Teaching / Discussion Notes for Sixty Poems
Notes by Dianne Emmick
Audience:
High school students and adult discussion groups
Pre or Post-teaching ideas:
A. Introduce students to the term poet laureate and the tradition of poet laureates (Simic was the U.S. poet laureate for 2007-2008). Many countries have poet laureates, and even some cities have poet laureates. Students might research various poet laureates and/or complete projects presenting information about them, read aloud a poem by the poet laureate they have researched, and explain that poem to the class or invite discussion. You will find a list of United States poet laureates at http://poetry.about.com/od/poets/l/bllaureates.htm.
B. Follow the same idea for Pulitzer Prize winning poets. Simic won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1990. A list of Pulitzer winners in poetry is at http://www.powells.com/prizes/pulitzer_poetry.html.
Methods for Teaching Simic Poems:
A. One suggested method to generate discussion is to choose a poem and read it aloud to the group. Then ask the students to re-read the selection silently and, before discussion, make a list in a journal or on a piece of paper of 5 questions or comments (or a mixture of both) they have in reaction to the poem.
Making a list is simple, quick, and gets all students engaged in the piece and gives them a starting point to get involved in a discussion.
The Poems:
Following is a list of thirty poems from the Sixty Poems that I am suggesting for high school students. My top ten are double-starred, but it’s hard stopping at just ten, so a few more get a single star. Of course, all of this is objective. You may well have different favorites.
You could start with your students’ comments and/or questions. If the discussion needs a further perspective, following each poem is a list of comments and/or questions you might ask/discuss with your students or discussion group
**1) “Factory,” p. 11
Interesting images mixed with stark reality – the newspapers on the floor to warn him with a rustle, interesting image of “the silence of the night writing in its diary,” the rats standing on two feet as if they’re about to ask a favor, the woman reaching for the apple.
Ask students what they think is happening here. Why is the narrator in the factory? For how long? Why?
2) “Shelley,” p. 12
Again, wonderful details and images. We can see the dead flies on the table.
Have the students read a Shelley poem.
Is the narrator lonely?
Why does he read in coffee shops and restaurants in the evening?
What images/details seem to reinforce a melancholy evening?
*3) “The Big War,” p. 19
Ask students if they played soldiers as kids? (Or did their brothers?)
Why does he tell this to Margaret?
Why “The Big War”?
*4) “The Prodigal,” p. 25
This poem again reinforces a theme of separateness, loneliness.
What is a prodigal?
Why is he apart, watching, not in the house with his mother?
Why rain?
5) “Hotel Insomnia,” p. 26
What are some of the details of the “little hole”?
What is the impact of the last couple lines?
Ask students if they have a “little hole”? What details would they give about it?
6) “The Tiger,” p. 27
Why Buddhas?
Who is the poet? Is he the same as the soldier?
Note the interesting image of the “long shadow/open before me like scissors.”
**7) “A Book Full of Pictures,” p. 29.
Ask students what details would there be in an evening at their houses?
What do the three people do here?
What reinforces the silence?
Why is the narrator sad (last line)?
Why is the soul “a bird”?
**8) “Country Fair,” p. 33
What do you think the poet is saying about the dog?
Why does the girl shriek with laughter?
Would you laugh? How does the dog make you feel?
How does the dog seem to cope with his extra legs?
**9) “Paradise Motel,” p. 37
What kind of images do we see on television?
What do those images have to do with our own lives? Do they affect us?
Does television harden us to the realities of life?
10) “The Clocks of the Dead,” p. 38
Has a ticking clock ever kept you awake?
Is the past gone?
What is the allusion to Charon’s boat?
Why does he hear the snows of his grandmother’s childhood?
Why is she “on the wall”?
11) “Leaves,” p. 39
Is there uniqueness in the individual? Or is he/she part of a whole?
12) “Reading History,” p. 42
Can you imagine a world without you? A world before you, after you?
13) “Empires”, p. 44
Who is the monster?
Note the realistic touch at the end. She pulls his ear.
What is he to understand?
14) “Mystics”, p. 45
Is this about visions? Religion?
Note the realistic details among the more obscure references.
What exactly is the vision?
Why does the tense changes in the last stanza?
**15) “The Secret,” p. 47
This would be a good poem to use the “5 Questions List.” For instance, here are some questions one might ask after reading this poem.
Does the mother have a lover?
Is she a prostitute?
Why is the narrator speaking directly to death? (by the way – good place to discuss the poetic device of ‘apostrophe.’)
Where is the narrator’s father?
Why is the tub full?
Why does he introduce the image of the white cat and the bloody fish head?
Note the red bathrobe against snow (white) and the white cat with the bloody (red) fish head. Why the color contrasts?
*16) “Mirrors at 4 A.M.”, p. 51
Why does the author personify the mirrors?
What do mirrors seem to like best?
Is this a metaphor for something?
Comment: Note the feeling of loneliness again.
This, along with “Ghosts,” would be a good poem to read on Halloween.
**17) “Cameo Appearance,” p. 52.
One moment is frozen in time. In the narrator’s mind it is there forever, but his children (grandchildren) cannot envision it at all.
The aftermath is not there, nor what came before, just the moment.
Have the students think about (perhaps write a poem about) a single moment frozen in time when they were part of something bigger.
**18) “Little Unwritten Book,” p. 54
Ask students about their pets. Have they ever lost a pet?
What details do they remember of the pet? What made it endearing, eccentric, interesting?
What do you think happened to Rocky?
What is the purpose of the line about the farmhands?
*19) “Slaughterhouse Flies,” p. 55
What an image!
What is the feeling you get from this poem?
**20) “Ghosts,” p. 58
This would be a good poem to read on Halloween.
You could read this without any extensive discussion; just read it for the delightful chill it sends down your spine.
**21) “At the Cookout,” p. 60
Ahh – Men are from Mars and women are from Venus….
The two sexes do not always understand each other. Each has its own special language and secrets.
It could be fun to talk about the Medusa image at the end.
Ask students if they understand the opposite sex. This should generate some discussion!
*22) “Pastoral Harpsichord,” p. 63.
Invite comments on television programming.
23) “Serving Time,” p. 88
Is the narrator literally in a prison?
What is this poem about?
How does the author use details to engage us?
*24) “Late September,” p. 89.
This poem has really descriptive images – the sea “pretending to be rushing off somewhere/And never getting anywhere.”
Simic captures the feel of late September in an ocean town.
What other details do that?
Ask students if they can write a poem capturing a particular place at a particular time.
*25) “To Dreams,” p. 94.
Note the theme of loneliness again.
The narrator is separate from others. But he has dreams.
How is he like the hero of movies shown in “seedy neighborhoods”?
Do high school students sometimes feel this isolation?
Do they have dreams?
*26) “The Common Insects of North America,” p. 71
The poet takes a common subject and makes a poem of it.
Ask students to do the same.
*27) “The Toy,” p. 72.
Ask students if they’ve ever re-visited a place they knew well as a child.
What memories are evoked?
28) “The One to Worry About,” p. 80
Why does the narrator worry?
About what? Are the things he worries about significant?
What is he thinking (last line)?
What do you think the title means?
29) “Sunday Papers,” p. 81
What is being butchered?
Why, according to the narrator, do people go to church?
Why the image of the lamb roast?
Why the title?
**30) “In the Planetarium,” p. 98
Warning: This poem uses the “F” word. You know your community, so decide if this would be a problem.
But the poem is interesting for its illustration on how two people have the same experience but view it differently.
