Poetry Assignment 2

Due Wednesday, October 19

Typed, Double-spaced, and Printed

This assignment has two parts. The first part is a poem of between 100 and 150 words. The second part is a few sentences that interpret the poem. Type your poem and interpretation and hand it in during class on the 19th.

For this poem, your interpretation should have three parts. First of all, identify the most important audience or audiences for your poem. For example, the audiences can be your parents, your siblings, or fellow students. Second, state what you are trying to communicate to the specific audience. Note that what you are trying to communicate might not actually appear explicitly in the poem. In other words, the poem as a whole might point to something that is absent. For example, if you are communicating to your parents that you will take care of them like they take care of your grandparents, what you are trying to communicate will be more convincing if you can show that you have carefully observed the specific actions of your parents that showed that they cared. Finally, your interpretation should include the line and the name of the poet that you used for the first line.

In this poem you will be building a poem from a line or an image written in a poem from someone else in your group. Use a line or an image from the poem of someone else in your group in the context of your own relationship to caregiving. The line or image can be located in the beginning, middle, or end of your poem. I am hoping that you discover things about your own experience and the experiences of people in your group through writing and sharing these poems. Hopefully the process of writing these poems will help you to select poems for your group video or facilitate the writing of a new poem for your video.

For this poem remember to pay attention to sound but do not rhyme. If your poem is part of a video then the way it flows, the breaks, the rhythm, and the way it sounds will be very important. Recite your poem at least once, and edit your poem so that it sounds the way you want it to sound and so that it is easy for you to recite.

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