Assessment 5

In assessment 5 we need to choose one of the poems that the teachers

gave to us on their website. We then had to analyse the poem according
to the elements they asked. First I will explain the differences in the literal
and figurative meanings of each line and then I will explain what I think
of the poems elements.

Frederick Erasmus
1/3/2015

What I Found in My Desk

by Bruce Lansky

1 A ripe peach with an ugly bruise,

2 a pair of stinky tennis shoes,
3 a day-old ham-and-cheese on rye,
4 a swimsuit that I left to dry,
5 a pencil that glows in the dark,
6 some bubble gum found in the park,
7 a paper bag with cookie crumbs,
8 an old kazoo that barely hums,
9 a spelling test I almost failed,
10 a letter that I should have mailed,
11 and one more thing, I must confess,
12 a note from teacher: Clean This Mess!!!!

Meanings
Literal meaning

Vs

Figurative meaning

1. A ripe peach with an ugly bruise,

Here with can mean plus instead of together
meaning that there are two separate things and
one is really ugly.

In my mind I see a picture of a piece of fruit

that got hurt when it fell so now it has a really
big part that is flat.

2. a pair of stinky tennis shoes,

It means that there is two shoes that are really
smelly.

A pair means that it has two parts, but I have

heard people say, are you two a pair?
meaning to ask if they are together as a
couple. So here the stinky shoes are in love.

3. a day-old ham-and-cheese on rye,

A day old means really fresh so there is ham and
there is some cheese staked on top of a piece of
bread.

a sandwich with a hamand-cheese filling.

4. a swimsuit that I left to dry,

It doesnt make sense but I think you can
It means that the swimsuit was put there to get
understand that to means towards something so dry, and will later be put away.
I turned left with my car to go to a place called
Dry.
5. a pencil that glows in the dark,
The word that means that it can do it,
therefore it does not always do it. The pencil is
like a glow-worm that can glow when it wants
to.
a glowing pencil
6. some bubble gum found in the park,
It can mean that I found a paper with a notice that I found some bubble gum and put it in my desk.
Mr. Bubble Gum has been found today in the
We had to have found it a time before now.
park, and is now not missing anymore.
7. a paper bag with cookie crumbs,
Two separate things, he found a bag and next to
it he found crumbs.

He found a bag with crumbs inside of it.

8. an old kazoo that barely hums,

He found an instrument that is humming on its
own but really softly

He found an instrument and tried to use it. It

does not work well because the sound is not
loud enough to hear when one wants to play
music on it.

9. a spelling test I almost failed,

He found a test paper that has been checked by
the teacher and it has a passing score on it.

He found an old test of his in which he almost

did not get a pass grade for.

10. a letter that I should have mailed,

He found an envelope or a letter

He found something that he had to have sent

to somebody, but he did not send it

11. and one more thing, I must confess,

He has to go for confession every time he sins.
Confession is when you go into a small room and
a priest listens to what you feel guilty about.

He wants to tell you the truth about something

he was hiding from people.

12. a note from teacher: Clean This Mess!!!!

The teacher is saying to clean his desk out, or to
empty the desk.

The teacher is saying to fix the problem.

Elements of poetry
Structure I think the poet used a good structure for this poem.
I can see the items in the desk listed and he also uses part of
speech or the articles in front of the items to make it look like a
list. He did not use any paragraphs.

Personification 1 the fruit got hurt or bruised badly, but we can

use ugly and bruised for living as well as on-livings. 3 He
said a day old in line 3, which means stale or rotten. But when
we speak about people we say the child is a day old which is
new and not old. 8 In line 8 he spoke about a kazoo instrument
that hums, but people can hum as well.

Pun 12 he got a letter from the teacher to clean the mess in his
table, but his desk was too messy, therefore he was only able to
find the letter after he had already cleaned his desk, but then it
was too late.

I did not find any idioms nor similes in this poem.

Neither similes nor idioms were found here.

Reference list
Poem
http://www.gigglepoetry.com/poem.aspx?PoemID=137&CategoryID=40
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/figurative
Pictures
http://fractalart.gr/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/poetryy.jpg
http://freeseamlesstextures.com/images/40-dirty-paper-background-sml.jpg
http://static03.mediaite.com/themarysue/uploads/2013/08/literally.png
http://www.urbandictionary.com/render_definition.php?defid=1050384 (pun)
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-c1wQaXoLRwk/TpHBiBuA30I/AAAAAAAAAHY/BE416PM1i7w/s320/Idiom+Preview.jpg
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/78/0a/dc/780adc81121d2293422f29619c200ae7.jpg (personification)
http://www.articlesweb.org/blog/wp-content/gallery/what-is-a-simile/simile-5.jpg
http://pad2.whstatic.com/images/thumb/b/b3/Write-Shape-Poems-Intro.jpg/670px-Write-Shape-Poems-Intro.jpg (struture)
http://www.kazoos.com/pub/kazoodia.gif
https://www.google.co.th/search?q=define+nor&safe=off&biw=1242&bih=566&source=lnms&sa=X&ei=3TQcVa_tL4K9ugSz6Y
DIDA&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAA&dpr=1.1 (nor)
http://www.inmyyellowcardigan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/IMG_3109.jpg (rye)
https://www.identity-links.com/img/ucart/images/pimage/59938/main.jpg (pencil)