Regroup/Editing Poems!

Good Morning 9th Graders!

I hope you had a fantastic weekend and are ready to continue exploring the wonderful world of poetry!

AGENDA

Period 3

1. Homework check!
2. Did you enjoy Love That Dog?
3. Some of you expressed concern about peer editing poetry. I am going to take some time to go over some ideas on how to give your peer's the best feedback you possibly can.
4. We will then take some time to peer edit today's prompt using the strategies/ideas provided.

When looking at a specific poem you might want to ask yourself:
(writinghood.com)

1.          Who is speaking? What do you know about him/her?
2.          What is being said?
3.          How is it said?
4.          Where does the poem take place? Where was it written?
5.          When does the poem take place? When was it written?
6.          Why? This question should be asked lastly, because if we bog ourselves down with the why while we are reading or just after reading, then we might create meanings that are not intended…or come away lacking understanding or enjoyment of the poem…which may cause us to judge it negatively…or abort further interest in it…causing us to be less open to other poems.


Read more: http://writinghood.com/online-writing/six-questions-to-ask-after-reading-a-poem/#ixzz27fiWiP00


 Workshop
By Billy Collins b. 1941 Billy Collins

I might as well begin by saying how much I like the title.   

It gets me right away because I’m in a workshop now   

so immediately the poem has my attention,

like the Ancient Mariner grabbing me by the sleeve.

And I like the first couple of stanzas,

the way they establish this mode of self-pointing

that runs through the whole poem

and tells us that words are food thrown down   

on the ground for other words to eat.   

I can almost taste the tail of the snake   

in its own mouth,

if you know what I mean.

But what I’m not sure about is the voice,

which sounds in places very casual, very blue jeans,   

but other times seems standoffish,

professorial in the worst sense of the word

like the poem is blowing pipe smoke in my face.   

But maybe that’s just what it wants to do.

What I did find engaging were the middle stanzas,   

especially the fourth one.

I like the image of clouds flying like lozenges   

which gives me a very clear picture.

And I really like how this drawbridge operator   

just appears out of the blue

with his feet up on the iron railing

and his fishing pole jigging—I like jigging—

a hook in the slow industrial canal below.

I love slow industrial canal below. All those l’s.

Maybe it’s just me,

but the next stanza is where I start to have a problem.   

I mean how can the evening bump into the stars?   

And what’s an obbligato of snow?

Also, I roam the decaffeinated streets.

At that point I’m lost. I need help.

The other thing that throws me off,

and maybe this is just me,

is the way the scene keeps shifting around.   

First, we’re in this big aerodrome

and the speaker is inspecting a row of dirigibles,   

which makes me think this could be a dream.   

Then he takes us into his garden,

the part with the dahlias and the coiling hose,   

though that’s nice, the coiling hose,

but then I’m not sure where we’re supposed to be.   

The rain and the mint green light,

that makes it feel outdoors, but what about this wallpaper?   

Or is it a kind of indoor cemetery?

There’s something about death going on here.

In fact, I start to wonder if what we have here   

is really two poems, or three, or four,   

or possibly none.

But then there’s that last stanza, my favorite.

This is where the poem wins me back,

especially the lines spoken in the voice of the mouse.

I mean we’ve all seen these images in cartoons before,

but I still love the details he uses

when he’s describing where he lives.

The perfect little arch of an entrance in the baseboard,   

the bed made out of a curled-back sardine can,   

the spool of thread for a table.

I start thinking about how hard the mouse had to work   

night after night collecting all these things

while the people in the house were fast asleep,   

and that gives me a very strong feeling,

a very powerful sense of something.

But I don’t know if anyone else was feeling that.   

Maybe that was just me.

Maybe that’s just the way I read it.

Billy Collins, “Workshop” from The Art of Drowning. Copyright © 1995 by Billy Collins. All rights are controlled by the University of Pittsburgh Press. Reprinted with the permission of the University of Pittsburgh Press, www.pitt.edu/~press/.

Buy or borrow this book:

Source: The Art of Drowning (1995)

Please post a reaction to the information/poems provided today and/or the value of workshopping our own poems in this class. Develop your thoughts and respond to others in order tio receive full credit!

Period 4

1. Poetry Prompt

ANY QUESTIONS? Please ask!