First poem for you meaning

Poetry speaks figuratively, using language artfully in order express “things oft thought but ne’er so well expressed,” as the poet Alexander Pope once said.The literal meaning of the words must be grasped and then taken in or felt inwardly as we allow them to play on our imaginations and emotions.Figures of speech called metaphors and similes compare suggested or implied possibilities to literal meanings, often stating truths that more literal language cannot communicate.These are some of the many poetic devices that make meaning happen in a poem. Like short stories, poems also devise speakers, settings, or themes to call attention to or emphasize something. See your textbook and the poetry worksheets associated with this unit for more information about the elements of poetry.

To write about a poem, you must first read it aloud to yourself. Open up your sense gates – see, sense and feel how the language makes things happen for you. Read it again.Then, do your best to summarize it. Who’s speaking, about what? Is there a topic? A scene? An audience? In a 1-4 sentence paragraph that opens with the author’s name and the poem’s title, summarize the poem’s literal meaning to the best of your ability. In the final sentence of the paragraph, make a claim (a thesis) about the overall meaning or impact of the poem, to your way of thinking. In a second paragraph, follow up on this point and compose a response to the poem that interprets how its images, poetic devices, form or tone enables you to interpret its meaning. Use quotes from the poem itself, where possible. What’s the poem’s take-away message or theme? Why do you think so? Keep these Summary/Responses short! Do not use the internet for this exercise. Find the three poems for this exercise HERE .

Compose a separate summary/response essay for each of the poems listed below. Then, combine the three assigned essays together into one document and submit them in fulfillment of the required Unit Three Lab Exercise.

1. “First Poem for You” by Kim Addonizio (1954-- )

Read the poem aloud to yourself, letting its images play over your imagination. Then compose a brief 300 word Summary/Response essay in which you consider the power of the images in the poem. In your response paragraph, consider how the images in the poem comment on the new and unfamiliar feelings the speaker may have about this apparently new relationship? Quote at least one image in your response, one that helps us understand how you see it. Do some of the images work as metaphors for the speaker’s uncertain exploration of this apparently new relationship?

2. “This is Just to Say” by William Carlos Williams (1883-1963)

For this poem, read the poem aloud to yourself at least twice before composing a brief 250 word Summary/Response essay. In the summary, consider the literal meaning of the poem. What happens? In a second paragraph, the response, consider the figurative (implied) meaning of the speaker’s words. In your response, concentrate on how the figurative meanings influence the literal meaning of the language? What’s the point the speaker is really trying to make? Why do you think so?

3. “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

For this poem, also read the poem aloud to yourself at least twice, letting its images play over your imagination. Then compose a brief 250 word Summary/Response essay in which you consider, first, the landscape described by the speaker to an unnamed audience. What specific landscape is this? Summarize the “where” of the poem and draw out a point (a thesis) about how its images create possible meanings. In a second paragraph, consider the tone or attitude the speaker takes towards this landscape. What is it and how does that shape the message you take away from the poem?

COMBINE ALL THREE MINI-ESSAYS into ONE DOCUMENT. Separate the three mini-essays by a double space and let the poet’s name and/or title of the poem precede each essay.

First Poem for You

BY KIM ADDONIZIO (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. (1964 -- )

I like to touch your tattoos in complete

darkness, when I can’t see them. I’m sure of

where they are, know by heart the neat

lines of lightning pulsing just above

your nipple, can find, as if by instinct, the blue

swirls of water on your shoulder where a serpent

twists, facing a dragon. When I pull you

to me, taking you until we’re spent

and quiet on the sheets, I love to kiss

the pictures in your skin. They’ll last until

you’re seared to ashes; whatever persists

or turns to pain between us, they will still

be there. Such permanence is terrifying.

So I touch them in the dark; but touch them, trying.

Kim Addonizio, “First Poem for You” from The Philosopher’s Club. Copyright © 1994 by Kim Addonizio. Used by permission of BOA Editions, Ltd, www.boaeditions.org.

Source: The Philosopher’s Club (BOA Editions Ltd., 1994)

This Is Just To Say

BY WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. (1883-1963)

I have eaten

the plums

that were in

the icebox

and which

you were probably

saving

for breakfast

Forgive me

they were delicious

so sweet

and so cold

William Carlos Williams, ''This Is Just to Say'' from The Collected Poems: Volume I, 1909-1939, copyright ©1938 by New Directions Publishing Corp. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.

Ozymandias

By PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. (1792-1822)

I met a traveler from an antique land

Who said: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert . . . Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed:

And on the pedestal these words appear:

‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

This poem is in the public domain.

Poetry speaks figuratively, using language artfully in order express “things oft thought but ne’er

so well expressed,” as the poet Alexander Pope once said.The literal meaning of the words must

be grasped and then taken in or felt inwardly as we allow them

to play on our imaginations and

emotions.Figures of speech called metaphors and similes compare suggested or implied

possibilities to literal meanings, often stating truths that more literal language cannot

communicate.These are some of the many poetic de

vices that make meaning happen in a poem.

Like short stories, poems also devise speakers, settings, or themes to call attention to or

emphasize something. See your textbook and the poetry worksheets associated with this unit for

more information about the

elements of poetry.

To write about a poem, you must first read it aloud to yourself. Open up your sense gates

–

see,

sense and feel how the language makes things happen for you. Read it again.Then, do your best

to summarize it. Who’s speaking, about what?

Is there a topic? A scene? An audience? In a 1

-

4

sentence paragraph that opens with the author’s name and the poem’s title,

summarize the

poem’s literal meaning to the best of your ability.

In the final sentence of the paragraph,

make

a claim (a thesis) about the overall meaning or impact of the poem

, to your way of thinking.

In a second paragraph, follow up on this point and

compose a response to the poem that

interprets

how its images, poe

tic devices, form or tone enables you to interpret its

meaning.

Use quotes from the poem itself, where possible. What’s the poem’s take

-

away

message or theme? Why do you think so?

Keep these Summary/Responses short!

Do not use

the internet for this exerci

se

. Find the three poems for this exercise

HERE

.

Compose a separate summary/response essay for each of the poems listed below. Then,

combine the three a

ssigned essays together into one document and submit them in

fulfillment of the required Unit Three Lab Exercise.

1.

“First Poem for You” by Kim Addonizio

(1954

--

)

Read the poem aloud to yourself, letting its images play over your imagination. Then compo

se a

brief

300 word Summary/Response essay in which you consider the power of the images in the

poem. In your response paragraph, consider how the images in the poem comment on the new

and unfamiliar feelings the speaker may have about this apparently

new relationship? Quote at

least one image in your response, one that helps us understand how you see it. Do some of the

images work as metaphors for the speaker’s uncertain exploration of this apparently new

relationship?

2.

“

This is Just to Say” by Willia

m Carlos Williams

(1883

-

1963)

Poetry speaks figuratively, using language artfully in order express “things oft thought but ne’er

so well expressed,” as the poet Alexander Pope once said.The literal meaning of the words must

be grasped and then taken in or felt inwardly as we allow them to play on our imaginations and

emotions.Figures of speech called metaphors and similes compare suggested or implied

possibilities to literal meanings, often stating truths that more literal language cannot

communicate.These are some of the many poetic devices that make meaning happen in a poem.

Like short stories, poems also devise speakers, settings, or themes to call attention to or

emphasize something. See your textbook and the poetry worksheets associated with this unit for

more information about the elements of poetry.

To write about a poem, you must first read it aloud to yourself. Open up your sense gates – see,

sense and feel how the language makes things happen for you. Read it again.Then, do your best

to summarize it. Who’s speaking, about what? Is there a topic? A scene? An audience? In a 1-4

sentence paragraph that opens with the author’s name and the poem’s title, summarize the

poem’s literal meaning to the best of your ability. In the final sentence of the paragraph, make

a claim (a thesis) about the overall meaning or impact of the poem, to your way of thinking.

In a second paragraph, follow up on this point and compose a response to the poem that

interprets how its images, poetic devices, form or tone enables you to interpret its

meaning. Use quotes from the poem itself, where possible. What’s the poem’s take-away

message or theme? Why do you think so? Keep these Summary/Responses short! Do not use

the internet for this exercise. Find the three poems for this exercise HERE.

Compose a separate summary/response essay for each of the poems listed below. Then,

combine the three assigned essays together into one document and submit them in

fulfillment of the required Unit Three Lab Exercise.

1. “First Poem for You” by Kim Addonizio (1954-- )

Read the poem aloud to yourself, letting its images play over your imagination. Then compose a

brief 300 word Summary/Response essay in which you consider the power of the images in the

poem. In your response paragraph, consider how the images in the poem comment on the new

and unfamiliar feelings the speaker may have about this apparently new relationship? Quote at

least one image in your response, one that helps us understand how you see it. Do some of the

images work as metaphors for the speaker’s uncertain exploration of this apparently new

relationship?

2. “This is Just to Say” by William Carlos Williams (1883-1963)