Undressing Poets Table of Contents
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Student Poems Inspired by Taking Off Emily Dickinson’s Clothes! by Billy Collins “Undressing” (or Whatever) a Poet This assignment asks students to “undress” their poet as Billy Collins does in his poem, “Taking Off Emily Dickinson’s Clothes.” In that poem, Collins uses the suggestive metaphor as an extended metaphor for getting to know a poet well, i.e. to get intimate with a poet. After I read the poem aloud as provocatively as I can, I tease them about how they must have misunderstood Billy, since he has such respect for Emily, he would never really undress her in public, but… As a culminating activity for their own Poet Research Project, I ask students to write a similar poem to express their own familiarity with their poet. I suggest that the best poems will reference works by the poet and might even go so far as to imitate the style of their poet as an homage. I require them to submit a digital version of the poem, as well as an illustrated print copy, and to present the poem aloud to the class. Then I run off all the poems and bind them in a class anthology that the librarian catalogues and keeps for future reference. Following you will find the title page for a student anthology of poems inspired by the assignment and the handout itself, based on a page on my website from the Poem-a-Day links for National Poetry Month. from MsEffie’s LifeSavers Poem-a-Day National Poetry Month Assignments http://homepage.mac.com/mseffie/assignments/poem-a-day/daily.html The Poet Research Project can also be found on my website – http://homepage.mac.com/mseffie/assignments/research_paper/sophomorepaper.html Though more appropriate to Literature than Language, Collins’s poem is a great one to approach rhetorically, because of its humor and style. Taking Off Emily Dickinson’s Clothes! by Billy Collins First, her tippet made of tulle, easily lifted off her shoulders and laid on the back of a wooden chair. And her bonnet, 5 the bow undone with a light forward pull. Then the long white dress, a more complicated matter with mother-of-pearl buttons down the back, so tiny and numerous that it takes forever 10 before my hands can part the fabric, like a swimmer’s dividing water, and slip inside. You will want to know that she was standing 15 by an open window in an upstairs bedroom, motionless, a little wide-eyed, looking out at the orchard below, the white dress puddled at her feet on the wide-board, hardwood floor. 20 The complexity of women’s undergarments in nineteenth-century America is not to be waved off, and I proceeded like a polar explorer through clips, clasps, and moorings, 25 catches, straps, and whalebone stays, sailing toward the iceberg of her nakedness. Later, I wrote in a notebook it was like riding a swan into the night, but, of course, I cannot tell you everything-- 30 the way she closed her eyes to the orchard, Your Turn: It’s your turn to get how her hair tumbled free of its pins, intimate with a poet. Pick how there were sudden dashes whenever we spoke. someone whose poetry inspires you and “undress” them. Or What I can tell you is dress them, or take them for a 35 it was terribly quiet in Amherst walk, have tea, go shopping – that Sabbath afternoon, nothing but a carriage passing the house, whatever metaphor works best a fly buzzing in a windowpane. for getting to know your poet. So I could plainly hear her inhale 40 when I undid the very top hook-and-eye fastener of her corset and I could hear her sigh when finally it was unloosed, the way some readers sigh when they realize that Hope has feathers, 45 that reason is a plank, that life is a loaded gun that looks right at you with a yellow eye. from MsEffie’s LifeSavers Poem-a-Day National Poetry Month Assignments http://homepage.mac.com/mseffie/assignments/poem-a-day/daily.html Undressing Poets Table of Contents A Walk with Ms. Alexander Grace Castillo 1 Dancing with Maya Angelou Allie Dodson 2 Rising Phenomenally with Maya Angelou Melanie Theodore 3 Dressing Maya Angelou Katie Boecking 4 At a Doctor’s Appointment with Elizabeth Bishop Hannah Govett 5 At the Coffeehouse with Gwendolyn Brooks Andrew Head 6 Words with Brooks Zach Barreto 7 A Carriage Ride in Italy with Elizabeth Barrett Browning Margo Borders 8 Meeting Elizabeth Barrett Browning Lizzy Schrantz 9 Coffee with Lord Byron Emma Roberts 10 Car Ride with Buck Donovan Moisant 11 Contents of Lewis Carroll’s Coat Kennedy Goetzinger 12 Into Wonderland with Lewis Carroll Katie Hogsett 13 Agreeing with the Logic of Billy Collins Romina Fears 14 A Hamburger with Billy Collins Maddie Reddick 15 At the Races with Billy Collins Joe Webber 16 Sitting on a Park Bench with Billy Collins Making Fun of Life Armando Melendez 17 Billy’s Backyard Grant Martin 18 Undressing Stephen Crane Brandon Ngo 19 Sunday Mass with Stephen Crane Hayden Bryan 20 painting with e e cummings tendai dandajena 21 riding in-a car with e e cummings elyse hight 22 Watching Dante Write Renee DuVall 23 Exploring the Garden with Emily Dickinson Emily Borders 24 Gardening with Emily Dickinson Sally Harper 25 A Walk in the Fields with Paul Laurence Dunbar Joe Edmonds 26 Packing for a Trip to England with T. S. Eliot Jessica Brewer 27 A Journey with T. S. Eliot Meg Sine 28 Tea and Cigars with T. S. Eliot Chip Daniel 29 Tea with Eliot Molly Kalk 30 The Autumn Trail Maddie Farber 31 Taking a Walk with Robert Frost Scott Witcher 32 Taking a Walk with Robert Frost Cody Coyle 33 Strolling with Robert Frost Kendall Morgan 34 Hanging with Hayden Amanda Broussard 35 A Jazz Concert with Langston Stephanie Milligan 36 Wake Up Langston William Heitert 37 Singing with Langston Hughes Emily Bedford 38 Dinner with James Joyce David Hill 39 Tea with John Keats Jake Harrell 40 A Walk with Yusef Komunyakaa Aidan Reap 41 A Train Ride with Philip Levine Nathan Smith 42 A Day Shopping with Edna St. Vincent Millay Francie Trimble 43 Eating Dinner with Pablo Neruda Samuel Nevinger 44 Traveling with Pablo Neruda Megan Noble 45 Running Away with Mary Oliver RaeAnn Stark 46 By Ovid’s So Potent Art Kerstin Brooks 47 Cooking with Sylvia Plath Tamara Allen 48 “Wet Towels and Cloths” – Last Days with Sylvia Rachel Rengstorf 49 Breakfast with Sylvia Carrie Carter 50 Is This the Suicide Hotline? Bobby Thomas 51 Hunting with Edgar Allan Poe Alex Burnstein 52 In the Asylum with Edgar Allan Poe Sean Salas 53 Sippin’ with Edgar Allan Poe Corey Priest 54 Helping Edgar Bury a Man He Killed Derrick Nguyen 55 A Planer Trip with Ezra Pound Vivian O’Hara 56 A Flight with Rilke Olivia Morris 57 Writing Our Masterpiece with Robert Service Sean Murray 58 On a Cruise with Wallace Stevens Paul Rosencrans 59 A Walk through the Park with Wislawa Marissa Juarez 60 Undressing Sara Teasdale Lauren Zimmerman 61 Spending Midnight with Dylan Thomas Casey Barth 62 A Duet with Tolkien Caleb Hughes 63 Walking with Walt Whitman Bronte Yardley 64 Taking a Walk in Nature with Oscar Wilde Brandon Nguyen 65 In Gaol with Oscar Wilde Rebecca Smith 66 Going to Jail with Oscar Wilde Nate Yokell 67 Sitting in the Garden with William Carlos Williams Allie Mattson 68 Gone Fishing with William Wordsworth Melissa Doan 69 A Walk through the Woods with William Wordsworth Grace Aguilera 70 Walking in the Woods with William Wordsworth MaryAnn Grover 71 A Walk with Ms. Alexander* by Grace Castillo After dinner we like to take a walk. We step outside into the dusk And fill our lungs with summer’s air. The sky is turning from blue to orange to purple, Entertaining our wandering eyes. I feel the grass beneath my feet And the breeze flowing through my hair. We walk from my house And into the open field that you can see from miles around. Surrounding the field is a small fence. I sit on top of it and look around. There we stop to talk, Talk about the day, About the night, About the sky. We talk about our past, About our dreams Of who we will become, What is hidden behind our eyes. There are stories to be told -- The open field behind my house Knows everything about us, And if wild flowers could talk, I suspect They could hold conversations with us And tell us what they think. We walk in the field, sit upon the fence, Feeling the night come down upon us. This is how I have come to know, Ms. Alexander *Elizabeth Alexander 1 Dancing with Maya Angelou by Allie Dodson She walks into the studio, And I am instantly intimidated. This phenomenal, strong, and cultured woman… Teaching me how to dance. She takes off her shawl, And her strong shoulders are revealed. She stands strong, her shoulders back. Her head is held high, and she looks infinite. She opens her mouth to cue the music, her voice was so kind. But I could hear the sterness that lies under her tongue. Her eyes look over at me, shaking in her presence, “Don’t be nervous. Just be free.” Ah, making a reference to her work. She stays true to her word. The strong beats of a drum come upon the speakers. Maya walks to middle of the studio.