McBride COMMUNICATIONS 8
Unit 2 How does language capture emotion?
Unit 2 Culminating Activity: A Poetry Anthology
The poetry anthology will contain two essays. The first is a reflective essay about your
experiences with poetry that also serves as an introduction to the anthology. The second essay is a
critical analysis essay about the novel Out of the Dust.
The anthology will also contain at least two poems that you wrote during the unit, at least two
poems written by your classmates during the unit, at least two poems that you read and enjoyed during
the unit, and reflective paragraphs that explain why you chose the poems.
DUE DATES:
Friday, October 14
Wednesday, October 19
Monday, October 24
Draft #1:
Draft #1:
Final draft:
Critical analysis essay
Introduction
Entire anthology
ANTHOLOGY REQUIREMENTS:
I. Cover
II. Table of Contents
III. Introduction - minimum length 2 pages typed, double spaced, 12 font
Your introduction to the poetry anthology should talk about your feelings and attitudes about poetry in
general, your personal history with poetry, a definition of what poetry means to you, and a discussion
of your experience of reading and selecting the poems you have chosen to put in the anthology. You
should also include any instructions you have for your readers about how to read the poems you have
included, information about how your poems are organized in the anthology, and a conclusion that
encourages readers to enjoy your anthology.
IV. Critical analysis essay - minimum length 2 pages typed, double spaced, 12 font
Your critical analysis essay will address the following prompt: “Karen Hesse made an unusual choice
when she chose to write the novel Out of the Dust as a series of short poems told from the point of
view of the main character. Why would she choose to tell this highly emotional story through poetry?
In what ways was it/was it not effective because of the choice?” To help you think about these
questions, look back at the entries in your Reader’s/Writer’s Notebooks. Examine closely the
QuickWrites you completed to chronicle your emotional responses to each section.
V. Two original poems written by you during the course of this unit, and reflections.
You must include a one paragraph reflection about each poem.
VI. Two original poems written by your classmates during the course of this unit & reflections.
You must include a one paragraph reflection about each poem.
VII. Two other poems read by you during the course of this unit & reflections.
These poems can be from the textbook, song lyrics we shared in class, or from your Internet search.
You must include a one paragraph reflection about each poem.
VIII. Chart of Poems you have collected during the unit.
Draft Pack: Create a separate pack of all drafts and pre-writing for all parts of the Poetry Anthology, showing
your process. These can be turned in as a separate bundle. Don’t try to staple them to the anthology.
Persuasive / Descriptive / Informative
Thesis
General: Karen Hesse’s use of writing a novel as a series of short poems was an effective
way to convey the meaning of the story and emotion of the narrator.
List Statement: The language in the poems created a strong sense of voice, the white space
and simplicity allowed for the depth of the story to stand out, and the poetic qualities that she
wrote with created clear imagery conveying the emotion of the story.
(Prove, Explain, Support,
Elaborate, Give examples)
(Key Points)
___language creates strong sense of voice
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

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__white space & simplicity allow for depth
of story
Conclusion
__poetic qualities create clear imagery
We learn inner-thoughts and feeling
See perception of other characters
Hope in a Drizzle (page 55) see how
she views her mother
Easy to get wrapped up in words because
there aren’t a lot


Simplicity makes the words stand out


Descriptive words help us to see the setting

The Dream (page 193)
Imagery and figurative language help paint
a clear view for us of conditions
Dust and Rain (page 46)
By choosing to make Out of the Dust a novel written in free verse, Karen Hesse was able to
convey the meaning of the story and emotion of the narrator. Her use of language, white
space, and imagery made the structure of the poem an exceptional way to tell a story.
Start by restating the thesis using synonyms, alternative sentence structure and a signal
word.
STUDENT SAMPLE
CRITICAL ANALYSIS ESSAY
OUT OF THE DUST
PROMPT: “Karen Hesse made an unusual choice when she chose to write the novel Out
of the Dust as a series of short poems told from the point of view of the main character.
Why would she choose to tell this highly emotional story through poetry? In what ways
was it/was it not effective because of the choice?”
Karen Hesse’s choice of writing the novel Out of the Dust in poetic form was very
smart, creative, and effective. There are three main reasons why I think the choice was
effective. Poetry allowed her to focus on imagery, capture strong emotions, and to create
a text that was easy to read and flowed more easily than prose (writing in sentences and
paragraphs).
The sensory imagery in the novel is very powerful. Although authors include
sensory imagery in prose writing as well as in poetry, the emphasis on it in Hesse’s free
verse gives the reader a clear view of what is happening. For instance, on page 46 Hesse
writes “On Sunday/ winds came,/ bringing a red dust/ like prairie fire,/ hot and peppery,/
searing the inside of my nose,/ the whites of my eyes./ Roaring dust,/ turning the day fro
sunlight to midnight.” When I read this section I could actually picture the scene in my
head and feel the dust inside my nose. A part of the imagery that is included on almost
every page is the frequent use of figurative language. Again, we know that prose writers
also use figurative language in their writing, but Hesse most likely included more use of
simile, metaphor, and personification here than she would have if she had written Out of
the Dust in prose form. Phrases like “the house dazed by dust” on page 164 and “a black
cloud/ big and silent as Montanta,/ boiling on the horizon and/ barreling toward us” on
page 163, provide really clear and powerful descriptions of the dust and dust storms.
A second reason that makes Hesse’s choice effective is that the free verse conveys
strong emotions. One example is the poem on page 195, “Midnight Truth.” The details
in this poem create a strong emotional response in the reader. When I read it I was very
sad and filled with despair. Some of the most powerful phrases are, “But she’s (ma) rock
and dust and wind now,/ she’s carved stone,/ she’s holding my stone brother” and “My
father’s digging his own grave,/ he calls it a pond…” I think Hesse’s way of using poetry
is a better way to use language to create emotion because in prose one has to write a lot
for the readers to really understand, but in poetry you can write two lines and the reader
feels like it is really happening to him or her. Billy Jo is very forlorn and despondent in
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the poem “Midnight Truth” and just wants to get away. If the chapter had been written in
prose, the reader might have mixed thoughts.
Another section of the novel that is a good example of how the strong imagery
helps to create emotions is on page 148, “If Ma could put her arms around my shoulder/
sometime,/ or stroke back my hair,/ or sing me to sleep, making the soft sounds,/ the
reassuring noises,/ that no matter how brittle and sharp life seemed,/ no matter how brittle
and sharp she seemed,/ she was still my ma who loved me…” When reading these lines I
could almost see tears running down Billie Jo’s face, I could almost see the fear of
running away in her eyes, and I could almost hear her pain screaming out of her heart for
her mother. I could feel Billie Jo’s pain.
The third reason that I think supports the statement that Karen Hesse’s choice to
write in poetic form was effective is that the novel was easy to read and flowed well.
Poetry can be smoother to read. This is a very good quality for a text to have. It makes it
easier and lighter to read. Although this may not have been Hesse’s intention, it
definitely was a factor that helped me enjoy the book. The sparing use of words still
conveyed enough information. Two examples of poems that are very short and easy to
read, but filled with information are “Kilauea” on page 79 and “Skin” on page 154. Each
of these poems contains just ten very short lines, yet convey important facts and details.
After considering all of the above ideas, I realize that writing the novel in poetic
form was a good choice. The novel is very unique and keeps the readers interested. It
makes excellent use of imagery and figurative language, conveys strong emotions, and is
easy to read and flows well. I hope to find other novels written in poetic form.
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STUDENT SAMPLE
INTRODUCTION TO POETRY ANTHOLOGY
GRADE 8 UNIT 2
PROMPT: Your introduction to the poetry anthology should talk about your feelings and
attitudes about poetry in general, your personal history with poetry, a definition of what
poetry means to you, and a discussion of your experience of reading and selecting the
poems you have chosen to put in the anthology. You should also include any instructions
you have for your readers about how to read the poems you have included, information
about how your poems are organized in the anthology, and a conclusion that encourages
readers to enjoy your anthology.
Poetry is almost a living thing, extracted from the mind or heart of a human, from
real observations or realizations illustrating ideas in new ways. Some poems are laced
thickly with meaning, while others are almost completely slathered in satisfying sounds
and sentences that please readers’ minds and mouths. Some poems combine the two.
Either way, poems are drawn from living people, and take on a life of their own as they
detach from their author. As Thomas Gray says, within poetry are “thoughts that breathe,
and words that burn.”
I first encountered poetry while on a hunt for creative expression. I was in fifth
grade, and I had been searching for a way to convey the soaring, balloon-like feeling in
my chest that I got whenever I was a at family gathering, with everyone together and
laughing or when I was alone on my porch, watching wind stir the trees. I first tried
using watercolor paints to make a sort of gradually growing light, going from red-orange
to yellow to white, but it somehow didn’t seem to work. So I wrote a poem, my first one.
It described a bird soaring.
After that, I began keeping a notebook with my poems in it. I still go back and
look at it sometimes, just to see how good or bad my poems were, just to remember. Old
poems are like old friends; even if you’ve grown and changed, you can still smile with
them. My poems progressed steadily in quality over the years.
One way to define poetry is to say that it is a very vivid form of literature and is
very useful for people who need to express their feelings in a different way. Poetry is
literature designed to captivate the senses. Poetry conveys a deep emotion, deeper than
normal text.
The first poems you will see in this anthology are poems written by my
classmates. The first one is “Dreams of the Torch,” by C. M. I chose this poem because
I think that C. really portrayed the thoughts one has in a nightmare in a very realistic way.
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Her use of specific words and figurative language is outstanding. The second student
poem I chose was N’s poem, “Happiness.” I liked this poem because of its lovely
imagery. I could picture everything he described perfectly in my mind’s eye. I also liked
this poem because it is light and sunny, a good balance to C’s poem or darker subject
matter. I also included N’s poem “Bullet” because it is very effective, and because it is
something that really happened in his life. In every line I felt his show of concern and his
smell of fairness.
The next poems are my poems called “Beach” and “Nightmare.” Most of the
poems I write are free verse. I like free verse because they are lenient and not difficult to
read or to write. I also chose these poems because they illustrate many of the poetic
elements we studied in this unit such as the use of sound devices and figurative language.
The third group of poems included in the anthology is poems I found during the
poetry search in Module 1. These are all light-hearted, easy-to-understand, sometimeshumorous poems. I chose the ones that I thought had the best rhythm and were the most
humorous.
My suggestions for reading the poems in this anthology, or any poems for that
matter, are for the first and second reading, don’t worry abut finding metaphors, rhyme
schemes, or other technical aspects of the poem because you’ll miss the point of the
poem. As you read you will naturally pick up the rhythm and mood. When you read a
poem, read it over and over again and pay attention to each word for understanding. On a
third of fourth reading, you may start to pay attention to poetic devices to gain an even
deeper appreciation and understanding.
Please enjoy this anthology. You don’t have to think carefully or analyze the
poems, just dive in and have fun. That’s how I like to read poetry, and I think you will
like it too, as well as the poems I have included. Remember, poetry grabs everyone’s
emotions at one point in time; you just have to find the right style and the right poet.
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