In your text read the explanatory material in the chapter ³Characters and Setting: Who, What, Where, and

When
in Poetry.´

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-Show how clues and information in the poem about the setting affect a poem's meaning for a reader. Be sure to
state the theme as a complete sentence and such that it can be applied to life outside the poem.

*Light-hearted and tells about how to become a kid again and the simplicity yet naivety of the life of a kid. Lots of
personification ³now the heart has taken on gloves and mufflers´ ³Trees in children¶s yards speak in clearer
tongues´. Also lots of similes and metaphors ³like a bed made by a child, or a yard littered with balloons´ ³the
roots of the tiniest grasses curl toward one another like secret smiles´ This emphasizes children¶s effect on their
environment and our lives. (Adults must keep having fun and not be too serious to remain a kid at heart. Children
just make people esp. adults happy.)

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-Show how clues and information in the poem about the setting affect a poem's meaning for a reader. Be sure to
state the theme as a complete sentence and such that it can be applied to life outside the poem.

*Half of the poem rhymes and the other half doesn¶t. Lots of references to places in Harlem, some to his home
town and to some musicians, ³Bessie, Bop or Bach´. Went to Columbia and had to write a page, ³and let that page
come out of you.´ Talks about being dif. Because he¶s the only black student and is older than the class, but has
similar tastes to white people. (We might come from different backgrounds and ethnicities, but we are American
and part of each other whether we want to be or not.)

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-Show how clues and information in the poem about the setting affect a poem's meaning for a reader. Be sure to
state the theme as a complete sentence and such that it can be applied to life outside the poem.

*Very short poem with no punctuation marks. A metaphor about the death of the wild west, with the death of
Buffalo Bill who symbolized the Wild West, an important era in American history. (When you kill something that
symbolizes something bigger, you kill all of it.)

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-Show how clues and information in the poem about the setting affect a poem's meaning for a reader. Be sure to
state the theme as a complete sentence and such that it can be applied to life outside the poem.

*Rhyme-scheme, AABA format. Takes place in the woods, on ³the darkest evening of the year´. A man watches
with his horse a forest fill with snow, and although he is taken by itµs beauty and allure, his horse reminds him of
his ³promises to keep´. (It is easy to get distracted and change the course of your journey, but you must continue
on the path you have chosen.)

In your text read the explanatory material in the chapters ³Words: The Building Blocks of Poetry,´ and
³Imagery: The Poem's Link to the Senses.´ In addition read the following poems:

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-Be sure to state the theme as a complete sentence and such that it can be applied to life outside the
poem.

*This whole poem is a metaphor, as he is not literally eating poetry or getting on his knees and licking the
librarians hands. All in the span of 18 lines, a man gobbles up poems in a library, mystifies the librarian, turns
into a dog, and terrifies the librarian. Abstract diction, it is an extended metaphor in which Strand is dog hungry
for poetry, and the librarian represents the terrifying effect of poetry when Strand eats all the poetry and the
librarian begins to weep. (Poetry can have a powerful effect on a human, and literally transform them.)

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Be sure to state the theme as a complete sentence and such that it can be applied to life outside the
poem.

*This poem is filled with metaphors and symbols all about nature, ³how I swam away in freezing
mountain water narrow mossy canyon tumbling down«´. The poem is about how the author
represents a memory of her people, the Navajo, and how their simple ways of life are no longer but yet
live on. ³The old ones who remember me are gone, the old songs are all forgotten.´
(People are reflections of their ancestors, and whether their ways extinct or not, they live on in us.)

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-Be sure to state the theme as a complete sentence and such that it can be applied to life outside the
poem.

*The speaker says that ³the Soul selects her own Society²´ and then ³shuts the Door,´ refusing to
admit anyone else²even if ³an Emperor be kneeling / Upon her mat².´ Indeed, the soul often
chooses no more than a single person from ³an ample nation´ and then closes ³the Valves of her
attention´ to the rest of the world. (People choose a few companions who matter to them and exclude
everyone else from their inner consciousness.)

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-Be sure to state the theme as a complete sentence and such that it can be applied to life outside the
poem.

*..."Now, of my threescore years and ten," The poet says that of this seventy years granted to him
(which is the age given to man to live according to The Bible), he has already spent his twenty years
which means he is twenty years old. Then he says: "And take from seventy springs a score,
It only leaves me fifty more."..This means he has only fifty years left to live which is a very short time
to relish the beauty of the cherry trees. (Time is fleeting and one must take as much opportunity as
possible to enjoy what is present in one's lifetime.)

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-Be sure to state the theme as a complete sentence and such that it can be applied to life outside the
poem.

*Ideally, love should be spontaneous and unexpected but the reality is very different. The daily dreary
routine of family life destroys the spontaneous give and take of true love. It gets completely choked
and suppressed by the dull monotonous and boring duties of daily household life like cooking a meal
for the family, feeding the baby or taking the clothes to the cleaners. (Love should grow up like a wild
iris in the fields, but it does not.)
3. Define ³image´ and ³imagery.´ Define and be able to recognize examples of tactile, auditory, visual, and
olfactory images.
4. Be aware that images affect the reader emotionally.

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-Understand the importance of economy of language in poetry. Be sure to state the theme as a comp1ete
sentence and such that it can be applied to life outside the poem.

*This is about a woman is who is very proud of her hips. Probes the serious subjects of freedom, equality, and
self-esteem. The speaker uses a common object but unusual writing subject, hips, to explore these subjects in
relation to the roles of woman and African American. (Don¶t be ashamed of your traits and personalities, be proud
of them.)

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-Understand the importance of economy of language in poetry. Be sure to state the theme as a comp1ete sentence
and such that it can be applied to life outside the poem.

* He recounts how religion taught him to fear Christ as a young boy which influenced him to challenge religion
and eventually find faith in Christ. As a child, he expected to be punished, but the punishment never comes and
now as a man he realizes he is ready to accept Christ as he has found faith in Christ and in return his religion.
(Sometimes in how we lose religion, we find our faith in Christ.)

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-Understand the importance of economy of language in poetry. Be sure to state the theme as a comp1ete sentence
and such that it can be applied to life outside the poem.

*This poem is about a group of soldiers and their dangerous encounters during WWI. It recounts the author seeing
one of his soldiers die form chlorine gas ³As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.´ The author talks about how
cruel and haunting the death was, and therefore ³it is sweet and honorable to die for the fatherland´ is a lie,
because it is not sweet at all. (In wartime, death can be undignified and bitter, which means dying for the
fatherland is not sweet and honorable.)

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-Understand the importance of economy of language in poetry. Be sure to state the theme as a comp1ete sentence
and such that it can be applied to life outside the poem.

*In the poem Thomas recounts the actions of wise, good, wild and grave men on their death bed and urges his
father to take a similar route. He poses his father to be brave in the face of death, and to not just go quietly into the
night. ³Do not go gentle into that good night« Rage, rage against the dying of the light´. Thomas uses the
symbols of ³day´ and ³night´ to symbolize the struggle between ³life´ and ³death´. (One should not die without
fighting for one¶s life, or after life.)

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-Understand the importance of economy of language in poetry. Be sure to state the theme as a comp1ete sentence
and such that it can be applied to life outside the poem.

*Nikki-Rosa is about a mature black woman reminiscing of her childhood. She realizes that not many people are
going to understand that poverty wasn¶t that awful or dealing with ³no inside toilet´ but the fact that ³white
biographers´ are not going to capture the essence of her childhood and the happiness that she felt while ³living in
Woodlawn´. The theme of the communal nature of black communities as something to be celebrated and
preserved resounds in much of Giovanniµs work. ³Black love is Black wealth and they¶ll probably talk about my
hard childhood« all the while I was quite happy.´ (People from other backgrounds are so easy to judge you
without any genuine understanding of you.)

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-Be sure to state the theme as a complete sentence and such that it can be applied to life outside the poem. 

* Focuses on a woman's search for her identity. By following the path of dependence to independence, the woman
is able to determine her unique self. While in search of her identity, each thing she tries to be requires the man's
support. When she tries to be "a blade / of grass«he wouldn't agree / to be the dandelion" (2-3). When she tries to
be "a robin singing«he refused to be / her tree" (5,7-8). Though the woman tries her best to conform herself to the
man, she completely is unable to. Each time she is met with his resistance, until she waits no more and becomes
her own woman. (Women are independent and free to be whatever they want, and men don¶t have the power to
change that.)

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-Be sure to state the theme as a complete sentence and such that it can be applied to life outside the poem.

*The poem addresses what happens to aspirations that are postponed or lost. Hughes uses questions, alliteration
and similes to describe destruction that occurs in life physically and metaphorically when you delay one¶s deepest
desires. (Having to postpone one¶s deepest desires can lead to destruction.)
 
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-Be sure to state the theme as a complete sentence and such that it can be applied to life outside the poem.
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*The imagery in Gary Soto¶s ³Oranges´ reflects a time of innocence when we were preparing for future
endeavors of emotional risk and personal identity. A relatable poem about a child¶s first walk with his first lady,
and the sweetness about it all. The poem tells a story about Soto¶s 2 oranges in his pocket, and uses one to pay for
a chocolate bar, and satisfyingly ate his last orange as a reward for his successful first date, ³someone might have
thought I was making a fire in my hands.´ (Confidence

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-Be sure to state the theme as a complete sentence and such that it can be applied to life outside the poem. 

*The poem Metaphors is exactly that, a 9 lined riddle that acknowledges itself as a riddle. Through images and
descriptions, she alludes to her state of pregnancy, as her poem is a metaphor entirely. ³A melon strolling on two
tendrils´ is a metaphor for a pregnant woman¶s huge round belly on 2 skinny legs.Plath describes herself as "a
means, a stage, a cow in calf," none of which seem to fit the bill for flattering or joyful in relation to pregnancy.
(Once you are pregnant and have no control over the situation, you can be helpless as there is no turning around.)

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-Be sure to state the theme as a complete sentence and such that it can be applied to life outside the poem. 

*The first stanza describes the conditions present in the world (things falling apart, anarchy, etc.), and the second
surmises from those conditions that a monstrous Second Coming is about to take place, not of the Jesus we first
knew, but of a new messiah, a ³rough beast,´ the slouching sphinx rousing itself in the desert and lumbering
toward Bethlehem. Lots of symbols and allusions to darkness and destruction, ³the ceremony of innocence is
drowned´ ³were vexed to darkness by a rocking cradle´.(In light of all the suffering and pain in the world, The
Second Coming is going to be more similar to an apocalypse than the first coming.)

1. Define and recognize examples of figures of speech, including metaphor, explicit metaphor, simile, and
personification.
2. State reasons why poets depend on figurative language as one of the main characteristics of poetry.
4. Understand the meaning of situational irony.
5. Define and recognize examples of synesthesia, apostrophe, and pun.


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* Poem about four old men playing horseshoes. This poem is filled with symbols, as the old men playing symbolize the
old men coming to their deaths,

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-Be sure to state the theme as a complete sentence and such that it can be applied to life outside the poem. 

* Describes the mental distraction posed by irrelevant details at even the most crucial moments²even at the
moment of death. The poem then becomes even weirder and more macabre by transforming the tiny, normally
disregarded fly into the figure of death itself, as the fly¶s wing cuts the speaker off from the light until she cannot
³see to see.´ (Sometimes even at death, we are distracted by the most insignificant things.)



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-Be sure to state the theme as a complete sentence and such that it can be applied to life outside the poem. 

*The Pool Players, seven at the Golden Shovel: We real cool. We left school. We lurk late. We strike straight. We
sing sin. We thin gin. We jazz June. We die soon. (If you live life fast and carelessly, that is how you will die.)




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-Be sure to state the theme as a complete sentence and such that it can be applied to life outside the poem. 

*In Hardy¶s ³The Man He Killed´, Hardy tells of the complications of war and how the average man (with slang
terms and cut off jargin) would react in situations outside of war with the same people. The narrator notes that due
to war, he has to kill this man, but not that he wants to, or that they couldn¶t be friends in a different situation.




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1. Define meter and metrical pattern.

2. Define ³iambic´ and understand that it is the most common type of ³foot´ in the English language.

3. Define and identify assonance and alliteration.

4. Define rhyme and understand how to mark a poem's rhyme scheme (with letters of the alphabet).

5. Define stanza.

6. Define and recognize common forms of poetry such as couplets, sonnets, ballads, common measure, lyrics, and
free verse.

7. Identify which form is used in each of the following poems: ³To a Friend Whose Work Has Come to
Triumph,´ ³Old Men Pitching Horseshoes,´ ³I Heard a Fly Buzz,´ ³The Shape of History,´ and ³Daffodils.´

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TEXTBOOK ASSIGNMENT: In your text, read the explanatory material in the chapters ³Symbolism
and Allusion: Windows to Wide Expanses of Meaning´ and ³Myths: Systems of Symbolic Allusion in
Poetry.´ In addition, read the following poems:
 ³Landscape with the Fall of Icarus,´ Williams
³Wild Geese,´ Oliver
³A Wedding Sonnet,´ Viorst
³Waiting for Icarus,´ Rukeyser
After you have finished studying this lesson, you will be able to:
1. Define and distinguish among myths, allusions, and symbolism.

2. Understand the differences between private, cultural, and universal symbols.

3. Recognize that the same myth can recur in various poems.

4. Discuss what a poet's use of myth and allusion contribute to a poem.

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TEXTBOOK ASSIGNMENT: Read the following poems:
³Next Please,´ Larkin
³True Love,´ Viorst
³Let America Be America Again,´ Hughes

After you have finished studying this lesson, you will be able to:

1. Define and differentiate between subject and theme in poetry.

2. Determine the theme(s) in various poems (see previous programs).

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4. Understand that all poems have theme but that theme is not necessarily the most important aspect of a poem.

5. Be able to cite evidence from a poem to support your statement of the theme.

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