I’m in the Mood for Poetry MadLibs
Assignment: With a partner carefully read these poems with “MadLibs” spaces to fill. Instead of doing a random “MadLibs”
list, try to choose words that convey a particular tone or mood. The point of the exercise is not to guess what word the poet
chose but to make a thoughtful choice that will convey the prescribed tone or mood.
Mood: ________________________
Blackberry Eating
Galway Kinnell
Mood:
dark/ominous/scary
Blackberry Eating
Galway Kinnell
I love to go out in late September
among the fat, overripe, icy, __________ blackberries
to eat blackberries for breakfast,
the stalks very __________, a penalty
they earn for knowing the black __________
of blackberry-making; and as I stand among them
lifting the stalks to my mouth, the ripest berries
fall almost unbidden to my __________,
as words sometimes do, certain peculiar words
like strengths or squinched,
many-lettered, one-syllabled __________,
which I squeeze, squinch open, and __________ well
in the silent, startled, icy, __________ language
of blackberry -- eating in late September.
Mood:
happy/joyful
I love to go out in late September
among the fat, overripe, icy, __________ blackberries
to eat blackberries for breakfast,
the stalks very __________, a penalty
they earn for knowing the black __________
of blackberry-making; and as I stand among them
lifting the stalks to my mouth, the ripest berries
fall almost unbidden to my __________,
as words sometimes do, certain peculiar words
like strengths or squinched,
many-lettered, one-syllabled __________,
which I squeeze, squinch open, and __________ well
in the silent, startled, icy, __________ language
of blackberry -- eating in late September.
Mood:
humorous
Blackberry Eating
Blackberry Eating
Galway Kinnell
Galway Kinnell
I love to go out in late September
among the fat, overripe, icy, __________ blackberries
to eat blackberries for breakfast,
the stalks very __________, a penalty
they earn for knowing the black __________
of blackberry-making; and as I stand among them
lifting the stalks to my mouth, the ripest berries
fall almost unbidden to my __________,
as words sometimes do, certain peculiar words
like strengths or squinched,
many-lettered, one-syllabled __________,
which I squeeze, squinch open, and __________ well
in the silent, startled, icy, __________ language
of blackberry -- eating in late September.
I love to go out in late September
among the fat, overripe, icy, __________ blackberries
to eat blackberries for breakfast,
the stalks very __________, a penalty
they earn for knowing the black __________
of blackberry-making; and as I stand among them
lifting the stalks to my mouth, the ripest berries
fall almost unbidden to my __________,
as words sometimes do, certain peculiar words
like strengths or squinched,
many-lettered, one-syllabled __________,
which I squeeze, squinch open, and __________ well
in the silent, startled, icy, __________ language
of blackberry -- eating in late September.