Big Idea Overview and Resources
Part 1: The Energy of the Everyday
Part 2: Loves and Losses
Part 3: Issues of Identity
Part 1: The Energy of the Everyday
Overview
The poets in Part 1 express their wonder of the world and ordinary occurrences. These poems compel readers to pause and observe familiar objects, experiences, and places that often go unnoticed. Some of the poems invite readers to contemplate the larger, more philosophical issues that people confront daily, such as the meaning of life and death. These poems help readers look at their surroundings and experiences through different lenses.
Poets manipulate words, rhythms, and sounds to enhance the meanings they wish to convey. For example, the rhythm is heightened by the meter, in which certain syllables of a word are stressed or unstressed. Some poets like to follow traditional forms, such as haikus, tankas, and sonnets, to structure their poems. Others break from convention to write free verse, or poetry that does not have a set pattern of meter and rhyme.
Web Resources
Critical Reading: A Guide
http://www.brocku.ca/english/jlye/criticalreading.html
This website instructs students on how to analyze a poem.
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Part 2: Loves and Losses
Overview
Love has the power to elevate people to the greatest heights and then plunge them to the lowest depths. People who experience the loss of loved one may also experience the conflicting feelings of grief. The poets in Part 2 express a wide range of emotions related to both love and loss. These poets creatively use language to intensify feelings they wish to convey to readers. For example, poets use imagery, or “word pictures,” to appeal to the senses and figurative language, such as similes and metaphors, to make striking and original comparisons.
Web Resources
Tips for Teaching Poetry
http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/85
This Web site from The Academy of American Poets offers some clever suggestions for making poetry come alive in the classroom.
A Guide to Grief
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/onourownterms/articles/grief.html
This Web site article describes the complex experience of grief—“a reaction to loss.”
Notes on Imagery
http://homepages.wmich.edu/~cooneys/tchg/lit/adv/imagery.html
This Web site distinguishes the different between explicit and implicit imagery in poetry.
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Part 3: Issues of Identity
Overview
The poets in Part 3 address issues of identity—both personal and cultural. Some of the poets describe influences that help shape identity and challenge readers to reflect on unfair judgments of another person’s identity. The poets choose words not only to communicate ideas that comment on these issues but also to create a distinct sound that heightens the meaning and emotional impact of the poems.
The use of sound devices gives poetry a musical quality. For example, a poem’s rhythm—the beats and stresses of the words in each line—often echoes its sense, or meaning. Poets use onomatopoeia to make words or phrases mimic the sound of the word they are describing.
Web Resources
The Singing
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/entertainment/july-dec03/williams_11-24.html
Poet C. K. Williams, a National Book Award winner, discusses the music of poetry in this online transcript of a PBS interview.
A Brief Guide to Jazz Poetry
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5660
This article from the American Academy of Poets Web site defines jazz poetry as literary genre and includes links for further reading.
The New Americans
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/newamericans/index.html
This Web site provides information about recent immigrants who have discovered their new identity as Americans in the twenty-first century.
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Literature
