Poems

= Poems =

=**Title: //The Inferno//**=
 * Author:** Dante Alighieri
 * Genre:** Narrative/Epic poem, Allegory
 * Lexile:** 1270
 * Description:** //The Inferno// is the first poem in an epic trilogy, //The Divine Comedy//, where Dante journeys through the depths of Hell, the shores of Purgatory and finally reaches the gates of Heaven. //The Inferno// depicts Dante's passage through a dark wood where he meets his guide, the Roman poet Virgil, who takes him through the nine circles of the underworld where sinners are punished in ways symbolic to their crime. The seven deadly sins are graphically depicted in each circle through their equal punishments (i.e. eye for an eye) in a language rich with imagery and imagination. The poem ends in its 33rd canto with Dante and Virgil reaching Hell's icy center where Lucifer hangs upside-down and is used as a ladder for Dante and Virgil to reach the starry skies and begin their journey through Purgatorio.
 * Rationale:** Dante wrote //The Divine Comedy// during the 14th Century while in exile during the violent unrest of a Florentine governmental strife between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines, giving the poem deeper political and philosophical undertones. His mastery of language and storytelling are the foundations of the imagery produced while reading the poem; furthermore, the poem is rich with religious allegory, symbolism, mythology, God's will vs. free will, sin and punishment and so much more...

Dante's //Divine Comedy// has been widely represented by visual artists; specifically, Gustave Dore, Sandro Botticelli, and William Blake - [|HistoryofArt:Dante] [|Sandro Botticelli] [|William Blake Illustrations] Great Website: [|The World of Dante]

[|Danteworlds] [|Dartmouth Dante Project]

=**Title: //The Weary Blues//**= **Author**: Langston Huges **Genre**: Jazz Poetry
 * Description:** //The Weary Blues, written// in 1925, conveys the musical and poetic spirit of jazz and blues that flourished during the Harlem Renaissance. The poem is a beautiful representation of the creative bourgeoning that took place in response to base African-American social and racial conditions. Hughes uses folk diction to embody the bluesy disposition of the musician and the sentiment around him. The poem's rhythm, rhyme scheme, and repetition all work to emphasize its melody and tone.
 * Rationale:** Hughes was a prominent figure during the Harlem Renaissance and has remained a literary icon. // The Weary Blues // encourages discussion about music and poetry and how it is represented in modern day hip hop/rap. It also forces us to think about art as a revolutionary tool for social change and as a way to express and preserve culture.

Additional Resources: [|The Weary Blues] [|CabCalliway/TheWearyBluesVideo]

=**Title: //The Rime of the Ancient Mariner// (1798)** = **Author:** Samuel Taylor Coleridge **Genre:** Narrative Poetry**Description:** This is a long narrative poem that tells the story of an old sailor who goes on a disastrous ocean voyage. Everything that can go wrong does go wrong as there is a violent storm that blows the ship off-course towards Antarctica. An albatross arrives like a visitor from heaven and it leads the ship out of the icy waters. Just when the men are almost free and clear, the mariner raises a crossbow and shoots the auspicious bird out of the sky. The other sailors become enraged by the mariner and they make him wear the dead bird around his neck in shame. From that point on, everything gets even worse. The wind stops blowing. The ship stands still. The sailors die of thirst, and the mariner is left all alone with his guilt. J ust when you think things are as bad as they can get, the sailors all turn into zombies and the Grim Reaper shows up... **Themes :** Fate. Man vs. Nature. Justice. Guilt and Redemption. **Rationale: **//The Rime of the Ancient Mariner// is a visionary //tour de force//. It has some of the most disturbing imagery in the English language. The symbolism of the albatross is so powerful that if you look up that word in the dictionary, one of the definitions is “something burdensome that impedes action or progress.” That definition was born here in this poem. Coleridge’s story was so powerful that it changed the meaning of a common English word. This is a difficult poem, but it has an interesting plot, and there are some great illustrated editions for the media-savvy teachers out there. It’s an important piece of the Western canon, and--with a little scaffolding--high school students can both enjoy and understand it.

**Resources: ** [|The Art of the Ancient Mariner]: a QuestGarden by Josiah Shoup. This is a collection of work by numerous artists who have illustrated the Coleridge poem. The etchings by Gustave Dore are particularly evocative and scary. I created this QuestGarden as an exercise for students with highly developed visual intelligence. [|“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”] by Iron Maiden. This is a great thirteen-minute (yes!) song inspired by the Coleridge poem. Singer Bruce Dickinson does a wonderful job incorporating a few of Coleridge’s own lines into a coherent retelling of the story. The music is cheesy 80’s power-metal, but the song goes through some interesting shifts in tempo as the tone of the story itself changes. [|“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”]: a film directed by Larry Jordan, art by Gustave Dore, narration by Orson Welles. This is a film stitched together from the brilliant illustrations of the poem by Gustave Dore. There is some limited animation and a spooky soundtrack, but the best part is the icy narration by Orson Welles.

 =**Title: A Boy Named Sue (1969)** = <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left;">**Author:** Shel Silverstein <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left;">**Genre:** Americana <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left;">**Description:** //A Boy Named Sue// is poem written by Shel Silverstein in 1969 was made famous when sung by his long time friend Johnny Cash. In addition to writing some of the world’s best-loved children’s poetry he was also a prolific songwriter. The poem is about a boy who grows up angry with his father not only for leaving his family, but for naming him Sue. When the boy grows up, he sees his father in a bar and gets in a fight with him. After his father explains that he named him Sue to make sure he was tough, the son understands. <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left;">**Themes:** Right of passage, crisis, conflict and resolution <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left;">**Rationale:** Shel Silverstein wrote //A Boy Named// //Sue// using subversive, humorous lyrics that are accessible to many readers. His use of slang makes the poem come to life along with his vivid descriptions. Silverstein’s use of assonance throughout the poem adds color and keeps the readers interested. While reading //A Boy Named// //Sue//, one is able to envision the images line by line. Readers are capable of understanding where Sue’s hatred towards his father comes from and the reason he wants and attempts to “…kill that man that gave” him “that awful name”. A Boy Named Sue is a poem that portrays today’s society as a place where “…the world is rough / and if a man’s gonna make it, he’s gotta be tough.”

<span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left;"> **Resources** : <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left;">[|History of ABNS][|Listen to Shel Silverstein sing with Johnny Cash]

<span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left;"> <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left;">**Title: I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings (1969)** ~ (shiela) <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left;">**Author: Maya Angelou** <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left;">**Genre: Autobiography, Drama** <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left;">**Lexile Level: 1070** <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left;">**Description:** //I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings// in addition to being a powerful, vivid poem begins the first—and many say the best—of five autobiographical volumes the gifted African American author, Maya Angelou, wrote. The metaphorical expression of deep feelings for the caged in all ramifications of life is her cry for freedom and the retelling of her tumultuous childhood. She struggled against the odds of being black at a time when prejudice, especially in the South, was at its height. But most of all her story is the story of discovering who she is—of working her way through a multifaceted identity crisis. <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left;">**Themes:** Racism and segregation, prejudice, resignation, family ties <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left;">**Rationale**: The title and inspiration for this poem came from a line in Paul Dunbar's poem "Sympathy". It was also the title of the first volume of Dr. Angelou's autobiography published in 1969.She wrote I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings at a time when autobiographies of women, and particularly black women, had begun to proclaim women’s significance in the mainstream as thinkers and activists. Angelou’s poem conveys the difficulties associated with the mixture of racial and gender discrimination endured by a southern black girl. At the same time, she speaks to many other issues, such as the relationships between parents and children, child abuse, and the search for one’s own path in life. <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left;">[|Read Dunbar's "Sympathy"][|Read "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings"]



<span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left;">**Title: Sonnet 17 (1960)** **Author:** Pablo Neruda **Genre:** Spanish language poetry**Description:** A love sonnet originally written in Spanish, vivid in its imagery.**Themes:** Love, intimacy **Rationale:** This is a very popular poem, especially among love-struck teens. The beauty in it also lies in the fact that it is originally in Spanish. This can incorporate ELL students to the lesson and also open up discussion about the artistry of translations. Most translations have higher-level vocabulary words as well.

[|Link to English Version of poem][|Link to original Spanish Version of poem] <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left;">[|Poetry Foundation article on Pablo Neruda]

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=**Title: The Works of Allen Ginsberg, 1941-1944 //-- [Ben G.]//**=
 * Author:** Allen Ginsberg (poems) Bill Morgan (of this anthology the poem "HOWL" is located in) ISBN: 0313293899
 * Genre:** Poetry
 * Lexile:** 1180 L
 * Description:** Alan Ginsberg was arguably the seminal Beat Poet of the 20th century. "Howl" is a poem that embodies many themes which gives it great utility in the classroom and could be used in a variety of ways depending on the unit that is being worked on at the time. It is a very long poem, perhaps epic in proportions, and is a rebellion against many aspects of American post WW II culture. I would use this poem in a unit on Beat Literature and of the many themes would linger on the theme of breaking free from social norms or the homogeneity of culture in general, which asks us to conform to its currents and confines**.** This would be a perfect poem to investigate angst and paranoia and many teens i imagine could identify with its edgy push back against authority and power.
 * Theme/Topic:** Breaking free from social norms. The difficulties of Personal Freedom. Insanity of society. Sexuality in America. Religion.
 * Rationale:** There are many anthologies that contain this poem so this particular book is a mere suggestion because it also contains a wealth of work by the same poet.

[|Alan Ginsberg Reading Howl Pt. 1] [|Alan Ginsberg Reading Howl Pt. 2] [|Alan Ginsberg Reading Howl Pt. 3]
 * Additional Resources: [|Themes In Howl] []**

=**Title: Ode to a Nightingale //-- [Ben G.]//**=
 * Author:** John Keats (ISBN: 0674677307)
 * Genre:** Poetry
 * Lexile:** 1270 L
 * Description:** This poem would be perfect to use in a unit on Romantic Lit but it could also be used in many other contexts such as a unit about nature poetry or poetry in general since it is a very important work. This poem can be read in many different ways and contains multiple themes but Keat's dissection of mortality, death and the mystery behind all things makes it a very easy poem to use to discuss the brevity of life. The symbol of the nightingale is an interesting one and an entire lesson could be devoted to it just as one could be devoted to the setting itself. There is a lot to work with here which makes this poem an ideal candidate for discussion in an English classroom.
 * Theme/Topic:** The mystery of nature. The transience of life. The nature of mortality.
 * Rationale:** This poem could easily be found in a compilation for free at the library or on the internet so the book referenced below is not a necessary buy but owning the complete works as someone as John Keats is never a frivolous acquisition.

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 * Additional Resources: [|Audio Reading-with text stream (youtube)]**