Richard Cory, Wild Geese, The Gift

Wild Geese  by Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting --
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

Richard Corey by Edwin Arlington Robinson

WHENEVER Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.
And he was always quietly arrayed,	5
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
"Good-morning," and he glittered when he walked.
And he was rich—yes, richer than a king,
And admirably schooled in every grace:	10
In fine, we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.
So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,	15
Went home and put a bullet through his head.

The Gift

BY LI-YOUNG LEE

To pull the metal splinter from my palm

my father recited a story in a low voice.

I watched his lovely face and not the blade.

Before the story ended, he’d removed

the iron sliver I thought I’d die from.

I can’t remember the tale,

but hear his voice still, a well

of dark water, a prayer.

And I recall his hands,

two measures of tenderness

he laid against my face,

the flames of discipline

he raised above my head.

Had you entered that afternoon

you would have thought you saw a man

planting something in a boy’s palm,

a silver tear, a tiny flame.

Had you followed that boy

you would have arrived here,

where I bend over my wife’s right hand.

Look how I shave her thumbnail down

so carefully she feels no pain.

Watch as I lift the splinter out.

I was seven when my father

took my hand like this,

and I did not hold that shard

between my fingers and think,

Metal that will bury me,

christen it Little Assassin,

Ore Going Deep for My Heart.

And I did not lift up my wound and cry,

Death visited here!

I did what a child does

when he’s given something to keep.

I kissed my father.

End of Semester for Warner Robins' Class

November 2011

Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
		1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
	3 poems: “Wild Geese” “The Gift” “Richard Cory”		How to present the poem in powerpoint presentation . . . “Wild Geese” & others – draw for poem to be presented
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
	Thanksgiving holidays
27	28	29	30		Monday – Dec. 5th

FINAL EXAM: December 7th – 1 – 3 p.m.

Questions answered about powerpoints

Student Powerpoint Presentations – focus on the imagery as a way of understanding poetry

Student Powerpoint Presentations – focus on the imagery as a way of understanding poetry

Poetry Analysis Worksheet

Working through these questions will help you better understand a poem. Remember:  we are NOT going to study the history of poetry or specific types of poems, and the poets we read will be relatively contemporary.

1.  What does the title mean?

Take a look at the title and reflect on what it means. (When you write your analysis, you will need this for the introductory paragraph.)  AFTER  you finish your analysis,  look at the title again. Do you now have a different interpretation of the title? Explain—you might want to do this in the conclusion.

2. Put it in your own words

Read the poem two or three times; make sure you take the time to read the poem aloud. You will see something different each time you read the poem. Write a brief paraphrase of the poem. Highlight or list some of the words (nouns, verbs, phrases) that are important to understanding the poem.

Now think about the meaning of the poem, not just the obvious meaning of each word but what they mean beyond the literal. Do these words suggest something else? Do some words suggest an emotion?

Answer these questions and provide evidence—lines, words, phrases from the poem--for your answers:

3.  Who is the speaker of the poem?

4.  What is he/she talking about?

5.  Why do you think the author wrote the poem?

6.  When is the poem happening and where is the poem happening—what is the context?

7.  What is the poet’s attitude or tone in the poem? 

8.  In what way is there a shift or change in the poem?  Does the poem shift from person to person or between different times or places?

Most poems tell us about a poet’s understanding of an experience so the beginning will be different then the end. The change or shift may be in feelings, language (slang to formal), or connotation (positive to negative). Explain what the shift is and why it is important (if we were reading a story, the “shift” would refer to the climax or turning point.

9. Poetic devices—we are looking at only the most common; if you need definition/clarification, refer to: http://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-imagery-poems.html:

Identify different poetic devices and how they convey the poem’s message.

·         Simile – comparison using like or as – “Like a thunderbolt he falls.”

·         Metaphor – a direct comparison – “I like to see it lap the miles/And lick the mountains up”  http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/train.html

·         Personification – giving human qualities to nonhuman things – “ . . . the great throat of the chimney laughed . . . “

·         Tone – what emotion does the speaker use as he talks – “Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary. . . ”  http://www.heise.de/ix/raven/Literature/Lore/TheRaven.html

·         Point of view – who is the telling the poem – “That’s my last Duchess, painted on the wall, / Looking as if she were alive . . . “http://www.wockyjivvy.com/poetry/acclaim/rbr-myla.html

• Imagery – creating pictures or sounds with words –  “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.”
• Alliteration – repeating the same consonant sound at the beginning of words –

    “ . . . mystical, moist night air . . .”

·         Assonance – repeating the same vowel sound – “Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December, / And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.”

10. Theme

Identify the theme (central idea) of the poem. How does the theme convey the poem’s message?

The poetic analysis:

Start with the introductory paragraph. It should contain the title, the author, and an explanation of the writer’s position as well as the significance of the title. Include a brief overall statement of the meaning of the poem. This will lead you into the body of the analysis. In the body of the analysis, discuss how the poem was written, which poetic devices were used, the tone, the poet’s attitude, and the shift of the poem from the beginning to the poet’s ultimate understanding of the experience in the end. Add your interpretation of the poem.

Copyright 2009 IRA/NCTE. All rights reserved. 

Compare and contrast 2 poems

The Journey
by Mary Oliver

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice --
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do --
determined to save
the only life you could save.

Thank you, Dr. Seuss

Oh, the Places You'll Go!

by

Dr. Seuss

Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You're off to Great Places!
You're off and away!

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.
You're on your own. And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go.

You'll look up and down streets. Look 'em over with care.
About some you will say, "I don't choose to go there."
With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet,
you're too smart to go down any not-so-good street.

And you may not find any
you'll want to go down.
In that case, of course,
you'll head straight out of town.

It's opener there
in the wide open air.

Out there things can happen
and frequently do
to people as brainy
and footsy as you.

And when things start to happen,
don't worry. Don't stew.
Just go right along.
You'll start happening too.

OH!
THE PLACES YOU'LL GO!

You'll be on your way up!
You'll be seeing great sights!
You'll join the high fliers
who soar to high heights.

You won't lag behind, because you'll have the speed.
You'll pass the whole gang and you'll soon take the lead.
Wherever you fly, you'll be best of the best.
Wherever you go, you will top all the rest.

Except when you don't.
Because, sometimes, you won't.

I'm sorry to say so
but, sadly, it's true
that Bang-ups
and Hang-ups
can happen to you.

You can get all hung up
in a prickle-ly perch.
And your gang will fly on.
You'll be left in a Lurch.

You'll come down from the Lurch
with an unpleasant bump.
And the chances are, then,
that you'll be in a Slump.

And when you're in a Slump,
you're not in for much fun.
Un-slumping yourself
is not easily done.

You will come to a place where the streets are not marked.
Some windows are lighted. But mostly they're darked.
A place you could sprain both your elbow and chin!
Do you dare to stay out? Do you dare to go in?
How much can you lose? How much can you win?

And IF you go in, should you turn left or right...
or right-and-three-quarters? Or, maybe, not quite?
Or go around back and sneak in from behind?
Simple it's not, I'm afraid you will find,
for a mind-maker-upper to make up his mind.

You can get so confused
that you'll start in to race
down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace
and grind on for miles cross weirdish wild space,
headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.
The

Waiting Place

...

...for people just waiting.
Waiting for a train to go
or a bus to come, or a plane to go
or the mail to come, or the rain to go
or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow
or the waiting around for a Yes or a No
or waiting for their hair to grow.
Everyone is just waiting.

Waiting for the fish to bite
or waiting for the wind to fly a kite
or waiting around for Friday night
or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake
or a pot to boil, or a Better Break
or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants
or a wig with curls, or Another Chance.
Everyone is just waiting.

NO!
That's not for you!

Somehow you'll escape
all that waiting and staying
You'll find the bright places
where Boom Bands are playing.

With banner flip-flapping,
once more you'll ride high!
Ready for anything under the sky.
Ready because you're that kind of a guy!

Oh, the places you'll go! There is fun to be done!
There are points to be scored. There are games to be won.
And the magical things you can do with that ball
will make you the winning-est winner of all.
Fame! You'll be as famous as famous can be,
with the whole wide world watching you win on TV.

Except when they don't
Because, sometimes they won't.

I'm afraid that some times
you'll play lonely games too.
Games you can't win
'cause you'll play against you.

All Alone!
Whether you like it or not,
Alone will be something
you'll be quite a lot.

And when you're alone, there's a very good chance
you'll meet things that scare you right out of your pants.
There are some, down the road between hither and yon,
that can scare you so much you won't want to go on.

But on you will go
though the weather be foul.
On you will go
though your enemies prowl.
On you will go
though the Hakken-Kraks howl.
Onward up many
a frightening creek,
though your arms may get sore
and your sneakers may leak.

On and on you will hike,
And I know you'll hike far
and face up to your problems
whatever they are.

You'll get mixed up, of course,
as you already know.
You'll get mixed up
with many strange birds as you go.
So be sure when you step.
Step with care and great tact
and remember that Life's
a Great Balancing Act.
Just never forget to be dexterous and deft.
And never mix up your right foot with your left.

And will you succeed?
Yes! You will, indeed!
(98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed.)

KID, YOU'LL MOVE MOUNTAINS!

So...
be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray
or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O'Shea,
You're off the Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So...get on your way!

*** The above text was copyrighted in 1990 .