Abandoned Farmhouse BY TED KOOSER He was a big man, says the size of his shoes on a pile of broken dishes by the house; a tall man too, says the length of the bed Poem Analysis: Characters: __________________ ____________________ Plot: ________________________________________________________________ Theme: _____________________________________________________________ in an upstairs room; and a good, God-fearing man, says the Bible with a broken back Mood:______________________________ on the floor below the window, dusty with sun; Lines Worth Noting: but not a man for farming, say the fields cluttered with boulders and the leaky barn. Meaning Imagery: _______________________________________________________ A woman lived with him, says the bedroom wall papered with lilacs and the kitchen shelves Simile: _________________________________________________________ covered with oilcloth, and they had a child, Metaphor: ______________________________________________________ says the sandbox made from a tractor tire. Personification:___________________________________________________ Money was scarce, say the jars of plum preserves and canned tomatoes sealed in the cellar hole. And the winters cold, say the rags in the window frames. It was lonely here, says the narrow country road. Something went wrong, says the empty house in the weed-choked yard. Stones in the fields Hyperbole: _______________________________________________________ Sound Alliteration:_______________________________________________________ Onomatopoeia:____________________________________________________ Rhyme:___________________________________________________________ say he was not a farmer; the still-sealed jars in the cellar say she left in a nervous haste. Assonance:_________________________________________________________ And the child? Its toys are strewn in the yard Consonance:_______________________________________________________ like branches after a storm—a rubber cow, a rusty tractor with a broken plow, a doll in overalls. Something went wrong, they say. Repitition:_________________________________________________________ Deserted Farm By Mark Vinz Where the barn stood the empty milking stalls rise up like the skeleton of an ancient sea beast, exiled forever on shores of prairie. Poem Analysis: Characters: __________________ ____________________ Plot: ________________________________________________________________ Theme: _____________________________________________________________ Mood:______________________________ Lines Worth Noting: Meaning Decaying timber moans softly in twilight; the house collapses like a broken prayer. Tomorrow the heavy lilac blossoms will open, higher than the roofbeams, reeling in wind. Imagery: _______________________________________________________ Simile: _________________________________________________________ Metaphor: ______________________________________________________ Personification:___________________________________________________ Hyperbole: _______________________________________________________ Sound Alliteration:_______________________________________________________ Onomatopoeia:____________________________________________________ Rhyme:___________________________________________________________ Assonance:_________________________________________________________ Consonance:_______________________________________________________ Repitition:_________________________________________________________ Poem Analysis: Characters: __________________ ____________________ Plot: ________________________________________________________________ When It Is Snowing Theme: _____________________________________________________________ by Siv Cedering When it is snowing the blue jay is the only piece of sky in my backyard Mood:______________________________ Lines Worth Noting: Meaning Imagery: _______________________________________________________ Simile: _________________________________________________________ Poppies by Roy Scheele Metaphor: ______________________________________________________ Personification:___________________________________________________ The light in them stands as clear as water drawn from a well When the breeze moves across them they totter. You half expect them to spill. Hyperbole: _______________________________________________________ Sound Alliteration:_______________________________________________________ Onomatopoeia:____________________________________________________ Rhyme:___________________________________________________________ Assonance:_________________________________________________________ Consonance:_______________________________________________________ Repitition:_________________________________________________________ Speak UP by Janet S. Wong You're Korean, aren't you? Yes. Who don't you speak Korean? Just don't, I guess. Say something Korean. I don't speak it. I can't. C'mon. Say something. Halmoni. Grandmother. Haraboji. Grandfather. Imo. Aunt. Say some other stuff. Sounds funny. Sounds strange. Hey, let's listen to you for a change. Listen to me? Say some foreign words. But I'm American, can't you see? Your family came from somewhere else. Sometime. But I was born here. So was I. Poem Analysis: Characters: __________________ ____________________ Plot: ________________________________________________________________ Theme: _____________________________________________________________ A Poison Tree BY W ILLIAM BLAKE I was angry with my friend; I told my wrath, my wrath did end. I was angry with my foe: I told it not, my wrath did grow. Mood:______________________________ Lines Worth Noting: Meaning Imagery: _______________________________________________________ Simile: _________________________________________________________ And I waterd it in fears, Night & morning with my tears: And I sunned it with smiles, Metaphor: ______________________________________________________ And with soft deceitful wiles. Hyperbole: _______________________________________________________ And it grew both day and night. Till it bore an apple bright. And my foe beheld it shine, And he knew that it was mine. And into my garden stole, When the night had veild the pole; In the morning glad I see; My foe outstretched beneath the tree. Personification:___________________________________________________ Sound Alliteration:_______________________________________________________ Onomatopoeia:____________________________________________________ Rhyme:___________________________________________________________ Assonance:_________________________________________________________ Consonance:_______________________________________________________ Repitition:_________________________________________________________ Poem Analysis: Summertime Sharing Danitra sits hunched on the stoop and pouts. I ask her what there is to pout about. "Nothin' much," she says to me, but then I see her eyes following the ice cream man. I shove my hand into my pocket and find the change there where I left it. "Be right back," I yell, running down the street. Me and my fast feet are there and back in just two shakes. Danitra breaks the Popsicle in two and gives me half. The purple ice trickles down her chin. I start to laugh. Her teeth flash in one humongous grin, telling me she's glad that I'm her friend without even saying a word. by Nikki Grimes Characters: __________________ ____________________ Plot: _______________________________________________________ Theme: _____________________________________________________ Mood:______________________________ Lines Worth Noting: Meaning Imagery: ____________________________________________________ Simile: _____________________________________________________ Metaphor: __________________________________________________ Personification:_______________________________________________ Hyperbole: ___________________________________________________ Sound Alliteration:___________________________________________________ Onomatopoeia:________________________________________________ Rhyme:______________________________________________________ Assonance:___________________________________________________ Consonance:__________________________________________________ Repitition:____________________________________________________ The Wreck of the Hesperus BY HENRY W ADSW ORTH LONGFELLOW It was the schooner Hesperus, That sailed the wintry sea; And the skipper had taken his little daughtèr, To bear him company. Blue were her eyes as the fairy-flax, Her cheeks like the dawn of day, And her bosom white as the hawthorn buds, That ope in the month of May. The skipper he stood beside the helm, His pipe was in his mouth, And he watched how the veering flaw did blow The smoke now West, now South. Then up and spake an old Sailòr, Had sailed to the Spanish Main, "I pray thee, put into yonder port, For I fear a hurricane. "Last night, the moon had a golden ring, And to-night no moon we see!" The skipper, he blew a whiff from his pipe, And a scornful laugh laughed he. Colder and louder blew the wind, A gale from the Northeast, The snow fell hissing in the brine, And the billows frothed like yeast. Down came the storm, and smote amain The vessel in its strength; She shuddered and paused, like a frighted steed, Then leaped her cable's length. "Come hither! come hither! my little daughtèr, And do not tremble so; For I can weather the roughest gale That ever wind did blow." He wrapped her warm in his seaman's coat Against the stinging blast; He cut a rope from a broken spar, And bound her to the mast. "O father! I hear the church-bells ring, Oh say, what may it be?" "'T is a fog-bell on a rock-bound coast!" — And he steered for the open sea. "O father! I hear the sound of guns, Oh say, what may it be?" "Some ship in distress, that cannot live In such an angry sea!" "O father! I see a gleaming light, Oh say, what may it be?" But the father answered never a word, A frozen corpse was he. Lashed to the helm, all stiff and stark, With his face turned to the skies, The lantern gleamed through the gleaming snow On his fixed and glassy eyes. Then the maiden clasped her hands and prayed That savèd she might be; And she thought of Christ, who stilled the wave On the Lake of Galilee. And fast through the midnight dark and drear, Through the whistling sleet and snow, Like a sheeted ghost, the vessel swept Tow'rds the reef of Norman's Woe. And ever the fitful gusts between A sound came from the land; It was the sound of the trampling surf On the rocks and the hard sea-sand. The breakers were right beneath her bows, She drifted a dreary wreck, And a whooping billow swept the crew Like icicles from her deck. She struck where the white and fleecy waves Looked soft as carded wool, But the cruel rocks, they gored her side Like the horns of an angry bull. Her rattling shrouds, all sheathed in ice, With the masts went by the board; Like a vessel of glass, she stove and sank, Ho! ho! the breakers roared! At daybreak, on the bleak sea-beach, A fisherman stood aghast, To see the form of a maiden fair, Lashed close to a drifting mast. The salt sea was frozen on her breast, The salt tears in her eyes; And he saw her hair, like the brown sea-weed, On the billows fall and rise. Such was the wreck of the Hesperus, In the midnight and the snow! Christ save us all from a death like this, On the reef of Norman's Woe! Every Cat Has a Story Poem Analysis: by Naomi Shihab Nye Characters: __________________ ____________________ The yellow one from the bakery smelled like a cream puffshe followed us home. We buried our faces in her sweet fur. One cat hid her head while I practiced violin. But she came out for piano. At night she played sonatas on my quilt. Plot: ________________________________________________________________ Theme: _____________________________________________________________ Mood:______________________________ Lines Worth Noting: Meaning Imagery: _______________________________________________________ Simile: _________________________________________________________ One cat built a secret nest in my socks. One sat in the window staring up the street all day while we were at school. One cat loved the radio dial One cat almost smiled. Metaphor: ______________________________________________________ Personification:___________________________________________________ Hyperbole: _______________________________________________________ Sound Alliteration:_______________________________________________________ Onomatopoeia:____________________________________________________ Rhyme:___________________________________________________________ Assonance:_________________________________________________________ Consonance:_______________________________________________________ Repitition:_________________________________________________________ Street Painting Take out your paints. Ann Turner Doodle around with them, stirring and humming. Poem Analysis: Characters: __________________ ____________________ Plot: ________________________________________________________________ I watched him a long time Dip a brush in, and this is how he did it: stare at it, Stand in front of the wall take a rush forward like it’s a bad dream. and dab-dab-dab Make faces. at the wall. Jam your hat down. Soon’s you know, Pull it off. you got faces Pop your fingers—walk and bodies and trees Simile: _________________________________________________________ around the block and come back, like they were locked up Metaphor: ______________________________________________________ start up like you surprised in that old brush the wall’s still there. and all you had to do Theme: _____________________________________________________________ Mood:______________________________ Lines Worth Noting: Meaning Imagery: _______________________________________________________ Personification:___________________________________________________ Hyperbole: _______________________________________________________ was stare at it. Then sigh. to get a picture. Sound Alliteration:_______________________________________________________ Onomatopoeia:____________________________________________________ Rhyme:___________________________________________________________ Assonance:_________________________________________________________ Consonance:_______________________________________________________ Repitition:_________________________________________________________ Seeing the World ~ Steven Herrick Every month or so, when my brother and I are bored with backyard games and television, Dad says “It’s time to see the world.” Poem Analysis: Characters: __________________ ____________________ Plot: ________________________________________________________________ Theme: _____________________________________________________________ So we climb the ladder to our attic, push the window open, and carefully, carefully, Mood:______________________________ Lines Worth Noting: scramble onto the roof. We hang on tight as we scale the heights to the very top. Meaning Imagery: _______________________________________________________ We sit with our backs to the chimney and see the world. The birds flying Simile: _________________________________________________________ Metaphor: ______________________________________________________ below us. The trees swaying in the wind below us. Personification:___________________________________________________ Hyperbole: _______________________________________________________ Our cubbyhouse, meters below us. The distant city Sound Alliteration:_______________________________________________________ below us. And then Dad, my brother, and I lie back look up and watch Onomatopoeia:____________________________________________________ Rhyme:___________________________________________________________ the clouds and sky and dream we’re flying Assonance:_________________________________________________________ Consonance:_______________________________________________________ we’re flying. In summer with the sun and a gentle breeze and not a sound anywhere I’m sure I never want to land. Repitition:_________________________________________________________ Poem Analysis: Characters: __________________ ____________________ Plot: ________________________________________________________________ Theme: _____________________________________________________________ Tugboat at Daybreak by Lillian Morrison The necklace of the bridge is already dimmed for morning but a tug in a tiara glides slowly up the river, a jewel of the dawn, still festooned in light. The river seems to slumber quiet in its bed, as silently the tugboat, a ghostlike apparition, moves twinkling up the river and disappears from sight. Mood:______________________________ Lines Worth Noting: Meaning Imagery: _______________________________________________________ Simile: _________________________________________________________ Metaphor: ______________________________________________________ Personification:___________________________________________________ Hyperbole: _______________________________________________________ Sound Alliteration:_______________________________________________________ Onomatopoeia:____________________________________________________ Rhyme:___________________________________________________________ Assonance:_________________________________________________________ Consonance:_______________________________________________________ Repitition:_________________________________________________________ Poem Analysis: Ode to Family Photographs by Gary Soto Characters: __________________ ____________________ Plot: ________________________________________________________________ This is the pond, and these are my feet. This is the rooster, and this is more of my feet. Theme: _____________________________________________________________ Mama was never good at pictures. Mood:______________________________ This is a statue of a famous general who lost an arm, Lines Worth Noting: And this is me with my head cut off. This is a trash can chained to a gate, This is my father with his eyes half-closed. This is a photograph of my sister And a giraffe looking over her shoulder. This is our car's front bumper. This is a bird with a pretzel in its beak. Meaning Imagery: _______________________________________________________ Simile: _________________________________________________________ Metaphor: ______________________________________________________ Personification:___________________________________________________ This is my brother Pedro standing on one leg on a rock, With a smear of chocolate on his face. Mama sneezed when she looked Behind the camera: the snapshots are blurry, The angles dizzy as a spin on a merry-go-round. But we had fun when Mama picked up the camera. Hyperbole: _______________________________________________________ Sound Alliteration:_______________________________________________________ Onomatopoeia:____________________________________________________ Rhyme:___________________________________________________________ How can I tell? Each of us is laughing hard. Can you see? Assonance:_________________________________________________________ I have candy in my mouth. Consonance:_______________________________________________________ Repitition:_________________________________________________________ Hoods by Paul B. Janeczko Poem Analysis: Characters: __________________ ____________________ In blak leather jackets, watching Spider work the wire coat hanger into Mrs. Koops car, they remind me of crows huddled around a road kill. Startled, They looked up, then back as Spider, who nodded once, setting them free toward me. I bounded away, used a parking meter to whip me around the corner past Janelli's meter the darkened Pine Street Grille, and the steamed windows of Sudsy's Modern Laundromat. I climbed-two at a timethe granite steps of the Free Public Library and pushed back thick wooden doors as the pursuing pack stoppedsinners at the door of a church. From the corner table of the reference room I watched them pacing, head turning every time the door opened, pacing, until Spider arrived to draw them away. I waited, fingering hearts, initials carved into the table, grinning as I heard myself telling Raymond of my death-defying escape. Plot: ________________________________________________________________ Theme: _____________________________________________________________ Mood:______________________________ Lines Worth Noting: Meaning Imagery: _______________________________________________________ Simile: _________________________________________________________ Metaphor: ______________________________________________________ Personification:___________________________________________________ Hyperbole: _______________________________________________________ Sound Alliteration:_______________________________________________________ Onomatopoeia:____________________________________________________ Rhyme:___________________________________________________________ Assonance:_________________________________________________________ Consonance:_______________________________________________________ Repitition:_________________________________________________________ Poem Analysis: Characters: __________________ ____________________ Friends in the Klan by Marilyn Nelson 1923 BLack veterans of WWI experienced such discrimination in veterans' hospitals that the Veterans' Administration, to save face, opened Tuskegee, a brand-new hospital for Negroes only. Under white control. (White nurses, who were legally excused from touching blacks, stood holding their elbows and ordering colored maids around, white shoes tapping impatiently.) The Professor joined the protest. When the first black doctor arrived to jubilation, the KKK uncoiled its length and hissed. If you want to stay alive be away Tuesday. Unsigned. But a familiar hand. The professor stayed. And he prayed for his friend in the Klan. Plot: ________________________________________________________________ Theme: _____________________________________________________________ Mood:______________________________ Lines Worth Noting: Meaning Imagery: _______________________________________________________ Simile: _________________________________________________________ Metaphor: ______________________________________________________ Personification:___________________________________________________ Hyperbole: _______________________________________________________ Sound Alliteration:_______________________________________________________ Onomatopoeia:____________________________________________________ Rhyme:___________________________________________________________ Assonance:_________________________________________________________ Consonance:_______________________________________________________ Repitition:_________________________________________________________ Poem Analysis: Spring Storm by Jim Wayne Miller He comes gusting out of the house, the screen door a thunderclap behind him. Characters: __________________ ____________________ Plot: ________________________________________________________________ Theme: _____________________________________________________________ Mood:______________________________ He moves like a black cloud over the lawn and---stops. Lines Worth Noting: Meaning Imagery: _______________________________________________________ A hand in his mind grabs Simile: _________________________________________________________ a purple crayon of anger Metaphor: ______________________________________________________ and messes the clean sky. Personification:___________________________________________________ Hyperbole: _______________________________________________________ He sits on the steps, his eye drawing a mustache on the face in the tree. Sound Alliteration:_______________________________________________________ Onomatopoeia:____________________________________________________ As his weather clears, Rhyme:___________________________________________________________ his rage dripping away, Assonance:_________________________________________________________ Consonance:_______________________________________________________ wisecracks and wonderment spring up like dandelions. Repitition:_________________________________________________________ Poem Analysis: Characters: __________________ ____________________ Foul Shot by Edwin A. Hoey Plot: ________________________________________________________________ With two 60s stuck on the scoreboard Theme: _____________________________________________________________ And two seconds hanging on the clock, The solemn boy in the center of eyes, Squeezed by silence, Seeks out the line with his feet, Soothes his hands along his uniform, Gently drums the ball against the floor, Then measures the waiting net, Raises the ball on his right hand, Balances it with his left, Calms it with fingertips, Breathes, Crouches, Waits, And then through a stretching of stillness, Nudges it upwards. Mood:______________________________ The ball Slides up and out, Lands, Leans, Wobbles, Wavers, Hesitates, Plays it coy Until every face begs with unsounding screams-And then And then And then, Hyperbole: _______________________________________________________ Right before ROAR-UP, Drives down and through. Consonance:_______________________________________________________ Lines Worth Noting: Meaning Imagery: _______________________________________________________ Simile: _________________________________________________________ Metaphor: ______________________________________________________ Personification:___________________________________________________ Sound Alliteration:_______________________________________________________ Onomatopoeia:____________________________________________________ Rhyme:___________________________________________________________ Assonance:_________________________________________________________ Repitition:_________________________________________________________ Poem Analysis: Characters: __________________ ____________________ a hot property: by Ronald Wallace I am not. I am an also-ran, a bridesmaid, a finalist, a second-best bed. I am the one they could just as easily have given it to but didn't. I'm a near miss, a close second, an understudy, a runner-up. I'm the one who was just edged, shaded, bested, nosed out. I made the final cut, the short list, the long deliberation. I'm good, very good, but I'm not good enough. I'm an alternate, a backup, a very close decision, a red ribbon, a handshake, a glowing commendation. You don't know me. I've a dozen names, all honorably mentioned. I could be anybody./ Plot: ________________________________________________________________ Theme: _____________________________________________________________ Mood:______________________________ Lines Worth Noting: Meaning Imagery: _______________________________________________________ Simile: _________________________________________________________ Metaphor: ______________________________________________________ Personification:___________________________________________________ Hyperbole: _______________________________________________________ Sound Alliteration:_______________________________________________________ Onomatopoeia:____________________________________________________ Rhyme:___________________________________________________________ Assonance:_________________________________________________________ Consonance:_______________________________________________________ Repitition:_________________________________________________________ Poem Analysis: Characters: __________________ ____________________ Junkyards Plot: ________________________________________________________________ by Julian Lee Rayford You take any junkyard and you will see it filled with symbols of progress remarkable things discarded What civilization when ahead on all its onward-impelling implements are given over to the junkyards to rust The supreme implement, the wheel is conspicuous in the junkyards Theme: _____________________________________________________________ Mood:______________________________ Lines Worth Noting: Meaning Imagery: _______________________________________________________ Simile: _________________________________________________________ Metaphor: ______________________________________________________ The axles and the levers the cogs and the flywheels all the parts of dynamos all the parts of motors fall the parts of rusting. Personification:___________________________________________________ Hyperbole: _______________________________________________________ Sound Alliteration:_______________________________________________________ Onomatopoeia:____________________________________________________ Rhyme:___________________________________________________________ Assonance:_________________________________________________________ Consonance:_______________________________________________________ Repitition:_________________________________________________________ Nothing Gold Can Stay Robert Frost, 1874 - 1963 Nature’s first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold. Her early leaf’s a flower; But only so an hour. Then leaf subsides to leaf. So Eden sank to grief, So dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay. Poem Analysis: DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT Dylan Thomas Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rage at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Though wise men at their end know dark is right, Because their words had forked no lightning they Do not go gentle into that good night. Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Characters: __________________ ____________________ Plot: ________________________________________________________________ Theme: _____________________________________________________________ Mood:______________________________ Lines Worth Noting: Meaning Imagery: _______________________________________________________ Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, Do not go gentle into that good night. Simile: _________________________________________________________ Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Personification:___________________________________________________ And you, my father, there on the sad height, Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Metaphor: ______________________________________________________ Hyperbole: _______________________________________________________ Sound Alliteration:_______________________________________________________ Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Onomatopoeia:____________________________________________________ Rhyme:___________________________________________________________ Assonance:_________________________________________________________ Consonance:_______________________________________________________ Repitition:_________________________________________________________ Beat! Beat! Drums! BY WALT WHITMAN Beat! beat! drums!—blow! bugles! blow! Poem Analysis: Characters: __________________ ____________________ Through the windows—through doors—burst like a ruthless force, Into the solemn church, and scatter the congregation, Plot: ________________________________________________________________ Into the school where the scholar is studying, Theme: _____________________________________________________________ Leave not the bridegroom quiet—no happiness must he have now with his bride, Nor the peaceful farmer any peace, ploughing his field or gathering his grain, So fierce you whirr and pound you drums—so shrill you bugles blow. Mood:______________________________ Lines Worth Noting: Meaning Beat! beat! drums!—blow! bugles! blow! Over the traffic of cities—over the rumble of wheels in the streets; Are beds prepared for sleepers at night in the houses? no sleepers must sleep in those beds, Imagery: _______________________________________________________ Simile: _________________________________________________________ No bargainers’ bargains by day—no brokers or speculators—would they continue? Would the talkers be talking? would the singer attempt to sing? Metaphor: ______________________________________________________ Would the lawyer rise in the court to state his case before the judge? Personification:___________________________________________________ Then rattle quicker, heavier drums—you bugles wilder blow. Hyperbole: _______________________________________________________ Beat! beat! drums!—blow! bugles! blow! Make no parley—stop for no expostulation, Sound Alliteration:_______________________________________________________ Mind not the timid—mind not the weeper or prayer, Mind not the old man beseeching the young man, Let not the child’s voice be heard, nor the mother’s entreaties, Onomatopoeia:____________________________________________________ Rhyme:___________________________________________________________ Make even the trestles to shake the dead where they lie awaiting the hearses, So strong you thump O terrible drums—so loud you bugles blow. Assonance:_________________________________________________________ Consonance:_______________________________________________________ Repitition:_________________________________________________________