stanza is a _________________of four or more lines having a __________ __________, ________, or rhyming scheme
Alliteration
It is a stylistic device in which a number of _____________________, having the same ____________ consonant ___________________, occur close together in a ____________________.
Onomatopoeia
Defined as a word which __________________ the natural sounds of a thing. It creates a sound effect that ________________ the thing described, making the description more _________________ and interesting.
Simile
that makes a indirect __________________, showing _________________ between two different things.
Metaphor
that makes an direct implicit, implied, or hidden ______________ between two things that are ____________, but which share some common characteristics.
Personification
a __________ – an ________ or an _____________ – is given ___________ attributes. The non-human objects are portrayed in such a way that we __________they have the ability to act like human beings.
Sensory imagery
represent ____________, ___________, and ___________ in such a way that it appeals to our ____________ ___________
Ballad
A type of ______________________ poem in which a story often talks about folk or legendary tales. It may take the form of a moral lesson or a song.
Distinguishing Features of Ballads:
mostly rely on simple and _____________________________, or __________________ from its origin.
Stories about _____________________, ____________________, _________________, and _________________________ are standard ingredients of the ballad.
______________________ of certain lines at regular intervals. Ballads seldom offer a ________________ ________________ about a certain _________________,
_________________, or ______________________.
Refain
Refrain is a ___________, a ___________, a set, or a group of lines that appears at the end of stanza, or appears where a poem ____________ into different sections
Who Am I?
The trees ask me,
And the sky,
And the sea asks me,
Who am I?
The grass asks me,
And the Sand,
And the rocks ask me
Who am I?
The wind tells me
At nightfall,
And the rain tells me.
Someone small.
Someone small
Someone small
But a piece
of
it
all.
Felice Holman
For the previous poem determine:
What is the structure? Of each stanza:
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What do you notice about the Punctuation?: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Figurative language: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Can the stanza’s be read out of order? Explain ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
How would you paraphrase the poem?: _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
What is the message or thematic focus of this poem?: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Is there any other poems with similar themes? Which?: __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
What type of poem is this? ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Oak After Dark
As nighttime rustles at my knee,
I stand in silent gravity
And quietly continue chores
Of feeding leaves and sealing pores.
While beetles whisper in my bark,
While warblers roost in branches dark,
I stretch my roots into the hill
And slowly, slowly, drink my fill.
A thousand crickets scream my name,
Yet I remain the same, the same.
I do not rest, I do not sleep,
And all my promises I keep:
To stand while all the seasons fly,
To anchor the earth,
To touch the sky.
Joyce Sidman
Dark Emperor & Other Poems of the Night
For the previous poem determine:
What is the structure? Of each stanza:
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What do you notice about the Punctuation?: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Figurative language: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Can the stanza’s be read out of order? Explain ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
How would you paraphrase the poem?: _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
What is the message or thematic focus of this poem?: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Is there any other poems with similar themes? Which?: __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
What type of poem is this? ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
After a Bath
After my bath I try, try, try
to wipe myself till I’m dry, dry, dry.
Hands to wipeAnd fingers and toes And two wet legs
And a shiny nose.
Just think how much less time I’d take if I were a dog
and could
Shake,
Shake, Shake.
~Aileen Fisher
For the previous poem determine:
What is the structure? Of each stanza:
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
What do you notice about the Punctuation?: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Figurative language: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Can the stanza’s be read out of order? Explain ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
How would you paraphrase the poem?: _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
What is the message or thematic focus of this poem?: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Is there any other poems with similar themes? Which?: ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
What type of poem is this? ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Silvery
Silvery,Silvery,
Over theTrees,
The moon driftsBy on a Runaway Breeze.
Dozily,Dozily,
Deep in her Bed,
A little girlDreams with the
Moon in her Head.
~Dennis Lee
Beach Time
We’re driving to the beach now,The air’s potato chips-so salty on my fingers,so salty on my lips.
We’re running on the beach now,The waves play with the sea.I wonder if I’m chasing themor if they’re chasing me.
We have to leave the beach now,Good-bye sand and sun and foam.But in my hand I hold a shellto bring the beach back home.
~Marilyn Singer
For the previous poems determine:
Compare each poems; how is the structure different for each? Of each stanza:
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What do you notice about the Punctuation?: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Figurative language: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Can the stanza’s be read out of order? Explain ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
How would you paraphrase the each poem?: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
What is the message or thematic focus of each poem? Are the similar or different?: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Do they have similar themes? _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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What type of poem are they? ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Sand House
I built a house One afternoonWith bucket, cupAnd tablespoon.
Then scooped a shovelFull of shoeOn to to addThe second floor.
But when the fingers Of the seaReached up and wavedA wave at me,
It tumbled down Like dominoesAnd disappearedBetween my toes.
~J. Patrick Lewis
For the previous poem determine:
What is the structure? Of each stanza:
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What do you notice about the Punctuation?: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Figurative language: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Can the stanza’s be read out of order? Explain ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
How would you paraphrase the poem?: _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
What is the message or thematic focus of this poem?: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Is there any other poems with similar themes? Which?: __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
What type of poem is this? ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
How to Save the World in 100 Words(for O, The Oprah Magazine)
For me---it is the realization that I cannot save the world.The world is neither time nor money.
For me---it is that thing in front of me:The man in prison for a horrible crimewho has become my brotherMy neighbor’s sons who talk football to meover the back fenceThe yellow jackets who have made their home by my deck
All the things I say I don’t have time to do but reallydon’t have time to don’t do
For me---it is the joy of being aliveFor me---it is the living
I clock this in at 99 words. I wonder what I missed.
~Nikki GiovanniBicycles: Love Poems
For the previous poem determine:
What is the structure? Of each stanza:
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What do you notice about the Punctuation?: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Figurative language: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Can the stanza’s be read out of order? Explain ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
How would you paraphrase the poem?: _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
What is the message or thematic focus of this poem?: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Is there any other poems with similar themes? Which?: ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
What type of poem is this? ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
ArithmeticBy Carl Sandburg
Arithmetic is where numbers fly like pigeons in and out of your head.Arithmetic tells you how many you lose or win if you know how many you had before you lost or won.Arithmetic is seven eleven all good children go to heaven- or five six bundle of sticks.Arithmetic is numbers you squeeze from your head to your hand to your pencil to your paper till you get the answer.
Arithmetic is where the answer is right and everything is nice and you can look out of the window and see the blue sky- or the answer is wrong and you have to start all over and try again and see how it comes out this time.
If you take a number and double it and double it again and then double it a few more times, the number gets bigger and bigger and goes higher and higher and only arithmetic can tell you what the number is when you decide to quit doubling.
Arithmetic is where you have to multiply-and you carry the multiplication table in your head and hope you won’t lose it.If you have two animal crackers, one good and one bad, and you eat one and a striped zebra with streaks all over him eats the other, how many animal crackers will you have if somebody offers you five six seven and you say No no no and you sayNay nay nay and you say Nix nix nix?If you ask your mother for one fried egg for breakfast and she gives you two fried eggs and you eat both of them, who is better at arithmetic, you or your mother?
For the previous poem determine:
What is the structure? Of each stanza:
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What do you notice about the Punctuation?: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Figurative language: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Can the stanza’s be read out of order? Explain ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
How would you paraphrase the poem?: _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
What is the message or thematic focus of this poem?: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Is there any other poems with similar themes? Which?: _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
What type of poem is this? ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Michael is Afraid of the Storm
Lightning is angry in the night.Thunder spanks our house.Rain is hating our old elm-
It punishes the boughs.
Now I am next to eight years old,And crying’s not for me.
But if I touch my mother’s hand,Perhaps no one will see.
And if I keep herself in sight-Follow her busy dress-
No one will notice my wild eye,No one will laugh, I guess.
By Gwendolyn Brooks
For the previous poem determine:
What is the structure? Of each stanza:
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What do you notice about the Punctuation?: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Figurative language: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Can the stanza’s be read out of order? Explain ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
How would you paraphrase the poem?: _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
What is the message or thematic focus of this poem?: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Is there any other poems with similar themes? Which?: _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
What type of poem is this? ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
If by Rudyard Kipling
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,
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,
If 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 knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools;
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:
If 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,
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,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And — which is more — you’ll be a Man, my son!
Impostors (n) – people who trick or deceive others by pretending to be what they are not
Virtue (n) – moral goodness
Paraphrase the ideas in Kipling’s poem “If” into your own words to understand the message.
Kipling’s words: Your words:
Comprehension:
1. List 3 situations and behaviors the speaker includes in “If-.”
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2. What happens if all the conditions are met? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
3. What is the theme of this poem? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Thumbprint
In the heel of my thumbare whorls, whirls, wheelsin a unique design:mine alone.What a treasure to own!My own flesh, my own feelings.No other, however grand or base,can ever contain the same.My signature,thumbing the pages of my time.My universe key,my singularity.Impress, implant,I am myself,of all my atom parts I am the sum.And out of my blood and my brainI make my own interior weather,my own sun and rain.Imprint my mark upon the world,whatever I shall become.
~ Eve Merriam
Unique (adj) – unlike any other; singular
Base (adj) – lowly; inferior
Fable
Ralph Waldo Emerson
The mountain and the squirrelHad a quarrel,And the former called the latter, "little prig":Bun replied,You are doubtless very big,But all sorts of things and weatherMust be taken in togetherTo make up a year,And a sphere.And I think it no disgraceTo occupy my place.If I'm not so large as you,You are not so small as I,And not half so spry:I'll not deny you makeA very pretty squirrel track;Talents differ; all is well and wisely put;If I cannot carry forests on my back,Neither can you crack a nut
Spry (adj) – full of life; nimble
Based on the ideas in the previous two (2) poems what is the thematic focus of the poems? What message do these poems share? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Which of these poems come closest to stating your life motto? Explain
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Comprehension
Summarize the conversation in “Fable.”
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What does Eve Merriam describe in “Thumbprint”?
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What are the “whorls, whirls, wheels” Merriam describes? What type of figurative language is this an example of?
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Interpret
Why does the squirrel compare its place in the world to the parts of the year?
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What does Emerson suggest about the value of the individual?
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Why is the speaker’s thumbprint so precious to her?
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How does a thumbprint help Merriam make a point about individuality?
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Who Am I?
The trees ask me,
And the sky,
And the sea asks me,
Who am I?
The grass asks me,
And the Sand,
And the rocks ask me
Who am I?
The wind tells me
At nightfall,
And the rain tells me.
Someone small.
Someone small
Someone small
But a piece
of
it
all.
Felice Holman
Hope
Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,And never stops at all,
And sweetest in the gale is heard;And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird That kept so many warm.
I've heard it in the chillest land,And on the strangest sea; Yet, never, in extremity,It asked a crumb of me.
By Emily Dickinson
Perches - settles
Thoughts,
I love the Autumn,And yet I cannot say All the thoughts and thingsThat make one feel this way.
I love walking on the angry shore, To watch the angry sea; Where summer people were before, But now there's only me.
I love wood fires at night That have a ruddy glow. I stare at the flames And think of long ago.
I love the feeling down inside me That says to run away To come and be a gypsy And laugh the gypsy way.
The tangy taste of apples, The snowy mist at morn, The wanderlust inside you When you hear the huntsman's horn.
Nostalgia - that's the Autumn, Dreaming through September Just a million lovely things I always will remember.
by Jacqueline Bouvier -1943
wanderlust – a strong desire to travel
The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,And sorry I could not travel bothAnd be one traveler, long I stoodAnd looked down one as far as I couldTo 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 thereHad worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally layIn leaves no step had trodden black.Oh, I kept the first for another day!Yet knowing how way leads on to way,I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sighSomewhere ages and ages hence:Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
By Robert Frost
Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening
Whose woods these are I think I know.His house is in the village though;He will not see me stopping hereTo watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queerTo stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lakeThe darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shakeTo ask if there is some mistake.The only other sound's the sweepOf easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.But I have promises to keep,And miles to go before I sleep,And miles to go before I sleep.
By Robert Frost
Maggie and Milly and Molly and May
Maggie and Milly and Molly and Maywent down to the beach (to play one day).
And Maggie discovered a shell that sangso sweetly she couldn't remember her troubles, and
Milly befriended a stranded star
whose rays five languid fingers were;
And molly was chased by a horrible thingwhich raced sideways while blowing bubbles: and
May came home with a smooth round stoneas small as a world and as large as alone.
For whatever we lose (like a you or a me) it's always ourselves we find in the sea.
by E. E. Cummings
The Rider
A boy told meif he roller-skated fast enoughhis loneliness couldn’t catch up to him,
the best reason I ever heardfor trying to be a champion.
What I wonder tonightpedaling hard down King William Streetis if it translates to bicycles.
A victory! To leave your lonelinesspanting behind you on some street cornerwhile you float free into a cloud of sudden azaleas,
pink petals that have never felt loneliness,no matter how slowly they fell.
Naomi Shihab Nye
The House Was Quiet and the World Was Calm The house was quiet and the world was calm. The reader became the book; and summer night
Was like the conscious being of the book. The house was quiet and the world was calm.
The words were spoken as if there was no book, Except that the reader leaned above the page,
Wanted to lean, wanted much most to be The scholar to whom his book is true, to whom
The summer night is like a perfection of thought. The house was quiet because it had to be.
The quiet was part of the meaning, part of the mind: The access of perfection to the page.
The world was calm. The truth in a calm world, In which there is no other meaning, itself
Is calm, itself is summer and night, itself Is the reader leaning late and reading there.
By Wallace Stevens
Fishing On The Susquehanna In July
I have never been fishing on the Susquehannaor on any river for that matterto be perfectly honest.
Not in July or any monthhave I had the pleasure -- if it is a pleasure --of fishing on the Susquehanna.
I am more likely to be foundin a quiet room like this one --a painting of a woman on the wall,
a bowl of tangerines on the table --trying to manufacture the sensationof fishing on the Susquehanna.
There is little doubtthat others have been fishingon the Susquehanna,
rowing upstream in a wooden boat,sliding the oars under the waterthen raising them to drip in the light.
But the nearest I have ever come tofishing on the Susquehannawas one afternoon in a museum in Philadelphia,
when I balanced a little egg of timein front of a paintingin which that river curled around a bend
under a blue cloud-ruffled sky,dense trees along the banks,and a fellow with a red bandana
sitting in a small, greenflat-bottom boatholding the thin whip of a pole.
That is something I am unlikelyever to do, I remembersaying to myself and the person next to me.
Then I blinked and moved onto other American scenesof haystacks, water whitening over rocks,even one of a brown harewho seemed so wired with alertnessI imagined him springing right out of the frame
by Billy Collins