Aim: How can we use the poem, “This is Just to Say” by William Carlos Williams as inspiration for own poems?
Do Now: WHOLE CLASS DISCUSSION
Describe a time when you or someone you know did something that was “technically wrong” and you should have felt sorry for it but you didn’t.
For today’s lesson, we started with the Do Now by sharing our own experiences as a class that answers the prompt given above. For example, Kelly shared how she once was so enraged with her brother that she cut up his homework. However, she later taped it back together and no one knew. Ms. Peterson also shared one time that her cousin did something wrong but didn’t feel sorry for what she did. It was about her cousin Kristy and how she borrowed her sister’s brand new sweater to go to a party. Ultimately, when Kristy came home, Kelly’s brand new sweater was destroyed. This led to an argument and an apology followed. However, Kristy wasn’t really sorry since she was back in Kelly’s closet a few days later to borrow something else. This idea of “sorry not sorry” is apparent throughout today’s lesson.
After the Do Now, we moved on to reading “This Is Just To Say” by William Carlos Williams.
William Carlos Williams wrote a quick note to his wife one morning, a 'passing gesture', and stuck it on the refrigerator before heading off to work. The note turned out to be a very short poem, “This Is Just To Say” and became one of his most popular creations when it was published in 1934.
The poem takes about 20 seconds to recite, has no regular rhythm or syllabic count, no rhyme, and lacks any punctuation, other than line-breaks. It is true to the poetic philosophy that Williams championed -- away with convention, free the line, write poems about anything, be local, be American, no ideas but in things.
The idea of the “but statement” is clearly demonstrated in this poem. The person describes what they did and asks for forgiveness, but also justifies their actions. In this case, the author eats the plums and asks for forgiveness but also adds he ate them because they were delicious.
Next, we had 3 spirit readers read some variations of the poem by William Carlos Williams.
Your turn poem challenge
We then moved on to creating our own “This is Just to Say” poems. We had 5 minutes to create as many poems as we could that reflected the concept. In addition, the person that comes up with the most was able to win 25 points for their team!
NOTE: Keep in mind that it does not need to match the same number of lines, just the concept.
One of the poems I wrote was
Thank you for lending me your pencil
It was very considerate of you
Forgive me for I have lost it
It was small and easy to forget
After the time was up, the person who created the most poems shared them with the class. One poem I liked that Kaitlyn wrote was
I plagiarized my last essay
Forgive for I didn’t feel like doing work
And Grammarly was no help
Using Imagery in Poetry
We went over using imagery in poetry, which was previously taught to us. Since images carry feelings, using images while writing poems can create an experience that allows others to feel what we feel and what we are trying to communicate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxASvORGoG4&ab_channel=TheRedRoomCompany
Here’s the video that we watched to get a deeper understanding of what imagery is.
Overall, the key takeaway of the video was that imagery is the use of our senses to create a description of an experience that can be communicated to others. In fact, we actually did this in our “Pizza Activity” when we first started this class.
Here is an additional video explaining what imagery is!
Imagery in Poetry
We had more spirit readers read these poems that incorporate imagery.
the clouds collapsed,
they’re touching the ground
trying to come alive,
but they can’t.
Images from a landscape are used to indicate hopelessness
My heart was warm,
Like the swelling waters of the ocean,
Just basking in the first rays of morning sun
Natural images (ocean and sun) are used to express joyfulness
I felt the end of something great,
Like when you take the last bite of birthday cake,
And all that’s left is a few powdery crumbs on your frosting streaked dish
Images of birthday cake are used to create feelings of melancholy and sadness
“Fast Break” by Edward Hirsch
A hook shot kisses the rim and
hangs there, helplessly, but doesn’t drop,
and for once our gangly starting center
boxes out his man and times his jump
perfectly, gathering the orange leather
from the air like a cherished possession
and spinning around to throw a strike
to the outlet who is already shoveling
an underhand pass toward the other guard
scissoring past a flat-footed defender
who looks stunned and nailed to the floor
in the wrong direction, trying to catch sight
of a high, gliding dribble and a man
letting the play develop in front of him
in slow motion, almost exactly
like a coach’s drawing on the blackboard,
both forwards racing down the court
the way that forwards should, fanning out
and filling the lanes in tandem, moving
together as brothers passing the ball
between them without a dribble, without
a single bounce hitting the hardwood
until the guard finally lunges out
and commits to the wrong man
while the power-forward explodes past them
in a fury, taking the ball into the air
by himself now and laying it gently
against the glass for a lay-up,
but losing his balance in the process,
inexplicably falling, hitting the floor
with a wild, headlong motion
for the game he loved like a country
and swiveling back to see an orange blur
floating perfectly through the net.
After reading, we discussed the structure of this poem. Justin mentioned how it’s one long sentenced broken down into stanzas with one period in the very end of the poem. Randy also mentioned how the poem depicts teamwork and how they are working together towards one goal, getting the ball to swoosh perfectly through the net.
Stanzas= a grouped set of lines that are separated by blank lines in poetry.
Annotations
We split into our respective groups to compare the literary devices we found while annotating and complete the “Fast Break Poem Analysis” chart.
Fast Break Poem Analysis
Now, use the chart below to record your findings
First, identify 2 literary devices/techniques you found from your annotations, and explain how they are being used.
Second, identify 1-2 examples of imagery you found from your annotations, and provide your analysis to the connection of the main theme.
In my group, one example that was mentioned was in stanza 3, “gathering the orange leather from the air like a cherished possession” This is an example of a simile being used to compare the basketball to a cherished possession.
Once the 5 minutes was up, we returned back to the main session and shared our groups findings. For instance, Kelly shared their finding of a literary technique in the third stanza. This was also one of the examples of literary elements my group previously discussed. Another example discussed was in the first stanza, shared by Randy. It reads, “A hook shot kisses the rim and hangs there, helplessly, but doesn’t drop,” This is an example of personification describing how the ball barely misses. Cody also added that alliteration is being used. Lastly, Karis provided an example of imagery which was in stanza 8, “in slow motion, almost exactly like a coach’s drawing on the blackboard,” It’s imagery that sets the scene and makes it dramatic or suspenseful. This reiterates the idea that the team is working together in order to win.
Homework
For homework, we had to create our 1st Anthology Poem. The instructions are included below.
1st Anthology Pastime Poem Homework
Using the document provided, write a poem about a pastime (something you do to pass the time, a regular activity for enjoyment you feel passionate about).
Structure your poem as free verse (poetry without a fixed pattern or rhyme), but consider how you want to divide your lines (meaning stanzas).
Choose precise words (diction).
Consider imagery and other devices (metaphor, musical sounds, simile, etc.)
Your poem should be at least 20 lines long.
You Must create a Title, which reflects the topic of your poem.
AND you MUST include a corresponding image or piece of artwork.
Aim: How has poetic expression evolved in the 21st century?
Do Now: TEAM DISCUSSION
With your TEAMS discuss the following; Do you believe technology and the 21st century are ruining literature as we know it? Why or why not?
For this second lesson, the Do Now was a quick discussion of whether technology and the 21st century is ruining literature. Justin said that technology is not destroying technology but rather changing it. For example, reading or writing online using technology. However, Zihan said that as technology advances, more people are prevented from going outside and are more focused on the technology itself.
'Micropoet' Rupi Kaur nourishes readers
with Milk and Honey
Here is a video that Ms. Peterson included if anyone is interested. It’s an interview of Rupi Kaur with Jimmy Fallon.
Where can we find poetry?
Key takeaway: we are surrounded by poetry. It’s in our everyday lives.
For example, Instagram, Twitter, and Song Lyrics.
Epic Poetry: A genre of classical poetry; a long narrative poem that is usually about heroic deeds and events that are significant to the culture of the poet.
We then had a spirit readers read about Micropoetry.
Micropoetry: Micropoetry is a genre of poetic verse which is characterized by its extreme brevity. In other words, a micropoem is a short poem.
Micropoetry is a collective term for a variety of different forms of short poetry. As a poetic artform, it doesn’t really have any rules. Although it does consist of certain forms of short poetry with fixed rules such as haiku, tanka, senryu and gogyohka. There are also no real character length limitations either. The limits are set by the medium with which they are being shared, and also that invisible line where micropoetry becomes a regular length poem. This is why the majority of poems are less than 140 characters (twitter limit), with a maximum of 160 characters (mobile phone limit).
Micropoem Challenge
The last thing we did for this lesson was to create a poem. We had two choices to choose from.
For Twitter: only 280 characters
(challenge mode: 140 characters for original Twitter restrictions)
OR For Instagram: in a design format (short & concise, relatable for your audience)
(challenge mode: try to make it aesthetically pleasing or intriguing, appropriate for Instagram) about 1 of the following topics:
#highschool #freshmanyear #teenagelife
The poem I came up with was for instagram under the hashtag #highschool
Reflection
In these two lessons, I learned the importance of imagery and other literary elements in poetry as well as where poetry can be found. In the first lesson, we read “This Is Just To Say” by William Carlos Williams and even created some of our own poems inspired by it.This served as a good way for us to grasp the idea of the “but statement.” Later in the lesson, I learned how essential imagery was in poetry. Imagery is the use of descriptive language that awakens our senses. In poetry, imagery can be used to further vividly describe our ideas and emotions to create an experience that allows the readers to understand what we feel. This was shown in the poem “Fast Break” by Edward Hirsch. In the second lesson, I learned that poetry can be surprisingly found in our everyday lives. In social media and even in music, just how the examples show. Additionally, the lesson taught me other terms, epic poetry and micropoetry, and what they were. Overall, I will apply what I learned today in my own poetry going forward. Furthermore, applying this knowledge can strengthen my own poems.
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