Teaching Two poems, I'm Nobody and Poetry

Literature 11^th grade

 I. Voice

In the study of literature we learn to look for the “voice,” the person who is speaking to us out of the text, giving a personal expression and point of view.  If we find and understand this “voice” we can identify with the person, ideas and issues more easily.  Sometimes the “voice” appears in the first person, or “speaker,” at other times it appears through a secondary character or characters.

II I’m nobody! Who are you?

By Emily Dickinson

I’m nobody! Who are you?

Are you nobody, too?

Then there is a pair of us, you know

How dreary to be somebody

How public, like a frog

To tell your name the livelong day

To an admiring bog!

1. What is the voice of this poem? _________________________________

2. To whom is the poet speaking? _________________________________

3. What is the message of this poem? ______________________________

4. Write your own poem on the same theme:

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Poetry by Hezy Lesky

Poetry must stand and talk

Stand on a broken washing machine and talk

In the language of the sock

that caused it to break down.

Poetry must stand on the window ledge and talk

in the language of those who stare out window ledges.

Poetry must dance,

and squeak in the language of the mouse alarmed

by the exaggerated delicacy of the dance.

Poetry must knock on the door

Sweetly or wildly.

Not touching the bell.

Poetry must visit Barcelona and talk English there.

Poetry mush rest, above all it must rest.

Poetry does not have to be poetry.

It can be nourishment that talks.

Poetry can be jam.

That is to say a dead and tasty fruit.

Poetry can be saccharine

that is to say and  artificial and cancerous sweetner.

Poetry can build

residential flats

a hospital

a school

a prison

a synagogue

but it prefers

to discover

a well of milk in the middle of the city.

Poetry must sleep, sleep and dream of poetry.

Poetry must lie, lie and talk while

asleep

Poetry must be buried

In the earth

And talk in the language of the dead.

Poetry must care for sick  . . .

Poetry must live.

           

1. What is poetry according to this poem?

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2. Who is speaking in this poem?

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3. What is unusual about this poem?

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4.  Pick a subject from the poem and write your own poem about it.

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