Category: Relationships

  • Words Not Spoken

    Write a story featuring the “words not spoken” in a <a href="relationship“>relationship between a father and son. Develop some otherwise common object as a metaphor for the “words not spoken” between a father and son: stone, hammer, photograph, hockey sweater, guitar, slide rule. Read “War” by Timothy Findley. Read “My Father is a Simple Man”…

  • Language Barrier

    Write a story that features a “language barrier” in a relationship between a mother and daughter. For example, have the two come into conflict over a misunderstanding of some new 21st century words: “selfie”, “hashtag”, “follower”, “salty”, or “wheeling”. Read “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan (from The Joy Luck Club).

  • Relationships

    The following poem is from The Journals of Susanna Moodie, by Margaret Atwood. How relevant is this poem to the way we understand relationships, to the way we imagine relationships to be? Support your response with reference (comparison/contrast) to one or more poems you’ve studied and to your previous knowledge and/or experience. Further Arrivals After…

  • My Father is a Simple Man

    “My Father is a Simple Man” by Luis Omar Salinas is a simple poem which begins with a father and son walking and talking, and then expresses a deeper meaning – about life and greatness. Theme: The essence of life is perpetual. The essence of greatness is true kindness and patience. Techniques: Metaphor, simile Issues:…

  • Death of a Young Son by Drowning

    “Death of a Young Son by Drowning” by Margaret Atwood is a moving poem about the death of a child. The use of metaphor makes the poem more challenging. Theme: Hope dies when one’s child dies. Techniques: metaphor, simile, symbolism, allusion. Issues: What happened to the speaker? To her son? What reflective question does this…

  • The New House

    “The New House” by Maya Angelou is a simple poem about what we leave behind in places where we have lived. Theme: The mark of one’s personality or soul is left behind in places where one has lived. Techniques: internal rhyme, onomatopoeia, rhetorical questions. Issues: Do people exist beyond a physical presence? Write as many…

  • Gaining Yardage

    “Gaining Yardage” by Leo Dangel is a casually worded free-verse poem. It reads like a conversation and tells the story of two young people – friends – who play football with equal anility (not very well); and how they work together to get a touchdown. Theme: The value of friendship is inexpressible. Techniques: Wordplay, jargon…

  • Not only marble, but the plastic toys

    “Not only marble, but the plastic toys” by Wendy Cope is a parody of Shakespeare’s “Sonnet LV”. Theme: Creative works cannot endure. Techniques: Sonnet structure, comparison, parody, allusion. Issues: See Shakespeare’s “Sonnet LV”. Summarize this sonnet in your own words using your summary of Shakespeare’s “Sonnet LV” as a starting point or model. Do you…

  • Sonnet LV

    Not marble, nor the gilded monuments Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme; But you shall shine more bright in these contents Than unswept stone besmear’d with sluttish time. When wasteful war shall statues overturn, And broils root out the work of masonry, Nor Mars his sword nor war’s quick fire shall burn The living…

  • As in the Beginning

    “As in the Beginning” by Mary di Michele is a grimly realistic retelling of events that express regret, anger and bitterness. Theme: A person’s loss of limb can never be adequately recompensed with money; when someone we love is injured, his/her pain can become ours. Techniques: parallel structure simile alliteration personification understatement Issues: What makes…