Poetry Week!

First, Happy Star Wars Day.

(If you don’t get it, we can no longer be friends.)

Second, WE HAVE A LAST DAY! Seniors, you are done Friday, May 22. Three short weeks, guys–you can do this!
Next, everyone else is done a week later, Friday, May 29. WOOT! Have all your work turned in and REJOICE!
BUT if you’re behind and need to caught up, you have a grace period of June 1-5 to get the last of your work done. Whatever you do NOT have finished by the end of the week, well, that’s it.
Time’s run out.

Now to this week–POETRY!

We need to do something a little different I think, and give your mind practice at analyzing something else besides prose prompts. I don’t want to teach exclusively to a random test, I want you to have exposure to more literature. We will resume prose prompts to have you ready for the test on Wednesday, May 13 (one week from Wednesday!), but let’s do something completely different this week. Brains function better when they’ve had a variety of work to do, and aren’t just focused on one kind ad nauseam.

ASSIGNMENT

I have here an eclectic selection of 10 poems I expect you to read.

I’m hoping that at least poem may appeal to you. I tried for a wide variety, the oldest is from Walt Whitman in the 1800s, the newest is one about cell phones published just a month or two ago.

Tomorrow, on TUESDAY, our Zoom Meeting will go over the ANALYSIS ASSIGNMENT that I will assign. For today (Monday) read through them, get a feel for them.

On Tuesday we’ll go over the first 5 poems together, then on Thursday the last 5.

(If you wish to get a jump on this assignment, here’s what I want you to do: Evaluate each of the 10 poems based on this simple handout. You’ll rate the poem, tell me what you like, dislike, and identify a literary device.)

The first one, called The Lanyard, by Billy Collins, is included only because I want to remind you that MOTHER’S DAY IS THIS SUNDAY! There. Can’t say you weren’t warned.

This is actually a funny poem. He’s the former US Poet Laureate, and we’ll discuss it on Tuesday, but listen to the author read it here:

So for tomorrow (Tuesday), read the poems. If you want, you can start analyzing them, but you can wait until Tuesday if you wish.

ZOOM MEETING on TUESDAY to discuss this analysis assignment. The analysis of all 10 poems will be due FRIDAY before midnight. On Tuesday we’ll go over the first five poems together, then on Thursday discuss the last five poems.