Figuring Out Figurative Language: Practice interpreting poetry.

ANNOTATE: Write directly on the poem to show your thoughts on/ interpretations of/ reactions to specific words/phrases. Examples of annotations are on the side board.

INSTRUCTIONS: Answer questions on loose POEMS leaf. Title each group of answers using the title of the poem.

The Orange by Raymond Souster 1. Annotate “The Orange” for powerful imagery. Each new week is a shiny orange which you divide into seven portions, 2. What is the effect of using this making it come out as even as you can. imagery?

3. What does the speaker’s extended Then each morning comes that glorious moment metaphor tell us about their attitude when you carefully lift one piece to your waiting mouth, toward life? feel your teeth ripping deep through the pulpy fruit to release golden jets that flood and tingle 4. Describe your reaction to this poem. all the long way down your suddenly pulsing throat.

Autobiography in Five Short Chapters`` by Portia Nelson 1. What do you think the street is a (American Poet 1920- 2001) metaphor for?

Chapter 1 2. What do you think the deep hole is a I walk down the street. metaphor for? There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I fall in. 3. What does the speaker realize in I am lost ... I am helpless. Chapter 3? It isn't my fault. It takes forever to find a way out. 4. What happens at the end of the poem?

Chapter 2 5. Why do you think this poem is often I walk down the same street. used in programs aimed at helping There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. people to improve their lives? I pretend I don't see it. I fall in again. 6. Describe your reaction to this poem. I can't believe I am in the same place. But it isn't my fault. It still takes a long time to get out.

Chapter 3 I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I see it is there. I still fall in ... it's a habit. My eyes are open. I know where I am. It is my fault. I get out immediately.

Chapter 4 I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I walk around it.

Chapter 5

I walk down another street. POEMS INSTRUCTIONS: Answer questions on loose leaf. Title each group of answers using the title of the poem.

``Digging`` by Seamus Heaney (Irish poet, 1939- ) 1. (Think about our extended similes, how Between my finger and my thumb friendships were compared to driver’s The squat pen rests; as snug as a gun. licenses and trust to video games.) What might the speaker be telling us when he Under my window a clean rasping sound compares how his pen rests in his hands When the spade sinks into gravelly ground: to a gun in the first stanza? My father, digging. I look down

2. Annotate for the following: Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds  Where the flashback begins. Bends low, comes up twenty years away  Imagery that speaks to your sense Stooping in rhythm through potato drills of hearing. Where he was digging.  Imagery that speaks to your sense of touch The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft  Evidence of pride Against the inside knee was levered firmly.  The use of repetition He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deep To scatter new potatoes that we picked 3. What might the poet mean by the last Loving their cool hardness in our hands. line “I’ll dig with it.”

By God, the old man could handle a spade, 4. Describe your reaction to this poem. Just like his old man.

My grandfather could cut more turf in a day Than any other man on Toner's bog. Once I carried him milk in a bottle Corked sloppily with paper. He straightened up To drink it, then fell to right away Nicking and slicing neatly, heaving sods Over his shoulder, digging down and down For the good turf. Digging.

The cold smell of potato mold, the squelch and slap Of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge Through living roots awaken in my head. But I've no spade to follow men like them.

Between my finger and my thumb The squat pen rests. I'll dig with it.

Warren Pryor`` by Alden Nowlan (Canadian poet, 1933-83) 1. Annotate for words with a negative connotation. When every pencil meant a sacrifice his parents boarded him at school in town, slaving to free him from the stony fields, 2. In your own words, briefly paraphrase the meagre acreage that bore them down. the poem “Warren Pryor”.

They blushed with pride when, at his graduation, 3. Explain how the parents feel by citing they watched him picking up the slender scroll, directly from the poem. his passport from the years of brutal toil and lonely patience in a barren hole. 4. Explain how he feels by citing directly from the poem. When he went in the Bank their cups ran over. They marvelled how he wore a milk-white shirt 5. What words/ images foreshadow “his” work days and jeans on Sundays. He was saved feelings that are revealed in the last from their thistle-strewn farm and its red dirt. line? And he said nothing. Hard and serious like a young bear inside his teller's cage, 6. Describe your reaction to this poem. his axe-hewn hands upon the paper bills aching with empty strength and throttled rage.