ELA
Naik
Poetry Packet
Poems
Harriet Tubman was born in to slavery. In 1849, she escaped from a Maryland plantation.
She would devote the rest of her life to helping other slaves gain their freedom. She was a
leader of the Underground Railroad, a group of secret places where slaves could stay on
their way North. During the Civil War, she served as a cook, nurse, and union spy.
Tubman died in March 1913.
Learning Skill: General introduction to poetry
Objective: Notice characteristics of poetry as a genre.
Harriet Tubman
1
Harriet Tubman didn’t take no stuff
Wasn’t scared of nothing neither
Didn’t come in this world to be no slave
And wasn’t going to stay one either
2
“Farewell!” she sang to her friends one night
She was mighty sad to leave ’em
But she ran away that dark, hot night
Ran looking for her freedom
3
She ran to the woods and she ran through the woods
With the slave catchers right behind her
And she kept on going till she got to the North
Where those mean men couldn’t find her
4
Nineteen times she went back South
To get three hundred others
She ran for her freedom nineteen times
To save Black sisters and brothers
Harriet Tubman didn’t take no stuff
Wasn’t scared of nothing neither
Didn’t come in this world to be no slave
And didn’t stay one either
5
And didn’t stay one either
ELA
Learning Skills: Stanza & Line
Objective: Notice stanzas and lines in a poem
Paula Prue
Paula Prue, I’m mad at you,
I don’t like the things you do.
You dropped ice cream down my shirt,
That’s no place for your dessert.
Paula Prue, I’ll pay you back
When I launch my sneak attack.
Some day soon I’ll get my chanceYou’ll have pizza down your pants.
The Road Not Taken
By
Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Naik
ELA
Naik
Learning Skills: Rhyme
Objective: Identify and label different rhyme schemes in poetry
Big Bully Joe
Strange
By Arden Davidson
Big Bully Joe is a kid I know
who’s as mean as a grizzly bear.
He’s tall and he’s strong.
We just don’t get along.
There’s not one thing in common we share.
When a baby’s diaper falls off,
you know Joe took out the pins.
Joe likes to torture little ones
that’s how he gets his grins.
When there’s gum in someone’s hair,
you know it’s Joe who blew the bubble.
When the teacher shouts “who did this?”
you know Big Joe’s in big trouble.
When a food does not agree with Joe
he argues till he wins.
He likes to fight.
He also likes to kick dogs in their shins.
He calls out horrid names
to kids just doing their own thing.
If he saw an injured bird,
he’d likely break it’s other wing.
Big Bully Joe
is a kid I know
who doesn’t have one single friend.
But I heard Kelly Mayer
put a tack on his chair.
Guess he’ll pay for it all in the end!
I’m strange today,
So please don’t mind
The way that I behave.
Don’t get excited
If my manner’s
Somewhat less than grave.
It may appear
My mind is clear
Of all the stormy gray
But pay no mind
For as I’ve said
I’m acting strange today.
I don’t know how,
I don’t know why,
I don’t know when or where,
But when I looked
For all m gloom
It simply wasn’t there.
And if I find out
Where it went
I’ll be quite proud to say:
I don’t want you
To drag me down-I’m acting strange today.
ELA
Naik
Learning Skill: Free Verse
Objective: Identify and distinguish between free verse poetry
Ode To Happiness
Ode to Procrastinators
By Gina Rose
By Unknown
Take my hand
Lead me to the place
of an unchartered land
Show me my voice
Tell me that I CAN
Guide my heart
where only peace is allowed
Teach me wisdom
of the all mighty ONE
Let's walk together
one star at a time
Allow me to shine
brightly as the summer sun
Love like its fire
Germinating life, fierce and strong
Fill my soul with soft gentle caring
as a full moons light
Subtle, calm and back to sanctuary
Let's touch our toes in the
calm moonlit lake
Emerge in its refreshing wake
Cleansing away unnerving past
Bring me back to joy
as a young bird takes flight
New, alive, full of hope
Free to move on and stay in this fight.
Out of the dust,
into the world,
just to wait for another day,
to come out and shine.
Why do we lollygag,
and wait for the world to
approach us?
Waiting for the future
to fall out of the sky,
and hit us on the head.
Wishing there was another
way to live.
We are the gum in the gumball machine,
stuck,
waiting for the maintenance guy
to show up.
We are the fish in the lake,
avoiding the hook,
and waiting for the net to come,
an easier way to get caught,
even if we go down anyway.
We are the hair-band that keeps
snapping,
simply because it isn’t ready.
ELA
Naik
Learning Skill: Alliteration Objective: Identify and create alliteration in poetry.
Betty's Room by Denise Rodgers
Tongue Twister
There is no clutter-cluttered up
more closely, I presume,
than the clutter clustered clingingly
in my friend, Betty's room.
You’ve no need to light
a night-light
On a light night like tonight,
Her mother mutters mawkishly
and fills her with such dread.
She mutters on about the muss
that messes Betty's bed.
For a night-light’s light’s
a slight light, And tonight’s
a night that’s light.
At bedtime, Betty bounces all
her objects to the floor.
Each morning, when she wakes up, they
go on her bed once more.
When a night’s light,
like tonight’s light,
It is really not quite right
To light night-lights with
their slight lights
On a light night like tonight.
There's papers, pencils, potpourri.
It piques her mother's stress.
She pouts. She plies and yet her cries
do not clean Betty's mess.
There's partly broken plastic toys,
each with a missing part,
some worn and withered whistles, which
are close to Betty's heart.
Old ballet shoes she cannot lose,
and photos of her friends,
a burnt-out fuse, some fruity chews,
a box of odds and ends.
Old magazines and school reports
(the ones that got the A's),
her worn out jeans, some socks to sort,
the programs from three plays.
Each object is an artifact,
a personal antique.
She cannot bear to throw them out;
they make her life unique.
There's feathers, fans, and fairy dolls -and mother-daughter strife.
Her mother lives for neatness, but,
well, mess is Betty's life.
ELA
Naik
Learning Skill: Onomatopoeia
Objective: Identify examples of onomatopoeia in poetry.
Cafeteria
City Street by Alan Loren
Boom!
Went the food
trays.
Clap! Clap!
Goes the teacher.
Rip!
Went the
plastic bag.
Munch! Munch!
Go the students.
Slurp!!!
Went the straws.
Whisper
Is what half the kids
in the room
are doing.
Crunch!
Crunch!
Go the candy bars.
Beep! Beep! goes the taxi as the
light turns green.
He is in a hurry so he makes a huge
scene.
The police car let out a mighty wail
‘Honking your horn sir can land you
in jail!’
Well that is not entirely true
But it can surely get you into a
mighty big stew.
A bus goes by with a mighty roar
With a sleeping passenger who
started to snore.
A traffic policeman whistled his
whistle.
The sound of that whistle made
Everyone bristle.
It is true that the city is a buys, busy
place.
But said another way, It’s just a
Faster pace.
ELA
Naik
Learning Skill: Metaphor
Objective: Identify metaphors in poetry and explain their meaning.
Happiness
Happiness is a beacon
Shining in the distance
It flashes and then is gone
Enticing...yet elusive
And earnestly you wait
To glimpse its light once more
In hope and anticipation
You will safely reach that shore
Happiness is a seed
You can hold it in your hand
And plant it in the earth
To nurture, nourish...tend
Then you need not wait in earnest
For it is within your care
Reap the harvest as you choose
As little..or as much as you dare
Happiness is a thought
You hold it in your mind
Your imagination gives it substance
A dance, a song, a sculpture
Beauty intensified by motion
Or a static panorama
A landscape of desire
A play, a film...a drama
Memories
Memories are glass
They reflect past events
They burn with the sun
But with them we see ourselves.
Memories are an open box
Peer inside them if you wish
But some refuse and shut them close
What happens next is something you
do not wish.
Memories are an ocean
Events are rivers entering the sea
Expanding with time and space
For the fish of me.
Memories are a giant mountain
When we forget, we experience
an avalanche
We climb on for eternity
As the frost of time expands.
ELA
Learning Skill: Simile
Objective: Identify similes and explain their meaning in a poem.
Dream Deferred
Greater Than That
By Langston Hughes
By Brenda Joyce
What happens to a dream deferred?
Peering through the drape
Of my synthetic cell,
How I long to escape
This manufactured hell.
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
Like a bruised, little bird
Too confused to fly,
I’m trapped, in a word,
So confined am I.
A captive, collared lion
Alone in its pen,
I’m pacin’ and dyin’
In a manmade den.
For an eagle was not meant
To be locked in a cage,
Its life to be spent
Like a picture on a page.
And when a mighty lion,
In truth, is but a cat,
It will spend its time tryin’
To be greater than that.
Naik
ELA
Naik
Learning Skill: Own your own
Objective: Determine the meaning of a poem by analyzing an author's word choice and
respond in writing
The Road Not Taken
By Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
ELA
Naik
Learning Skill: Uncover the meaning of poetry
Objective: Summarize the main idea and identify points of interest and confusion.
Night
Gently laps the sea.
The black rocks glisten wet.
Moonlight silvers the sand,
And the gulls are quiet.
Night. Ice in the air.
Trees silhouetted, stark, straight.
Branches like ragged birds,
So still, so black.
Beyond the dark rocks
Stretching shingle to the sea,
Patches of blue mud
And pools of silver.
Night. Ice in the water.
Great Neptune sleep
And in the cold, cold deep,
All is still, all is black.
Answer the following the questions:
1. What, in one sentence, is this poem about?
________________________________________________________________________
2. What parts of the poem do you like and why?
________________________________________________________________________
3. What parts of the poem confuse you? Were you able to discover the meaning at these
places?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
4. What does this poem make you think about?
________________________________________________________________________
ELA
Naik
Learning Skill: Poetry Assessment
Objective: Recall, Review, and complete an assessment of poetry skills.
Name:_______________________________
Sec#:_______ Date:________
My fish was small,
Like a feather
My fish was gold,
But now my fish is still and cold.
My fish no more
Will not splash.
My fish is gone.
My fish whispers
Goodbye.
How many stanzas are in the poem? ________________
How many lines are in the above poem?___________________
Label the rhyme scheme of the poem using capital letters above. (Hint: Next to each line)
Underline the simile in the first stanza. What is the author comparing in the simile?
________________________________________________________________________
There is one example of personification in the poem. Identify and explain this example.
________________________________________________________________________