ENGL 2980, Children’s Literature
ICE #3: Writing About Poetry
Fall 2013
Goal
To analyze a poem and write a short essay about it.
Instructions
At the end of Chapter 3, Hintz and Tribunella provide an essay on Gary Soto’s poem “Ode to the Sprinkler” that serves as an example of an effective response to a poem.
For this assignment, you will be working with the poem “Ode to Pablo’s Tennis Shoes” by Gary Soto. For homework, please type up answers to the brainstorming questions and bring them with you to class (there will be an electronic version of this document that you can printout at home. In class on the 14th, you will use the suggested outline to write a short essay. For this exercise, you must work alone. The responses to the brainstorming questions are worth 10 points and the essay is worth 10 points, for a total of 20 points.
Brainstorming Questions
- As you learned from the reading, Gary Soto wrote an entire collection of odes to the things and the people of his childhood neighborhood. What does “Ode to Pablo’s Tennis Shoes” reflect about Pablo, his family, his attitudes toward school and play, and his neighborhood?
- Soto uses a great deal of figurative language to bring his poem to life. List below a least three instances that may include simile, metaphor, personification.
- In their essay, Hintz and Tribunella focus on both the joy and the pain that is present in “Ode to the Sprinkler.” How would you describe the mood of “Ode to Pablo’s Tennis Shoes”?
- An effective poetry essay includes a series of claims that the writer makes about the poem. For instance, Hintz and Tribunella make these claims about “Ode to the Sprinkler”: 1) “the speaker does not live in an affluent neighborhood but one that has a rich tradition of communal life;” 2) “Soto’s ‘Ode to the Sprinkler’ mixes lyric and narrative elements;” 3) “In ‘Ode to the Sprinkler,’ everyday life is infused with drama;” 4) “One of the most striking elements of the poem is the way it uses Spanish vocabulary…;” and 5) “The poem mostly celebrates a simply summertime pleasure. Yet it ends with a note of warning…”. Below, list at least two claims that you wish to make about “Ode to Pablo’s Tennis Shoes”:
Suggested Outline
Paragraph One: Introduce the author and the title of the poem, describe the speaker, and summarize the poem’s action.
Paragraph Two: Make your first claim about the poem and back it up with examples from the poem.
Paragraph Three: Make your second claim about the poem and back it up with examples.
Paragraph Four: Conclude by commenting on the significance of the poem (see Hintz and Tribunella’s conclusion as a model).
“Ode to Pablo’s Tennis Shoes” by Gary Soto
They wait under Pablo’s bed,
Rain-beaten, sun-beaten,
A scuff of green
At their tips
From when he fell
In the school yard.
He fell leaping for a football
That sailed his way.
But Pablo fell and got up,
Green on his shoes,
With the football
Out of reach.
Now it’s night.
Pablo is in bed listening
To his mother laughing
to the Mexican novelas on TV.
His shoes, twin pets
That snuggle his toes,
Are under the bed.
He should have bathed,
But he didn’t.
(Dirt rolls from his palm,
Blades of grass
Tumble from his hair.)
He wants to be
Like his shoes,
A little dirty
From the road,
A little worn
From racing to the drinking fountain
A hundred times in one day.
It takes water
To make him go,
And his shoes to get him
There. He loves his shoes,
Cloth like a sail,
Rubber like
A lifeboat on rough sea.
Pablo is tired,
Sinking into the mattress.
His eyes sting from
Grass and long words in books.
He needs eight hours
Of sleep
To cool his shoes,
The tongues hanging
Out, exhausted.