Some thoughts
The author of the poem "reimagines" Columbus' voyage. What are the
results of the new version of the voyage?
Silently reread line four, noticing your eye motion. How is that motion
related to what the line says and to Columbus' actual voyage from
Spain?
Why are only two ships listed in line thirteen? Only one in line fifteen?
Are there other instances where the placement of words or phrases
especially at the ends of linesis related to the events as they occur in
the poem?
This poem would make sense if read aloud to someone who doesn't have
a copy in hand. What would a listener miss, though, from an oral
reading?
r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r
E. E. Cummings, 1894 - 1962
r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r
who
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a
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to
rea(be)rran(com)gi(e)ngly
,grasshopper;
Concrete Poetry
In a concrete poem, the placement of words on
the page is related to the meaning of the poem.
Why do we call it concrete poetry? Why might the
word concrete be related to these poems?
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af
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iness
Bellwork 1/21/15
Pick one of your three image words from
yesterdays bellwork (if you were absent an example
would be an open book or a flying bird.) Write
three to four sentences about that image word. You
can write a story, describe the image, or both. Feel
free to use similes, metaphors, personification, etc.
Example: The lamp on my desk is my mothers mothers lamp. The
base is made of three differently-sized crystal blocks, stacked up
like a snowman. One time I pulled it apart to replace the old wires,
taking the snowmans head, torso, and bottom off one by one until
all that was left was its bronze, cylindrical skeleton.
Concrete Poetry
What are the rules of concrete poetry?
Assignment
On your own, I want you to write three concrete
poems.
Subject matter, form, etc. are all up to you. Get
creative!
All three poems are due Thursday. Make sure they
are neatly written out on a piece of paper.
Journal Entry
Think about something you've written that you
remember well. It might be a letter to someone,
an essay for school, an article for the school
newspaper, or a poem. Think also about the
choices that we've discovered poets make when
they write a poem. How did you make choices as
you were writing? What conclusions can you draw
about writers in general from thinking about the
way that you and others (including poets) write?