Weekly Poem
Hanlon/English 10
Worth: 30 points
Directions: Write a 1 paragraph response to a poem of your choosing. You may occasionally (2-3x)
substitute this poem with a song, but it must pass the “song-to-poem” test (more on that later). All responses
must be typed, double-spaced, 12pt. Times New Roman, and include a copy of the poem. All weekly poems
will be due on Friday.
Guidelines: Using the “How to Read a Poem” guidelines, read through your chosen work 2-3 times. Look for
the following devices or features:
Language: tone, style, diction (word choice)
Conventions: punctuation, grammar, poetic forms
Devices: imagery, metaphor, symbols, repetition, and more
Design: structure, organization or content (e.g., stanzas, past to present)
Themes: ideas that run throughout the poem
Connections: How might this relate to the other works we are reading, conversations we are having in
class lately?
Purpose: Is the poet trying to explain? Define? Persuade? What, why, and how do they do this?
More Directions: The copy of the poem must show evidence of close reading—underlined words, comments,
question, connections, suspected patterns. Your typed response should be one perfectly written paragraph (not
a loosely written journal-type response) with a clear main point, supporting details, and example or quotations
from the poem. Your paragraph must include quotations from the poem; these must be embedded, not left to
stand alone.
Locating Poetry: Feel free to use any resources in our library. Choose poems from the poetry in the back of
the room. Also, visit Poetry 180 atwww.loc.gov/poetry/180/, or the Favorite Poem project, at
www.favoritepoem.org.
HOW TO READ A POEM
First Reading:
Read the title for a clue as to what the poem might be about. Read the poem through without stopping. When
you are finished, look back through the poem and circle any words you do not understand. Underline
words/phrases you like.
Second Reading:
Identify the narrator. Look for patterns (repeated colors, words, images). Write questions about what you do
not understand. Find devices used: mark all images, metaphors, similes, symbols, and words repeated.
Third Reading:
Find the crucial moment(s). Often a poem, like a story, has moments when the action shifts, the direction
changes, the meaning alters. Look for the meaning in the poem. Is the poet trying to explain? Define?
Persuade? What is this poem about?
Fourth Reading:
Look for ways poets get their meaning across. Is there a theme? Find specific examples (quotes) that are
particularly effective in supporting this theme. Revisit the title—has the meaning changed? Were your
predictions correct?
“Constantly Risking Absurdity”, by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Constantly risking absurdity
and death
whenever he performs
above the heads
of his audience
the poet like an acrobat
climbs on rime
to a high wire of his own making
and balancing on eyebeams
above a sea of faces
paces his way
to the other side of the day
performing entrechats
and sleight-of-foot tricks
and other high theatrics
and all without mistaking
any thing
for what it may not be
For he's the super realist
who must perforce perceive
taut truth
before the taking of each stance or step
in his supposed advance
toward that still higher perch
where Beauty stands and waits
with gravity
to start her death-defying leap
And he
a little charleychaplin man
who may or may not catch
her fair eternal form
spreadeagled in the empty air
of existence
Poem Response Template
A) Include title of poem/poet and thesis statement:
The poem “___________________________”, by ____________________________________
is about________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________.
B) Explain what the poem communicates and use quotes to support your ideas (quotes will mostly be fragments:
words/partial phrases).
I know this
because__________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________.
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________.
In addition, the poet employs _____________________ (technique, ie: figurative language, imagery, etc).
__________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________.
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________.
C) Explain the mood or tone of the poem; provide two or three examples of phrases or words that show mood.
The author wants us to feel
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________.
The author
feels_____________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________about __________(the subject)_______________________________.
E) Conclude your response by restating the thesis and including your own personal response to the poem.
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________.
On Turning Ten
Sample Weekly Poem Response:
The whole idea of it makes me feel
like I'm coming down with something,
something worse than any stomach ache
or the headaches I get from reading in bad light-a kind of measles of the spirit,
a mumps of the psyche,
a disfiguring chicken pox of the soul.
The poem, “On Turning Ten” by Billy Collins is
about the loss of innocence and imagination
experienced by the narrator as he turns ten years
old. He first compares turning ten to an illness: “it
makes me feel like I’m coming down with
something…a kind of measles of the spirits” (2,5)
This shows the narrator dreads getting older,
which is surprising, because most kids look
forward to their birthdays. For the narrator, turning
ten means giving up his child-like ways, especially
his vibrant imagination. He remembers “At four I
was an Arabian wizard/I could make myself
invisible by drinking a glass of milk a certain way”
(13-15). His sadness at leaving his imagination
behind is expressed when he observes his
“bicycle…leaned against the garage…all the dark
blue speed drained out of it” (21,23)
For the narrator, turning ten “is the beginning of
sadness” and a loss of innocence. All kids must
grow up some day, but growing up means letting
go of your childhood—your innocence and
imagination. “On Turning Ten” illustrates this loss
of childhood in the final line, “But now when I fall
upon the sidewalks of life, I skin my knees. I
bleed” Turning ten and getting older is viewed as a
sacrifice of imagination and an introduction to the
pain of the world.
You tell me it is too early to be looking back,
but that is because you have forgotten
the perfect simplicity of being one
and the beautiful complexity introduced by two.
But I can lie on my bed and remember every digit.
At four I was an Arabian wizard.
I could make myself invisible
by drinking a glass of milk a certain way.
At seven I was a soldier, at nine a prince.
But now I am mostly at the window
watching the late afternoon light.
Back then it never fell so solemnly
against the side of my tree house,
and my bicycle never leaned against the garage
as it does today,
all the dark blue speed drained out of it.
This is the beginning of sadness, I say to myself,
as I walk through the universe in my sneakers.
It is time to say good-bye to my imaginary friends,
time to turn the first big number.
It seems only yesterday I used to believe
there was nothing under my skin but light.
If you cut me I could shine.
But now when I fall upon the sidewalks of life,
I skin my knees. I bleed.
By Billy Collins