notes for The 8th Grade Poetry Class, day 19

March 9, 1976  (I was 31)

notes for The 8^th Grade Poetry Class, day 19

            I told them we had reached a plateau, everything up to now was,

more or less, introduction.  We were beginning to push out to new levels

of understanding poetic concepts.  I reminded them how many came in

thinking poetry was just writing in rhyme.  I compared rhyme to a

carpenter’s hammer, useful, but not the only tool in the box.  I stretched

the comparison to other carpentry tools.  We talked alliteration, simile,

metaphor and personification.  We talked tongue twisters.  I made a

distinction between playing with tools and building a house, a bird house.

I asked how many had written in their notebooks in the past week.

            Bells rang. A voice over the intercom, “This is a disaster drill.”  We

assumed duck and cover position along walls away from windows.  We

sat in darkness and listened to the voice tell us what we would do if

this were an earthquake or other disaster.  We were told to evacuate

and we assembled outside at our designated area until the all-clear bell. The

disaster was over in eight minutes. 

            We talked about chaos, eternity, and measuring the universe. 

Eventually we got back to Margaret Chilton’s poem “Premonitions.”  They

identified metaphors, similes, alliterations and personifications.  It did not

take them long to get into the poem nor to appreciate the humor.