Getting Dressed for School

by Kenn Nesbitt

---

I must have been too sleepy
getting dressed for school today.
I tried to tuck my shirt in,
but I couldn’t make it stay.

I also couldn’t tie my shoes.
I fumbled with the laces.
I snagged my scarf, and now some yarn
is dangling from my braces.

My socks are different colors,
and my pants are inside out.
My sweater from the hamper left me
smelling like a trout.

I thought I put a hat on
to control my crazy hair.
The hat turned out to be a pair
of purple underwear.

I spilled my breakfast on my clothes
and headed into school.
My friends, of course, were all impressed.
I’d never looked so cool.

Add another stanza before the last stanza, that would fit this poem.

The Summer Day

Mary Oliver

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

What images and thoughts come to mind when you read the above poem?

“Do You Have Any Advice For Those of Us Just Starting Out?"

Ron Koertge

Give up sitting dutifully at your desk. Leave
your house or apartment. Go out into the world.
It's all right to carry a notebook but a cheap
one is best, with pages the color of weak tea
and on the front a kitten or a space ship.
Avoid any enclosed space where more than
three people are wearing turtlenecks. Beware
any snow-covered chalet with deer tracks
across the muffled tennis courts.
Not surprisingly, libraries are a good place to write.
And the perfect place in a library is near an aisle
where a child a year or two old is playing as his
mother browses the ranks of the dead.
Often he will pull books from the bottom shelf.
The title, the author's name, the brooding photo
on the flap mean nothing. Red book on black, gray
book on brown, he builds a tower. And the higher
it gets, the wider he grins.
You who asked for advice, listen: When the tower
falls, be like that child. Laugh so loud everybody
in the world frowns and says, "Shhhh."
Then start again.

What is your opinion of the messages in this poem?

Introduction to Poetry

Billy Collins

I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide
or press an ear against its hive.
I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,
or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.
I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.
But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.

What is the poet saying in this poem?  Use examples from the poem in your explanation.  Do you agree with the poet?

Casey At The Bat

What techniques does the poet use? Provide examples from the poem.

The Black Eyed Peas - Where Is The Love?

Watch the above video. What poetic devices song the song use?

Poetic Devices in Songs

Use the above video to help with your music assignment. Which poetic device do you think is most important in a song and why?