We did a double lesson today, and the meeting was earlier because Mrs. Peterson had professional development in the afternoon.
Aim: How can we use the poem, “This is Just to Say” by William Carlos Williams as inspiration for our own poems?
Do Now: 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.
My classmate Kelly started the conversation, recalling the time she had ripped up her brother’s homework in a fit of rage. She said she taped it back up, and the problem was resolved; however, she was not too sorry. Mrs. Peterson jumped in to answer the do-now, describing how her cousin Kristy, during her teen years, always borrowed her other cousin Kelly’s(who is around 5 years older) clothes, and always managed to destroy the clothes. Mrs. Peterson went on, telling us about the time Kristy borrowed a cute sweater to a party, brought it back decimated, and hung it right back in Kelly’s closet. Kelly found out, Kristy gave a lukewarm apology, and a fight broke out. Mrs. Peterson’s uncle had to break up the fight, but his attempts were futile. After the event, Kristy still borrows Kelly’s clothes without permission, and often ruins it. This do-now share-out led right into our next activity, reading the poem “This is Just to Say”, by William Carlos Williams.
This Is Just To Say
By: William Carlos Williams
I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox
and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast
Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold
After reading the poem, our class looked closer into it. We noted how, while the poem was seemingly apologizing for eating someone’s plums, it had a “but” statement, justifying their mistake with an excuse. Mrs. Peterson told us how the poem was written by William Carlos Williams as a quick note stuck on a refrigerator for his wife before he went to work. We noted that the poem was free verse, meaning that the poem had no regular rhythm or syllabic count, no rhyme, and lacks any punctuation, other than line-breaks.
Before reading a poem inspired by “This is Just to Say”, we should talk more about the author himself, William Carlos William. He was born on September 17, 1883, in Rutherford, New Jersey. His father was English, and his mother was a Puerto Rican of French, Dutch, Spanish, and Jewish descent.(Picture on the left: William Carlos Williams, the right: Williams’ house in New Jersey.)
He started writing poetry in Horace Mann High School, and decided he wanted to become both a doctor and writer. He went to the University of Pennsylvania for a MD; it is also the place he first met his friend, Ezra Pound. (Pictures from left to right, top to bottom: Horace Mann High School, University of Pennsylvania campus, Ezra Pound.)
Proud was a big influence for Williams’ writing. In fact, he arranged the publication of Williams’ second collection “The Tempers” in London, in 1913. After that, Williams went back to Rutherford, continuing his medical practice while pursuing another career as a poet, novelist, essayist, and playwright.(The picture below is 1 of the 1000 first editions of “The Tempers”, Watkinson Library in a small, royal blue box. It is quite small, only 4½ inches long.)
He was one of the main poets in the imagist movement, along with his friend Pound. Later on, Williams gradually drifted from Pound’s values in his work, as he thought they were too European. He invented new techniques of meter and lineation, which were radical, and represented American values. His poems were mostly about the daily lives of common people. During the 1920s and 1930s, his work was overshadowed by T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land”; during the 1950s and 1960s, Williams’ work was increasingly popular, as younger poets admired his straightforward diction and his frankness as a mentor. His health began to decline in 1948, after a heart attack and a series of strokes, but he kept writing until he died on March 4, 1963, in New Jersey. You can find out more about William Carlos Williams and read some of his poems here and here.
As previously mentioned, after we finished reading Williams’ poem “This is Just to Say”, we read a poem that was inspired by this poem. It is called “Variations on a Theme by William Carlos Williams”, by Kenneth Koch.
Variations on a Theme by William Carlos Williams
By: Kenneth Koch
1
I chopped down the house that you had been saving to live in next summer.
I am sorry, but it was morning, and I had nothing to do
and its wooden beams were so inviting.
2
We laughed at the hollyhocks together
and then I sprayed them with lye.
Forgive me. I simply do not know what I am doing.
3
I gave away the money that you had been saving to live on for the next ten years.
The man who asked for it was shabby
and the firm March wind on the porch was so juicy and cold.
4
Last evening we went dancing and I broke your leg.
Forgive me. I was clumsy and
I wanted you here in the wards, where I am the doctor!
(The picture above is Kenneth Koch.) After reading the poem, Mrs. Peterson challenged us to write as many poems in this “backhanded apology” format in 5 minutes. I wrote one about eating somebody’s pie, waking someone up abruptly, and going to a dinner party uninvited. My classmate Kaitlyn wrote the most poems- 6. She wrote about plagiarism and leaking social security numbers, just to name a few.
After writing these free verse poems, we talked about using imagery in poetry. The word “imagination” comes from the word “image” and the word “image” comes from the Latin word “imago”, which means “picture”. When using imagery, we are describing our feelings, as the writer, to the readers, through the five senses: touch, sight, hearing, smell and taste. We create a simulation with our words, stimulating the reader’s mind with feelings. Imagery is not just, “I feel happy today”, or “The sky is blue”, or “Chocolate chip cookies are sweet”, or “The motorcycle is loud”. These phrases only simply observe the surroundings, and don’t have much impact on the reader. We watched a video by The Red Room Company about using imagery as a poetic device in class; I highly recommend watching it.
Here are some examples of poems that we read in class that incorporate imagery:
the clouds collapsed,
they’re touching the ground
trying to come alive,
but they can’t.
This poem uses the clouds in a landscape to convey hopelessness. The clouds are personified, “falling” to the ground and struggling to get back up into the sky.
My heart was warm,
Like the swelling waters of the ocean,
Just basking in the first rays of morning sun
This poem uses the sun and sea to communicate joyfulness to the reader. The writer compares their joy to a sunrise over an ocean, making a connection between the writer’s figurative warmth, and the ocean’s literal warmth.
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
This poem uses the last slice of a birthday cake to demonstrate feelings of melancholy and sadness. The imagery of the eaten slice of cake is something many can relate to; the poem could also be interpreted the other way around, where you are the person who took the last slice of cake, making the other person disheartened.
As you can see in the examples above, imagery makes the poem’s world relatable to the reader, through many different techniques. It could be personification, a comparison, or a situation, just to name a few. The imagery makes the reader feel certain emotions, such as joy, melancholy, rage, fear, and many other feelings. The poem does not directly tell the reader what they are supposed to feel. Instead, it describes the feeling by creating an image with specific words, that is related and/or connected to the feeling. This video does a great job of explaining what imagery is, how to use it, and additional practice.
After learning about the use of imagery in poetry, we read the poem “Fast Break”, by Edward Hirsch. A fast break in an offensive strategy in basketball, where a team tries to move the ball into scoring position as fast as possible, so the defensive team does not have enough time to get into their positions, and are then outnumbered by the offensive team. Hirsch wrote the poem in honor of his friend, Dennis Turner, who loved playing basketball in college. His friend died in 1984, while he was serving the military. The last image in the poem, "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” could be a reference to his death.
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.
(The pictures below, left to right: a fast break, Edward Hirsch.)
After reading the poem, Mrs. Peterson asked us to identify 2 literary devices and/or techniques used in the poem and their purpose, and 1-2 examples of imagery and their connection to the theme of the poem. We were split up into our respective groups to discuss. My group identified personification and alliteration in the first line that was used to show the ball barely missing, almost in the hoop. We also noticed that the third stanza used a simile to compare the ball to a cherished possession. The other groups mentioned how the poem was one long sentence, broken up into two-line long stanzas, showing the urgency and flow of the fast break. For imagery, my group pointed out the imagery in 6th line showing how the team worked together to confuse a defender, and the imagery throughout the poem describing the team’s precise movements. The other groups mentioned how the imagery of the coach writing on the blackboard made the scene seem like slow-motion.
Aim: How has poetic expression evolved in the 21st century?
Do now: Do you believe technology and the 21st century are ruining literature as we know it? Why or why not?
My classmate Justin took the opposition, claiming that technology was not destroying literature, but was actually helping it. He said that technology helped spread literature, by giving more people access to more literature. Zihan took the proposition, claiming that literature was being destroyed by technology. He stated that since technology has a lot more than literature, younger audiences(kids) can easily be distracted, and not only focus on the literature.
After the debate, Mrs. Peterson introduced us to Rupi Kaur, a micropoet.(The picture below is Rupi Kaur, holding her bestselling book, “milk and honey”.)
Rupi Kaur was born in Punjab on October 4, 1992, and immigrated to Canada at the age of 4. She did not know how to speak English, so she did not have many friends. Instead, she read books. She also started to draw, paint, and write poetry at that time. In fact, all the drawings in her books are done by herself! She went to the Turner Fenton Secondary School, and graduated from the University of Waterloo with a BA, studying rhetoric and professional writing.(Pictures below, from left to right:Turner Fenton Secondary School, University of Waterloo campus.)
Kaur self-published her first poem anthology, “milk and honey” in 2014, because she had a growing audience of readers, but no publishers willing to publish her book. The fact that she was attending university at the time too is incredible. To add on, she started sharing her work under her name on her Instagram account during this time as well.
Her latest book is “Home Body”, which she wrote in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. She has been on the New York Times Best Sellers list for more than a year, and “milk and honey” has sold more than 3 million copies, as well as translated in 25 languages. She writes in lowercase and only uses periods as punctuation as a way to honor the Gurmukhi script, and because she likes the equality of letters. Kaur also performs live, going on tour around the country to read her poems.
Here are some of her poems from “milk and honey” that we read in class:
For more information about Rupi Kuar and her poems, you can visit her website. She also went on The Tonight Show, where she talks more about her journey as a writer, and reads “timeless”, a poem from her poetry anthology “the sun and her flowers”. Additionally, SimonSchusterUK did an interview with Kaur, and asked her to read a few of her poems from “the sun and her flowers” and “milk and honey”; here is the playlist.
After reading Rupi Kaur’s poems, Mrs. Peterson asked us where we could find poetry. She showed us that we see and hear poetry in our everyday lives: it was in social media posts, and it was in the music we listen to. As mentioned before, Rupi Kaur posts her poems on Instagram. Here is an example on Twitter. Ariana Grande’s “Thank U, Next” has some pretty poetic lyrics: “One taught me love, one taught me patience, one taught me pain, now I’m so amazing.” Drake’s song “Look What You've Done” is another example: “You love me, and I love you. Your head hurts, mine does too. And it’s just words and they cut deep but it’s our world, it’s just us two.”
We then talked about the oldest form of poetry, epic poetry. Epic poetry is defined as a long narrative poem that is usually about heroic deeds and events that are significant to the culture of the poet. Mrs. Peterson asked us what the oldest surviving poem was. My classmate James answered correctly with the “Epic of Gilgamesh”. It was written in 2100 BC, in ancient Mesopotamia on a series of 12 tablets(that are incomplete). The epic follows the journey of Gilgamesh, who was part divine and part human, the great builder and warrior, knower of all things on land and sea. You can learn more about the epic here, and read it yourself here. (The picture below is Gilgamesh holding a lion.)
After learning about epic poetry, Mrs. Peterson told us about a more recent form of poetry: micropoetry. Micropoetry is characterized by its extreme brevity. In other words, a micropoem is a short poem. There are no concrete rules for writing micropoetry, but there are forms of micropoetry that have fixed rules, like haikus, tankas, senryus and gogyohka(these are all Japanese). There is a character limit, depending on which medium is used to write the poem: for Twitter, it is 280 characters(used to be 140), and for mobile phones, it is 160 characters. After explaining this to us, Mrs. Peterson had us each write a micropoem, following the Twitter criteria, or Instagram criteria(short & concise, relatable for your audience), with a challenge mode for each: for Twitter, following the original character limit, and for Instagram making it aesthetically pleasing or intriguing, appropriate about one of the three topics: #highschool, #freshmanyear, #teenagelife. I followed the Twitter challenge mode criteria, and wrote about ice cream. Here is my poem:
Ice cream
Delicious, refreshing
You can have it
In many flavors
Vanilla, chocolate, strawberry
And more
Eat it
In a cup
Or a cone
Reflection
In today’s lesson, I learned more about what imagery really is, how to use it in poetry, and a few different types of poems. I learned that imagery is not just simply stating a feeling, or describing an image. Imagery is describing the poem’s world to the reader, making them feel a certain way. I also learned that poetry is not all about length; rather, it is about meaning. You could write a 10-page long epic that is extremely dull and of little impact, or write a short 5 line micropoem that someone will remember forever. This is not said to insult long poems, of course; they can be very interesting and fulfilling to read as well. It was just one of my fears, that you have to write very long pieces of writing, in order for them to be considered well-written. The free-verse poems that we saw in class taught me that we don’t have to follow any specific format, or rules. That is why free-verse poetry is my favorite type of poetry. It can be whatever the writer wants it to be, as seen in the many poems above. Of course, structure poems are also splendid to read, and there are a variety of formats to choose from. This lesson has taught me that poems do not have to be boring, confusing, long, or follow a structure. Poems can be very direct, and yet not so direct that the writers just state their feelings. I will apply this knowledge to my future free-verse poetry, and writing in general. I will try to incorporate imagery, when I can, to strengthen my writing.
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