Classwork for Monday, April 7th
Poems about Dead Animals
The Over-arching Question:
Ah, yes, a set of poems about dead animals. Your group’s task is to make sense of
the poem they you’ve been assigned in preparation for a discussion of all of these
poems on Wednesday, during which everyone will be expected to speak.
1. Read your assigned poem individually and share your initial responses to your
poem with the other members of the group.
2. As a group, mark up the poem, making sure to address both the “evidence based”
questions you’ve been asked and any other moments that you see as interesting or
significant. As you read, “notice what you notice”; looks for words and phrases
that seeming particularly important, even if you’re not sure why; be on the
lookout for tensions, binaries, and moments that suggest meaning “beyond the
literal.”
3. Record your answers to each of the questions that accompany your poem. Be
sure to divide up the writing fairly; perhaps a google document that includes you
all will help you in this process (Be sure to share your final responses with me
through googledocs).
4. Be prepared to discuss your annotations and the inferences they inspire with the
rest of the class on Wednesday, keeping in mind both the “Inference Driven”
questions you’ve been asked as well as any other interesting, significant aspects
of the poem. Each member of the group must speak at least once!!
Once you have completed your work and shared your responses with me via
googledocs, you may begin working on the homework, which involves reading
and writing a paragraph in response to “Migratory,” by Mark Doty, and Richard
Wilbur’s “Mayflies,” the prompt for which is listed on the bottom of this sheet.
Your paragraph which will be collected on Wednesday and graded based on how
well you use quotations in supporting your ideas.
Also, PLEASE BE SURE TO READ AND ANNOTATE ALL THE POEMS
ABOUT DEAD ANIMALS BEFORE CLASS ON WEDNESDAY.
Wednesday
April 9
“Migratory”
“Mayflies”
Mark Doty
Richard Wilbur
Both these poems focus on groups of animals.
How does the “community” of animals in these
poems seem to impact the people who are
observing them? What do the poems suggest,
alone and together, about the relationship
between people and Nature?
Group: Jake, Ava, Teddy, Clay
Burning The Cat
Evidence Based Questions:
Inference Driven Questions:
1. In literature, the term “synesthesia”
often refers to “cross- sensory”
experiences or metaphor– for
example; the ideas of a loud shirt or
a bitter wind might be seen as
synesthetic. Where do you see
synesthesia in “Burning the Cat,”
and what do these moments have in
common?
1. What does the use of synesthesia
suggest here? How might it be seen
as leading the reader toward specific
sensations or conclusions about the
poem?
2. Great writing is often driven by the
verbs it employs. Find three or four
surprising, evocative, or original
verbs in the poem. Try to find
verbs that are “enacted” by different
actors – the narrator, the cat, its
odor, the fire, etc.
2. Choose two of the verbs from your
list that seem particularly significant
or suggestive and explain what you
see in or infer from these verbs.
3. What does the narrator finally do
with the carcass of the cat? How
does he feel about his final strategy
for “disposing” of its body?
3. What do you make of the final six or
seven lines of the poem? What
inferences, assumptions, or
conclusions do they lead you to
about the point of the poem as a
whole?
Group: Daniel, Henry, Casey
Traveling Through the Dark
Evidence Based Questions:
Inference Driven Questions:
1. Underline the most interesting
verbs in the poem.
1. What can you infer about the ways in
which these words contribute to the
meaning of the poem?
2. How do the third and fourth stanzas
explain the condition of the deer?
How do they “characterize” or
describe the car?
2. How do the setting of this scene and
the description of the car contribute
to the meaning of the poem?
3.
3. How and why is “swerving” a
significant term or idea in the poem?
In what situations are the words
“swerve” and “swerving” used? BE
SPECIFIC?
Group: Adam, John, Muriel,
Still, Citizen Sparrow
Evidence Based Questions:
Inference Driven Questions:
1. The poem is called “Still, Citizen
Sparrow,” but the sparrow is not the
animal the poem seems most
interested in. What bird is the
“real” subject of the poem, and
what role does the sparrow play in
this piece?
1.What might you infer about the role of
the sparrow in the poem? Why
might the poem be addressed to the
sparrow rather than simply to the
audience?
2. What, according to the second verse
of the poem, are the heroic qualities
of the “subject verb” of the poem?
2. What do these ideas about the “value”
of the subject suggest about the
point(s) or main ideas of the poem?
3.
3. How does Noah and the example he
provides help the poem make its
points about the subject(s) of the
poem?
The second half of the poem
focuses on Noah, he of “the Great
Flood” fame. Locate two or three
specific moments that reflect the
poem’s attitude toward Noah
Group: Emanuel, Will, Hannah
Your Dog Dies
Evidence Based Questions:
Inference Driven Questions:
1. What pronoun does the poem use to
identify its subject?
1. How does the use of this pronoun
contribute to your sense of what’s
going on in the poem?
2. The poem shifts its focus a number
of times. Try to identify the
moments where it shifts its focus.
2. How do these shifts in focus help to
determine the meaning or point of
the poem?
3. What is the speaker’s reaction to the
screaming that occurs near the end
of the poem?
3. What can you infer about the
speaker based on his response to
this screaming? What does his
response suggest about the meaning
of the poem?
Group: Gina, Jason, Jacob
The Pardon
Evidence Based Questions:
Inference Driven Questions:
1. The poem “takes place” in the past
and in the present. How and where
does it make the switch?
1. How and why is the narrator’s
response to death different in each
of these “times”?
2. What are the most compelling,
vivid, or upsetting descriptions of
the dead dog in both of its
incarnations – past and present?
Why do these images or ideas seem
particularly powerful?
2. How do these descriptions reflect
or reveal the narrator’s emotional
state as a child and as an adult?
3. Try to paraphrase the final three
lines of the poem.
3. These last three lines might be seen
as reflecting or revealing “the
point” of the poem. What is the
point as you understand it, and how
do these lines impact or inform that
meaning?