Pride
I tell you, even rocks crack,
and not because of age.
For years they lie on their backs
in the heat and the cold,
so many years,
it seems peaceful.
They don’t move, so the cracks stay hidden.
A kind of pride.
Years pass over them, waiting there.
Whoever is going to shatter them
hasn't come yet.
And so the moss flourishes, the seaweed whips around,
the sea pushes through and rolls back--the rocks seem motionless.
And suddenly the rock has an open wound.
I told you, when rocks break, it happens by surprise.
And people, too
Form
☺Form:
What is Form?
• The way a poem looks
☺Free Verse
• A type of poetic style in which lines are
organized in a loose conversational way
☺Why?
• It’s not put into groups of lines
Types of rhyme
Internal
1. Rhyme within a line
Ex: They don’t move, so the cracks stay
hidden
(line 7)
End
2. Rhyme at the end of a line
Ex: I tell you, even rocks crack, and not because of
age. For years they lie on their backs
(line 1-3)
Imagery
Figurative description or illustration
o What do you picture when you read the poem?
• Rocks cracking
• Waves in a sea
• Seaweed flowing
»A little seal scratching it’s back on a rock
Alliteration
• Repetition of sounds in the beginning of
words
Ex: So the cracks stay hidden (line 7)
Till a little seal comes to run
against them
(line 16 )
Assonance
•
Repetition of similar vowel
sounds
• Examples:
– Whoever is going to shatter them
– A kind of pride.
Onomatopoeia
• Use of words whose sound suggest their
meaning
• Ex: I tell you, even rocks crack ( line 1 )
• And so the moss flourishes, the seaweed whips
around (line 12 & 13)
• Whoever is going to shatter them ( line 10 )
Personification
• Giving human qualities to non-living
objects
• Ex:
 For years they lie on their backs ( line 3 )
And suddenly the rock has an open wound
( line 18 )
Metaphor
• Comparing two items without
using “like” or “as”
• Examples
– I told you, when rocks break, it
happens by surprise. And people, too.
( line 19-20 )
Repetition
Repeating of sounds or words
o Ex:
 Rocks cracking
Symbolism
• An object used by an author to
represent something else
 Ex:
o The rocks symbolize a person’s emotions
and how other’s reactions effect
someone.
Speaker
The voice the reader hears relating the ideas of a
poem, not necessarily the poet.
Being wise
Identify/Analyze/Explain
• A person can only endorse so much criticism
and distress until they finally break down.
• Why?
• The poem says that rocks can take only so
much pressure just like people.
• Hurtful words can leave a huge impact on a
person’s life.
Merry Christmas