Unit Title:
Finding the Message: Lyrics and Poetry as Constructed Messages
Audience:
Eleventh grade students enrolled in English 11 (Media Literacy) period seven, at Concord High School, a public
high school of 1,937 students in Concord, NH. The class meets three times per week—one forty-five-minute period
and two 90-minute blocks.
Learning Goals:
1. Students will be able to determine the message given in social/political song lyrics and poetry.
2. They will consider how the racial and class identity of a poet or songwriter affects this message.
3. They will be able to analyze how various elements of poetry work to convey a message, and what terms
identify those elements using the correct poetic terminology.
4. They will be able to convey a social/political message in their own poetry.
Justification for Learning Goals
Throughout the yearlong Media Literacy course, students have studied how various media work to inform or
persuade their audience. They have examined advertising, novels, current global crises and politics. Song lyrics
and poetry fit into this study, as they also are media through which an audience hears a message. Since music with
lyrics is the medium students consume the most, it is essential that they become consumers adept at determining
what the creator of a message in music wants them to know or do as a result of hearing the music. Song lyrics and
poetry both contain poetic elements such as repetition, diction, allusion, irony, imagery, symbolism, alliteration,
repetition and figurative language; to comprehend a songwriter’s or poet’s message and the meaning of lines in a
song or poem, students must learn the meaning of these terms, be able to translate their meaning in a poem or song
and interpret how they work to convey the message of the work. When students become capable of interpreting the
message of a song or poem and how words can work in a unique way in these media to send a message, they
should be ready to communicate a message on a topic for which they feel passionate.
NCTE/IRA Standards: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, and 12
Unit Overview:
In this unit students will closely examine song lyrics and poetry to be able to determine a writer’s message in these
media genres. Instruction will be focused on how words, phrases and lines in songs and poetry, as well as poetic
elements the writer employs, work toward communicating the work’s message. Students will learn some basic
poetic terminology to be able to identify these elements precisely. Students also will research songwriters and
poets and their works to develop a deeper understanding of the effect of life experiences on a social/political song
or poem. They will also analyze these works in terms of message and language and poetic elements that express it.
Analysis and research will be done in small collaborative groups because students can have a continuum of
interpretations of lyrics and poetry based on life experiences and can learn from each other. They also will
interpret lyrics and poetry independently.
Students will complete various products by the end of the unit. They will free write in response to various
questions related to a day’s objectives. They will write one page explaining how poetic elements (diction, imagery
and allusion) work in a song. They will compose a two-page essay analyzing a message and poetic elements
(repetition, diction, allusion, irony, imagery, repetition, symbolism, alliteration and figurative language) in a song.
The final project for the unit will be the composition (including research, drafts and revision) of students’ own
poetry that conveys a message on a topic they are passionate about. This will assess their ability to do what they
have been studying: create a message in poetry that may move the audience to think about or do something. A
short essay (one page) explaining the passion will accompany the poetry. Students will present their poetry to the
class at the end of the unit.
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Unit Assessment Plan:
Assessment for this unit will be formal as well as informal:
Informal assessment will occur throughout the unit as pre- and post-assessment as the teacher circulates during
group and independent work and listens to student comments during discussions and other class activities. Informal
assessment enables the teacher to gauge where individual students and the class as a whole is in their learning, and
provides the teacher the opportunity to clarify concepts that students are not grasping and revise lessons if needed.
Formal assessment will take various forms throughout the unit:

Pre-assessment:
o Four free writing prompts of five to ten minutes each.
These will take place in the first week and a half of classes and be centered on learning goal
2:
“Students will consider how the racial and class identity of a poet or songwriter affects the message of a
poem or song.” The free writes also will address learning goal 1, “Students will be able to determine the
message given in social/political song lyrics and
poetry,” since students will be considering messages in
these media. The rationale
for doing this assessment is 1) to get an idea of what students’ composition is like and 2) to
allow me to see what and how their thinking is in relation to learning goal 2. The free writes
will be evaluated out of a possible three points each. A score of three points means students
clearly thought about the question, and that thinking is evident in the ideas they share in
writing; a score of two points means fewer ideas were shared and less thinking is evident; a
score of one point means students thought very little and write one rudimentary thought.
The prompts are as follows:
 What do you think of political or social messages given by white songwriters about people
who are not white, such as Woody Guthrie writing about Mexican migrant farm workers?
Why?
 What can the impact be on a song or its message if the writer/performer has experienced the
song’s content rather than witnessed or heard about it?
 Why are many political songs (and poems) written about people who are not white?
o One page analyzing how diction, imagery and allusion work in a song of choice.
This will be assigned the second week of classes and will address learning goal 3,
“They will be able to analyze how various elements of poetry work to convey a message,
and what terms identify those elements using the correct poetic terminology.” This piece
will be evaluated out of a possible ten points. I will be looking for a student’s preliminary
ability to give several examples of each poetic element (diction, imagery and allusion),
identifying them correctly, paraphrasing what they mean and how they are effective poetic
devices to use.

Post-assessment (Summative Assessment)
o Lyric/Poetry as Message Written Analysis essay (2 pages)
2
As students approach the end of lyrics study in the unit, this essay will assess their learning in
relation to
learning goals 1 and 3: “Students will be able to determine the message given in
social/political song
lyrics and poetry” (1) and “They will be able to analyze how various elements of poetry work to convey a
message, and what terms identify those elements using the correct
poetic terminology” (3). Criteria and
assignment follows.
English 11
Lyrics or Poetry as Message Written Analysis
3
Select a musician or poet and one of her or his songs or poems. Answer the
following questions in essay format. 2 pages. Due in one week.
Be sure to include an introduction and conclusion.
1. How does this musician or poet use lyrics or poetry to inform and persuade
the audience?
a) Tell what you think the song’s or poem’s message is.
b) Explain how poetic elements communicate the message:
** Refer to specific examples of imagery, repetition, word choice,
figurative language, etc. that work toward expressing the message.
** Cite words, phrases and lines specifically in your reflection. These
should appear in quotation marks.
2. Have you been made more aware of an issue or situation in any way? How?
(Have you been informed or persuaded?)
Lyric/Poetry Reflection
4
3
2
1
Support for
Topic (Content)
Specific lines,
phrases, words and
poetic elements are
cited, and how they
work to
communicate the
song’s or poem’s
message is
explained.
Specific lines, phrases,
words or poetic
elements are cited, but
the explanation for
how they communicate
the message is not
thorough, so the
reader is left guessing.
Some lines, phrases
or words are cited,
but it is not made
clear how they
communicate the
message;
explanation is
minimal.
No specific lines,
phrases, words or poetic
elements are cited. The
essay does not explain
what the song’s or
poem’s message is or
how it is communicated.
Introduction
(Organization)
The introduction is
inviting, states the
main topic and
previews the
structure of the
paper.
The introduction
clearly states the main
topic and previews the
structure of the paper,
but is not particularly
inviting to the reader.
The introduction
states the main
topic, but does not
adequately preview
the structure of the
paper, nor is it
particularly inviting to
the reader.
There is no clear
introduction of the main
topic or structure of the
paper.
Sequencing
(Organization)
Details are placed in
a logical order and
the way they are
presented effectively
keeps the interest of
the reader.
Details are placed in a
logical order, but the
way in which they are
presented/introduced
sometimes makes the
writing less interesting.
Some details are not
in a logical or
expected order, and
this distracts the
reader.
Many details are not in a
logical or expected order.
There is little sense that
the writing is organized.
CATEGORY
o Poetry Socratic Seminar
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The Socratic seminar format allows the teacher to assess students’ ability to meet learning
goals 1, 2 and 3. It also is a way, through discussion of a poem, through which students who do
not turn in written assignments or who have written output difficulties can show their learning. Rubric
follows.
Poetry Socratic Seminar
4
3
2
1
Information
All information and
questions presented
in the seminar were
clear, accurate and
thorough.
Most information
and questions
presented in the
seminar were clear,
accurate and
thorough.
Most information
presented in the
seminar was clear
and accurate, but
was not usually
thorough. No
questions were
asked.
Information had
several inaccuracies
OR was usually not
clear.
Use of
Facts/Statistics
Every major point
was well supported
with specific lines
from the poetry
and/or poet bio.
Every major point
was adequately
supported with
relevant support
from the poetry and
bio.
Every major point
was supported with
facts, but the
relevance of some
was questionable.
Every point was not
supported.
Understanding
of Topic
You clearly
understood the topic
(poetry terminology)
in-depth and
presented their
information forcefully
and convincingly.
You clearly
understood the topic
in-depth and
presented their
information with
ease.
You seemed to
understand the main
points of the topic
and presented those
with ease.
You did not show an
adequate
understanding of the
topic.
Respect for
Other Team
All statements, body
language, and
responses were
respectful and were
in appropriate
language.
Statements and
responses were
respectful and used
appropriate
language, but once
or twice body
language was not.
Most statements and
responses were
respectful and in
appropriate
language, but there
was one sarcastic
remark.
Statements,
responses and/or
body language were
consistently not
respectful.
CATEGORY
o Final Project
The final assessment of the unit will be the composition of a series of three to five poems
on a topic about which individual students feel passionate. They will choose the topic and find a way in which
they can communicate a social or political message about it. They will conduct research into their topic to be
able to refer to specifics in their own poetry and they will write one page reflecting on how their passion
connects to who they are. This one page of prose addresses learning goal 2, “Students will consider how the
racial and class identity of a poet or songwriter affects a poem’s or song’s message.” The poems students write
will primarily address learning goal 4, “Students will be able to convey a social/political message in their own
poetry.” However, this ability is dependent upon students meeting learning goals 1 and 3 “Students will be able
to determine the message given in social/political song lyrics and poetry” (1) and “They will be able to analyze
how various elements of poetry work to convey a message, and what terms identify those elements using the
correct poetic terminology. Since the Final Project addresses all learning goals in some way it is an effective
summative or post-assessment. Final Project assignment and rubric follows.
English 11
Poetry as Constructed Message
Final Project
5
Consider a political or social passion of your own. Research this topic to learn information that could be
beneficial in writing your own poetry, to help you refer to specifics.
Write a brief (one-page) reflection on your passion and how it connects to who you are (your
background).
Then write a series (3-5) of your own poems, keeping in mind the poetic elements good poets employ
(refer to your Poetic Terminology sheet). In your poems be sure to include allusions to specifics on your
topic (this is where the research comes in).
Lyric/Poetry Unit Final Project Rubric
Category
Essay:
Unique
voice
present
Poetry:
Figurative
language
Poetry:
Relaying
overall
message
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3
2
1
The reader can
sense passion
and understand
the personal
history that
contributes to
the passion.
Use of
metaphor,
simile and other
techniques are
subtle and
purposeful and
contribute to the
overall
message.
The poem
effectively
provides a
message about
the writer’s
passion. It is
embedded and
purposeful.
The reader
understands
personal
background, but
the passion is
not as easily
noticed.
The writer uses
metaphors and
similes, but their
use is obvious
and/or forced.
Both
background and
passion are
Present, but are
typical and/or
cliché.
The essay does
not address the
passion or the
personal
connection.
A couple of
metaphors and
similes are used,
but they do not
provide solid
imagery and
seem out of
place.
No metaphors
or similes are
used.
The poetry has a
message, but the
message is
obvious and
forced.
Not all of the
poems have a
message.
None of the
poems have a
message.
o
Summative or Post-assessment Free write (10 minutes)
At the end of the unit, students will free write on the following prompt: Poetry is a type of media.
What have you learned about the effectiveness of poetry for communicating a message? This will enable
students to assess their own learning and to reflect on poetry as media that communicates a message like all
the other media they have studied thus far in Media Literacy. It also will allow the teacher to see what
students recognize they have learned about poetry’s ability to communicate a message.
Evaluation Breakdown:
There are a possible 1022 points for students to achieve in this unit:
Four free writes: 12 points total (3 points each)
One-page discussing diction, imagery and allusion in a song: 10 points total
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Lyric Reflection Written Analysis: 300 points total
Poetry Socratic Seminar: 400 points total
Final Project: 300 points total
Design for Instruction (plan)
In this unit students will have the opportunity to learn in various ways: independently (e.g. free writing,
interpreting poems independently in class and Socratic Seminar preparation and in Silent Discussion); in small
collaborative groups (which will incorporate flexible grouping for differentiated instruction to this heterogeneous
group) (e.g. answering questions about various songs, researching the life and lyrics of Peter Tosh or Bob Marley,
the diction activity and Socratic Seminar groups); and in a large group (e.g. whole-class discussion of songs, teacher
think-aloud poem interpretation activity and audience contributions to Socratic Seminar). Learning activities in the
unit allow for movement and social interaction while they demand participation of all students to allow for
assessment and ensure that students are meeting learning goals. Not all assessment tools are written assignments; the
teacher will assess learning informally by circulating as students work, and the Socratic Seminar allows students to
show learning orally.
Lyrics and Poetry as Constructed Messages
Lesson Plan Day 1: Introduction to unit; songs with messages.
** This class takes place on a “skinny” Monday; activity length reflects that.
Rationale:
Music plays a huge role in the lives of most high school students today; they are major consumers of music and
therefore the various messages musicians give in their lyrics. It is essential for them in a media literacy class to
reflect on music’s role in delivering messages. It also is important for them to learn the history of music spreading
messages—how it did not happen on such a large scale before the advent of radio, and then music videos, Internet
music technology, etc.
Daily Objectives:
 Individually and in small collaborative groups students will reflect on the role music, both listening to and
playing, has had on their lives.
 They will consider how development of music playing technology has changed the role of music since their
grandparents were their age.
 They will learn how the development of music playing and broadcasting technology has broadened the
audience of musicians with messages in their lyrics—that now music can be as or more effective than print
media at getting a message to the masses.
Instructional Design:
1. (Anticipatory Set). Pass out unit outline, Anticipation Guide and poetry packet (including handout on the
language of poetry and Dialogue Journals) and have students answer its questions in writing.
2. Have students break into groups of five and share/compare answers.
3. Have groups share answers with the whole class. Write answers on board (as much as possible) so that
students can compare music habits in the class.
4. Read question and answer about the importance of radio for spreading messages in music, how this could
not have been done on such a large scale earlier in history, from “Bob Dylan and Social Consciousness:
Critical Issues” (from UC Santa Barbara).
5. Ask students what methods were used before radio to spread messages. Ask them what methods are used
now. List these on the board. Ask how the media today differs from when Dylan’s career started.
6. Distribute handout “Poetic Terminology” and review terms on it.
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7. Pass out Letter to Families student handout. Explain the assignment on it—collecting titles of songs with
messages from an adult(s) in a family.
Homework:
 Bring in titles of two or songs from adult family member(s). Song titles due Friday.
Assessment:
 Circulate as students respond to Anticipation Guide in small groups. Check to see that they are
thinking about music not only as entertainment but also as a medium for spreading social and
political (as well as other) messages. Listen as students share responses to Anticipation Guide in large
group.
English 11
Prospectus: Lyrics and Poetry as Constructed Messages
Poets’ Thoughts on Political Poetry:
In this country, so-called political poetry is disparaged as poetry of rhetoric and simple, raging statement. I believe
that the political underlies all expression. How a poem comes to be made, what and how is spoken, what language,
and in what context the poem exists—all have political basis. --Joy Harjo
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Poetry is social speech. Whether the poem is whispered to one’s paramour or presented to a huge public audience,
whether it’s said in a conversational way or sung or chanted, the poem is social communication.
--Sam Hamill
We should learn to listen to our poets here and now—and not wait for history to confer on them their already
learned validity. One reason for the unforgettabilty of poets is that they somehow speak for more than themselves.
--Samuel Hazo
In this unit you will:

Understand how poetry, including song lyrics, can be used to deepen awareness of social and
political issues that may or may not be discussed in the popular media.

Consider how words and language affect the effectiveness of a poem or song on its audience.

Write poetry, combining your awareness of social and political issues with your understanding of
the vocabulary associated with poetry.
Weeks One and Two (1/28-2/8):
Look at the music of politically- or socially-minded musicians: Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, Billie Holiday, Bob
Marley, Pink, Peter Tosh and Public Enemy
 How do these musicians use lyrics and music to inform and persuade their audience?
 How does formal poetic terminology work in analyzing the lyrics?
Week Three (2/11-2/15):
Look at the poetry of politically- or socially-minded poets: Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, Naomi Shihab Nye,
Martin Espada, Gwendolyn Brooks and Yusef Komunyakaa.
 How have these poets used the poetic construction to make their audience aware of their world and specific
messages?
 How do you write a critical analysis of song lyrics or a poem? (expository essay)
Week Four (2/18-2/22):
 Discuss poetry using terminology such as imagery, diction, symbol, allusion, metaphor and simile (Socratic
seminar).
 Research and free write on a passion of your own to write poetry on an issue or concept that you want to make
your class aware of; workshop poems.
Vacation Week: Compose 3-5 poems and 1-page narrative on topic.
Week Five (3/3-3/7):
Present poems.
English 11
Song Lyrics and Poetry as Constructed Messages
Anticipation Guide
Music and Your Life
How many hours a week do you think you spend listening to music?
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How much time do you spend making music yourself?
How much time do you spend hearing live music?
Of the recorded music you listen to, what types of machines and technology do you use to listen to it?
How might this compare to how your grandparents listened to music in their youth? (No portable
equipment, no CD's etc.) What inventions of the 20th century most affected the listening public?
If none of these technologies were available to you, how do you think your life would be different?
Who are the recording artists you like and listen to the most?
Have any of these artists made you aware of a problem or issue in our society? If so, what problems or
issues has the music brought to your attention? How does the song or music make you feel about the
issue? What role do the lyrics play? What role does the music itself play?
Can you think of a time in history when protest music was especially important (e.g. the Vietnam War
era)? What issues was the music designed to address?
Can you think a recording artist you know who has been considered "daring" for bringing a social issue
to public attention via his or her music? What might still be a "taboo" issue today?
What music has moved you to a new awareness of a problem or into social action?
From http://www.teachervision.fen.com/civil-rights/lesson-plan/4839.html
Unit: Lyrics and Poetry as Constructed Message
Lesson Plan Day 2: Folk Songs with Messages
Textual Focus: Bob Dylan, “Blowin’ in the Wind,” Woody Guthrie, “Deportees (Plane
Wreck at Los Gatos)”
Rationale:
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Students should understand that a skillful poet can say something differently than we might in everyday speech. It
also is important for them to be able to interpret what a poet is saying in poetic language, as well as find the
underlying message or messages in that language. By examining a poet’s word choices and the poetic elements used
in a poem or song, students can determine how certain word choices work effectively to convey the poet’s message.
Daily Objectives:
 Students will learn that in poetry (or lyric composition) we can say something differently than we
would in everyday speech.
 They well learn that in poetry we can make certain choices of words and poetic elements to
communicate a message.
 In small collaborative groups they will examine a song to determine how poetic elements and word
choices can work to say something differently and to communicate a writer’s message: what the
writer wants the audience to think about or do as a result of the message.
Instructional Design:
1. Define “folk music.”
2. Ask what students know about Bob Dylan and what songs they know that he has written. Give them
brief biographical information, such as
o He was about twenty when he wrote and performed “Blowin’ in the Wind.”
o He has been writing and performing music for nearly fifty years.
o His earliest and most widely listened to work is protest songs.
3. Have students open to “Blowin’ in the Wind” in poetry packet.
4. Read story about this song from Rolling Stone online article (attached).
5. Explain the following background information about “Blowin’ in the Wind (from above article):
o It was written as a poem and then put to the music of an African American traditional song, “No
More Auction Block.”
o It was written in 1962, when Dylan was 21.
o Dylan composed the poem in ten minutes.
o It is called the most famous protest song ever written.
o Dylan believed humanity’s greatest crime is indifference; he noted that “Some of the biggest
criminals are those that turn their heads away when they see wrong and they know it’s wrong.”
o “Blowin’ in the Wind” strengthened the stance of peace demonstrators in the 1960s anti-war
movement.
o The song is written in the interrogative form—it asks questions of its audience—a common
feature of folk music.
6. Show on projected computer the early performance of Dylan singing “Blowin’ in the Wind” from
www.youtube.coom/watch?v=ced8o50G9kg.
7. Break students into groups of four.
8. Write on the board the following tasks for groups. Students do not need to write for this group
activity, but they may if it is helpful; a note taker can take group notes if desired:
o Translate or interpret into everyday language what each couplet means in the song. If the
meaning is straightforward, you use those words.
o Try to articulate the song’s message: what does Dylan want his audience to think about or
do?
o Does Dylan answer any of his questions?
o Who is the audience? Can they find the answers to these questions?
o Now, go through the song again and determine what words/language and images Dylan uses
to create a message: how does he say something differently than we would if we were
speaking (the way we “translated” it). What words work to convey a message? Underline
these words/language or images.
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9. Have groups share with the class their “translations.” First, ask for interpretations of what “blowin’ in
the wind” might mean. Call on different groups for each couplet. If a group has a much different
translation, have it share it.
10. Have groups share with the class words/language or images Dylan uses to communicate a message in
a different way than we might in everyday speech. List these on the board. Read from the board and
ask how these work toward the message.
11. Next, have students (still in groups) open to Woody Guthrie’s “Deportee.” Give background of
Guthrie, explaining how he was a major influence on Dylan.
12. Give background of song (information attached).
13. Play “Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)” from www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yz9okKRhimE.
14. Have students read lyrics and determine (working alone) what words and poetic elements work to
communicate Guthrie’s message. What is his message?
15. Read song line-by-line or stanza-by-stanza and call on students for their responses from the above
task.
16. Explain homework.
Homework:
Assessment:

Bring in song titles from families.

Circulate as students work in groups and individually to check to see that they are able to interpret and find
messages in the songs, and determine how word choices and poetic elements convey messages. (Functional
assessment)
Blowin' in the Wind
Bob Dylan
POSTED DEC 09, 2004 12:00 AM
Written by: Dylan
Produced by: John Hammond
Released: May '63 on Columbia
Charts: Did not chart
In April 1962, at Gerde's Folk City in New York's Greenwich Village, Bob Dylan gave a quick speech before
playing one of his new songs: "This here ain't no protest song or anything like that, 'cause I don't write no protest
songs," he said. He then sang the first and third verses of the still- unfinished "Blowin' in the Wind." Published in
full a month later in the folk journal Broadside and recorded on July 9th, 1962, for his second album, The
Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, "Blowin' in the Wind" was Dylan's first important composition. It is also the most famous
protest song ever written. As a songwriter, Dylan was still emerging from his Woody Guthrie fixation. But in a
decisive break with the rhetorical, current-events conventions of topical folk, Dylan framed the crises around him in
a series of fierce, poetic questions that addressed what Dylan believed was man's greatest inhumanity to man:
indifference. "Some of the biggest criminals are those that turn their heads away when they see wrong and they
know it's wrong," he declared in the Freewheelin' liner notes. Earlier this year, Dylan revealed more about the
mechanics of writing the song in the Los Angeles Times: "I wrote 'Blowin' in the Wind' in ten minutes, just put
words to an old spiritual, probably something I learned from Carter Family records. That's the folk tradition. You use
what's been handed down" -- and, of course, pass it on. Appears on: The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (Columbia)
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Bob Dylan and Social Consciousness: Critical Issues
1. How does the release of information, over the radio, extend to the masses and present issues with the expectation
of spreading social consciousness?
By inventing frequency modulation in the 1930's, Edwin Howard Armstrong gave birth to a new and exciting
medium for spreading awareness to everyone. Bob Dylan, and other's like him, chose to use the radio as a forum for
spreading social consciousness. By using the radio, it was easier to reach people in great numbers and in areas that
newspapers and magazines could not be afforded. The radio allowed anyone within an ear's distance to listen and
react. Spreading information over the radio was easy, inexpensive, and an acceptable medium for spreading
awareness to people that normally wouldn't be privy to such information. The radio transcended the act of spreading
information to the masses.
4. Hypothetically, if Bob Dylan was born in 1914, instead of 1941; would he have had as big, or bigger, an impact
on music and society? Why?
In the last 40 years, Bob Dylan has been a major part of contemporary music. Through radio, television,
newspaper, and concerts, Bob Dylan has been able to reach the public and spread social consciousness over the
years. Music has and will continue to change in the future. Musicians of the 1960’s played and distributed music
either because they loved performing or had a message which they wanted to express. Present day musicians (in
the 1980’s and 1990’s) appear to want one of two things: fame or fortune, or both…. As with many other
professions, musicians have to be appealing and effective in order for people to listen and purchase their music.
In my opinion, anyone who has been distributing and performing music for over 40 years has tremendous musical
talent. Natural music talent comes from an inherent ability in which, one rarely has to practice. Bob Dylan is a
perfect example of this phenomenon. Dylan would have made a huge impression on music and society anytime,
despite when he was born. Although, if Bob Dylan had been born in 1914, I do not believe his impact would have
had the capability of becoming global. Much of his popularity, if not all of it, has been developed through the use
of technology. Radio, television, Internet, and all forms of media have instigated the global following of Dylan.
With limited technology (like in the year of 1914), Dylan’s natural talent may never have been heard. How much
of an impression we will never know, however I believe he sang and composed music with an extreme talent held
by only him. He will always be looked at as a powerful leader.
From http://transcriptions.english.ucsb.edu/archive/topics/infoart/dylan/issues.html
Blowin’ in the Wind
By Bob Dylan
How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
Yes, 'n' how many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, 'n' how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they're forever banned?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.
How many times must a man look up
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Before he can see the sky?
Yes, 'n' how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, 'n' how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.
How many years can a mountain exist
Before it's washed to the sea?
Yes, 'n' how many years can some people exist
Before they're allowed to be free?
Yes, 'n' how many times can a man turn his head,
Pretending he just doesn't see?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.
[1962]
“Deportee” Background
The agreement of 1947 [between Mexico and the U.S.]... contained a novel provision which established amnesty
through deportation. Under its terms, undocumented Mexicans who were sent back across the border could return to
the U.S. as temporary contract laborers; during the life of their contracts, they could not be again deported. In
practice, employers often called Border Patrol stations to report their own undocumented employees, who were
returned, momentarily, to border cities in Mexico, where they signed labor contracts with the same employers who
had denounced them. This process became known as "drying out wetbacks" or "storm and drag immigration."
"Drying out" provided a deportation-proof source of cheap seasonal labor...
Dick J. Reavis, Without Documents, New York, 1978, p. 39.
Joe Offer (Joe-Offer@msn.com) provided this info on rec.music.folk on Jan 29, 1997:
The New York Times of January 29, 1948 reported the wreck of a "charter plane carrying 28 Mexican farm
14
workers from Oakland to the El Centro, CA, Deportation Center.... The crash occurred 20 miles west of Coalinga, 75
miles from Fresno."
The first version of the song that I heard was by the Whiskey Hill Singers back in the late 50's or early 60's. They
were a short-lived group led by Dave Guard of the Kingston Trio...
He [WOODY GUTHRIE] was writing as many songs as ever, but few of any consequence. His children's songs
continued to be charming... and his other songs remained perfunctory, with the notable exception of "Plane Wreck at
Los Gatos (Deportees)," which he composed after reading, early in 1948, that a plane deporting migrant farm
workers back to Mexico had crashed. It was the last great song he would write, a memorial to the nameless migrants
"all scattered like dry leaves" in Los Gatos Canyon, where the plane crashed.... The song, as he wrote it, was
virtually without music -- Woody chanted the words -- and wasn't performed publicly until a decade later when a
schoolteacher named Martin Hoffman1 added a beautiful melody and Pete Seeger began singing it in concerts....
Joe Klein, Woody Guthrie: A Life, London, 1981, pp. 349-350
Deportee (Plane Wreck At Los Gatos)
By Woody Guthrie
The crops are all in and the peaches are rott'ning,
The oranges piled in their creosote dumps;
They're flying 'em back to the Mexican border
To pay all their money to wade back again
Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye, Rosalita,
Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria;
You won't have your names when you ride the big airplane,
All they will call you will be "deportees"
My father's own father, he waded that river,
They took all the money he made in his life;
15
My brothers and sisters come working the fruit trees,
And they rode the truck till they took down and died.
Some of us are illegal, and some are not wanted,
Our work contract's out and we have to move on;
Six hundred miles to that Mexican border,
They chase us like outlaws, like rustlers, like thieves.
We died in your hills, we died in your deserts,
We died in your valleys and died on your plains.
We died 'neath your trees and we died in your bushes,
Both sides of the river, we died just the same.
The sky plane caught fire over Los Gatos Canyon,
A fireball of lightning, and shook all our hills,
Who are all these friends, all scattered like dry leaves?
The radio says, "They are just deportees"
Is this the best way we can grow our big orchards?
Is this the best way we can grow our good fruit?
To fall like dry leaves to rot on my topsoil
And be called by no name except "deportees"?
Words by Woody Guthrie and Music by Martin Hoffman © 1961 (renewed) by TRO-Ludlow Music, Inc.
The 1948 plane crash of a plane carrying 28 Mexican farm workers from Oakland, California to be deported back to
Mexico inspired the poem "Deportee (Plane Wreck At Los Gatos)." The poem was set to music a decade later by
Martin Hoffman, and the song has since been covered by performers such as Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, The Byrds,
Dolly Parton, Judy Collins, and Woody's son Arlo Guthrie.
Unit: Lyrics and Poetry as Constructed Messages
Lesson Plan Day 3: Songs Reacting to Racist Crimes
Textual Focus: Billie Holiday, “Strange Fruit,” Bob Dylan, “The Ballad of Emmett Till”
Materials: Post-It paper or butcher paper affixed to wall, notecards with questions.
Rationale:
Students enrolled in a media literacy class should understand that the way artists and then their audiences often deal
with and try to comprehend tragedy is through artistic expression--media; often after a tragedy there is a photo,
painting, written work, song, etc. formulated about the event that over time comes to symbolize it through reminding
audiences of its occurrence. Sometimes there are many. The songs studied today and other works in this unit
represent some of these. By examining them, students can study where narrators position themselves in relation to
the event, who the audience is and why the singer felt compelled to use the medium of music to present a message
about an event,
16
Daily Objectives:
 Students will consider why music might be an effective medium for communicating social/political
messages.
 They will think about why singers sing about tragic events.
 In collaborative small groups they will determine what poetic elements and word choice makes a message
stronger in a song.
Instructional Design:
1. (Anticipatory Set) Focused free write (ten minutes): What do we think of political or social messages given
by white songwriters about people who are not white, such as Woody Guthrie writing about Mexican
migrant farm workers? Why? (Pre-assessment)
2. Ask for volunteers to share free writes or the ideas in them.
3. Collect free write to assess.
4. Share songs from families.
5. Review poetic terminology from sheet with students.
6. Explain to students that today’s class will deal with difficult subject matter—murder that is race-related.
7. Have students open to “Strange Fruit.” Explain that it was written by a poet (Lewis Allen, who was not
African American) and later put to music and performed by Billie Holiday. Explain who Holiday was in
terms of a social message-giver: a woman singing jazz, which has African American roots. Ask what it
means that she is in this position giving the messages in “Strange Fruit.” How does her identity as a black
woman affect her message?
8. Play video of Holiday singing “Strange Fruit” from www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4zyuULy9zs.
9. Give students information about lynching (attached), and show it on visualizer.
10. Ask students questions about “Strange Fruit” (attached).
11. Ask them why Holiday might have put the poem “Strange Fruit” to music and used that medium to express
her message. Are other media more or less effective? In what ways?
12. What imagery in the song makes its message effectively conveyed?
13. Have students open to “The Ballad of Emmett Till.”
14. Read to students the background of the song—the description of what happened to Emmett Till.
15. Play “The Ballad of Emmett Till” video from www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjfGcRM35xg.
16. Break students into groups of five. Have them answer the following questions as a group, but each student
will have one question written on a notecard and be responsible for writing down the group’s answer and
presenting it to the rest of the class.
1) Where is Dylan physically in the song?
2) What exactly is Dylan’s message in this song?
3) Who was his audience at the time (1963)?
4) What do we think of a young white man giving this message? How does his identity affect his
delivery of his message compared to that of Holiday?
5) What line or lines are effective in getting his message across to listeners?
6) How might music reach a larger audience than other media?
7) Why do these singers sing about these issues?
17. Next give a notecard with the following tasks to each student (one notecard per student) and have each
student complete the task and write her response on one of three pieces of Post-it paper. Label one
piece "allusions," one "diction" and one "images."
 Give an example (line/phrase) of diction that is effective at communicating the song’s
message.
 Choose 5 images that help communicate the song’s message.
 Choose 5 images that help communicate the song’s message.
 Choose 5 images that help communicate the song’s message.
 Find one allusion in the song. Write it on the Post-It paper.
17
18. Have groups share responses as a class.
Assessment:
 Listen to student responses in large-group discussion about “Strange Fruit.” Circulate during smallgroup work and listen to student answers to questions for groups. (Functional assessment)
 Assess free writes out of a possible three points. (Pre-assessment)
Strange Fruit
Poem by Lewis Allen; performed by Billie Holiday
Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.
Pastoral scene of the gallant south,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.
Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.
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Questions for “Strange Fruit”
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Why were most lynching victims hung from trees? Would they have died this way had they
been convicted of a crime in a court of law?
What kinds of fruit do trees usually bear? Ask students to generate the cycle a fruit-bearing
tree would go through in the course of a season: the tree blossoms, the fruit begins to grow,
ripens, and falls to the ground as perhaps the wind blows. On the ground it might be eaten
by crows, etc.
How do we know from the lyrics that the "strange" fruit here means the bodies of lynching
victims?
Why is it that Southern trees bear the "strange fruit"?
What contrast is made between the "gallant South" and the South which bears strange fruit?
What is ironic about this contrast?
Why do you think the word "lynching" never appears in the song?
Do you think the song is more powerful, or less powerful, because its topic [lynching] is
implied instead of stated?
What impact does a song have, and why?
19
** Activity: Have students generate a list of adjectives that express their feelings about this song.
From http://www.teachervision.fen.com/civil-rights/lesson-plan/4839.html#assessment
Lynching Background
According to the Constitutional Rights Foundation, between 1882 and 1968, mobs lynched 4,743 persons in the
United States, over 70 percent of them African-Americans. Lynching peaked after the end of Reconstruction when
federal troops were removed from the South. In 1892, vigilantes lynched 71 whites and 155 blacks. After that the
number of lynchings decreased nationwide, but increasingly, lynching became a crime of the South. By the late
1920s, 95 percent of U.S. lynchings occurred in the South.
The white mobs who lynched African-American men often justified their actions as a defense of "white
womanhood;" the usual reason given for lynching black men was that they had raped white women. But early on,
journalists like Ida B. Wells (1862-1931) saw through this sham and proclaimed that the lynch mobs' real motive
was the determination to keep African-American men economically depressed and politically disenfranchised. Ida
B.Wells (a.k.a. Ida Wells-Barnett) headed the Anti-Lynching League and was a member of the Committee of Forty
which led to the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
While the Constitution leaves law enforcement up to the states, a movement spearheaded by the NAACP sought to
pass anti-lynching laws at the federal level, since Southern state governments appeared ineffective in fighting this
crime. During the Great Depression, when Billie Holiday recorded "Strange Fruit," lynchings of African-Americans
were again on the increase. Although a law at the federal level was consistently blocked by Southern senators,
lynchings virtually disappeared by 1950. In part this can be attributed to improved economic conditions and the
success of the anti-lynching campaign spearheaded by the NAACP.
From http://www.teachervision.fen.com/civil-rights/lesson-plan/4839.html#assessment
The Lynching of Emmett Till
(historical web site) http://www.heroism.org/class/1950/heroes/till.htm
The horrific death of a Chicago teenager helped spark the civil rights movement In the summer of 1955, Mamie Till
gave in to her son's pleas to visit relatives in the South. But before putting her only son Emmett on bus in Chicago,
she gave him a stern warning: "Be careful. If you have to get down on your knees and bow when a white person
goes past, do it willingly." Emmett, all of 14, didn't heed his mother's warning. On Aug. 27, 1955, Emmett was
beaten and shot to death by two white men who threw the boy's mutilated body into the Tallahatchie River near
Money, Mississippi. Emmett's crime: talking and maybe even whistling to a white woman at a local grocery store.
Emmett's death came a year after the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision outlawed segregation.
For the first time, blacks had the law on their side in the struggle for equality. Emmett's killing struck a cord across a
nation. White people in the North were as shocked as blacks at the cruelty of the killing. The national media picked
up on the story, and the case mobilized the NAACP, which provided a safe house for witnesses in the trial of the
killers. Emmett became a martyr for the fledgling civil rights movement that would engross the country in a few
years. Mamie Till spoke out about her son's death. She held an open-casket funeral for her son, so that the world
could see "what they did to my boy." Emmett's face was battered beyond recognition and he had a bullet hole in his
head. The body had decomposed after spending several days underwater. Roy Bryant, whose wife Carolyn was the
20
white woman at the store, and his half brother, J.W. Milam, were tried for Emmett's murder and acquitted by a jury
of 12 white men. There are conflicting reports as to what Emmett said to Carolyn Bryant, who owned the store with
her husband. By most accounts, Emmett and his cousin Curtis Jones, who was visiting from Chicago as well, were
playing with other boys outside the store. Emmett pulled a picture of a white girl out of his wallet and boasted to the
other boys that she was his girlfriend. The other boys seemed to think it was just bragging by a city boy from the
North. But one boy suggested Emmett go inside the store and talk to the white woman who was running the cash
register, especially if he was so good with white women. Emmett went inside, and by some accounts he whistled at
Carolyn Bryant, who was 21 at the time. Others said he bought some gum and made a lewd suggestion to Bryant on
the way out. Bryant testified at the trial that Emmett grabbed her and said, "Don't be afraid of me, baby. I been with
white girls before." In the segregated South, punishment for a black male who made a sexual suggestion a white
woman was swift. Word got around about what had happened and Emmett's relatives suggested he get out of town
as fast as possible. He didn't leave fast enough. According to historian David Halberstam, Ron Bryant and Milam
tracked Emmett down and pulled him from his uncle's house. The beat him but Emmett was unrepentant. So, they
decided to kill Emmett to make an example of him. They took him to the river and made him strip down naked.
"You still better than me?" Milam asked Emmett. "Yeah," the boy said. Milam shot him in the head. They tied
Emmett's body to a cotton gin fan and dumped it into the river. Unfortunately, Emmett's killing was only one of
thousands of similar murders in the South, and his name is not well known. But the case was an important turning
point in America's civil rights struggle.
From http://www.educationforum.co.uk/emmetttill.htm
The Ballad of Emmett Till
By Bob Dylan
"Twas down in Mississippi no so long ago,
When a young boy from Chicago town stepped through a Southern door.
This boy's dreadful tragedy I can still remember well,
The color of his skin was black and his name was Emmett Till.
Some men they dragged him to a barn and there they beat him up.
They said they had a reason, but I can't remember what.
They tortured him and did some evil things too evil to repeat.
There was screaming sounds inside the barn, there was laughing sounds out on the street.
Then they rolled his body down a gulf amidst a bloody red rain
And they threw him in the waters wide to cease his screaming pain.
The reason that they killed him there, and I'm sure it ain't no lie,
Was just for the fun of killin' him and to watch him slowly die.
And then to stop the United States of yelling for a trial,
21
Two brothers they confessed that they had killed poor Emmett Till.
But on the jury there were men who helped the brothers commit this awful crime,
And so this trial was a mockery, but nobody seemed to mind.
I saw the morning papers but I could not bear to see
The smiling brothers walkin' down the courthouse stairs.
For the jury found them innocent and the brothers they went free,
While Emmett's body floats the foam of a Jim Crow southern sea.
If you can't speak out against this kind of thing, a crime that's so unjust,
Your eyes are filled with dead men's dirt, your mind is filled with dust.
Your arms and legs they must be in shackles and chains, and your blood it must refuse to flow,
For you let this human race fall down so God-awful low!
This song is just a reminder to remind your fellow man
That this kind of thing still lives today in that ghost-robed Ku Klux Klan.
But if all of us folks that thinks alike, if we gave all we could give,
We could make this great land of ours a greater place to live.
Copyright © 1963; renewed 1991 Special Rider Music
Unit: Lyrics and Poetry as Constructed Messages
Lesson Plan Day 4: Protest Artists: Peter Tosh and Bob Marley, Lives and Lyrics
** Guidance counselors will be taking students one at a time throughout period seven today.
** Six laptops must be reserved from the Media Center for this class. Three laptops will be used at a time, and three
will be kept charging for use when the first three start losing battery power.
Textual Focus: Bob Marley, “Redemption Song,” Bob Marley and Peter Tosh, “Get Up Stand Up,” Peter Tosh,
“Equal Rights”
Rationale:
It is important for students to understand that writers can write of an event or issue from a removed standpoint or
from direct experience. Songs from both perspectives can have important messages. Students can develop a better
understanding of why songwriters who write from direct experience write what and how they do if they research the
life of the songwriter. Students also can better understand the message and the poetic choices a writer makes if they
collaborate to analyze how lyrics send a message. By deep analysis of lyrics, including language and poetic
elements, students can determine how an effective message is communicated through the medium of music.
Daily Objectives:
22

In small groups, students will research the backgrounds of songs and songwriters and consider the impact
that background has on the song’s message.
In small groups they will analyze song lyrics, articulating what a song’s message is and what poetic
elements work to communicate that message.
They will use poetic terminology in a song’s analysis.
They will collaborate on presentation of research and analysis of a poem to the class.



Instructional Design:
1. Explain that Peter Tosh and Bob Marley were musicians who wrote not about what had happened in the
lives of others but in reaction to poverty and injustice in their own lives.
2. (Anticipatory Set) Free write (five minutes): What can the impact be on a song or its message if the
writer/performer has experienced the song’s content rather then witnessed or heard about it?
3. Collect free write.
4. As students listen to the following songs, have them consider what the singer wants the audience to think
about or do as a result of the message
5. Play YouTube recordings of all three songs covered today: Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song,” Bob
Marley’s and Peter Tosh’s “Get Up Stand Up” and Peter Tosh’s “Equal Rights.”
6. Today students will work in research or lyrics analysis teams.
7. Break class into three groups of seven (large groups due to students leaving every ten minutes). Teacher
chooses groups.
8. Assign one of the three songs studied today to each group to research and analyze. The following tasks
should take about forty minutes.
 Researchers: Assign three students in each group the job of researcher. In this capacity they will
use one laptop to collaborate on Internet research of the assigned song and artist. Ask them to find
and take notes on whatever information they can find about both, concentrating on the biography
of the musician and information they can find on how that life helps create the song’s message.
They may switch to the charged laptop when needed.
 Lyrics Analyzers: Assign four students in each group the job of lyrics analysts. They must go
slowly through the song and try to determine, line by line, what the artist is saying. Who is his
audience? They should have their Poetic Terminology sheet out, pay attention to where the writer
uses poetic elements and note these terms on the song where appropriate.
 Presentation of Songs/Musicians: When groups have completed their research and analysis of the
assigned songs, have them present their findings to the class in Socratic Seminar style. They must
explain what they think the singer wants the audience to think about or do as a result of hearing
the song.
Assessment:


Circulate as students free write and later as they work on research and analysis. When they come to
a standstill, ask questions to move them forward. (Functional assessment.
Assess free writes out of a possible three points. (Pre-assessment)
23
Equal Rights
By Peter Tosh
Everyone is crying out for peace yes
None is crying out for justice
(2x)
(CHORUS)
I don't want no peace
I need equal rights and justice (3x)
Got to get it
Equal rights and justice
Everybody want to go to heaven
But nobody want to die
Everybody want to go to up to heaven
But none o them (2x) want to die
(CHORUS)
(Just give me my share)
What is due to Caesar
24
You better give it on to Caesar
And what belong to I and I
You better (2x) give it up to I
(CHORUS)
(I'm fighting for it)
Everyone heading for the top
But tell me how far is it from the bottom
Nobody knows but
Everybody fighting to reach the top
How far is it from the bottom
(CHORUS)
Everyone is talking about crime
Tell me who are the criminals
I said everybody's talking about crime, crime
Tell me who, who are the criminals
I really don't see them
(CHORUS)
There be no crime
Equal rights and justice (Precedes each line below)
There be no criminals
Everyone is fighting for
Palestine is fighting for
Down in Angola
Down in Botswana
Down in Zimbabwe
Down in Rhodesia
Right here in Jamaica
Get Up Stand Up
By Peter Tosh and Bob Marley
(CHORUS)
Get up, stand up
Stand up for your rights
Get up, stand up
Don't give up the fight
(2x)
You, preacher man don't tell me
Heaven is under the earth
You a duppy and you don't know
What life is really worth
It's not all that glitter is gold
And half the story has never been told
So now we see the light
We gonna stand up for your rights
Come on
(CHORUS)
Cause you know most people think
25
A great God will come from the skies
Take away everything
And left everybody dry
But if you know what life is worth
Then you would look for yours on earth
And now you see the light
We gonna stand up for your rights
(CHORUS)
We're sick and tired of this game of technology
Humbly asking Jesus for his mercy
We know and we know and understand
Almighty Jah is a living man
You fool some people sometimes
But you can't fool all the people all the time
And now we see the light
We gonna stand up for our rights
[1973]
Redemption Song
By Bob Marley
Old pirates, yes, they rob i;
Sold I to the merchant ships,
Minutes after they took i
From the bottomless pit.
But my hand was made strong
By the and of the almighty.
We forward in this generation
Triumphantly.
Wont you help to sing
These songs of freedom? cause all I ever have:
Redemption songs;
Redemption songs.
Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;
None but ourselves can free our minds.
Have no fear for atomic energy,
cause none of them can stop the time.
How long shall they kill our prophets,
While we stand aside and look? ooh!
26
Some say its just a part of it:
Weve got to fulfil de book.
Wont you help to sing
These songs of freedom? cause all I ever have:
Redemption songs;
Redemption songs;
Redemption songs.
--/guitar break/
--Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;
None but ourselves can free our mind.
Wo! have no fear for atomic energy,
cause none of them-a can-a stop-a the time.
How long shall they kill our prophets,
While we stand aside and look?
Yes, some say its just a part of it:
Weve got to fulfil de book.
Wont you help to sing
Dese songs of freedom? cause all I ever had:
Redemption songs All I ever had:
Redemption songs:
These songs of freedom,
Songs of freedom.
Unit: Lyrics and Poetry as Constructed Messages
Lesson Plan Day 5: Songs of Social Commentary
Textual Focus: Public Enemy, “Fight the Power” and “Hell No (We Ain’t Alright)”
Rationale:
 In this unit it is crucial for students to understand why so much music (and poetry) with social/political
messages is not about white people; often it is not composed by white people either. It is a valuable for
students to analyze the different messages by non-white musicians, as well as determine who the
audience is.
Daily Objectives:
 Students will consider why many songs with social/political messages are often about people who are not
white.

In small groups they will compare social/political messages in songs by artists in two different
musical genres (rap and reggae), and consider who the audiences are.
 In small groups they will contemplate the role of other current music media at spreading messages.
 They will understand the meaning of “diction” and be able to discern effective or strong diction from
ineffective or weak diction.
27
Instructional Design:
1. (Anticipatory Set) Free write (five minutes): Why are many political songs (and poems) written about
people who are not white?
2. Ask students to share responses with the class.
3. Collect free write
4. KWL chart: using three pieces Post-It paper on the wall, draw a title at the top of each paper. On the first
write the letter K (for “know”—what we already know), and list the words “Elvis,” “John Wayne,”
“Martin Luther King,” “Malcolm X,” “Black Panthers,” “Jackie Robinson,” “Brooklyn,” “Philadelphia,”
and “Detroit.” On the next sheet of paper under W (for what students want to know—or W/P for what
they want to know or can predict) write the same list. On the third piece of paper write L. This is filled
out after watching the YouTube video.
5. Have students open to Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power.”
6. Play video recording of this song from YouTube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuTi9UztPbw. First
play only the audio recording and ask student to read the lyrics; then have them only watch the video and
not read the lyrics.
7. Ask who the intended audience is of the song.
8. Break students into small groups. Have them analyze what the rappers are saying line by line, find what
the song’s message is, and underline where they see poetic elements from their Poetic Terminology
handout.
9. Ask groups to share their findings.
10. Discuss the similarities and differences between this rap and the reggae songs; are the messages similar?
How do they vary?
11. Have students open to Public Enemy’s 2007 “Hell No (We Ain’t Alright),” and play audio recording of
it.
12. Ask students what direct comparisons they see between this rap and some of the reggae songs.
13. Activity: learning about effective diction.
Stick four pieces of Post-It paper on the walls. Draw a line down the middle of each, using a different
color marker on each paper to write with. At the top of the left column write, “Strong or effective
diction.” At the top of the right column write, “emotions these words evoke.” Instruct students (in groups
of six) to think of as many specific ways to describe the color of the writing on their paper as possible in
the left column, e.g. “grass green,” “camouflage green.” Then, in the right column, across from each
color, they should write the emotions these words evoke, e.g. “bright green” for grass; “darker green” for
camouflage. The purpose of the activity is for students to see how using less vague and more specific,
stronger diction can evoke certain emotions or ideas in our minds. Leave the paper on the walls
throughout the unit to help students remember what strong or effective diction is.
Homework:
 Analyze in one page the lyrics of a song of your choice in terms of imagery, diction and allusion. Due
next class.
Assessment:
 Circulate as students work in groups and participate in diction activity. (Functional assessment)
 Assess student free writes out of a possible three points. (Pre-assessment)
28
Fight The Power
By K. Shocklee, E. Sadler, C. Ridenhour
1989 the number another summer (get down)
Sound of the funky drummer
Music hittin' your heart cause I know you got soul
(Brothers and sisters, hey)
Listen if you're missin' y'all
Swingin' while I'm singin'
Givin' whatcha gettin'
Knowin' what I know
While the Black bands sweatin'
And the rhythm rhymes rollin'
Got to give us what we want
Gotta give us what we need
Our freedom of speech is freedom or death
We got to fight the powers that be
Lemme hear you say
Fight the power
CHORUS
As the rhythm designed to bounce
What counts is that the rhymes
Designed to fill your mind
Now that you've realized the prides arrived
We got to pump the stuff to make us tough
29
from the heart
It's a start, a work of art
To revolutionize make a change nothin's strange
People, people we are the same
No we're not the same
Cause we don't know the game
What we need is awareness, we can't get careless
You say what is this?
My beloved lets get down to business
Mental self defensive fitness
(Yo) bum rush the show
You gotta go for what you know
Make everybody see, in order to fight the powers that be
Lemme hear you say...
Fight the Power
CHORUS
Elvis was a hero to most
But he never meant shit to me you see
Straight up racist that sucker was
Simple and plain
Mother f*%! him and John Wayne
Cause I'm Black and I'm proud
I'm ready and hyped plus I'm amped
Most of my heroes don't appear on no stamps
Sample a look back you look and find
Nothing but rednecks for 400 years if you check
Don't worry be happy
Was a number one jam
Damn if I say it you can slap me right here
(Get it) lets get this party started right
Right on, c'mon
What we got to say
Power to the people no delay
To make everybody see
In order to fight the powers that be
(Fight the Power)
Hell No (We Ain’t Alright)
By Public Enemy (Paris Remix)
[Chuck D] {*storm raging in the background*}
Does it gotta come down to this...
In order to see things for what they are and what it is...
We still might not be free up in this piece
Or treated very equally as far as I can see...
Hell no we ain't alright!
[Chuck D] + (Flavor Flav)
Now all these press conferences, breaking news alert (this just in)
While your government looks for a war to win
Flames for the blame game, names where I begin
Walls closin and get some help to my kin
(Who cares?) While the rest of the Bush nation stares
As the drama unfolds, as we the people under the stairs
Fifty percent of this "Son of a Bush" nation
30
is like, hatin on Haiti and settin up assassinations
Ask Pat Robertson, quiz him (mmm - smells like terrorism)
Racism in the news, still one-sided views
Sayin whites find food
Pray for the National Guard who be ready to shoot
Because they be sayin us blacks loot
(What is your boy "Son of a Bush" doin?) {*laughing*}
(NUTTIN!)
[Chorus 1: repeat 3X]
New Orleans in the mornin afternoon and night
Hell naw! {HELL NAW} We ain't alright
[Chorus 2]
New Orleans in the mornin afternoon and night
Hell naw! "Damn, damn!"
[Chuck D] + (Flavor Flav)
Now them fires, earthquakes, tsunamis, I don't mean to scare
... wasn't this written somewhere?
Disgrace is all I be seein is hurtin black faces
Moved out to all them far away places
(Emergency) state, corpses alligators and snakes
Big difference between this haze and (the little diamonds on the VMA's)
You better look what's really important
Y'all under the sun, especially if you over 21
This ain't no TV show, ain't no video (this is really real!)
Beyond them same ol' keep it real
quotes from them TV stars, drivin big rim cars (streets keep floodin B)
No matter where you at no gas, driving is a luxury (urgency)
Don't y'all know? They said it's a state of emergency
Show somebody's government is far from reality
(Aiyyo check one two!)
[Chorus 1] - repeat 4X instead of 3X
[TV broadcast samples]
And they don't have a CLUE of what's going on down there
I'm like you've gotta be kidding me, this is a NATIONAL disaster
It's awful down here man
God is lookin down on all this
And if they are not doin everything in their power to save people
They are gonna pay the price
[Chuck D] + (Flavor Flav)
Now I see we be the new faces of refugees, who ain't even overseas
But stuck here on our knees
Forget the plasma TV, ain't no electricity
New world's upside down and OUT of order
Shelter, food, what's up yo? (Where's the water?)
No answers from disaster, them masses be hurtin
So who the f#$! they call - HALLIBURTON?!
"Son of a Bush" how you gonna just trust that cat
to fix s%#t when all that help is stuck in Iraq?
Makin war plans takin more stands in Afghanistan
31
Two thousands soldiers there dyin in the sand
But that's over there, right? What's over here?
It's a noise so loud some of y'all can't hear
But on TV I know that I can see
Bunches of people, lookin just like me
[Chorus 1] - repeat 4X, change city/state name each refrain
[1] - New Orleans
[2] - Mississippi
[3] - Alabama
[4] - U.S.A.
[Chuck D]
We definitely ain't alright
And some of y'all voted for that cat! "Son of a Bush"
That's right, what God giveth sometimes your country taketh away
Yeah, one love, comin from Public Enemy, #1 y'all
Public Enemy, 2006 (yeah)
Public Enemy 2007, all gettin together now
[Flavor Flav]
Let me tell y'all somethin
All of our hearts is out there with y'all, you know what I'm sayin?
And we sendin trucks, we sendin boats
Boxes of.. cans of soup and everything
Clothes and all of that, shoes
We donating everything to y'all, you know what I'm sayin?
Don't worry, y'all ain't by yourself
You need to know that
Unit: Lyrics and Poetry as Constructed Messages
Lesson Plan Day 6: Messages from Songwriters To Those Who Start Wars
Textual Focus: Dylan, “Masters of War” and Pink, “Dear Mr. President.”
Rationale:
Songs protesting war were common in the 1960s-70s, and are still present today, though they are not a dominant
song genre. Students should consider if lyrics written forty years earlier are still relevant today (are lyrics timeless)
and the comparison between earlier lyrics and current ones about the current war. It also is important for students to
understand the message of two different songs protesting war and those who start them, as well as what language
and poetic elements help to communicate the protest message.
Daily Objectives:

Students will determine what lyrics are most effective in conveying a song’s message.

They will free write on how language expresses the message.

They will consider the importance of the music in a song.

They will compare and contrast anti-war messages in lyrics from an earlier era and today.
Instructional Design:
1. (Anticipatory Set) Have students take turns writing on the board two phrases or lines from “Masters of
War” that of all their five choices (from the homework) best convey Dylan’s message in the song.
2. Have them choose one line or phrase from the board and write for five minutes on how this language
works to express Dylan’s message.
32
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
Ask for volunteers to share their free writes—what is or are Dylan’s message(s)?
Ask students who Dylan is addressing and who his audience is.
Read highlights from New Republic article (attached). Ask students what they make of the New Republic
writer’s criticism of the poor quality of music of today’s protest songs, and the effect
of this on creating an effective message.
Introduce and play Pink’s “Dear Mr. President” (2007) performance from
www.youtube.com/watch?v4eREpNHSRRk.
Have students break into assigned groups. Write the following tasks on the board.
Ask groups to list how the theme of indifference in this song relates to the theme of indifference in
“Blowin’ in the Wind.”
Have groups find specific comparisons and differences between “Masters of War” and “Dear Mr.
President.” Have them attempt to answer what Pink’s overall message is and what Dylan’s is.
Have groups decide if Dylan’s message(s) in “Masters of War” is (are) still applicable today, forty-five
years later. Explain that younger musicians are still covering the song today, such as Eddie Vedder in
the 1990s and again in 2004 (when he changed “You hide in your mansion” to “You hide in a white
mansion”).
Have each student in group choose words and/or lines from the song to back up their views. Then have
them underline the words/lines that they feel show this and be prepared to explain why.
Have each student in group circle words/phrases/lines in both songs that work toward conveying the
anti-war message.
Read the songs on the visualizer, having groups share their responses. Call on students individually in
groups. Underline or circle what they have on the projected lyrics.
Collect one-page homework assignment examining how imagery, diction and allusion work in a song.
Homework:

Assign Lyric or Poetry Analysis essay (due in one week).

Have students read Brooks’ “We Real Cool,” Hughes’s “The Negro Mother” and Angelou’s “Still I
Rise” and find three metaphors and three similes in ALL (not each) of the poems.
Assessment:




Read words/phrases/lines from “Masters of War” that students write on the board.
Assess free write responses out of a possible three points. (Pre-assessment)
Circulate as groups respond to questions. (Functional assessment)
Assess one-page assignment out of a possible ten points. (Functional assessment)
Revolution Rock?: The Regrettable Decline of the Protest Song
The first time I played Bruce Springsteen's new album, Magic, one of its songs stayed with me for hours afterward.
No big news there; especially when he reunites with the E Street Band, Springsteen always plugs back into anthemic
mode. What was surprising this time was that it was the disc's most explicit anti-war number. Arriving near the
record's end, "Last to Die" is driven by mournful-pageantry violins and a bustling, nearly desperate intensity that
recalls Springsteen's earlier, '70s work. From the opening line--"We took the highway till the road went black"--it
places listeners in the mind of an American soldier in Iraq going about his job, increasingly numb at what he's doing
and seeing, "stack[ing] the bodies outside the door."
"Last to Die" is neither the best nor worst Springsteen song of all time, but the fact that it works as both words and
music automatically makes it one of the sharpest of the recent anti-war, anti-Bush songs. In the last few years, the
protest song has been on something of a comeback tour. Old schoolers (Springsteen, John Fogerty), alt-rock veterans
(Pearl Jam, Green Day, Beastie Boys, Flaming Lips), and relative newcomers (Bright Eyes, the Roots) have all
33
become furious enough by what's happening here and abroad to write their own protest songs. But unless you're a
music geek or a web troller, chances are you've never heard--or heard of--most of them.
The problem could be radio's reluctance to play these songs, some type of veiled censorship. (Let's not forget that
after September 11, the monolithic Clear Channel dispatched a memo to radio stations suggesting they suspend
playing such incendiary songs as ... "Fire and Rain" by James Taylor.) But the under-the-radar quality of modern
tunes of dissent points to an artistic problem as well. Compared with so many topical diatribes that came before (and
a few current exceptions, like Springsteen's "Last to Die" and a good chunk of Neil Young's riled-up but grabby
Living with War album last year), too many rely more on bile than beat. Which means the protest song has arrived at
an odd place: more necessary than ever, and more marginal, too.
I was reminded of this situation last month, when I took part in a panel discussion on war and popular culture at the
New Jersey Vietnam Veterans' Memorial complex. To prep for a talk on the way pop music has (or hasn't)
influenced public opinion on war, I listened again to the Vietnam-era standards: Phil Ochs' "I Ain't Marching'
Anymore," Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On," Edwin Starr's "War"--you know the list. I was struck by the way the
songs grew angrier and more heated by the year. The gentle anti-violence sentiments of Seeger's "Where Have All
the Flowers Gone?" from 1961 gave way by decade's end to far angrier missives like Creedence Clearwater
Revival's scathing "Fortunate Son." The transition is similar to what we're seeing now. Paul McCartney's mixedmessage, post-September 11 "Freedom" ("I will fight for the right/To live in freedom," it declared, over a lackluster,
nursery-rhyme melody that telegraphed its ambivalence) has been replaced by the rattled, angry likes of Bright Eyes'
"When the President Talks to God."
But something else about the old hits struck me as well: how musically strapping and vibrant they still were. From
all of the above to the Temptations' "Ball of Confusion" and even a hokey bit of cash-in apocalypto like Barry
McGuire's "Eve of Destruction," the songs stayed with you in every way. It was protest as pop, a tradition that
continued into the '80s with Nena's anti-nuke "99 Luftballons" and Little Steven and company's rabble-rousing,
rock-to-rap "Sun City."
Although the current batch means well, it also includes some of the worst songs--topical or otherwise--of the last
decade. The Beastie Boys openly question the link between warfare and corporations in "In a World Gone Mad," but
the sludgy track is borderline unlistenable. Green Day's cover of "Life During Wartime" has wonderfully sarcastic
lyrics about the absence of national sacrifice ("Doing something/We're making changes/Like changing the brand of
crap we buy"), but a melody you'll forget the minute the song ends. The Rolling Stones' "Sweet Neo Con" was more
a publicity stunt than a good song; Pearl Jam's "World Wide Suicide" was another example of the band's largely
shapeless bluster; and Pink's "Dear Mr. President" was the first and hopefully last time we'll hear Bush bashing done
with a folksy, adult contemporary twist.
The near-misses are even more exasperating. Eminem's "Mosh" had brilliant imagery and atmosphere--it felt like a
march right into the end of the world, and his line about a "mosh pits outside the Oval Office" was terrific--but three
years on, I had to play the song again to remind myself how it sounded. (Warning: explicit language)
Bright Eyes' "When the President Talks to God" is a self-conscious attempt to follow in Dylan's, Ochs', and Woody
Guthrie's footsteps, yet like too much of Conor Oberst's work, it's labored and strained. Country music has weighed
in with some decent entries--Darryl Worley's "I Just Came Back from a War" and Tim McGraw's "If You're Reading
This" come to mind--but since the genre is more of a storyteller's medium, it doesn't do societal rage as well as it
does personal heartbreak (in these cases, tales of soldiers who've died or returned in a faith-shattered haze).
The closest thing we've had to a topical pop hit in the last few years, improbably, has been the Black Eyed Peas'
"Where Is the Love?," which paired a sing-songy, lite-rap chorus with rhymes that dared to equate the CIA with
terrorists. Even if the song wasn't that teed off--it was mostly a laundry list of generalized societal ills and didn't
even have anything approaching Eminem's quick-cut take on America's role in emboldening Bin Laden in the '90s-34
the mere fact that it made the pop charts at all was remarkable.
Why haven't any of the others joined it there? It's easy to rattle off a list of possible explanations: a decline in pop
songwriting, a form of elitism that feels pop hooks cheapen the message, audience (and radio) fragmentation that
prevents one genre-specific song from reaching a truly mass audience. Maybe it's psychological: In the way the new
songs are almost defiantly tuneless, they seem self-defeating, as if musicians have faith in themselves as
spokespeople but have lost faith in the power of song. They appear to accept the notion that only the converted will
hear (and like) these songs, a thought that never seemed to have occurred to Pete Seeger and Lee Hayes when they
wrote "If I Had a Hammer," or to Peter Tosh and Bob Marley when they worked up "Get Up Stand Up."
Whatever the reason, modern rockers seem to have forgotten that protest songs shouldn't be the equivalent of
homework, and that the message goes down a lot easier when the "song" is as powerful as the "protest." As another
old-timer, Dick Clark, might have put it: It helps if it has a beat, and you can demonstrate to it.
David Browne is the author of Dream Brother: The Lives & Music of Jeff & Tim Buckley. His biography of Sonic
Youth, Goodbye 20th Century, will be published next spring.
By David Browne, The New Republic Published: Thursday, November 15, 2007
English 11
Lyrics or Poetry as Message Written Analysis
Select a musician or poet and one of her or his songs or poems. Answer the
following questions in essay format. 2 pages.
Be sure to include an introduction and conclusion.
1. How does this musician or poet use lyrics or poetry to inform and persuade
the audience?
a) Tell what you think the song’s or poem’s message is.
b) Explain how poetic elements communicate the message:
** Refer to specific examples of imagery, repetition, diction
figurative language, etc. that work toward expressing the message.
** Cite words, phrases and lines specifically in your reflection. These
should appear in quotation marks.
2. Have you been made more aware of an issue or situation in any way? How?
(Have you been informed or persuaded?)
Lyric/Poetry Reflection
35
4
3
2
1
Support for
Topic (Content)
Specific lines,
phrases, words and
poetic elements are
cited, and how they
work to
communicate the
song’s or poem’s
message is
explained.
Specific lines, phrases,
words or poetic
elements are cited, but
the explanation for
how they communicate
the message is not
thorough, so the
reader is left guessing.
Some lines, phrases
or words are cited,
but it is not made
clear how they
communicate the
message;
explanation is
minimal.
No specific lines,
phrases, words or poetic
elements are cited. The
essay does not explain
what the song’s or
poem’s message is or
how it is communicated.
Introduction
(Organization)
The introduction is
inviting, states the
main topic and
previews the
structure of the
paper.
The introduction
clearly states the main
topic and previews the
structure of the paper,
but is not particularly
inviting to the reader.
The introduction
states the main
topic, but does not
adequately preview
the structure of the
paper, nor is it
particularly inviting to
the reader.
There is no clear
introduction of the main
topic or structure of the
paper.
Sequencing
(Organization)
Details are placed in
a logical order and
the way they are
presented effectively
keeps the interest of
the reader.
Details are placed in a
logical order, but the
way in which they are
presented/introduced
sometimes makes the
writing less interesting.
Some details are not
in a logical or
expected order, and
this distracts the
reader.
Many details are not in a
logical or expected order.
There is little sense that
the writing is organized.
CATEGORY
Masters of War
By Bob Dylan
Come you masters of war
You that build all the guns
You that build the death planes
You that build the big bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks
You that never done nothin'
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it's your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly
Like Judas of old
You lie and deceive
A world war can be won
You want me to believe
But I see through your eyes
And I see through your brain
Like I see through the water
36
That runs down my drain
You fasten the triggers
For the others to fire
Then you set back and watch
When the death count gets higher
You hide in your mansion
As young people's blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mud
You've thrown the worst fear
That can ever be hurled
Fear to bring children
Into the world
For threatening my baby
Unborn and unnamed
You ain't worth the blood
That runs in your veins
How much do I know
To talk out of turn
You might say that I'm young
You might say I'm unlearned
But there's one thing I know
Though I'm younger than you
Even Jesus would never
Forgive what you do
Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul
And I hope that you die
And your death'll come soon
I will follow your casket
In the pale afternoon
And I'll watch while you're lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I'll stand o'er your grave
'Til I'm sure that you're dead
Copyright © 1963; renewed 1991 Special Rider Music
37
Dear Mr. President
By Pink (featuring Indigo Girls)
Dear Mr. President,
Come take a walk with me.
Let's pretend we're just two people and
You're not better than me.
I'd like to ask you some questions if we can speak honestly.
What do you feel when you see all the homeless on the street?
Who do you pray for at night before you go to sleep?
What do you feel when you look in the mirror?
Are you proud?
How do you sleep while the rest of us cry?
How do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye?
How do you walk with your head held high?
Can you even look me in the eye
And tell me why?
Dear Mr. President,
Were you a lonely boy?
Are you a lonely boy?
Are you a lonely boy?
How can you say
No child is left behind?
We're not dumb and we're not blind.
They're all sitting in your cells
While you pave the road to hell.
What kind of father would take his own daughter's rights away?
And what kind of father might hate his own daughter if she were gay?
I can only imagine what the first lady has to say
You've come a long way from whiskey and cocaine.
How do you sleep while the rest of us cry?
How do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye?
How do you walk with your head held high?
Can you even look me in the eye?
Let me tell you 'bout hard work
Minimum wage with a baby on the way
Let me tell you 'bout hard work
Rebuilding your house after the bombs took them away
Let me tell you 'bout hard work
Building a bed out of a cardboard box
Let me tell you 'bout hard work
Hard work
Hard work
You don't know nothing 'bout hard work
Hard work
Hard work
Oh
How do you sleep at night?
How do you walk with your head held high?
Dear Mr. President,
You'd never take a walk with me.
Would you?
[2007]
38
Unit: Lyrics and Poetry as Constructed Messages
Lesson Plan Day 7: Reading Poetry: Silent Discussion to Interact with Poetry
Textual Focus: Gwendolyn Brooks, “We Real Cool”; Hughes, “The Negro Mother” and Angelou,
“Still I Rise.”
Rationale:
Writing about poetry can help students think and reflect more deeply on it. When students are asked specific
questions about a poem for a silent discussion and respond to them in writing, they can start delving deeper
into specific parts of the poem. When they read responses of others to the same question they answered and
have to respond to those, they are able to do even more thinking. Sharing student written responses at the
end of such an exercise can get the whole class thinking on a deeper level about poetry.
Daily Objectives:
 Students will respond in writing to specific questions about poetry.
 They will read and respond to classmates’ responses to poetry.
 They will discuss poetry in terms of figurative language and based on specific questions about it.
 They will compose found poems that capture the tone and message of the original poem.
Instructional Design:
1.
Before class, write the following questions on Post-It paper, one question per piece of paper. Stick
paper to walls around room.
2.
Five-minute focused free write: What is the message of “We Real Cool?”
3.
Read “We Real Cool” and have volunteers share ideas from free writes.
4.
Show favoritepoem.org video of “We Real Cool.”
5.
Give students brief background information on Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance.
6.
Read “The Negro Mother.” Have students share the metaphors/similes they found in the poem.
7.
Read “Still I Rise.” Again, ask students to share the metaphors/similes they found in the poem.
8.
Ask what comparisons students can make between these poems and other songs we have studied
(“Fight the Power,” “Equal Rights” and “Redemption Song”).
9.
Activity: Silent Discussion
In advance, write the follow questions, each on their own piece of Post-It paper, and stick the paper
around the room on the walls. The questions vary in complexity to provide differentiated instruction; all
students should be able to respond to two questions.
o How might the narrator of “Still I Rise” and “The Negro Mother” respond to the speaker of
“We Real Cool.”
o Connect Angelou’s message in “Still I Rise” to other media messages you have heard.
Think about ones you have heard in this unit. Use specific lines/phrases in “Still I Rise” to
make your connections.
o Translate into your everyday language the poem “We Real Cool.”
o In “The Negro Mother,” what does Langston Hughes mean in the line “But I had to keep
on till my work was done?” What is the work? How will the speaker know when her work
is done? Cite lines/words from the poem.
o Compare the messages of “Still I Rise” and “The Negro Mother.”
10. Have students travel silently around room with a pen, choosing three or four questions to respond
to on the Post-It paper. After students have responded to the questions, have them return to them,
read other responses to the questions, and respond in writing to two to three of these responses.
Allow ten minutes for first responses, then five to ten minutes for second responses. Have them
write their names after each of their responses.
39
11.
12.
Go to each paper on the wall and read aloud or choose students to read aloud the questions and all
student responses to them. Discuss each question separately.
If there is time, explain found poems and read an example for one of the poems studied today.
Have students compose a found poem from the lines/phrases/words of one of the poems studied
today. Have volunteers share these and discuss how each captures different aspects of the tone,
message, etc. of the original poem.
Homework:
 Finish Lyric or Poetry Analysis Written Reflection. Due next class.
Assessment:
 Circulate as students respond in writing to poetry.
 Listen as they
o share metaphors and similes they found in the poems
o make comparisons between these poems and earlier songs studied
o discuss their responses to questions posed on Post-It paper
o share their found poems
(Functional assessment)
40
The Negro Mother
By Langston Hughes, 1902-1967
Children, I come back today
To tell you a story of the long dark way
That I had to climb, that I had to know
In order that the race might live and grow.
Look at my face -- dark as the night -Yet shining like the sun with love's true light.
I am the dark girl who crossed the red sea
Carrying in my body the seed of the free.
I am the woman who worked in the field
Bringing the cotton and the corn to yield.
I am the one who labored as a slave,
Beaten and mistreated for the work that I gave -Children sold away from me, I'm husband sold, too.
No safety , no love, no respect was I due.
Three hundred years in the deepest South:
But God put a song and a prayer in my mouth .
God put a dream like steel in my soul.
Now, through my children, I'm reaching the goal.
Now, through my children, young and free,
I realized the blessing deed to me.
I couldn't read then. I couldn't write.
I had nothing, back there in the night.
Sometimes, the valley was filled with tears,
But I kept trudging on through the lonely years.
Sometimes, the road was hot with the sun,
But I had to keep on till my work was done:
I had to keep on! No stopping for me -I was the seed of the coming Free.
I nourished the dream that nothing could smother
Deep in my breast -- the Negro mother.
I had only hope then , but now through you,
Dark ones of today, my dreams must come true:
All you dark children in the world out there,
Remember my sweat, my pain, my despair.
Remember my years, heavy with sorrow -And make of those years a torch for tomorrow.
Make of my pass a road to the light
Out of the darkness, the ignorance, the night.
Lift high my banner out of the dust.
Stand like free men supporting my trust.
Believe in the right, let none push you back.
Remember the whip and the slaver's track.
Remember how the strong in struggle and strife
Still bar you the way, and deny you life -But march ever forward, breaking down bars.
Look ever upward at the sun and the stars.
Oh, my dark children, may my dreams and my prayers
Impel you forever up the great stairs -41
For I will be with you till no white brother
Dares keep down the children of the Negro Mother.
[1931]
We Real Cool
By Gwendolyn Brooks, an African American poet, 1917-2000
We real cool. We
Left school. We
Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We
Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We
Jazz June. We
Die soon.
[1960]
From The Bean Eaters by Gwendolyn Brooks, published by Harpers. © 1960 by Gwendolyn Brooks. Used
with permission. All rights reserved.
Still I Rise
By Maya Angelou
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me
in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like
I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing
high,
Still I'll rise.
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling
down like teardrops,
Weakened by my soulful cries.
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I
got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill
me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got
diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
42
Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I
rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.
"Still I Rise"
from AND STILL I RISE by Maya Angelou,
copyright © 1978 by Maya Angelou.
Used by permission of Random House, Inc.
43
Unit: Lyrics and Poetry as Constructed Messages
Lesson Plan Day 8: Preparation for Socratic Seminar on Poetry
** Reserve four or more laptops for this class from the Media Center
Textual Focus: Naomi Shihab Nye, “Blood” and “Making a Fist”; Martin Espada,
“Alabanza: In Praise of Local 100”; and Yusef Komunyakaa, “Believing in Iron”
Rationale:
By deep analysis of poetry, including language and poetic elements, students can determine how an
effective message is communicated through the medium of poetry. Through research on a poet’s life
students can develop some understanding of why she or he has created a particular message. In preparing
for a presentation and the presentation itself, students are able to synthesize the information they have
accrued to teach their peers about poets and their work. A Socratic Seminar provides an opportunity for
students who do not perform in-class work or complete homework assignments to show they understand
the material. Also, the learning of students for whom writing is a challenge can be assessed when they
discuss a text in depth.
Daily Objectives:
 Following the teacher’s model, students will work independently to interpret poetry and analyze
how a message is expressed in this medium.
 They will prepare for a Socratic Seminar.
 Students will research a poet’s life on the internet.
Instructional Design:
1. In this class, students will prepare to present their group’s poem in a Socratic Seminar.
2. Students will work independently to interpret a poem and find its message.
3. Before that preparation can occur, the teacher can model the process of how she goes about reading
and understanding a poem, and teach students through this model, what strategies
they can use:
Display Naomi Shihab Nye’s “Making a Fist” on the visualizer. This is the poem the teacher will
model. This modeling should happen as the teacher “thinks aloud.”
Read through the poem once out loud. Now emphasize how you usually need to read a
whole poem two to three times before you even start looking for meaning in it; the whole
poem has a message, so you’ll read the whole thing without stopping to analyze, to
familiarize yourself with the poem. If you stop to analyze or wonder about the meaning of words
you lose the rhythm of the poem.
Read the title and first stanza, writing everything that goes through your mind as you read.
For example, draw a fist when you read the title. Tell students you are visualizing this part
of the poem. Write ”Visualize” on the board under the heading “Strategies.” Next, note the
you sense in this stanza a feeling of unhappiness or discomfort. Write “Determine mood”
under “Visualize.” Explain that now that you know the mood the images fit in better.
Emphasize that now you will read the poem again.
Now paraphrase and model on the board a paraphrase of the first stanza. Write
“Paraphrase” and describe that that means putting the poem’s language in your own words. Write
“Paraphrase” under “Determine mood.” Ask students to paraphrase the next stanza.
Write one student’s paraphrase on the board. Then ask them to provide the images they visualize
in the stanza, and what mood they sense.
44
Ask students what stands out to them in the third stanza, and write this on the board next
to the stanza. Emphasize to them that here they can practice telling what they do understand,
ignoring words or concepts they do not understand.
Now that you and they have read the whole poem, ask students what themes exist in the poem.
List these on the board. Ask them what they do understand. List these things.
Next, ask students to summarize or retell the whole poem in their own words. Write
“Summarize” in the Strategies list.
4. Keep the Strategies list on the board, review it and how you used each one as you read “Making a
Fist,” and ask students to copy it in their notes. Explain that they will use this process and these
strategies now to interpret the poem they have been assigned.
5. Write the following tasks for students on the board:
1. Read your poem all the way through one to two times without stopping when you read
something you do not understand.
2. Use the following strategies (or a combination of both) to interpret your poem:
Paraphrase: Interpret into your own words what is going on in the poem.
Visualize: Draw pictures of images you see in your head as you read.
Breaking the task into the above task may help students who feel overwhelmed by the
process of poetry interpretation. Students who wish may then move on to determining how
poetic elements are at work in the poem.
Explain that they can focus on one or two poetic terms at a time, not all, so they do not feel
overwhelmed.
6. Assign students to groups of six students. Assign each group a poet from the textual focus.
7. Pass out handout with questions 1-6 for students to answer independently.
8. Have students independently complete handout and work on their poem’s interpretation.
9. The goal of the presentation is for each student in each group to collaborate on providing a brief
background of the poem and poet and then take the class audience through the poem, using poetic
terminology to explain what the poet is saying—giving various meanings for words and lines as
well as what the poem’s overall message is. Students should be prepared to claim what the poet
wants the audience to think about or do as a result of this message. All students should be prepared
individually to discuss these topics with authority.
10. Have groups organize how they will present their findings in the Socratic Seminar.
11. In the last fifteen minutes, 1-2 students in each group can research on a laptop the poem and poet
and share findings with their group.
12. Collect Lyric/Poetry Analysis Written Reflection.
Homework:
 Finish answering questions 1-6 on handout in preparation for Socratic Seminar.
Assessment:
 Circulate as groups prepare for the Socratic Seminar. (Functional assessment)
 Check in with individual students to assess how they can use the modeled strategies
and poetic terms to analyze poetry and a poem’s message. (Functional assessment)
 Assess Lyric/Poetry Analysis Written Reflection our of a possible three hundred points,
according to rubric. (Summative or post-assessment)
45
English 11
Socratic Seminar
Work independently to answer the following questions about your group’s
poem.
1) What is the message of the poem?
2) What lines are most effective at communicating this message?
3) Analyze the following poetic elements in the poem and how they
work toward communicating the poem’s message:







alliteration
allusion
diction
imagery
metaphor
simile
symbol
4) Did this poem deepen your awareness of a particular issue? If yes,
how? If not, why not?
5) Have you heard of this issue in the media? If you have, what have
you heard? If you have not, why do you think you have not?
6) How does the poet appeal to the audience’s emotion in
communicating the message of the poem?
46
Making a Fist
By Naomi Shihab Nye
For the first time, on the road north of Tampico,
I felt the life sliding out of me,
a drum in the desert, harder and harder to hear.
I was seven, I lay in the car
watching palm trees swirl a sickening pattern past the glass.
My stomach was a melon split wide inside my skin.
"How do you know if you are going to die?"
I begged my mother.
We had been traveling for days.
With strange confidence she answered,
"When you can no longer make a fist."
Years later I smile to think of that journey,
the borders we must cross separately,
stamped with our unanswerable woes.
I who did not die, who am still living,
still lying in the backseat behind all my questions,
clenching and opening one small hand.
Blood
by Naomi Shihab Nye
"A true Arab knows how to catch a fly in his hands,"
my father would say. And he'd prove it,
cupping the buzzer instantly
while the host with the swatter stared.
In the spring our palms peeled like snakes.
True Arabs believed watermelon could heal fifty ways.
I changed these to fit the occasion.
Years before, a girl knocked,
wanted to see the Arab.
I said we didn't have one.
After that, my father told me who he was,
"Shihab"--"shooting star"-a good name, borrowed from the sky.
Once I said, "When we die, we give it back?"
He said that's what a true Arab would say.
Today the headlines clot in my blood.
A little Palestinian dangles a truck on the front page.
Homeless fig, this tragedy with a terrible root
is too big for us. What flag can we wave?
I wave the flag of stone and seed,
table mat stitched in blue.
I call my father, we talk around the news.
It is too much for him,
neither of his two languages can reach it.
I drive into the country to find sheep, cows,
to plead with the air:
Who calls anyone civilized?
Where can the crying heart graze?
47
What does a true Arab do now? [1986]
Believing in Iron
By Yusef Komunyakaa
The hills my brothers & I created
never balanced, & it took years
To discover how the world worked.
We could look at a tree of blackbirds
& tell you how many were there,
But with the scrap dealer
Our math was always off.
Weeks of lifting & grunting
Never added up to much,
But we couldn't stop
Believing in iron.
Abandoned trucks & cars
Were held to the ground
By thick, nostalgic fingers of vines
Strong as a dozen sharecroppers.
We'd return with our wheelbarrow
Groaning under a new load,
Yet tiger lilies lived better
In their languid, August domain.
Among paper & Coke bottles
Foundry smoke erased sunsets,
& we couldn't believe iron
Left men bent so close to the earth
As if the ore under their breath
Weighed down the gray sky.
Sometimes I dreamt how our hills
Washed into a sea of metal,
How it all became an anchor
For a warship or bomber
Out over trees with blooms
Too red to look at.
Alabanza: In Praise of Local 100
by Martín Espada
48
For the 43 members of Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Local 100, working at the
Windows on the World restaurant, who lost their lives in the attack on the World Trade Center.
Alabanza. Praise the cook with the shaven head
and a tattoo on his shoulder that said Oye,
a blue-eyed Puerto Rican with people from Fajardo,
the harbor of pirates centuries ago.
Praise the lighthouse in Fajardo, candle
glimmering white to worship the dark saint of the sea.
Alabanza. Praise the cook's yellow Pirates cap
worn in the name of Roberto Clemente, his plane
that flamed into the ocean loaded with cans for Nicaragua,
for all the mouths chewing the ash of earthquakes.
Alabanza. Praise the kitchen radio, dial clicked
even before the dial on the oven, so that music and Spanish
rose before bread. Praise the bread. Alabanza.
Praise Manhattan from a hundred and seven flights up,
like Atlantis glimpsed through the windows of an ancient aquarium.
Praise the great windows where immigrants from the kitchen
could squint and almost see their world, hear the chant of nations:
Ecuador, México, Republica Dominicana,
Haiti, Yemen, Ghana, Bangladesh.
Alabanza. Praise the kitchen in the morning,
where the gas burned blue on every stove
and exhaust fans fired their diminutive propellers,
hands cracked eggs with quick thumbs
or sliced open cartons to build an altar of cans.
Alabanza. Praise the busboy's music, the chime-chime
49
of his dishes and silverware in the tub.
Alabanza. Praise the dish-dog, the dishwasher
who worked that morning because another dishwasher
could not stop coughing, or because he needed overtime
to pile the sacks of rice and beans for a family
floating away on some Caribbean island plagued by frogs.
Alabanza. Praise the waitress who heard the radio in the kitchen
and sang to herself about a man gone. Alabanza.
After the thunder wilder than thunder,
after the booming ice storm of glass from the great windows,
after the radio stopped singing like a tree full of terrified frogs,
after night burst the dam of day and flooded the kitchen,
for a time the stoves glowed in darkness like the lighthouse in
Fajardo,
like a cook's soul. Soul I say, even if the dead cannot tell us
about the bristles of God's beard because God has no face,
soul I say, to name the smoke-beings flung in constellations
across the night sky of this city and cities to come.
Alabanza I say, even if God has no face.
Alabanza. When the war began, from Manhattan to Kabul
two constellations of smoke rose and drifted to each other,
mingling in icy air, and one said with an Afghan tongue:
Teach me to dance. We have no music here.
And the other said with a Spanish tongue:
I will teach you. Music is all we have.
Unit: Lyrics and Poetry as Constructed Messages
Lesson Plan Day 9: Socratic Seminar
50
Textual Focus: Naomi Shihab Nye, “Blood”; Martin Espada, “Alabanza: In Praise of Local 100”; and Yusef
Komunyakaa, “Believing in Iron”
Rationale:
Through research on a poet’s life students can develop some understanding of why she or he has created
a particular message. By deep analysis of poetry, including language and poetic elements, students can
determine how an effective message is communicated through the medium of poetry. In preparing for a
presentation and the presentation itself, students are able to synthesize the information they have accrued
to teach their peers about poets and their work.
Daily Objectives:
 In small groups, students will present biographical information on a poet.
 They will guide their peers through an interpretation of their group’s poem, using correct
terminology and telling what they believe the poem’s message to be.
 They will take questions about their group’s poet and poem from their classmates.
Instructional Design:
1. Collect Lyric or Poetry Analysis essay.
2. Arrange desks in a circle, with five desks in the center for the presenting group.
3. Have students in the audience take out the appropriate poem for the group presenting and Poetic
Terminology handout.
4. Each group will give a background of the poem and poet and then take the audience through the
poem, giving possible meanings of words/phrases/lines and using many poetic terms and the
poet’s reason for using them. Groups must be able to suggest how the poet uses poetic elements
and word choice to communicate her or his message.
5. Distribute Final Project assignment and rubric. Ask students if they have questions.
Homework:
 For next class: choose a topic you are passionate about and on which you would like to
compose poetry with a message.
Assessment:
 Assess student performance in Socratic Seminar after each group’s seminar out of a possible
400 points. See attached rubric.
51
Poetry Socratic Seminar
Teacher Name: Mrs. Demian
Student Name:
________________________________________
4
3
2
1
Information
All information and
questions presented
in the seminar were
clear, accurate and
thorough.
Most information
and questions
presented in the
seminar were clear,
accurate and
thorough.
Most information
presented in the
seminar was clear
and accurate, but
was not usually
thorough. No
questions were
asked.
Information had
several inaccuracies
OR was usually not
clear.
Use of
Facts/Statistics
Every major point
was well supported
with specific lines
from the poetry
and/or poet bio.
Every major point
was adequately
supported with
relevant support
from the poetry and
bio.
Every major point
was supported with
facts, but the
relevance of some
was questionable.
Every point was not
supported.
Understanding
of Topic
You clearly
understood the topic
(poetry terminology)
in-depth and
presented their
information forcefully
and convincingly.
You clearly
understood the topic
in-depth and
presented their
information with
ease.
You seemed to
understand the main
points of the topic
and presented those
with ease.
You did not show an
adequate
understanding of the
topic.
Respect for
Other Team
All statements, body
language, and
responses were
respectful and were
in appropriate
language.
Statements and
responses were
respectful and used
appropriate
language, but once
or twice body
language was not.
Most statements and
responses were
respectful and in
appropriate
language, but there
was one sarcastic
remark.
Statements,
responses and/or
body language were
consistently not
respectful.
CATEGORY
52
Unit: Lyrics and Poetry as Constructed Messages
Lesson Plan Day 10: Researching Topics for Final Project
** Reserve library time for this class
Rationale:
Students can write best when they feel a personal connection to a writing topic, in this case poetry with a
message. Therefore, they will choose topics that they are passionate about, even if they feel these are
insignificant compared to some in the unit; their choices need not be major world issues. The final project
will assess their ability to do what they have seen done in songs and poems throughout the unit: convey a
message in a poem that may move the audience to think about or do something, and use word choice and
poetic techniques to effectively communicate the message.
Daily Objectives:
 Students will conduct research on a topic they are passionate about.
 They will collect specific information to which they can refer in their poetry.
Instructional Design:
1. (Anticipatory Set) Free write (ten minutes): Poetry is a type of media. What have you learned
about the effectiveness of poetry for communicating a message?
2. Collect free write.
3. Students should have chosen their topics and be ready to research them in the library.
4. Explain to students that they are going to compose a series of poems with messages about
their chosen topic, and that they will need to research their topic to be able to refer to
specifics in their poems.
5. Instruct students to bring and pen and notebook with them to the library and be prepared to
take copious notes on their topic.
6. Depending on student ability to continue researching topics, either stay in the library
researching all period or have class return to classroom and begin free writing on topic to
generate ideas for poetry.
Homework:
 Continue work on Final Project
Assessment:
 Assess free write out of a possible three points. (Summative assessment)
 Circulate around the library as students research, making sure they are collecting enough information.
Steer them in the right direction and help with efficiency when needed.
53
Unit: Lyrics and Poetry as Constructed Messages
Lesson Plan Day 11: Drafting Poems on Chosen Topics
Textual Focus: Student-composed poem drafts.
Rationale:
It is essential for writers to workshop their drafts, for students in this class to get feedback on their poetry.
Feedback from students now well versed in finding messages, analyzing their effectiveness on their
audience and evaluating word choice and the usefulness of poetic elements can be especially helpful when
students prepare to revise their poems. By commenting in writing in these areas, readers can further apply
and reinforce their skills at analyzing this medium.
Daily Objectives:
 Students will compose drafts of their own poems with messages.
 They will comment in writing on their classmates’ poetry.
Instructional Design:
1. For the first half of this class students will draft a poem or poems on their chosen topics;
for the second half they will workshop their drafts.
2. Poetry workshop:
This will be a poem passaround. Have students bring their drafts to one desk in the room
and take another student’s draft back to their desks. Write on the board and have poem
readers address the following questions and tasks:
 Is the message of the poem clear?
 Does the poet effectively use figurative language (metaphor and simile) and other
poetic techniques such as repetition or others from the Poetic Terminology
handout?
 Comment in the margin on the poet’s use of figurative language and other poetic
techniques: do these help communicate or contribute to the poem’s overall
message?
3. When students finish a poem draft they should return it to the main desk and take a new
one to read and comment on.
4. At the end of class have students collect their workshopped poem drafts to revise for the
final project.
Homework:
 Complete essay and revise poems for Final Project (due second class after break).
Assessment:
 Circulate as students give feedback on poems. (Functional assessment)
54
Unit: Lyrics and Poetry as Constructed Messages
Lesson Plan Day 12: Presenting Final Project Poems
Textual Focus: Students’ poems on a topic they are passionate about.
Rationale:
After long-term work on poetry composition, it is important that students have the opportunity to share
their works.
Daily Objectives:
 Students will read their own poems to the class.
 They will listen to the poetry readings of their classmates and be prepared to comment on poetic
elements and language that work to communicate a message in their classmates’ poems.
Instructional Design:
1.
Have students present their three poems to the class. They should put each one being read on the
visualizer for the class to see. Emphasize the importance of reading clearly and slowly.
2.
The audience should choose three words/phrases/lines from each poem that stand out to them or
that help communicate the poem’s message.
3.
Ask audience what the message is of each poem. Have students volunteer words/phrases/lines
that stand out to them or help communicate the poem’s message.
4.
Poem presentation will continue next class, since today’s class is only forty-five minutes.
Assessment:

Note each audience member’s participation in giving assigned feedback to presenting
student. (Summative assessment)
55
Unit: Lyrics and Poetry as Constructed Messages
Lesson Plan Day 12: Presenting Poems from Final Project (continued)
This class has the same lesson plan as the previous class.
Textual Focus: Student poems from Final Projects
Rationale:
After long-term work on poetry composition, it is important that students have the opportunity to share their
works.
Daily Objectives:


Students will present orally their own poems.
They will listen to the poetry readings of their classmates and be prepared to comment
on poetic elements and language that work to communicate a message in their
classmates’ poems.
Instructional Design:
3. Have students present their three poems to the class. They should put each one being read on the
visualizer for the class to see. Emphasize the importance of reading clearly and slowly.
4. The audience should choose three words/phrases/lines from each poem that stand out to them or that
help communicate the poem’s message.
5. Ask audience what the message is of each poem. Have students volunteer words/phrases/lines that
stand out to them or help communicate the poem’s message.
6. Collect Final Projects and assess according to rubric.
Assessment:
 Note each audience member’s participation in giving assigned feedback to presenting student.
(Summative assessment)
 Assess Final Project out of a possible 300 points. See rubric that follows.
56
English 11
Poetry as Constructed Message
Final Project
Consider a political or social passion of your own. Research this topic to learn information that
could be beneficial in writing your own poetry, to help you refer to specifics.
Write a brief (one-page) reflection on your passion and how it connects to who you are (your
background).
Then write a series (3-5) of your own poems, keeping in mind the poetic elements good poets
employ (refer to your Poetic Terminology sheet). In your poems be sure to include allusions to
specifics on your topic (this is where the research comes in).
Lyric/Poetry Unit Final Project Rubric
Category
Essay:
Unique
voice
present
Poetry:
Figurative
language
Poetry:
Relaying
overall
message
4
3
2
1
The reader can
sense passion
and understand
the personal
history that
contributes to
the passion.
Use of
metaphor,
simile and other
techniques are
subtle and
purposeful and
contribute to the
overall
message.
The poem
effectively
provides a
message about
the writer’s
passion. It is
embedded and
purposeful.
The reader
understands
personal
background, but
the passion is
not as easily
noticed.
The writer uses
metaphors and
similes, but their
use is obvious
and/or forced.
Both
background and
passion are
Present, but are
typical and/or
cliché.
The essay does
not address the
passion or the
personal
connection.
A couple of
metaphors and
similes are used,
but they do not
provide solid
imagery and
seem out of
place.
No metaphors
or similes are
used.
The poetry has a
message, but the
message is
obvious and
forced.
Not all of the
poems have a
message.
None of the
poems have a
message.
57
Poetic Terminology
Alliteration:
The effect created when words with the same initial letter (usually consonants) are used in close proximity e.g.
Ariel's Songs from The Tempest “Full fathom five thy father lies.” The repeated “f” sound is alliterative.
Allusion:
Where a poem makes reference to another poem or text. For example, the 14th line of The Prelude by William
Wordsworth, “The earth was all before me,” alludes to one of the final lines of Paradise Lost by John Milton:
“The world was all before them.”
Diction:
The language in a poem. Each word is chosen to convey a precise meaning. Poets are deliberate in choosing
each word for its particular effect
Figurative language:
Language where the literal meaning of words or phrases is disregarded in order to show an imaginative
relationship between diverse things. Figurative language makes poetry more
vivid. Such figures of speech include irony, metaphor and simile.
Image:
Images are representations of sensations perceived through the five senses: sight, hearing, smell, touch and
taste.
Imagery:
The creation of images using words.
Metaphor:
An imaginative comparison between two actions/objects etc. that is not literally applicable.
Repetition:
Repeating a word or phrase for emphasis.
Simile:
The explicit comparison of two objects/phenomenon/states, etc. by employing either “as” or “like.” For
example, “My love is like a red, red rose” by Robert Burns.
Stanza:
One or more lines that make up the basic units of a poem--separated from each other by spacing.
Symbol:
Words or images that signify more than they literally represent. Symbols can carry a number
of different connotations.
58