Poetry: Module 8 Reading Journal

After reading/watching all of the poems assigned, please respond to a question from each the prompt categories below. You should answer each prompt in separate paragraphs, and number your responses (A2, B1, C3, etc.). Your responses to each of the questions you choose should be 100 to 300 words long, and you should point to specific examples and lines (summarized or quoted) from the poems to support and develop your point. Remember that these exercises are not about presenting the “right” answer to the prompt but rather about exploring, analyzing, or explaining possible interpretations of the reading.

Write your responses in a document that you can upload to Canvas before the due date. Only MS Word and PDF documents will be accepted. Remember that you are responsible for making sure you have uploaded the correct document.

You should use MLA in-text citations (Collins 7-8) to indicate the poetic line number when you reference material from the poem.

Your responses should be based on your own observations about the poem: What do you think? What do you notice? However, for some of the prompts, you may reference materials provided on Canvas or from the Poetry Foundation website.

You should watch the lecture videos posted to Module 8 before composing your journal responses.

A scoring rubric is attached to this assignment; please review it before submitting your journal so that you know which features of your writing will be graded.

Prompt A: Choose one of the following questions to respond to.

Discuss an image or metaphor that you found particularly striking in one of the written poems and how that specific image contributed to the meaning of the poem as a whole.
Based on “Bilingual/Bilingue” and “The Contract Says,” how do you think being bilingual impacts a person’s identity and perspective on the world? Use specific phrases or lines from the poems to help support the point you’d like to make.
How does “Theme for English B” take steps toward defining what it means to be “American”? Use specific phrases or lines from the poem to help support the point you’d like to make.

Prompt B: Choose one of the following questions to respond to.

What differences in tone or imagery do you find between “Vespers” and “Let Evening Come”? Point out in each poem whichever features contribute to these differences.
What do you think the phrase “let evening come” means in the context of the poem? Does the phrase mean the same thing throughout the whole poem? What did that phrase mean to you by the end of the poem?
In “Vespers,” why is the speaker so upset about the tomato plants?
In “From Blossoms,” many of the images contrast with each other. What does this juxtaposition contribute to the meaning of the poem, especially based on the idea expressed in the final stanza?
In “Perhaps the World Ends Here,” what does the kitchen table come to represent as the poem progresses? Why do you suppose the speaker says that the world both begins and ends at the kitchen table?

Prompt C: Choose one of the following questions to respond to.

How do the spoken-word poems promote or dismantle gendered understandings of the human body?
Describe the mood or the emotional impact of “When the Fat Girl Gets Skinny.” What words or phrases helped to create that mood or impact?
In “Ken Doll,” what does the poem reveal about the connection between stereotypes about the physical body and stereotypes about emotional expression?
In “10 Honest Thoughts on Being Loved by a Skinny Boy,” what kind of problems does the poem expose about the way society stigmatizes a person’s weight?
In “The Type,” how does the speaker help the listener to contextualize being looked at and touched?
Readings
1.https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47880/theme-for-english-b
2.https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46542/bilingual-bilingue
3.https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/147503/the-contract-says-we39d-like-the-conversation-to-be-bilingual
4.https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46712/introduction-to-poetry
5.https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46431/let-evening-come
6.https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43012/from-blossoms
7.https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49759/vespers-in-your-extended-absence-you-permit-me
8.https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49622/perhaps-the-world-ends-here
Video
1.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16Tb_bZZDv0
2.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgKsEN5CC8A
3.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVnPQw0f8Qc
4.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRFOTqTicvY
5.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYAiYMlOCI4