Poems and Questions for the 9Th Grade Poetry Assignments

Poems and Questions for the 9 th Grade Poetry Assignments

A word is dead

When it is said,

Some say.

I say it just

Begins to live

That day.

--Emily Dickinson Poetry 1

First do the Quickwrite: Close your eyes, and try to visualize something in nature. Describe what you are seeing. You could be describing something as big as the sky or as small as an ant, as soft as a rabbit or as squishy as a swamp. Explain how what you are describing makes you feel.

A Blessing

Just off the highway to Rochester, Minnesota, Twilight bounds softly forth on the grass. And the eyes of those two Indian ponies Darken with kindness. They have come gladly out of the willows To welcome my friend and me. We step over the barbed wire into the pasture Where they have been grazing all day, alone. They ripple tensely, they can hardly contain their happiness That we have come. They bow shyly as wet swans. They love each other. There is no loneliness like theirs. At home once more, they begin munching the young tufts of spring in the darkness. I would like to hold the slenderer one in my arms, For she has walked over to me And nuzzled my left hand. She is black and white, Her mane falls wild on her forehead, And the light breeze moves me to caress her long ear That is delicate as the skin over a girl's wrist. Suddenly I realize That if I stepped out of my body I would break Into blossom.

--James Arlington Wright 1. What it the setting of the poem—where and when does it take place?

2. What were the ponies doing all day?

3. How do the ponies feel about the visit? How do they feel about each other?

4. Why does the speaker feel especially fond of one of the ponies?

5. Most of the images in this poem appeal to the senses of sight and touch. Make a 2-column chart with the headings “Sight” and “Touch.” Then, list images from the poem in the appropriate columns. List 5 in each column. Poetry 2 First do the Quickwrite: What is your favorite season of the year? Make a list of 5 things you like best about this season, one for each: something you see, feel, smell, hear, and taste. in Just- in Just- spring when the world is mud- luscious the little lame balloonman whistles far and wee and eddieandbill come running from marbles and piracies and it's spring when the world is puddle-wonderful the queer old balloonman whistles far and wee and bettyandisbel come dancing from hop-scotch and jump-rope and it's spring and the goat-footed balloonMan whistles far and wee --e.e. Cummings 1. What season of the year is the setting for this poem? What’s the weather like at that time of year? 2. List 3 activities that are mentioned in the poem. 3. Who is the central figure in the poem—the person who is mentioned t times? 4. What sound does this person make? Who is attracted to the sound? 5. What senses do the images “mud-luscious,” “whistles far and wee,” and “puddle-wonderful” appeal to? 6. Cummings is known for his unusual punctuation and arrangement of words. What are the children doing in this poem that matches the leaps and jumps of the words? Why might Cummings have made single words out of the names Eddie and Bill, Betty and Isabel?

Poetry 3

Get out of my road and allow me to plant these bamboos, Mr. Toad. --Miura Chora

A morning glory

Twined round the bucket:

I will ask my neighbor for water. --Chiyo

The old pond;

A frog jumps in:

Sound of water. --Matsuo Basho

A dragonfly!

The distant hills Reflected in his eyes. --Kobayashi Issa

1. These haiku are, of course, translated. Which of the 4 haiku follow the rule of five syllables on lines 1 and 3, seven in line 2?

2. Describe two images from each haiku.

3. Which haiku relies most on the sense of hearing?

4. What season of the year do you think each haiku describes? Which word/words gives you that clue?

5. Haiku often balance two contrasting images. In Chora’s haiku, for example, the toad in the road, probably resting, contrasts with the human busy planting his bamboo. What contrasting images do you find in the other three haiku?

6. Write your own haiku—3 lines long, 5-7-5 syllables. If you want to use a National Geographic, please ask.

Poetry 4

Once by the Pacific

The shattered water made a misty din. Great waves looked over others coming in, And thought of doing something to the shore That water never did to land before. The clouds were low and hairy in the skies, Like locks blown forward in the gleam of eyes. You could not tell, and yet it looked as if The shore was lucky in being backed by cliff, The cliff in being backed by continent; It looked as if a night of dark intent Was coming, and not only a night, an age. Someone had better be prepared for rage. There would be more than ocean-water broken Before God's last Put out the light was spoken. --Robert Frost

1. Where is the speaker standing as he observes the ocean? What are the waves doing?

2. According to lines 10-11, what do the wild waves make the speaker think of?

3. Look at the last 2 lines of the sonnet (yeah, it’s a sonnet), the concluding couplet. What dreadful thoughts is the speaker sharing with us there?

4. What images in lines 1-4 help you picture the waves—and even hear them?

5. What images in lines 5-6 help you picture the clouds?

6. Whose “rage” is described in line 12? What could cause that rage?

Country Scene

The waterfall plunges in mist.

Who can describe this desolate scene:

the long white river sliding through the emerald shadows of the ancient canopy

. . . a shepherd’s horn echoing in the valley,

Fishnets stretched to dry on sandy flats.

A bell is tolling, fading, fading

Just like love. Only poetry lasts.

--Ho Xuan Hu’o’ng Translated by John Balaban

1. What is the speaker looking at? What does she hear?

2. What does the speaker think of when she hears the bell?

3. According to this speaker, what outlasts both nature and love? In your opinion, which is more lasting—love or poetry? 4. How would you describe the tone of this lyric? Is it a pessimistic poem or a positive poem? Cite details from the poem to support your answer.

Poetry 5

Write a sonnet: 14 lines long, 10 syllables exactly on each line. Choose either an AABB rhyme patter or ABAB.

Poetry 6

First read pages 432-433 in the purple book. Folding Won Tons In

I’ve seasoned the pork as I imagine my mother would— sesame oil, ginger, pepper, scallions chopped imperfectly. Sheets of doughy skin, 5 I only have the skill to buy.

Thumb and forefinger peel each tender, white scrap of noodle from the clinging stack. 10 I pat their centers pink with fragrant spoonfuls the color of the fat sun in October.

Mimicking from memory: A twist, a tuck, a folding over— 15 a finger lick of water to seal my misshapen flowers.

My hands powderdusted; acquainted with each new blossom. I line them up 20 like newborns huddled together, waiting to be fed to their distant fathers. The soup bubbles to overflowing, I slide the dumplings in 25 and stir them in their dizzy descent.

Drowned, swollen, and glistening; steam hidden for an instant—

I set them on the table 30 and decide how many I will save for one more day.

--Abraham Chang

1. List all the steps the speaker follows as he makes the won tons.

2. What does the speaker do with the won tons after they’re made?

3. Imagine that you are the poet. Which image—a word or phrase that appeals to your senses—in this poem would you feel most pleased with? Why does it especially please you?

4. This poem is full of figures of speech that create vivid images. List all the figures of speech you find in this poem—all the things that the won tons are compared to. How does the speaker feel about his won ton soup?

First read all of page 435 in the purple book.

"Hope" is the thing with feathers

"Hope" is the thing with feathers— That perches in the soul— And sings the tune without the words— And never stops—at all—

And sweetest—in the Gale—is heard— And sore must be the storm— That could abash the little Bird That kept so many warm—

I've heard it in the chillest land— And on the strangest Sea— Yet, never, in Extremity, It asked a crumb—of Me. --Emily Dickinson

1. Dickinson uses a metaphor that compares hope to a bird. Where does the bird perch? Under what conditions does the speaker hear it sing?

2. What does hope (or the bird) ask for in return for its song?

3. A gale is a strong wind. What do you think the “gale” symbolizes, or stands for, in this poem?

4. Think of all the ways that Dickinson extends the metaphor. How is hope’s song endless? How does it keep you warm?

5. How do you interpret what the speaker says about hope in the last stanza?

Poetry 7

The fog comes on little cat feet.

It sits looking over harbor and city on silent haunches and then moves on.

--Carl Sandburg

1. What animal does the author compare the fog to?

2. What parts of the animal’s body does he mention?

3. What does this animal do?

4. That qualities does the fog share with the animla in Sandburg’s poem? Could fog also be compared to an elephant? a snake? a dog?

Fire and Ice

Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice.

From what I’ve tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if I had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.

--Robert Frost

**Hint: Fire is symbolic of desire; Ice is symbolic of hate.

1. According to the speaker, what disagreement have about how the world will end?

2. Which side of the argument does the speaker agree with?

3. How could the world end in fire?

4. How could the world end in ice?

5. How would you define desire as Frost uses the word in his poem? How is desire like fire? How could desire bring on the end of the world?

6. Why would the speaker feel that hate and ice have something in common? How could hate cause destruction of the world?

First do the Quickwrite: Before reading the next poem, list what you think are the 7 stages of man.

Read all of page 444 in the purple book.

The Seven Ages of Man (All the World's a Stage)

All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant, Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms. Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel And shining morning face, creeping like snail Unwillingly to school. And then the lover, Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier, Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard, Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel, Seeking the bubble reputation Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice, In fair round belly with good capon lined, With eyes severe and beard of formal cut, Full of wise saws and modern instances; And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts Into the lean and slippered pantaloon, With spectacles on nose and pouch on side; His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice, Turning again toward childish treble, pipes And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all, That ends this strange eventful history, Is second childishness and mere oblivion, Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

--William Shakespeare

1. In Shakespeare’s famous metaphor that compares the world to a stage, what does he compare men and women to?

2. Shakespeare uses an extended metaphor when he has Jaques describe a person’s life as though it were a play made up of seven acts. Name those seven acts.

3. In this monologue, what images help you picture childhood (the first 2 acts) as Jaques sees it? What simile describes the schoolboy’s attitude toward school? How do you think Jaques feels about the infants and the schoolboys?

4. If the justice’s belly is lined “with good capon,” what do we know about him? What details make the judge seem like a ridiculous character?

5. According to Jaques, what physical and mental challenges take place when a man reaches the sixth and seventh ages? Does he make old age seem dignified or silly? What do you think of Jaques’s view of old age?

6. Shakespeare’s famous lines were written more than 400 years ago. Of the seven ages of man that he characterizes, which do you think remain true to life today? Have any changed? (Check your quickwrite notes.) Poetry 8 I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine And twinkle on the milky way, They stretched in never-ending line Along the margin of a bay: Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they Out-did the sparkling waves in glee: A poet could not but be gay, In such a jocund company: I gazed---and gazed---but little thought What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude; And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils.

--William Wordsworth

1. What is the speaker’s mood at the beginning of the poem>

2. As the speaker wanders, what does he see “all at once”?

3. How does the speaker’s mood change that day because of what he sees?

4. How does the memory of what he saw affect him later?

5. What simile does the speaker use to describe his loneliness?

6. For this question, write out the 1st line of the poem. Mark the meter. Tell the rhyme scheme of the entire poem.

Before reading the next poem, read page 461 in the purple book. The Courage That My Mother Had

The courage that my mother had Went with her, and is with her still: Rock from New England quarried; Now granite in a granite hill. The golden brooch my mother wore She left behind for me to wear; I have no thing I treasure more: Yet, it is something I could spare. Oh, if instead she’d left to me The thing she took into the grave!— That courage like a rock, which she Has no more need of, and I have. --Edna St. Vincent Millay 1. What has the mother left her daughter?

2. Where is the mother now?

3. What does the daughter wish her mother had left her?

4. What metaphor in line 3, later expressed as a simile in line 11, does Millay use to describe her mother’s courage? What does her comparison suggest to you about Millay’s view of courage>

5. Like all lyric poems, this one expresses a strong emotion. How would you describe this feeling?

6. Describe the rhyme scheme in this poem using letters from the alphabet to indicate end rhyme. Which pairs of words are approximate rhymes?