Reading Poetry When was the last time you ‘+ sat in front of the TV and watched poetry? + got in the shower and belted out a couple of lines from the poem that was stuck in your head? ‘+ laughed in the car because the poem on the bumper of the car in front of you was so funny? You're probably thinking “Well ... Never!” But you probably have done these things. Commercials, songs, and bumper stickers can all be forms of poetry. Poetry is a type of literature that combines language, images, sound, and rhythm. Most poetry written in verse instead of prose—it has lines instead of going all the way to the margin. Some poems have words that rhyme, and some do not. Think of some poetry you have heard or seen recently. Write a line or verse from your favorite song, hymn, or television jingle. Why Read Poctry? Poems can help you understand and express emotions. They can introduce you to different backgrounds and cultures. Poems can connect you to the past, help you understand the present, and encourage you to dream about the future. Poems appeal to your senses and your imagination. Some poems can remind you of important facts. For example, many people memorize which months have 28, 30, and 31 days with the little poem that starts out “Thirty days have September..” There are as many reasons to read poetry as there are poems to read. What 2 the Plan? There are several ways poetry is different from stories, articles, and other kinds of prose. + Poetry looks different. It can have short lines or long lines—they don’t go all the way to ‘the margin. It can have groupings of lines called stanzas. Stanzas group ideas together, something like paragraphs do in prose. + Poetry uses sound more than prose does. Many poems have rhythm—a pattern of beats, or stressed syllables. Some poems have rhyme—repeated sounds at the ends of words.+ Poetry uses more imagery than most prose does. Imagery is language that helps readers see, hear, feel, smell, and taste the things a poem describes. Poetry and prose are also alike in some ways. In particular, both often have a theme, or main, message—an idea about life, a way of seeing something, or a thought about an experience. hy Do 9 Look For? : The speaker in a poem isthe voice 3 that speaks to the reader. The i < ~ speaker is not necessarily the Robert Frost poet. ive wished a bird would fy Lee Ph rd would fly away, And not sing 1ouse all day: i sing by my house all day: Each line adds to the meaning of the poem. A stanza is a group of lines that are combined to forma unit in a poem, Mood is the feeling you get from a poem. Writers use different words and details to create the mood. Rhyme is the repetition of the same sound at the end of words. Hou Do 7 Read I? ‘These reading strategies will be especially useful when you read poetry. Visualize: Try to picture the subject of the Connect: Ask yourself how the poem's message relates to something or someone in poem in your mind’s eye. your life. Evaluate: Make judgments about the poem. Question: Ask yourself questions about parts you read. Do you like the speaker? Is the of the poem you don’t understand. Ask why the poet included certain details or used poem serious or humorous? Is it clear? Would you share it with a friend? certain words.Get Ready to Read! Connect QuickWrite When you see a bug nearby, what is your first reaction? Do you enjoy watching it, or is your first thought, “Yuck, go away!” Does your reaction depend on where you find the bug—for example, in the backyard rather than in your bedroom? Take a moment to write down your thoughts about bugs. In the first poem you will read, the speaker observes a spider while waiting for the food to cook at a barbecue. In the second poem, the speaker looks at a caterpillar and thinks about its life. Did You Kuo? Building Background You might have heard of Emily Dickinson before. She’s the poet who wrote the second poem you are about to read. But did you know that Dickinson never wanted to publish her poems? It's true. She called her poems “snow,” because she wanted them to remain pure. “How can you print a piece of your own soul?” she once asked. After her death, however, Dickinson's sister worked to have the poems published.What You Learn Key Goals As you read, ook for notes about these important skills. They'll help you understand the poems better. Reading Focus: Visualize Think It Over: Interpret Reading Coach: Making Sense with Punctuation Dining Together iss Sitting by the barbecue Making Sense with Punctuation waiting for sausages and hot dogs Reading poetry can be a blue-gray smoke the same color challenge because poets don’t ofthe sky always use sentences like you are used to reading. So how do you know where one thought ends and the next one begins? 5 Isee a tiny spider walking down from the sky with tiny sixfooted steps Here’s an idea: Add your own down punctuation to separate the down ideas. 10 ina perfectly straight For example, look at lines 1-7. line 1. Puta comma after hot dogs all the way inline 2. down oie 2. Puta comma after sky in line 15 then back up 4 the same line 3. Puta period after steps in line 7. rising from one cloud up to another, Now try reading your new assilver speck version aloud. Does it make 2 20. glistening more sense? at its mouth, climbing the invisible ladder.1, Interpret Can a spider really walk down from the sky? Use what you know about spiders to help. figure out what the poet means. Then, write your ideas on the lines below. How Soft a Catergillar Steps Emily Dickinson How soft a Caterpillar steps— Making Sense with Punctuation ‘Add your own punctuation marks to make this poem easier to understand. Where is the first spot you might place a period? 1 find one on my Hand From such a velvet world it comes Such plushes at command Its soundless travels just arrest My slow—terrestrial! eye Intent upon its own career ‘What use has it for me— 1. Visualize Put yourself in the speaker's place and imagine what the caterpillar looks like as it steps on your hand. On the lines below, tell what you see in your mind’s eye, 2. Reading Check Review the notes in your Foldable. Then write a sentence that summarizes how the speakers feel about the bugs they observe. 3. Visualize Which insect did you find easier to picture—the spider or the caterpillar? Write your answer on the lines below. Then write the details or images that helped you picture the insect and its movement. 1. Here, terrestrial means “ordinary; common.”4, Making Sense with Punctuation E-Z Dickinson The only punctuation marks Dickinson uses in her poem “How soft a Caterpillar steps—" are three dashes. Work with a partner to decide what punctuation you could use in place of the dashes to make the meaning of the poem clearer. Rewrite those lines below with the punctuation you chose. 5. Another Version ‘Try punctuating the rest of the poem “Dinner Together.” When you're done, exchange poems with a partner. Did you punctuate the poem in the same way? Why do you think the poet did not use regular punctuation? Discuss your ideas and write your answers below. 6. Interpret The Caterpillar In a small group, read aloud the last two lines of the poem “How soft a Caterpillar steps—.” Discuss what you think Dickinson means in those lines. Now imagine that Dickinson were a student in your class. What words might she use to get her point across if she were a kid living today? Write your response below. ‘The Spider With your group, discuss the following questions: Who normally eats dinner together? Who is having dinner together in the poem? Do you think “Dinner Together” is a 2004 title for the poem? Write your group's answers and explain your reasons on the lines below.Essay Question How do the bugs in these poems seem to feel about being watched? How can you tell? Use details from the poems to support your answer.Reading Poetry Get Ready to Read! Reading Skills vractice these skills this week as you read What is It? ‘Why is it Important? How to Do It Questioning ‘When you ask questions as you read, you're reading strategically. As you answer your questions, you're making sure that you'll get the gist of a text. Questioning is asking yourself whether information in a selection is important. Questioning is, also regularly asking yourself whether you've understood what you've read. Have a running conversa- tion with yourself as you read. Keep asking yourself, |s this idea important? Why? Do | understand What this is about? Might this information be on a test later? Connecting You'll “get into” your reading and recall information and ideas better by connecting events, emotions, and characters to your own life. Connecting means linking what you read to events in your own life or to other selections you've read. Ask yourself, Do | know someone like this? Have | ever felt this way? What else have | read that is like this selection? Literary Elemente: Rhyme aud Persouigication Rhyme isthe repetition of sounds at the end of words. For example, the words cold and bold rhyme. Blood and mud rhyme too. In poetry, often the last word of one line rhymes with the last word of another line. Some poems have a certain scheme, or set of rules, about which. lines have to rhyme. Personification is when animals, objects, or ideas are described in ways that make them seem human. For example, “The waves danced along the shore" is personification because waves can't dance—only people can! Poets often use personification to help you connect with what they're describing.Connect Freewrite Almost everyone daydreams from time to time. Daydreaming is when you sit quietly and let your mind go where it wants to. Daydreams are often pleasant mental pictures of your hopes and dreams, but they can also be a sign of your fears. Freewrite about daydreaming on the lines below. What do you think about when you daydream? Do you usually daydream during a certain season or at a certain time of day? In the first poem, you will read about daydreamers and the things they dream about. Did You Kuow? Building Background You may get in trouble for daydreaming too often in school, but many scientists agree that daydreaming is good for you. Daydreams help you learn from the past and get ideas about the future. + Daydreams may help you put yourself into someone else's shoes. When you daydream while a friend speaks, your mind may form pictures of what your friend is saying, These pictures can help you understand your friend's ideas better. + Daydreams can make you better at things you do when you're not daydreaming. For example, ifa soccer player daydreams about kicking the ball and scoring goals, he or she may play better in a real game, + Daydreams can help you relax. Thinking about peaceful and happy places can help you calm down when you're worried Reason te Read Setting a Purpose for Reading Read to find out what the speaker in a poem thinks about daydreaming. Word Power Poetry Power Poetry is organized in parts called lines and stanzas. A line is 2 word or group of words ina row. A stanza is a group of lines. + Some poetry has to follow rules. These poems have a certain number of syllables, or beats, in each line and a certain number of lines in each stanza. + Other poetry, called free verse, doesn’t have to follow any rules. Poems in free verse can have lines and stanzas of any length. The poem you are about to read is in free verse.+ When you read free verse, remember that the poet most likely chose line lengths and stanza lengths to draw your attention to certain words and ideas. What You'll Learn Key Goals As you read, look for notes about these important skills. They'll help you understand the poems better. Reading Focus: Questioning Think It Over: Analyzing Literary Element: Rhyme Reading Coach: Reading Complete Thoughts Daydreamers Daydreamers holding their bodies still for atime letting the world turn around them while their dreams hopscotch, doubledutch, dance, thoughts rollerskate, crisscross, bump into hopes and wishes. Dream thinking up new ways, looking toward new days, planning new tries, asking new whys. Eloise Greenfield Question As you read, ask yourself questions to be sure you understand the poem. The most helpful questions begin with who, what, when, where, why, and how. Reading Complete Thoughts ‘Sometimes a poet divides one complete thought into many lines of poetry. Reading a poem's punctuation can help you figure out where one thought ends and another begins. Circle the commas (,) and the period (.) in the boxed text. Reread the lines, pausing only at commas and stopping only at the period. Now use your own words to rewrite the thought on the lines below.15 20 25 30 35 40 Before long, hands will start to move again, eyes turn outward, 45 bodies shift for action, but for this moment they are still, they are the daydreamers, letting the world dizzy itself without them. ‘Scenes passing through their minds make no sound glide from hiding places promenade and return silently the children watch their memories with spi eyes seeing more than they saw before feeling more or maybe less than they felt the time before reaching with spirit-hands to touch the dreams drawn from their yesterdays They will not be the same after this growing time, this dreaming In their stillness they have moved forward toward womanhood toward manhood. This dreaming has made them new.1. Analyzing Looking at each thing the speaker says can help you understand the whole poem. Why does the speaker say the children are “seeing more than they saw before” when they “watch their memories”? 2. Reading Check Think about the poem you have read. Then write a short sentence that tells how the speaker feels about daydreaming, 3. Connecting Do you think your daydreams help you, or are they just a waste of time? Why? 4, Analyzing: Figuring Out Free-style This poem is an example of free verse. Remember that in free verse, the poet decides how long to make each line and stanza. This poem has different line lengths and stanza lengths. Look at the poem on the pages. Notice that the words flow in and out. Some stanzas are short and choppy. Other stanzas are long and flow well. Why do you think the poet decided to make the lines and stanzas so different from each other? 5. Reading Check According to the poem, how does daydreaming help a person?Get Ready to Read! Connect Sharing Ideas People love to talk about the weather. Poets, singers, writers, news reparters— everyone has his or her own opinion about it. What kind of weather makes you the happiest? Think of three reasons you enjoy your favorite kind of weather. Then share your thoughts with your class. In the first poem, you'll read about one person's feelings about rain Did You Kuow? Building Background Weather affects how you feel, how much energy you have, the way you sleep and play, and possibly even how much you get into trouble! + Studies show that people read more when the weather is colder. Students tend to do better on tests in colder months. + School children are less likely to get into trouble when the air is moist than when the air is dry. + People are healthier when they have nice weather that changes just a little from day to day rather than weather that stays the same all the time, Reason to Read Setting a Purpose for Reading Read to find out how the speaker of this poem feels about rain Word Power Poetry Terms A figure of speech is an expression, or a group of words, that has a different meaning from the exact meaning of the words. Poets often use figures of speech to compare an unfamiliar person or thing to another familiar person or thing. Some kinds of figures of speech are listed here: + Asimile is a figure of speech that uses like or as to compare two things that seem very different. For example, “friends are like water” isa simile. + Ametaphor is a figure of speech that compares seemingly unlike things without using likeor as. “Books are doors to the world” is an example of metaphor. + Personification is a figure of speech that describes an animal, object, or idea in a way that makes it seem human. “The wind bit my cheek" is an example of personification. What Youll Learn Key Goals As you read, look for notes about these important skills. They'll help you understand the poems better Reading Focus: Connecting Literary Element: Personification Reading Coach: Understanding Imagery. April Rain Song Langston Hughes Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops Let the rain sing you a lullaby. ‘The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk. The rain makes running pools in the gutter. The rain plays a little sleep-song on our roof at night— And I love the rain,1. Understanding Imagery Poets want you to see, hear, feel, smell, and taste what they are describing. “Silver liquid drops” is an example of imagery, or words that help you use your senses to see, hear, feel, smell, and taste what is being described. The image of “silver liquid drops” appeals to, or invites you to use, your sense of sight. You should try to see in your mind how the raindrops look Read lines 4-6 of the poem. Underline or highlight another example of imagery in those three lines of text. Which of your five senses—sight, hearing, touch, smell, or taste—does the image appeal to? Write your answer on the line below. 2. Connecting You'll enjoy a poem more if you link what you read to your own life. The sound of rain is. pleasant and relaxing to the speaker. How does the sound of rain make you feel? 3. Analyzing How does the title help the reader understand the poem? Use details and information from the poem to support your answer, 4, Literary Elements: Personification Personification is when animals, objects, or ideas are described in ways that make them seem human. For example, “The waves danced along the shore” is personification because waves can’t dance—only people can! Poets often use personification to help you connect with what they're describing. Think about the ways that the rain seems like a human in “April Rain Song.” List three ‘examples on the chart below. Then describe the feeling that the examples create.Example Example Example | Feeling Created 4. Essay Question How do rhyme and personification more reading poems more interesting? Use examples from the poems we read this week to support your ideas.