Poetry Connections

Poetry Connections

At the beginning of each class period we will be encountering a poem as a class. This will take no more than 10 minutes per class and will help not only to orient and jump start the class, but also allow us to repeatedly practice the skills of good reading and evaluation of one of the most complex and rich modes of communication.

At the end of each 5-class cycle you will be completing a response to one of the poems discovered in class. The response will be turned in at the beginning of the class as the next 5-class cycle begins. The responses will be submitted by traditional paper copy, but may (at times) exist as electronic publication as well.

The response is open and flexible. Students may write an analysis of the poem and the elements of the poem or an explication of what the poem means. Students may also write how the poem makes them feel or of a memory the poem evokes. The responses are best when they are a combination.

Responses that will not be accepted are those in which students relay how they cannot understand the poem, and end with a series of questions requesting both direction and explanation as well as responses that are not tied in any way to the language, theme or subject of the poem.

This year Poetry Connections will result in a test score each semester based upon the trend of the work that is submitted. Grades will always give weight to the most recent work. A score will be entered after our 3rd Connection to indicate your progress, but that grade will be modified as time goes on to accurately portray current progress. You will be required to keep track of your progress on the chart included below and attach your best 3 Poetry Connections to the chart when it is turned in at the end of the semester.

In order to be graded Poetry Connections must be

Typed and Double spaced

Include a response that is one page in length or very close to it.

Include the poem at the top of the page as it appears in the copy you were given

(the poem does not contribute to response length)

Include the poem title and author within the 1st ¶ of your response

Use at least 2 quotations from the poem with line citation

Use appropriate literary terms

Below is the rubric / checklist that will be used assess your work.

*The example that is included appear single-spaced and in two columns in order to save paper when printed.

Poetry Connection #______Name:______

Rating of Work is Comprised of Overall Impression of the Composition:
Exceeds:
o  Response includes discussion of how lit terms help create meaning of the piece
o  Response is highly engaging
o  Response is virtually flawless
o  Response is of publishable quality
o  Please email for publication on class blog
Meets:
o  Quotes given with correct citation
o  Quotes use correct line and stanza breaks
o  Discussion of applicable lit terms enhances discussion
o  Response shows engagement with text
o  Any errors in mechanics do not detract from or impede reading
Partially Meets:
o  Quotes are given without the correct citation
o  Correct line and stanza breaks do not appear
o  Lit terms appear, but do not enhance discussion
o  Response shows partial engagement with text
o  Problems with ¶ construction / Cannot Be Assessed / Must Be Rewritten Because the Response:
o  Is not typed and double-spaced
o  Is not one page in length or very close to it
o  Does not include the poem at the top of the page
o  The poem doesn’t appear as it did on the handout
o  The poem’s title and author does not appear in the 1st ¶ of the response
o  The response does not use at least 2 quotations from the poem with line citation
o  Response does not use appropriate literary terms

*While the grading does not take into consideration a student’s grammar and mechanical performance a paper will earn a lower score when the paper’s message cannot be reached due to errors that impede.

Poetry Connection Progress Name:______Semester:______

The overall grade will be given based upon the “trend” of work with weight given to the most recent performances.

*Requested for Website
E / 100
M / E / 93-96
M / 85-90
PM / M / 75-80
PM / 65-70
DNM /
PM / 50-60
*Resubmission / Late
Place title of poem with Poetry Connection # / PC #1 / PC #2 / PC #3 / PC #4 / PC #5 / PC #6 / PC #7 / PC #8 / PC #9 / PC #10

Student

English IV

Mr. Young

Date

CATCH

My father came home with a new glove,

all tight stitches and unscuffed gold,

its deep pocket exhaling baseball,

signed by Mays, or Mantle, or The Man,

or some lesser god I’ve since forgotten.

He took off his tie and dark jacket

and we went outside to break it in,

throwing the ball back and forth

in the dusk, the big man sweating

already, grunting as he tried

to fire it at his son, who saw now,

for the first time, that his father

who loved to talk baseball at dinner

and let him stay up late to watch the fights

unfold like agrany nightmares

on Gillette’s Cavalcade of Sports,

the massive father, who could lift him

high in the air with one hand,

threw like a girl—far and away

the worst we could say of anyone—

his off-kilter windup and release

like a raw confession, so naked

and helpless in the failing light

that thirty years later, still

feeling the balls soft kiss in my glove,

I’m afraid to throw it back.

-George Bilgere

Total Let-Down

There is nothing worse than being disappointed by the one person that one looks up to. Whether someone admires someone for their personality, achievements, or their commitment to serve the greater good, it is never a good feeling when that person fails to live up to the pedestal that they have been placed upon. In the poem “Catch”, written by George Bilgere, he tells a tale of a young boy who feels as though he is torn between choosing his hero, or choosing to not be embarrassed by his hero. Through simply set up syntax, funny and relatable situations, and a tone of one that is easily related to Bilgere creates a poem that tells a tale of embarrassment and shame through the eyes of a young boy.

By employing the use of pausing in-between key facts of the poem, it helps emphasize the importance of these lines. When playing pass with his dad, the young boy finally “saw now, / for the first time, that his father / who loved to talk baseball at dinner / and let him stay up late…” (11-14). Pausing in-between those facts helped create a picture for the reader of the boy trying to explain the embarrassment that he felt with his father. He is slowly building up to the fact that his dad “threw like a girl” and he does not know just yet how to deal with the whole ordeal (19). Within the poem the sentences are very few, and commas are tools that are used quite frequently. This are useful to keep the thought going, representing the child’s mind that he is in shock, and cannot believe that his father has let him down in this sort of way.

George Bilgere also used words to their fullest extent, and created fun foreshadowing effects with them. In line 19 he wrote that the father “threw like a girl” and he complemented this line 6 lines later in line 25 with “the ball’s soft kiss in my glove”. Thus reiterating that the ball was not powerful or “massive” like the son imagined that his father was, but it was light like a blissful kiss (17). Using this foreshadowing effect in the poem is a positive and clever way to draw the reader in. Since the boy focuses on the fact that his father does not have a manly pitch, but instead a “off-kilter windup and a release / like a raw confession” (21-22). This image of the boys’ father never fades, thus proving how traumatic this was on his life, and how embarrassed he was to be in public throwing a ball with his dad.

A simple action can totally diminish any respect that one person has for another. The relationship between a father and a son can be quite fragile at times, and when it comes to the topic of sports, which is very serious in the “manly” world, a wimpy girly throw can be very devastating.