Poetry for Students: Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on Commonly Studied Poetry, vol 24

346 Pages·2006·5.32 MB·English

by  David Kelly

Poetry
for Students
National Advisory Board
Susan Allison: Head Librarian, Lewiston High Detroit, 1967 (magna cum laude); M.L.S., Uni-
School, Lewiston, Maine. Standards Committee versity of Missouri–Columbia, l974. Volunteer
Chairperson for Maine School Library (MASL) Project Leader for a school in rural Jamaica; vol-
Programs. Board member, Julia Adams Morse unteer with Adult Literacy programs.
Memorial Library, Greene, Maine. Advisor to
Lewiston Public Library Planning Process. Laurie St. Laurent:Head of Adult and Children’s
Services, East Lansing Public Library, East
Jennifer Hood:Young Adult/Reference Librarian,
Lansing, Michigan, 1994–. M.L.S. from West-
Cumberland Public Library, Cumberland, Rhode
ern Michigan University. Chair of Michigan
Island. Certified teacher, Rhode Island. Member
Library Association’s 1998 Michigan Summer
of the New England Library Association, Rhode
Reading Program; Chair of the Children’s
Island Library Association, and the Rhode Is-
Services Division in 2000–2001; and Vice-
land Educational Media Association.
President of the Association in 2002–2003.
Ann Kearney:Head Librarian and Media Special- Board member of several regional early child-
ist, Christopher Columbus High School, Miami, hood literacy organizations and member of the
Florida, 1982–2002. Thirty-two years as Librar- Library of Michigan Youth Services Advisory
ian in various educational institutions ranging Committee.
from grade schools through graduate programs.
Library positions at Miami-Dade Community Heidi Stohs: Instructor in Language Arts, grades
College, the University of Miami’s Medical 10–12, Solomon High School, Solomon,
School Library, and Carrollton School in Co- Kansas. Received B.S. from Kansas State Uni-
conut Grove, Florida. B.A. from University of versity; M.A. from Fort Hays State University.
PDF Not Available Due to Copyright Terms
PDF Not Available Due to Copyright Terms
Table of Contents
Guest Foreword
“Just a Few Lines on a Page”
by David J. Kelly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Literary Chronology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii
Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxi
All I Was Doing Was Breathing
(by Mirabai) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Author Biography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Poem Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Historical Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Critical Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Criticism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Always
(by Guillaume Apollinaire) . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Author Biography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Poem Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Poem Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Historical Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Critical Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Criticism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
v
T a b l e o f C o n t e n t s
At the Cancer Clinic Critical Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
(by Ted Kooser) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Criticism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Author Biography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Poem Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Monologue for an Onion
Themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
(by Sue (Suji) Kwock Kim) . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Author Biography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Historical Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Poem Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Critical Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Poem Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Criticism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Historical Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
The Chambered Nautilus
(by Oliver Wendell Holmes) . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Critical Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Criticism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Author Biography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Poem Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Poem Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Not like a Cypress
Themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
(by Yehuda Amichai) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Author Biography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Historical Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Poem Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Critical Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Poem Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Criticism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Historical Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
For the Sake of Strangers
Critical Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
(by Dorianne Laux) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Criticism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Author Biography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Poem Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
One Is One
Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
(by Marie Ponsot) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Historical Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Author Biography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Critical Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Poem Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Criticism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Poem Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Kindness
Historical Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
(by Naomi Shihab Nye) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Critical Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Author Biography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Criticism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Poem Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Poem Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Our Side
Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 (by Carol Muske-Dukes) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Historical Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 Author Biography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Critical Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 Poem Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Criticism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 Poem Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 Themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
The Litany Historical Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
(by Dana Gioia) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Critical Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Author Biography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Criticism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Poem Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
Poem Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 A Poison Tree
Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 (by William Blake) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Historical Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 Author Biography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
v i P o e t r y f o r S t u d e n t s
T a b l e o f C o n t e n t s
Poem Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 Historical Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
Poem Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196 Critical Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
Themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198 Criticism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198 Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
Historical Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Critical Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 Seeing You
(by Jean Valentine) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
Criticism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
Author Biography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
Poem Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
Poem Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Portrait of a Couple at Century’s End
Themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
(by Sherod Santos) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
Author Biography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
Historical Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
Poem Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
Critical Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
Poem Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Criticism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
Themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
Historical Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
Three To’s and an Oi
Critical Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
(by Heather McHugh) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
Criticism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
Author Biography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Poem Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
Poem Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
The Room Themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
(by Conrad Aiken) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232 Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
Author Biography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232 Historical Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
Poem Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233 Critical Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234 Criticism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236 Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
Cumulative Author/Title Index . . . . . . . . . 297
Cumulative Nationality/Ethnicity
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
Subject/Theme Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
Cumulative Index of First Lines . . . . . . . . 319
Cumulative Index of Last Lines . . . . . . . . 325
V o l u m e 2 4 v i i
Just a Few Lines on a Page
I have often thought that poets have the easi- tually travel to different times and different cul-
est job in the world. A poem, after all, is just a few tures, but the poems get into our minds, they find
lines on a page, usually not even extending margin what little we know about the places they are talk-
to margin—how long would that take to write, ing about, and then they make that little bit blos-
about five minutes? Maybe ten at the most, if you som into a bouquet of someone else’s life. Poets
wanted it to rhyme or have a repeating meter. Why, make us think we are following simple, specific
I could start in the morning and produce a book of events, but then they leave ideas in our heads that
poetry by dinnertime. But we all know that it isn’t cannot be found on the printed page. Abracadabra.
that easy. Anyone can come up with enough words,
Sometimes when you finish a poem it doesn’t
but the poet’s job is about writing the right ones.
feel as if it has left any supernatural effect on you,
The right words will change lives, making people
like it did not have any more to say beyond the ac-
see the world somewhat differently than they saw
tual words that it used. This happens to everybody,
it just a few minutes earlier. The right words can
but most often to inexperienced readers: regardless
make a reader who relies on the dictionary for
of what is often said about young people’s infinite
meanings take a greater responsibility for his or her
capacity to be amazed, you have to understand what
own personal understanding. A poem that is put on
usually does happen, and what could have hap-
the page correctly can bear any amount of analy-
pened instead, if you are going to be moved by
sis, probing, defining, explaining, and interrogat-
what someone has accomplished. In those cases in
ing, and something about it will still feel new the
which you finish a poem with a “So what?” atti-
next time you read it.
tude, the information provided in Poetry for Stu-
It would be fine with me if I could talk about dentscomes in handy. Readers can feel assured that
poetry without using the word “magical,” because the poems included here actually are potent magic,
that word is overused these days to imply “a really not just because a few (or a hundred or ten thou-
good time,” often with a certain sweetness about it, sand) professors of literature say they are: they’re
and a lot of poetry is neither of these. But if you significant because they can withstand close in-
stop and think about magic—whether it brings to spection and still amaze the very same people who
mind sorcery, witchcraft, or bunnies pulled from have just finished taking them apart and seeing how
top hats—it always seems to involve stretching re- they work. Turn them inside out, and they will still
ality to produce a result greater than the sum of its be able to come alive, again and again. Poetry for
parts and pulling unexpected results out of thin air. Students gives readers of any age good practice in
This book provides ample cases where a few sim- feeling the ways poems relate to both the reality of
ple words conjure up whole worlds. We do not ac- the time and place the poet lived in and the reality
i x
F o r e w o r d
of our emotions. Practice is just another word for with one hand, while the other hand pulls some sort
being a student. The information given here helps of trick that most of us will never fully understand.
you understand the way to read poetry; what to look I can’t even pack all that I need for a weekend into
for, what to expect. one suitcase, so what would be my chances of stuff-
With all of this in mind, I really don’t think I ing so much life into a few lines? With all that Po-
would actually like to have a poet’s job at all. There etry for Students tells us about each poem, I am
are too many skills involved, including precision, impressed that any poet can finish three or four po-
honesty, taste, courage, linguistics, passion, com- ems a year. Read the inside stories of these poems,
passion, and the ability to keep all sorts of people and you won’t be able to approach any poem in the
entertained at once. And that is just what they do same way you did before.
David J. Kelly
College of Lake County
x P o e t r y f o r S t u d e n t s