City Scenes
Unit 2
Poetry
In poetry a few words express many ideas, images, and feelings. Poets choose words for their
sounds and meanings. The poems in this unit will help you explore the sights and sounds
of the city.
Poets use many tools to create their poems. Sometimes they use rhyme, words that end in the
same sound. They may also use rhythm, or a pattern of beats. Imagery - words and
phrases that appeal the five senses - is also important in poetry. As you read poetry, notice
how sounds and word pictures work together.
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Rhyme of Rain by John Holmes
What is it like to fall fifty stories? Ask some raindrops! They fall that far and more every time
it rains.
Pigeons by Lilian Moore
Some cities seem to have more pigeons than people. Why do these birds like cities so much?
City by Langston Hughes
Big cities have a certain look during the day - bright, busy, alive. But how do they look at
night?
The City Is So Big by Richard Garcia
In the city, everything moves: trains, elevators, and even stairs. But what if they moved by
themselves?
In the Inner City by Lucille Clifton
In the "inner" city, buildings and cement take the place of trees and grass. But there are
playgrounds-and kids.
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RHYME OF RAIN
by John Holmes
What is it like to fall fifty stories? Ask some raindrops! They fall that far and more every
time it rains.
Connect to Your Life
Think of the tallest building you have ever been in. How did you feel when you looked down?
Discuss with your class how heights make you feel.
Key to the Poem
This poem tells a story. It has a plot, a setting, and characters. Listen for the rhyme, sounds
repeated at the ends of words, and the rhythm, a pattern of strong and weak syllables.
Vocabulary In line 4, Empire State means the Empire State Building in New York City.
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RHYME OF RAIN
by John Holmes
"Fifty stories more to fall,
Nothing in our way at all,"
Said a raindrop to its mate,
Falling near the Empire State.
Said the second, "Here we go!
That's Fifth Avenue below."
Said the first one, "There's a hat.
Watch me land myself on that.
Forty stories isn't far—
Thirty seven—here we are
Twenty, sixteen, thirteen, ten—"
"If we make this trip again,"
Said the second, "we must fall
Near a building twice as tall."
"What a time to think of that,"
Said the first, and missed the hat.
THINK IT THROUGH
1. Who is talking in this poem? What are they doing while they're talking?
2. What does one raindrop plan to do in lines 7-8?
3. What finally happens in the last line? How did you react to what happens?
4. Which words rhyme in the last two lines? Clap to the rhythm of the strong syllables in those
lines.
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PIGEONS
by Lilian Moore
Some cities seem to have more pigeons than people. Why do these birds like cities so
much?
Connect to Your Life
Have you ever watched a group of pigeons walking around? What were they doing?
Key to the Poem
With personification, a poem can describe an animal or object as if it were a person. You may
never think of Pigeons in the same way again!
Vocabulary In line 10, a hedge is a row of bushes. In line 11, commutes means "travels
regularly from one place to another."
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PIGEONS
by Lilian Moore
Pigeons are city folk
content
to live with concrete
and cement.
They seldom
try
the sky.
A pigeon never sings
of hill
and flowering hedge,
but busily commutes
from sidewalk
to his ledge.
Oh pigeon, what a waste of wings!
THINK IT THROUGH
1. According to the poem, how are pigeons like city people?
2. What does the last line of the poem mean when it says "what a waste of wings"?
3. What message does this poem have for some people?
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CITY
by Langston Hughes
Big cities have a certain look during the day—bright, busy, alive. But how do they look at
night?
Connect to Your Life
Do you prefer being downtown in the morning or at night? Explain why.
Key to the Poem
To describe something, a poet may use a metaphor. A metaphor compares one thing to another
without the word like or as. This poem describes a city by comparing it with two other
things. Find out what the city is like in the morning and at night
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CITY
by Langston Hughes
In the morning the city
Spreads its wings
Making a song
In stone that sings.
In the evening the city
Goes to bed
Hanging lights
About its head.
THINK IT THROUGH
1. What is the city compared to in lines 2-4? How do the two things look or act alike?
2. What is the city compared to in lines 6-8? How do the two things look or act alike?
3. How does the poem make the city seem alive?
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The City Is So Big
by Richard Garcia
In the city, everything moves: trains, elevators, and even stairs. But what if they moved by
themselves?
Connect to Your Life
Have you ever ridden on an escalator, or moving stairway? Have you ridden in elevators? How
did you feel on these rides?
Key to the Poem
Poems can give you images, or pictures, of what they are about. In this poem, the words tell
you what a big city looks like. The words can also create a mood, or feeling, for the reader.
What does this poem make you see and feel?
Vocabulary In line 2, quake means "shiver."
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The City Is So Big
by Richard Garcia
The city is so big
Its bridges quake with fear
I know, I have seen at night
The lights sliding from house to house
And trains pass with windows shining
Like a smile full of teeth
I have seen machines eating houses
And stairways walk all by themselves
And elevator doors opening and closing
And people disappear.
THINK IT THROUGH
1. What image does line 2 give the reader?
2. What mood or feeling do lines 2 and 7-10 create? What images help create this feeling?
3. How is the feeling about cities in this poem different from the feeling in the poem "City" on
page 57?
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In the Inner City
by Lucille Clifton
In the "inner" city, buildings and cement take the place of trees and grass. But there are
playgrounds—and kids.
Connect to Your Life
What do other people think of the neighborhood you live in? Do they like it or dislike it?
Discuss why you agree or disagree with their opinions.
Key to the Poem
A poem may have a strong theme, or message about life. The poet wants you to understand
something about life. "In the Inner City" gives a message about people who live in the
inner city. It tells how they feel about where they live.
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In the Inner City
by Lucille Clifton
in the inner city
or
like we call it
home
we think a lot about uptown
and the silent nights
and the houses straight as
dead men
and the pastel lights
and we hang on to our no place
happy to be alive
and in the inner city
or
like we call it
home
THINK IT THROUGH
1. Reread lines 5-9. What is the speaker's opinion of uptown?
2. According to the poem, how do the people in the inner city like living there? How do you
know?
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