Thursday, January 31

Poetry - 

EQ: What is the difference between an Italian sonnet and a Shakespearean sonnet?


SONNET
a poem of 14 lines using any of a number of formal rhyme schemes (usually 10 syllables per line)

COUPLET
two lines, one immediately after the other, that contain end rhyme

END RHYME
rhyme that occurs at the end of two or more lines of poetry

IAMBIC PENTAMETER
a poetic meter that is made up of 5 stressed syllables each followed by an unstressed syllable

METER 
a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry 

VOLTA
A volta is the "turning point" in a poem, a moment of dramatic shift in tone or theme of the poem. 



  
So, now we know the parts of a sonnet. Let's examine the differences between the Italian (Petrarchan) sonnet and the British (Shakespearean) sonnet.  Take a look at the following Prezi to discover the differences:
The Italians vs. The British

Journal 6
For each poem, write a 1/2 page analysis that includes:
1) Is this sonnet an Italian or British style sonnet?
2) What poetic devices are present and how do they affect the speed and rhythm of the poem?
3) Where is the turn and what is the conceptual relationship shown by the structure?

 1

Remember

BY CHRISTINA ROSSETTI

Remember me when I am gone away,

         Gone far away into the silent land;

         When you can no more hold me by the hand,

Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.

Remember me when no more day by day

         You tell me of our future that you plann'd:

         Only remember me; you understand

It will be late to counsel then or pray.

Yet if you should forget me for a while

         And afterwards remember, do not grieve:

         For if the darkness and corruption leave

         A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,

Better by far you should forget and smile

         Than that you should remember and be sad.

 2

Music Box

BY JORGE LUIS BORGES

TRANSLATED FROM THE SPANISH BY TONY BARNSTONE

Music of Japan. Parsimoniously

from the water clock the drops unfold

in lazy honey or ethereal gold

that over time reiterates a weave

eternal, fragile, enigmatic, bright.

I fear that every one will be the last.

They are a yesterday come from the past.

But from what shrine, from what mountain’s slight

garden, what vigils by an unknown sea,

and from what modest melancholy, from

what lost and rediscovered afternoon

do they arrive at their far future: me?

Who knows? No matter. When I hear it play

I am. I want to be. I bleed away.

3

Psalm 150

BY MARY SIDNEY HERBERT COUNTESS OF PEMBROKE

Oh, laud the Lord, the God of hosts commend,

       Exalt his pow’r, advance his holiness:

       With all your might lift his almightiness;

Your greatest praise upon his greatness spend.

Make trumpet’s noise in shrillest notes ascend;

       Make lute and lyre his loved fame express;

       Him let the pipe, him let the tabret bless,

Him organ’s breath, that winds or waters lend.

Let ringing timbrels so his honor sound,

       Let sounding cymbals so his glory ring,

       That in their tunes such melody be found

As fits the pomp of most triumphant king.

Conclude: by all that air or life enfold,

       Let high Jehovah highly be extolled.

4

Sonnet 130: My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun

BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;

Coral is far more red than her lips' red;

If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;

If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.

I have seen roses damasked, red and white,

But no such roses see I in her cheeks;

And in some perfumes is there more delight

Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.

I love to hear her speak, yet well I know

That music hath a far more pleasing sound;

I grant I never saw a goddess go;

My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground.

   And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare

   As any she belied with false compare.

 5 

Sonnet 19: When I consider how my light is spent

BY JOHN MILTON

When I consider how my light is spent,

   Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide,

   And that one Talent which is death to hide

   Lodged with me useless, though my Soul more bent

To serve therewith my Maker, and present

   My true account, lest he returning chide;

   “Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?”

   I fondly ask. But patience, to prevent

That murmur, soon replies, “God doth not need

   Either man’s work or his own gifts; who best

   Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state

Is Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed

   And post o’er Land and Ocean without rest:

   They also serve who only stand and wait.”

6

To the Poet Before Battle

BY IVOR GURNEY

Now, youth, the hour of thy dread passion comes;

Thy lovely things must all be laid away;

And thou, as others, must face the riven day

Unstirred by rattle of the rolling drums,

Or bugles' strident cry. When mere noise numbs

The sense of being, the sick soul doth sway,

Remember thy great craft's honour, that they may say

Nothing in shame of poets. Then the crumbs

Of praise the little versemen joyed to take

Shall be forgotten; then they must know we are,

For all our skill in words, equal in might

And strong of mettle as those we honoured; make

The name of poet terrible in just war,

And like a crown of honour upon the fight.

7

The Professor

BY JOSHUA MEHIGAN

I get there early and I find a chair.

I squeeze my plastic cup of wine. I nod.

I maladroitly eat a pretzel rod

and second an opinion I don’t share.

I think: whatever else I am, I’m there.

Afterwards, I escape across the quad

into fresh air, alone again, thank god.

Nobody cares. They’re quite right not to care.

I can’t go home. Even my family

is thoroughly contemptuous of me.

I look bad. I’m exactly how I look.

These days I never read, but no one does,

and, anyhow, I proved how smart I was.

Everything I know is from a book.

Wednesday, January 30

WARM UP:
To, Two and Too

FYI:
Memorization QUIZ (Stanzas 1,2,3) block


Memorization

If

If you can keep your head when all about you   

    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,   

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

    But make allowance for their doubting too;   

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;   

    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;   

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

    And treat those two impostors just the same;   

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

    And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

    To serve your turn long after they are gone,   

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

TODAY:

Poetry - 

Journal 5:
Try your hand at writing a villanelle!

Tuesday, January 29

WARM UP:

To, Two and Too

FYI:
Memorization QUIZ and Poetry Essay on Block

TODAY:

POETRY TERMS ~

• villanelle
• refrain
• tercet
• quatrain

EQ: What is a villanelle?

• French verse form

• consists of five three-line (tercet) stanzas and a final quatrain 

• the first and third lines of the first stanza repeat alternately in the following stanzas

• these two refrain (repeat) lines form the final couplet in the quatrain

• Some Key Ideas to Consider with a Villanelle
• Any poem featuring a repetition or refrain has special qualities:
• How does each instance of the refrain add meaning to the poem?  Perhaps it doesn't, but a great poem builds meaning.  Refrains aren't simply included for the sake of form.  Decide what the refrain means each time you see it.
• Does the refrain change at all?  Even by one word?  It is important to consider how the change builds meaning.

Check out this fine example:

Whispering Woods ~ Villanelle

1 She peers into the forest fog
   seeking another fairy face.

   Fay hears bullfrogs in the bog.

4 There’s whispers of strange dialogue

   slipping softly through cloistered space.

   She peers into the forest fog.

7 An owl calls from his cedar log

   and unsettles her sense of place.

   Fay hears bullfrogs in the bog.

10 Far off, there’s the bay of a dog

   whose master is on a coon chase.

   She peers into the forest fog.

13 She wonders if the swamp polliwog

   knows it has a change to embrace.

   Fay hears bullfrogs in the bog.

16 There’s a quiet riot to catalogue

   and she craves a calmer pace.

   She peers into the forest fog

   Fay hears bullfrogs in the bog.

So, what makes this a villanelle?

Now that you have a feel for the villanelle, here's your assignment:

**JOURNAL 4**  

• Read each villanelle. 

• List the title of the villanelle and answer the question associated with each poem.

Poem #1

"Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" by Dylan Thomas

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Question: Why does the speaker give this advise to his father? 

Poem #2

One Art

By Elizabeth Bishop

The art of losing isn’t hard to master;

so many things seem filled with the intent

to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster

of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.

The art of losing isn’t hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:

places, and names, and where it was you meant

to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother’s watch. And look! my last, or

next-to-last, of three loved houses went.

The art of losing isn’t hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,

some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.

I miss them, but it wasn’t a disaster.

—Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture

I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident

the art of losing’s not too hard to master

though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

Question: Ask yourself: What is the art?  Is it hard to master?  Has the speaker mastered it?  How do   you know?

Poem #3

The Waking

By Theodore Roethke

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.   

I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.   

I learn by going where I have to go.

We think by feeling. What is there to know?   

I hear my being dance from ear to ear.   

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Of those so close beside me, which are you?   

God bless the Ground!   I shall walk softly there,   

And learn by going where I have to go.

Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how?   

The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;   

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Great Nature has another thing to do   

To you and me; so take the lively air,   

And, lovely, learn by going where to go.

This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.   

What falls away is always. And is near.   

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.   

I learn by going where I have to go.

Questions: In one good sentence, explain the effect of the refraining line. 
                What is that "thing" mentioned in Line 13?  How do you know?
                In one good sentence, come up with a theme for the poem.

Poem #4

The House on the Hill

By Edwin Arlington Robinson

They are all gone away,

      The House is shut and still,

There is nothing more to say.

Through broken walls and gray

      The winds blow bleak and shrill:

They are all gone away.

Nor is there one to-day

      To speak them good or ill:

There is nothing more to say.

Why is it then we stray

      Around the sunken sill?

They are all gone away,

And our poor fancy-play

      For them is wasted skill:

There is nothing more to say.

There is ruin and decay

      In the House on the Hill:

They are all gone away,

There is nothing more to say. 

Question: Why does the speaker repeat himself if "There is nothing else to say"?

 Poem #5

Self-Help

By Michael Ryan

What kind of delusion are you under?

The life he hid just knocked you flat.

You see the lightning but not the thunder.

What God hath joined let no man put asunder.

Did God know you’d marry a rat?

What kind of delusion are you under?

His online persona simply stunned her

as it did you when you started to chat.

You see the lightning but not the thunder.

To the victors go the plunder:

you should crown them with a baseball bat.

What kind of delusion are you under?

The kind that causes blunder after blunder.

Is there any other kind than that?

You see the lightning but not the thunder,

and for one second the world’s a wonder.

Just keep it thrilling under your hat.

What kind of delusion are you under?

You see the lightning but not the thunder.

Question: In one good sentence, come up with a theme for the poem. Now back it up! Why should  I believe you? Why should I agree with you? PROVE IT! Use examples from the poem.
 

Thursday, January 24

TODAY:

Memorization QUIZ (Stanzas 1 -2)

Poetry Presentations - The Finale

HOMEWORK:

Practice for your Memorization QUIZ (Stanzas 1-3) on Thursday, January 31

If you can keep your head when all about you   

    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,   

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

    But make allowance for their doubting too;   

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;   

    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;   

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

    And treat those two impostors just the same;   

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

    And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

    To serve your turn long after they are gone,   

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

Wednesday, January 23

WARM UP:
Who's vs Whose

TODAY:
Practice stanzas 1 and 2 with your partner.

If you can keep your head when all about you   

    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,   

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

    But make allowance for their doubting too;   

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;   

    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;   

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

    And treat those two impostors just the same;   

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

FYI: Memorization QUIZ tomorrow

Presentations Begin

Tuesday, January 22

Announcement: Don't forget to check the post for details on Winter Ball here.

TODAY:

Poetic Device QUIZ

Finishing touches on Poetry Presentations

FYI:

• Wednesday - Poetry Presentations begin
• Thursday - Memorization QUIZ (Stanzas 1-2)

If you can keep your head when all about you   

    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,   

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

    But make allowance for their doubting too;   

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;   

    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;   

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

    And treat those two impostors just the same;   

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

Block Day, January 17

TODAY:

Memorization QUIZ

Poetic Devices

• iambic pentameter - a line of poetry with 5 stressed syllables each followed by an unstressed syllable

•  couplet - two lines, one after the other that contain end rhyme

•  slant rhyme - rhyme in which the vowel sounds are nearly, but not exactly the same

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? (Sonnet 18)

William Shakespeare, 1564 - 1616

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to Time thou grow’st.
     So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
     So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Work on Poetry Presentations 

FYI:

• No school on Monday, January 21

• Poetic Device QUIZ on Tuesday, January 22 

• Poetry Presentations begin on Wednesday, January 23

• Memorization QUIZ (Stanzas 1-2) on Thursday, January 24

If you can keep your head when all about you   

    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,   

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

    But make allowance for their doubting too;   

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;   

    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;   

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

    And treat those two impostors just the same;   

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

Wednesday, January 16 ~ Be ready to present in a week!

TODAY:

You have the entire period to work on your poetry presentations.
I will visit each group to assess progress. Yes, progress is graded.

FYI:
Poetic Device QUIZ on Tuesday, January 22
Memory QUIZ tomorrow

If you can keep your head when all about you   

    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,   

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

    But make allowance for their doubting too;   

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

Tuesday, January 15 ~

EQ: What is enjambment?

WARM UP:
Who vs Whom

TODAY:
Work on your presentations

FYI: The memorization quiz has been moved to Thurs., along with the poetic device quiz.

Monday, January 14 ~ Figure on using a lot of figurative language

EQ:What is enjambment?

WARM UP:
Lose vs. Loose

TODAY:

Enjambment

from a French word enjambment, means to step over or put legs across. In poetry it can be defined as a thought or sentence that does not come to an end at the line break but continues on to the next line.

Imagery
visually descriptive language.

Rhyme Scheme
the ordered pattern of rhymes at the end of the lines

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud by William Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

 

Example:
Stanza 1 - If
If you can keep your head when all about you >>>>>>>>>>>>(NOTICE the enjambment?)
 Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
 But make allowance for their doubting too.
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
 Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
 And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

QUIZ on Wed.

• Work on presentations.

HOMEWORK: Study for Poetic Device QUIZ and Memorization QUIZ.

Block Day, January 10 & 11 ~ Poetry captures our values...."If"

 EQ: Why memorize a poem?

WARM UP:
Lose and Loose

TODAY:

POETRY -Analysis and Memorization

"If" by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
 Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
 But make allowance for their doubting too.
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
 Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
 And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
 If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster,
 And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
 Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
 And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make a heap of all your winnings
 And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
 And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
 To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
 Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
 Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
 If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
 With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
 And—which is more—you'll be a Man, my son!

Journal 3:

Analyze the poem:

1. Who is Kipling?
2. What is a stanza?
3. How many stanzas does If consist of?
4. What is the theme of the poem?
5. What rhyme scheme do you notice?
6. What is iambic pentameter?
7. What poetic devices do you notice?

Here is a Prezi on If that will answer the questions from above.

Can you do better?

You will show me through your very own analysis of a poem of your choosing. 

Here's the criteria:

• Choose a partner

• Choose a poem (must consist of at least 15 lines)

Here are a couple of sites to check out for a cool or interesting poem: 
Poetry Foundation                                   Academy of American Poets 

• You will analyze your poem by exploring the poem's author, structure, form, theme, content, poetic devices, etc. All of these help to unlock the overall meaning behind the poem. 

•  Choose your format for your presentation (digital, poster or other). Remember you and your partner are teaching the class. You're walking them through an analysis of a poem that they might not be familiar with, or perhaps they have never paid attention to the poems deeper meaning.

• Presentation should be 5-7mins.

• Due date: Jan. 23

The Quizlet below lists the poetic devices, as well as the poetic forms we will be learning in our poetry unit.  
Here is the quizlet list.

Here are a chosen few:
ALLITERATION -   
occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning or sound at the beginning of closely connected words
“The day to cheer and night's dank dew to dry,” (Spoken by Friar Lawrence in Act 2 at the beginning of Scene 3. This example shows four repetitions of “d.”)

ASSONANCE - 
repetition of similar vowel sounds followed by different consonant sounds in words that are close together

 “Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage, against the dying of the light.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight,
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

(Do Not Go Gentle into the Good Night by Dylan Thomas)

DENOTATION -   

literal meaning of a word
 I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.
(To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee)
     In this denotation example, the character of Atticus Finch redefines the word “courage” for his children. Speaking against the popular belief that guns represent power and therefore courage, Atticus instead defines courage as the attempt to change things even knowing that there is no hope. This redefinition of the concept of courage shapes both the book and his children’s lives.

CONNOTATION - 
the feelings associated with a word

Connotation provides the basis for symbolic meanings of words because symbolic meanings of objects are different from their literal sense. Look at the following lines from Shakespeare’s play “As you Like It”:
“All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,”

     “A stage” connotes the world; “players” suggests human beings; and “parts” implies different stages of their lives.



FYI: Poetic Device QUIZ on Thurs., Jan. 17

What about memorizing If?

FYI: First stanza QUIZ on Wed., Jan. 16



HOMEWORK: STUDY POETIC DEVICES AND START MEMORIZING! 
****If your presentation requires art supplies, bring them Monday.  

Wednesday, January 9 ~ What is poetry?

EQ: What is poetry?

WARM UP:
There, Their, They're

TODAY:

Agree/Disagree

1. Poetry must rhyme to be good.
2. Poetry is for expressing emotions.
3. Poetry makes you sound "deep."
4. Music lyrics classify as poetry.
5. A poem always has a hidden meaning. 
6. Poetry can be more powerful than a conversation.
7. Society needs poets and poetry.
8. Poetry helps shape our values.

Here are a couple of my favorites:

A Loaf of Poetry   

by Naoshi Koriyama

you mix
the dough
of experience
with
the yeast
of inspiration
and knead it well
with love
and pound it
with all your might
and then
leave it
until
it puffs out big
with its own inner force
and then
knead it again
and
shape it
into a round form
and bake it
in the oven
of your heart

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Mother to Son by Langston Hughes (Watch MLK read it here.)

Well, son, I'll tell you:
Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
It's had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor—
Bare.
But all the time
I'se been a-climbin' on,
And reachin' landin's,
And turnin' corners,
And sometimes goin' in the dark
Where there ain't been no light.
So, boy, don't you turn back.
Don't you set down on the steps.
'Cause you finds it's kinder hard.
Don't you fall now—
For I'se still goin', honey,
I'se still climbin',
And life for me ain't been no crystal stair.

J2: What are your feelings on poetry? What do you like? What do you loathe? Do you have a favorite poet? Favorite poem? If so, share it with me. Have you written your own poetry? If so, share it with me.

HOMEWORK: NO!