Student #1384736
Poetry Recitation Template
But You Didn’t
By Merrill Glass
Remember the time you lent me your car and I dented it?
I thought you'd kill me...
But you didn't.
Remember the time I forgot to tell you the dance was
formal, and you came in jeans?
I thought you'd hate me...
But you didn't.
Remember the times I'd flirt with
other boys just to make you jealous, and
you were?
I thought you'd drop me...
But you didn't.
There were plenty of things you did to put up with me,
to keep me happy, to love me, and there are
so many things I wanted to tell
you when you returned from
Vietnam...
But you didn't.
March 23, 2016
Student #1384736
Poetry Recitation Template
But You Didn’t
By Merrill Glass
Remember the time you lent me your car and I dented it?
I thought you'd kill me...
But you didn't.
5
Remember the time I forgot to tell you the dance was
formal, and you came in jeans?
I thought you'd hate me...
But you didn't.
10
Remember the times I'd flirt with
other boys just to make you jealous, and
you were?
I thought you'd drop me...
But you didn't.
15
There were plenty of things you did to put up with me,
to keep me happy, to love me, and there are
so many things I wanted to tell
you when you returned from
Vietnam...
But you didn't.
March 23, 2016
Alliteration
Allusion
Antithesis
Apostrophe
Assonance
Consonance
Euphemism
Hyperbole
Imagery Metaphor
Onomatopoeia
Oxymoron
Personification
Simile
Symbol
Repetition
Student #1384736
Poetry Recitation Template
March 23, 2016
In x by y there is a lot of z which is important because of A
In “Poem Title” by Poet Name there is a lot Dominant Poetic
Devices which is important because of “BIG IDEA”
Love
No one knows what will happen in the future. According to the poem “ But You Didn’t” by Merrill Glass, she
deeply expresses her feelings towards her lover in the poem. “There were plenty of things you did to put up
with me,
to keep me happy, to love me.” However, it was very late to expresses her feelings to her lover when he
goes to a Vietnam War. “There are so many things I wanted to tell you when you returned from Vietnam...”
She expresses her regrets by bringing back her memories about her lover. “Remember when the time you
lent me your car and I dented it? I thought you'd kill me...But you didn't.” He forgives her for every mistake
she makes to show how much he loves about her. Since the author says she has many things to tell him
when he comes back from the war and the fact that he did not come back, it is evident that she has been
waiting for him a long time until she realized her lover has died during the fought in the war.
Merrill Glass’s poem about losing her lover to war reminds us the importance of openly sharing your
feelings for the one you love when you’re together, because the future is uncertain.
Student #1384736
Poetry Recitation Template
Siren Song
by Margaret Atwood
This is the one song everyone
would like to learn: the song
that is irresistable:
the song that forces men
to leap overboard in squadrons
even though they see the beached skulls
the song nobody knows
because anyone who has heard it
is dead, and the others can't remember
Shall I tell you the secret
and if I do, will you get me
out of this bird suit?
I don't enjoy it here
squatting on this island
looking picturesque and mythical
with these two feathery maniacs,
I don't enjoy singing
this trio, fatal and valuable.
I will tell the secret to you,
to you, only to you.
Come closer. This song
is a cry for help: Help me!
Only you, only you can,
you are unique
At last. Alas
it is a boring song
but it works every time.
March 23, 2016
Student #1384736
Poetry Recitation Template
Siren Song
by Margaret Atwood
5
10
15
20
25
This is the one song everyone
would like to learn: the song
that is irresistible:
the song that forces men
to leap overboard in squadrons
even though they see the beached skulls
the song nobody knows
because anyone who has heard it
is dead, and the others can't remember
Shall I tell you the secret
and if I do, will you get me
out of this bird suit?
I don't enjoy it here
squatting on this island
looking picturesque and mythical
with these two feathery maniacs,
I don't enjoy singing
this trio, fatal and valuable.
I will tell the secret to you,
to you, only to you.
Come closer. This song
is a cry for help: Help me!
Only you, only you can,
you are unique
March 23, 2016
Hyperbole
Allusion
Alliteration
Metaphor
Imagery
At last. Alas
it is a boring song
but it works every time.
The Frog and the Scorpion
Aesop's ancient fable of "The Frog and the Scorpion" cleverly details that sometimes it is difficult for a
creature to resist its own innate nature. In the lyric poem, "Siren Song, that also containts elements of a
narrative, Margaret Atwood shows the depth that can be found when a mythical creature and its natural
abilities are viewed from a modern perspective. Atwood's use of allusion, through taking the first person
perspective of one of Ulysses' Sirens, reminds the listener/reader that these women from mythology and
fables were created by the male writers of those eras and are therefore enslaved by their nature and not by
their gender: whether they be gorgon, harpy, siren, sorceress, or shrew. Atwood, through alliteration,
allusion, imagery, and apostrophe, creates pathos for the Siren who is enslaved by her nature (just as the
fabled scorpion) and vilified as a result of her creator's own mysogyny. As the mythical Siren sings “the
song / that is irresistible” to men we are reminded of Homer’s ancient Greek myth Ullyses (2-3) These
birdlike creatures lured men to their deaths on the rocks as their “boring song…works every time” (26-27).
Atwood furthers this magical call of the siren by alluding to soldiers an invasion; even though the men can
“see the beached skulls,” they still jump to their deaths (6). By using these mythical and historical
references, the woman of the poem is given a deep pathos; she cannot resist her own abilities and nature
and is just as doomed as those she lures to their deaths, and just as much as the frog who was killed by the
scorpion.
Student #1384736
Poetry Recitation Template
Sonnet 116
by William Shakespeare
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
March 23, 2016
Student #1384736
Poetry Recitation Template
Sonnet 116
by William Shakespeare
5
10
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved
March 23, 2016
Paradox & Antithesis
Metaphor
Personification
Imagery
Alliteration
Hyperbole
Paradox
Love Knows No End
If one can fall in love, then is it possible for one to fall out of love? According to William Shakespeare's
immortal lyric "Sonnet 116," often better known by its opening line "Let Me Not to the Marriage of True
Minds," such an occurrence would only indicate that one was never in love at all. Shakespeare notes
through his continued use of the contradiction of paradox and antithesis that love does not change simply
because a person changes, but instead is "an ever-fixed mark" that will not be shaken by the storms that
can occur in life (2-3, 5). His clever metaphorical conceit is love can guide one to happiness just as the stars
in the sky can be used to guide lost ships,(7). However, Shakespeare is clear to note that falling out of love
simply because beauty has faded over time and "rosy lips and cheeks" have lost their blush, clearly
indicates love was never there at all; merely infatuation or, more likely, lust. Only true love is eternal, yet in
Shakespeare's whimsical and paradoxical style, he dares anyone to prove him otherwise: if such is the case
then he will have "never writ, nor no man ever loved" ; as any fool will ironically realize, Shakespeare
certainly wrote, and no one could truly deny that genuine love knows no end (14). Perhaps, if everyone
treated love with this level of reverence and respect, then there would probably be fewer marriages, yet
certainly fewer divorces as well.