Teenagers Briefly describe what a teenager is like and what the typical behavior of one is. ____________ _____________ _____________ _____________ Think about the following: 1. What changes from being a child to being a teenager? 2. How do relationships change as you grow up? 3. What do you like about being a teenager and do you dislike? PAT MORA Pat Mora was born on January 19, 1942, in El Paso, Texas, but grew up speaking mostly Spanish at home, with the influence of her four grandparents who had come to Texas from Mexico in the early part of the century. ' Mora received her B.A. in 1963 from Texas Western College and her M.A. from the University of Texas at El Paso in 1967. Mora held teaching positions at the secondary and college levels. After her divorce in 1981, Mora left teaching and went on to write children's books and poetry, working diligently to maintain the pride and respect she felt should be invested into the preservation of Mexican-American literature. Mora is the recipient of numerous awards. 1. Read the poem below. Teenagers By Pat Mora One day they disappear into their rooms. Doors and lips shut and we become strangers in our own home. I pace the hall, hear whispers, a code I knew but can’t remember mouthed by mouths I taught to speak. Years later the door opens. I see faces I once held, Open as sunflowers in my hands. I see Familiar skin now stretched on long bodies That move past me Glowing Almost like pearls. 2. Find words you do not know in the dictionary. 3. Reply to each comment I made in the poem. 4. What is Pat Mora saying about teenagers in her poem? Underline the evidence in the poem. 5. Who is the voice in this poem? How do you know? 6. What devices is the writer using to express her ideas? 7. Read the following definitions: a. Enjambment: moving over from one line to another without a terminating punctuation mark. It can be defined as a thought or sense, phrase or clause, in a line of poetry that does not come to an end at the line break, but moves over to the next line. In simple words, it is the running on of a sense from one couplet or line to the next without a major pause or syntactical break. EFFECT: Poets can achieve a fast pace or rhythm by using enjambment. Multiple ideas can be expressed without using semi-colons, periods, or commas. It helps reinforce the main idea that might seem to be confusing with pauses. It helps readers to continue thinking about the idea, which is expressed in one line, and which continues through to the next. b. End-Stopped Line: poetic device in which a pause comes at the end of a syntactic unit (sentence, clause, or phrase). This pause can be expressed in writing as a punctuation mark, such as a colon, semi-colon, period, or full stop. EFFECT: gives a sense of a separate unit. These pauses give rhythm and tempo to the poem. c. Caesura: This pause comes from natural rhythm of speech. It is a rhythmical pause in a poetic line or a sentence. It often occurs in the middle of a line, or sometimes at the beginning and the end. At times, it occurs with punctuation; at other times it does not. Poets indicate such a pause with a parallel symbol thus: ||. EFFECT: A caesural break creates various effects, depending upon the way it is used. Sometimes it breaks the monotonous rhythm of a line and forces readers to focus on the meaning of the phrase preceding the caesura. In some other cases, it might create a dramatic or ominous effect. Normally, it happens in the middle of a sentence, or phrase in poetry. It also adds an emotional and theatrical touch to a line, and helps convey depth of the sentiments. 8. Identify the devices explained above in the poem and think about the effect intended by the writer in each case. 9. Draw the poem or find an image which would illustrate it.
