My Candle Burns at Both Ends

Poetry

______

My candle burns at both ends

It will not last the night;

But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends—

It gives a lovely light!

By Edna St. Vincent Millay

Name: ______

Class: ______

Poetry Unit Objectives:

You will learn to enjoy and understand poems by using close reading to unlock the deeper meaning inside of them.
You will look closely at the structure of poems and consider how form, figurative language, word choice, and sound devices influence the meaning of poems.
You will use all your understanding of poetry and the poems as models to try your hand at writing your own poems.

Strategy for Close Reading Poetry:

First Reading—Read the poem straight through for enjoyment. Try not to worry about understanding everything—just enjoy it!

Second Reading—Read for meaning. Be on the lookout for clues that will help you understand the poem, especially words or phrases that suggest emotions or feelings. Annotate the text; mark up the margins, noting these places. Also, jot down any questions that pop into your head while you’re reading.

Third Reading—As you read, pay attention to rhyme scheme and sound (repeated sounds at the end of each line, alliteration, repetition, and onomatopoeia), figurative language (simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole), and imagery (words that stimulate and create images in a sensory manner, appealing to your five senses). Mark up the margins, making notes on these aspects of the poem.

Fourth Reading—Now read the poem one last time. Consider mood (the feeling within the poem or the feeling the poem evokes in you). As you read this time, make notes in the margins on how the poem makes you feel. Think about images and sound again, and note anything new you uncover. How do these techniques contribute to the meaning of the poem? Annotate the text with notes on what you think the poet is trying to say. Last, try to answer any questions you noted earlier.

By the end of this unit, you will be able to…

Define the following poetic terms, and identify their use in poetry:

Personification (poem 2)

Alliteration (6)

Rhyme (1)

Rhythm (3)

Onomatopoeia (6)

End rhyme (1)

Internal rhyme (6)

Stanza(5)

Symbol (4)

Simile (2)

Metaphor (2)

Hyperbole (9)

Free Verse (7)

Imagery (3)

Narrative poem (3)

Rhyme scheme (1)

Sound devices(6)

Figurative language (2)

Mood (2)

Symbolism (4)

Repetition (5)

Prose (3)

Ode (2)

Line (1)

Read, appreciate, comprehend, and write poetry using these poetic devices and techniques.

Poem One: Cover Poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay

First Step: This is one of my all time favorite poems. I heard it and read it many times before I learned the title of the poem. Use the close reading strategy outlined to read this poem and get to know its meaning. Mark up the text in the white space around the poem.

Second Step: Poetic Terms

Line: ______

______

Rhyme: ______

______

End rhyme: ______

______

Rhyme scheme: ______

______

Step Three: Thinking Deeply/Literary Analysis

Now that you have gotten to know this poem, try your hand at giving it a title. What would you title this poem? Try out a few sample titles in this space:

Choose the best of your tries and write it on the line provided for a title above the poem.

What does it mean if your “candle burns at both ends?” Use this space to develop your understanding of this phrase. What do you think the poet is trying to say in this poem?

What is the metaphor in the phrase “my candle burns at both ends?” What does “my candle” represent in this metaphor?

Step Four: Now try your own hand at a short poem that says something essential about your life and your outlook on how to live life. Use the space below to write a first draft. Try saying something big in four short lines:

Poem Two: “Ode to Pablo’s Tennis Shoes” by Gary Soto

Opener—Before you read the poem:

On the following lines, list a few everyday, common things for which you are grateful:

______

In the box below, draw a picture of one of your common things that shows how important it is—make the common uncommon:

In a few sentences, explain why this “common thing” is so important to you:

“Ode to Pablo’s Tennis Shoes”

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.

Response:

First Step: What did you notice about the poem? Use the close reading strategy to understand the poem. Mark up the poem, and use the white space around the poem to note your impressions about the poem’s form and meaning.

Step Two:Poetic Terms

Find and write definitions for the following terms

Ode: ______

______

Mood: ______

______

Figurative language: ______

______

Metaphor: ______

______

Simile: ______

______

Personification: ______

______

Step Three: Thinking Deeply/Literary Analysis

What is the mood of this poem? How do you feel when you read it? What tone of voice does the “speaker” in the poem use?

Find one example of personification. How does the use of this device show us something about Pablo? Jot down your thinking here.

Find one simile and explain what it means and tell what it reveals about Pablo.

When you read Soto’s poem carefully, you can learn a lot about Pablo. In some cases, the poet may give us information directly. At other times, he may imply information about a subject. On the next page use the T-Chart to record details about Pablo. In the left column, write what you learned about Pablo from reading the poem in your own words. In the right column, write down the evidence in exact words from the poem that supports your statements.

What you learned about Pablo / Quote that shows
Example:
Pablo likes sports, particularly football. / “He fell leaping for a football/That sailed his way.”

Soto tells us a lot about Pablo by telling us about his shoes and his relationship with his shoes.

Can you picture his shoes? Can you picture Pablo? Is Soto’s use of figurative language to create imagery an effective way to tell us about Pablo? Why? Jot down your thinking here:

StepFour: Share your thinking with your table group. Talk about this poem, its meaning, form, and use of language. Jot down any new ideas you gain from your classmates’ insights.

Step Five: Now it’s your turn to write an ode. Your ode can be about anything; one of your everyday common objects, an ordinary object would be a good subject for your ode. View this ordinary object in a new way, as Soto does in his poem. Go back to your notes from before you read Soto’s poem and check back in with your ideas about why that everyday object is so important to you. Try to appreciate the object’s underappreciated qualities and see what these qualities could mean to you. Use this page to write a first draft of your poem.

Step Six: Another Ode to Simple Things

Here is another ode to simply read, enjoy, and reflect on if you have time.

Ode to my Socks

by Pablo Neruda

Maru Mori brought me
a pair
of socks
that she knit with her
shepherd's hands.
Two socks as soft
as rabbit fur.
I thrust my feet
inside them
as if they were
two
little boxes
knit from threads
of sunset
and sheepskin.
My feet were
two woolen
fish
in those outrageous socks,
two gangly,
navy-blue sharks
impaled
on a golden thread,
two giant blackbirds,
two cannons:

thus
were my feet
honored
by
those
heavenly
socks.
They were
so beautiful
I found my feet
unlovable
for the very first time,
like two crusty old
firemen, firemen
unworthy
of that embroidered
fire,
those incandescent
socks.

Nevertheless
I fought
the sharp temptation
to put them away
the way schoolboys
put
fireflies in a bottle,
the way scholars
hoard
holy writ.
I fought
the mad urge
to lock them
in a golden
cage
and feed them birdseed
and morsels of pink melon
every day.
Like jungle
explorers
who deliver a young deer
of the rarest species
to the roasting spit
then wolf it down
in shame,
I stretched
my feet forward
and pulled on
those
gorgeous
socks,
and over them
my shoes.
So this is
the moral of my ode:
beauty is beauty
twice over
and good things are doubly
good
when you're talking about a pair of wool
socks
in the dead of winter.

Poem Three: “Cottontail” by George Bogin

Opener—Before you read the poem:

In the space below, examine an event in your life that affected you deeply. Think about something you regret. Maybe you did something you didn’t want to do. Or you did something you knew you shouldn’t do, and upon doing it, you regretted the action immediately. You can write about this event in prose or you can create a visual image of the event.

Example: For me, I think about the time in first grade when I let a classmate take the blame for spilling a pot of paint that I spilled. He had to stand in the corner of our classroom for thirty minutes. With each minute that passed, my guilt and regret grew and grew. It became unbearable. Finally, I went up to Miss Queen, with her skunk-striped hair, almost like my own grey streak that I have today, and confessed. She then replaced him with me. I had to stand in the corner for that same thirty minutes, and then for all the time my classmate had already stood in the corner, another long seventeen minutes. The class continued around me. One reading group after another met in a circle close by my corner, and I listened to Dick and Jane stories while tears pooled in my eyes and started to drip down my face. When I remember this, still today, my stomach starts to roil and those old feelings of shame and regret wash over me.

Cottontail

George Bogin

A couple of kids,

we went hunting for woodchucks

fifty years ago

in a farmer’s field.

No woodchucks

but we cornered

a terrified

little cottontail rabbit

in the angle

of two stone fences.

He was sitting up,

front paws together,

supplicating,

trembling

while we were deciding

whether to shoot him

or spare him.

I shot first

but missed,

thank god.

Then my friend fired

and killed him

and burst into tears.

I did too.

A little cottontail.

A haunter.

Response:

Step Two:Poetic Terms

Find and write definitions for the following terms

Narrative poem: ______

______

Imagery: ______

______

Rhythm: ______

______

Prose: ______

______

Step Three: Thinking Deeply/Literary Analysis

What is the mood in Bogin’s poem?

Does the mood change as you move from lines 1-5 to lines 6-13? How?

Poets create images with words. Bogin develops a clear picture of the rabbit. What words most help you to “see” this rabbit? Jot down those words here and use this space to draw what Bogin helps you to see.

The rhythm in this poem is created through Bogin’s use of line breaks and punctuation. Look closely at his choices. What do you notice? Why does he write the poem this way? Does the rhythm of the poem have anything to do with the content of the poem? Use this space to jot down your impressions about why this poet has written this poem in this way.

Step Four: Share your thinking with your table group. Talk about this poem, its meaning, form, and use of language. Jot down any new ideas you gain from your classmates’ insights.

Step Five: Now it’s your turn to try your hand at a free verse narrative poem. A free verse poem is a poem that is free of a set rhythm and rhyme.A narrative poem is one that tells a story. Go back to your opener and think about that event that you drew or wrote about. Use Bogin’s poem as a model and tell your own story. Create mood, image, and rhythm with the poem’s form and language. Use this space to write a first draft.

Poem Four: “Fame is a bee” by Emily Dickinson

Opener—Before you read the poem:

Emily Dickinson wrote many poems that are "definitions," in which she describes something abstract with something concrete. In the chart below, draw an image to go with each of the words listed. What “thing” do you think belongs with each idea?

Idea / Its Object
Fame /
Death
Joy
Hope
Anger
Sorrow
Frustration
Creativity

Fame is a bee

By Emily Dickinson

Fame is a bee.

It has a song—

It has a sting—

Ah, too, it has a wing.

Closer/Response Sheet:

Step Two:Poetic Terms

Find and write definitions for the following terms

Symbol (symbolism): ______

______

Step Three: Thinking Deeply/Literary Analysis

Compare Dickinson's "definitions" with a dictionary's definitions of the word fame. Use the space below to write a dictionary definition of fame and then jot down your understanding of Dickinson’s “definition” of fame.

Dickinson uses a bee as a symbol for fame. What does this symbolism bring to the meaning of the word fame? How does it illuminate the word in ways that the dictionary might not. Why might Dickinson have written poems like this? Jot down your thoughts here.

Step Four: Share your thinking with your table group. Talk about this poem, its meaning, form, and use of language. Jot down any new ideas you gain from your classmates’ insights.

Step Five: Now it’s your turn to try your hand at a definition poem. Choose an abstract word from your opener chart and then write a prose definition (a dictionary can help you) in the space here:

Now write a first draft of your poetic definition:

Poem Five: “Famous” by Naomi Shihab Nye

Opener—Before you read the poem:

What does “famous” mean to you? Jot down your ideas here.

Name some things or people or places that you consider to be “famous.”

Famous

By Naomi Shihab Nye

The river is famous to the fish.

The loud voice is famous to silence,

which knew it would inherit the earth

before anybody said so.

The cat sleeping on the fence is famous to the birds

watching him from the birdhouse.

The tear is famous, briefly, to the cheek.

The idea you carry close to your bosom

is famous to your bosom.

The boot is famous to the earth,

more famous than the dress shoe,

which is famous only to floors.

The bent photograph is famous to the one who carries it

and not at all famous to the one who is pictured.

I want to be famous to shuffling men

who smile while crossing streets,

sticky children in grocery lines,

famous as the one who smiled back.

I want to be famous in the way a pulley is famous,