Notes

5. Patterns, aimed at the mind, the heart or the ear of the reader, are used by poets to

achieve their purposes. In the work of at least two poets you have studied, examine various

patterns and their effects.

Hope--Emily Dickinson: the way how she rhyme, repetition, traditional, meter. The endings of the poem similar leave questions. The length of the lines, shape, verse, syllables, stanza and lines.

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -

And sore must be the storm -

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -

And on the strangest Sea -

Yet - never - in Extremity,

It asked a crumb - of me.

Grandmother in the stars--Naomi Shihab: the connections, plot in the poem, free verse, how she end sentence in the middle. Shape, character. THe endings

It is possible we will not meet again

on earth. To think this fills my throat

with dust. Then there is only the sky

tying the universe together.

Just now the neighbor’s horse must be standing

patiently, hoof on stone, waiting for his day

to open. What you think of him,

and the village’s one heroic cow,

is the knowledge I wish to gather.

I bow to your rugged feet,

the moth-eaten scarves that knot your hair.

Where we live in the world

is never one place. Our hearts,

those dogged mirrors, keep flashing us

moons before we are ready for them.

You and I on a roof at sunset,

our two languages adrift,

heart saying, Take this home with you,

never again,

and only memory making us rich.