5-5/5-6 2010 Poetry continued!

Lesson:
Today we turned in our train poems.
We practiced analyzing two poems in class. If you are not comfortable with analyzing poetry, you should come in during projects or another time to work with me on analyzing your first one. It can be a little tricky.

We practiced first with this poem by William Carlos Williams:

The Red Wheelbarrow

So much depends
Upon

The red wheel
Barrow

Glazed with rain
Water

Beside the white
Chickens

The basics to analyzing this are:
1. Read the poem once, then re-read it marking it up by highlighting, labeling, making marginal notes on: sound, form, meaning. Color-coding and making a key may be helpful.

2. Finally, make a conclusion about what the poem’s message seems to be. (Relax: there is not one “correct” meaning as long as you can give support from the poem that would be convincing and intriguing to reasonable people.)

3. Analyze this poem using the methods we talked about in class. Begin with your conclusion about the main message. Support this argument with examples you found.

Can you try analyzing "The Red Wheelbarrow". HINT! Don't go too deep. It is not a poem about South Africa.

If you think you got that one try this one from a South African writer, who wrote this during Apartheid. HINT! It is about South Africa!:
In the s*** house a shotgun
Praying hands hold me down
Only the hunter was hunted
In this tin can town
Tin can town
No stars in the black night
Looks like the sky fell down
No sun in the daylight
Looks like it's chained to the ground
Chained to the ground
The warden said:
"The exit is sold.
If you want a way out,
Silver and gold."

Broken back to the ceiling
Broken nose to the floor
I scream at the silence, it's crawling
It crawls under the door
There's a rope around my neck
And there's a trigger in your gun
Jesus say something
I am someone, I am someone
I am someone
Captain and kings
In the ships hold
They came to collect
Silver and gold
Silver and gold

Seen the coming and the going
Seen them captains and the kings
See them navy blue uniforms
See them bright and shiny things
Bright shiny things

The temperature is rising
The fever white hot
Mister, I ain't got nothing
But it's more than you got

Chains no longer bind me
Not the shackles at my feet
Outside are the prisoners
Inside the free
Set them free
Set them free

A prize fighter in a corner is told
Hit where it hurts
Silver and gold

If you were absent, try analyzing both of these poems at home. Bring in your analysis to see if you are on the right track.

HMWK:
Our homework was to analyze the poem "Soweto Road". It can be found, with instructions, on the assignments page.