Love That Dog, Brown Angels, All the Small Poems, and Love That Poetry!

{ January 25, 2010 @ 8:15 pm } · { Uncategorized }

The first book I want to discuss is Love That Dog.  I really, really, really (see the similarity), liked this book and the way in which it was written.  I thought that the author of this book was really clever in the way she wrote from the perspective of a student who was learning about poetry.  At first, Jack did not want his name to be written on any of his poems because he thought they were not good enough to claim.  After writing for about three months, Jack was still not sure what he was writing was really poetry.  I think that is a misconception that a lot of students have about poetry.  Love That Poetry emphasizes the need to ask students what they like and dislike about poetry.  Students dread poetry because they think they have to be written a certain way and have to rhyme.  I always found it really tough to rhyme words.  I focused more on the words rhyming, and not the context of the poem.  A lot of students do not think about all the different ways they can write poetry.  According to the author of Love That Poetry, “Free verse poems invite children to break with the tradition of rhyme and offer the freedom to focus on thought patterns, phrasal boundaries, and precise word choice where the emphasis in on feelings and meaning over form” (Love That Poetry 1). Students who feel they are incapable of writing poetry, have not been exposed to all the different ways in which they can write poetry.  Students will have more of a desire to write poetry when they are given a chance to write about what they like and are interested in.  I really like the idea of concrete poems and think students would really enjoy writing a concrete poem in a shape they construct.  I remember writing concrete poems in the sixth grade and them being my favorite.

I was introduced to Mr. Walter Dean Myers, just like Jack, through poetry.  Brown Angels is an amazing book of poetry.  I see why Jack wanted Mr. Myers to come read his poems in the classroom.  I think that this poetry book would be great to introduce during the beginning of a poetry lesson. The poems in this book are not the typical poems that a child envisions when thinking about poetry.  Most of the poems have no rhyme, and are written in a free style sort of way.  The pictures are also a great addition to the poems.  Children love pictures, and when they can relate pictures with a poem, they can begin to develop their own ideas for the poems they write.  This is also a great book to introduce during the month of February, which is black history month.  This would be a great time to talk to students about being comfortable in their own skin and knowing that no matter their color or race, we are all perfect in God’s eyes.

All the Small Poems and Fourteen More was my favorite out of all three books.  I liked this book of poems because I thought kids would like it and could easily relate to it.  It is made up of free verse poetry, which students tend to like.  I love how Valerie Worth takes ordinary objects and writes about them.  She writes about chairs, hoses, crickets, pies, etc.  Anything that she sees and feels like writing a poem about, she does just that.  I choose to look at the Safety Pin poem in more detail.  I love how she compares the safety pin to small fish and shrimp, which we know is a simile.  She uses words like silver, tail out, thin, sharp point, etc. to describe the safety pin and give the reader a vivid picture of what is being described.  The subject of this poem is a safety pin and the qualities it has; e.g. opening and closing.  The poem is written with short lines; each line being no more than three words.  The safety pin feels sharp, quiet, and thin.  The safety pin lies quietly on its side  while it sleeps, and when is opened it snaps its tail out and looks at the sharp point with a surprised eye.  A safety pin is used to mend things together and attach materials to other materials.  The author writes about objects and the way they look to her.  She compares the objects to things she feels represent them, which may be different than someone else who is writing about the same object.  Some patterns I do note include:  The two stanzas each start out with describing words that describe the two uses of a safety pin.  “Closed, it sleeps; Opened, it snaps”.  Also, when the safety pin is both opened and closed it is described as looking like a fish from the ocean.  Both stanzas consist of seven lines.  The author gives the safety pin life: Closed it sleeps; Opened it snaps its tail out; Looks at the sharp point with a surprised eye.  She gives the safety pin life-like qualities, which is better known as personification.  She uses simile when she compares an opened safety pin to a shrimp.  She uses the word “like” to compare the two.  However, when she compares the closed safety pin to small fish, she does not use “like” or “as”, therefore making it a metaphor.

Advertisement