Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Reading Poetry

Poems are built on ideas, experiences or emotions in a condensed form that makes the reader search for understanding.  The reader should slow down, think about each line and the words in it, and then reread and reconsider.

However, to understand poetry the reader must not go gently, but should attack.  As we begin to spend time in Reading Workshop with poetry/word study, students must overcome their fears and dive into the language of poetry.  Whether it be as a reader, analyzing the work of others, or when revising their own work, students must go full speed ahead.  They need to take the advise given by Eve Merriam.


How to Eat a Poem

Don't be polite.
Bite in.
Pick it up with your fingers and lick the juice
that may run down your chin.
It is ready and ripe now, whenever you are.

You do not need a knife or fork or spoon
or plate or napkin or tablecloth.

For there is no core
or stem
or rind
or pit
or seed
or skin
to throw away.

What is Merriam's point?  What about the poem makes you think that?  What thoughts do you have when tearing into her poem? Or others? How does this compare to the way you revise your own poems?

Image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/emdot/10362168/sizes/s/

31 comments:

kailey said...

I think what she's trying to say is that if you have a really good poem than you should embrace how you feel about that poem. And something else I think she's trying to say is don't throw a good poem away.

Zachary said...

This poem is saying that poems can be about anything including themselves. I think this cause when it explains what the meaning it's explaining that the poem is being eaten and that there nothing to throw away cause it's making you understand the meaning behind the topic. My thought are that the poem is trying to make people get why she chose this topic of eating a poem it's just explaining itself by the saying this talk of nothing to throw away it's getting you to understand that it's being eaten and nothings left.

Kelton said...

I think of the poem as if biting into a plum or apple or peach. It's like it's saying to not throw your life away some how. It's like your about to bite into an apple but then you cant eat the seeds or the core. The poem said that you don't have to worry about all that stuff and just think about how it taste and enjoy that for as long as you can. It's like saying don't throw your life away and live it to the fullest. I think its also trying to say that read the poem then read it again and stop and think about what its trying to tell you. Think of all the juicy details that are in it and what the poem means and whats its story. It's saying to tear into the poem and to understand what it means and whats its trying to tell you. Take your time reading the poem to understand it and what the meaning behind the poem is.

Gabe said...

I think that the author gives me and other people supporting details about her life poems or just made up poems. I really try to make a picture in my head of what's going on in their life or poem. For example if they were to talk about sports, then I would picture he or she playing sports.

Gavin said...

I feel like the author is giving me details about his or her emotions and life when I read poetry. I really feel like I am in their shoes
and living their everyday life as my own. Also, I make a mental picture
in my mind and watch the characters and what that situation would look like.

Rachel said...

I think that Eve Merriam is trying to get to the point that, when you read a poem, take it all in. There is nothing you have to leave out, or get rid of. For example, she says "Don't be polite.
Bite in.
Pick it up with your fingers and lick the juice
that may run down your chin." In the poem, I think she's trying to explain that you should tear into the poem. You don't have to go slow. The things I thought when tearing in to her poem were things like, that she's basically is saying you can read a poem any way you want to, and if you choose not to read a poem it won't go bad by the time you read it.

Jason said...

I think her point is that some people are just really rude when they eat. I think that because I've seen some people be rude when they eat at restaurants and when they are at their house. I thought that she was naming some obvious things that people do when they're rude when they eat. I didn't see any mistakes in her poem and I normally don't have any mistakes in my poems.

Reagan said...

I think that Merriam's point is you don't have to use silverware when you eat food you can eat with your fingers.It makes think that because it says "pick it up with your fingers and lick the juice that may run don your chin." It also says "you don't need a knife or fork or spoon or plate or napkin or tablecloth.when I read this poem I think that she is eating an apple and kind of describing what you can do with it and what it looks like. In other poems and her poem I feel like you are digging into something deep and telling a story while rhyming.I feel like this make my poem look bad because it has more details.

Brian said...

My thought is she saying that it will be there forever and never leave. Also I think her poem is better than mine. The reason why I think this is because she saying there nothing to throw away.

David said...

When I read this poem I think of your poem being a orange or something like that. I think it is trying to say read poems that you understand. I think I'm actually tearing into her poem because I understand her point. Now when I review my poems I will try to make it so people understand what I'm trying to say. Or when I read other people's poems I'm going to take my time and try to understand what they are try in to get at.

Hayden said...

I feel like the author is teaching people to really find the understanding of poems. But, this author did a really great job on how you find an understanding of a poem in that post.

Eve Marian accomplished that by giving detail to how to find the main point in a poem. She also made a little poem to support her point in her post as well.
I can just picture what she means in her post.

Teegan said...

Well Merriam's poem is scripted really well,I think her poem is telling you when you read or write a poem do not leave any juice detail out, poems can be about anything you want it to be

It says in the poem , don't be polite, bite in, this is saying don't leave any detail out while you are reading it.When I am reading her poem I am thinking about how everybody else that reads poems. Do they bite into it or not?
When I'm writing a poem I don't really get real in to it, I save the wildness for when I'm reading it.

Alivia said...

Merriam's poem was good I think that what she is trying to tell us that we should not be scared to write a poem. What I mean by that is that is when she says "for there is no core" with some other thing written down. Maybe she is trying to tell us that we don't need some words in our poems. When she says "we don't need knife or fork or
spoon or plate or napkin or tablecloth. When she said this maybe it meant something and we need to figure out what it is. Maybe she meant to do this or did she?. This does not compare to my poems because her poem means something and mine does not. When I thought about this when she starts talking about the juice in side of your mouth running out onto your chin I thought that was a little weird. When I started reading this It had some weird stuff in it but overall this was a nice, detailed, organized poem even though it was a little weird.

Megan said...

I think Eve Merriam is trying to tell about like using less words, because in poetry you are suppose to have less words, but more words that go along with the other words in the poem.'

Another reason why I think Eve Merriam is talking about using less words is because at the end of the poem she had a big list of things that is on an apple. After she got done naming the list, Eve Merriam said you have all the stuff to through away. I think by that she means through away all of the words you don't need.

The thoughts that go through my mind when I read the poem is well this is different then everyone else's. The poem is like about telling you what not to do in a poem. For example (like I said in the second paragraph) she is telling you to through away the words you don't need and add something else.

I think that my poems are different from her poems because she is writing things that you should do in a poem. Eve Merriam also gives examples in her poem. For example in her poem she gave an example of an apple.

In my Poems I would write how a person feels. For example I would write some like "The way she does not blend in with everyone else" "How she feels shes that class clown". So I thinks mine is different because she gives examples of things in her poem, and I write how people feel.

Lily said...

I think that the point of her poem is A poem is like a story not saying what it means but meaning what it says. I think this because the poem says " Don't be polite bite in and it also says For there is no core or stem or rind or pit or seed or skin to throw away." My thoughts about this poem are why did she write the poem the way she did? Also why did she say don't be polite?

Daulton said...

I think a poem is more like a story that you have to figure out what it means and it means different things to different people . I think that's what there trying to say.

Jensen said...

I think that the point in the story is to tell of something that is not like a fruit. When the writer says that the thing she/he is eating doesn't have a stem or seed I thought that it wasn't a fruit. One thought that I had while reading the poem was eating. It made me hungry. When I read over my poems I look for spelling mistakes and punctuation I think the writer for this poem did the same.

Jacob J. said...

What I think when I read this poem is that you can not be afraid to tear a poem apart. No matter if it's your friends or your teachers, do not be afraid to tear it apart. You need to know what the poem means, so that is why you tear it apart. The reason why I think that is because Eve said in it "Don't be polite. Bite in." To mean that means no matter who it is, tear their poem apart piece by piece. The reason why is because she does not describe what the poem means, so you need to pick and tear at it until you get what the poem means. This post was great and I would like to read another of her poems, she is a great writer.

Shia said...

The difference between the way you have to revise this poem and my poems is you have to slow down and read this a little bit slower. You have to be able to understand it more. It takes a little bit more to under stand this poem. You have to take time to think about what each line means. You have to take the time to understand the meaning of each line.

Makyla K. said...

I think that Merriam's point is that you do not have to be scared to do somthing like she said just bite in. The poem makes me think that because she said bite in and the jucie running down her chin,and I think that she does that in public, to prove to you guys not to be scared of what to do. The first thing that comes to my head is that she has a good point of view for her poem ans she has a good way to back it up. I think that her poems are a little better than mine because she probly has had more time to spend on making poems.

Travis L. said...

I think the point of the poem is that "Bite in" means to go all out with the poem, don't hold back. The "don't be polite" part to me means don't listen to what other people say about your poem. The "you don't need a knife or fork or spoon" part means that you don't need anything special to write a poem. The final stanza means there's nothing left to write down at the end of a poem. But also I noticed that she kept comparing a poem to an apple. And that's what I think Merriam's Poem means.

Ian said...

It shows in the Poem "Don't be polite.
Bite in.
Pick it up with your fingers and lick the juice
that may run down your chin.
It is ready and ripe now, whenever you are."
I think the point of Eve's Poem is that to go into Poetry and you will find something nice about it. It also shows that "You do not need a knife or fork or spoon
or plate or napkin or tablecloth. For there is no core or stem or rind or pit or seed or skin to throw away." That means that you don't have to have requirements for a poem. You can put in whatever you want. It's your poem.

Andrew S. said...

What I think in this poem I feel the author is telling stuff about poems. Like don't be polite bite in so the poem is basically saying that poem are getting teared apart piece by piece. That's what it is saying with my opinion.

Taylor said...

Well with most poems they are a lot longer than Merriam's. She uses less words in each sentence. I think her main point is showing people that you can still have a very short poem and still enjoy it.

When I was reading this poem it was making me think of food for some strange reason.

When I write my poems they are usually longer. But for a poem that has little words, it has great detail!

Cole R. said...

I think Meriam's point in the poem was that you should enjoy the poem as you read it. When her poem says ''Don't be polite bite in.'' I think she means jump right into the poem and just read and enjoy it. When Mariam says ''Pick it up with your fingers and lick the juice that may run down your chin.'' It could mean that you should make sure you soak in all the details in the poem so you can understand it more.

I see in this poem that she is using a lot of thought put into her poems but some other poems I have read they have not had as much thought put into their poems.

I can tell that she probably revises a lot in her poems and I compare her revising to mine because I do I lot of revising with my poems to.

Callena said...

I think Eve Merriam's point is that you don't need a lot of stuff to make a point. When someone writes a poem I think they want you to imagine it like you were in the poem. I also think Eve Merriam's point was to show the reader that not everything has to make sense.Like the title " How to Eat a Poem," you can't actually eat a poem. So I think her point was that not every poem is going to be good unless you try it. Not everybody is a good writer and not everybody is going to like poetry but, they never know until they try to write poetry.

Katie N. said...

What are my thoughts? Whats her point? What thoughts did I have when "tearing" into her poem? How does this compare to the way I revise my poems? There are many things that can change the way we see or feel about a poem, or story.

what are my thoughts? I am thinking that she really likes poetry, why? Because she wrote a poem about "tearing" into a poem. She is basically saying, I love writing poetry and its very enjoyable.

What's her point? Maybe she wants to describe how amazing poetry is to read, or how much she loves to "tear" into poems. In her case she used many small details to get her point across.

How does this compare to the way I revise my own poems? When I revise to be honest, I don't usually spot where there could be hints or were certain words could make the whole poem better. To me revising does change the way we look at poems and how we think of the writer.

In conclusion, thats what I think about this poem. Not only does this poem include small details, and make you feel a certain way but other poems to.

Shaylee M. said...

I think Merriam's point is don't be shy to read or give an opinion about something just have fun and think about what the paragraph is talking about. What makes me think that is because her poem says stuff like don't be polite, Bite in so that to me is like her saying don't be shy and have fun with it.

What thoughts do I have when tearing into her poem? The thoughts that I have when I tear into her poem are what is she trying to tell me, what is she trying to create.

How would I revise my poems and posts? Well I re-read mine and edit to make sure it sounds right. I would make sure I had people read it too so they know what I'm talking about.

Ted H. said...

I think the author point is to make sure you understand the point or main theme of the poem that is displayed. But the great thing about it is it can be any poem. It can be any poem in the world,and any topic too.

I think this because if you reread what she said in her first stanza she said:

"Don't be polite.
Bite in.
Pick it up with your fingers and lick the juice
that may run down your chin.
It is ready and ripe now, whenever you are."

When I read this it makes me think, "Bite it" seen she is talking about poems you can infer that she doesn't really mean eat it. What she means it you need to really get into it.

Another thing I think about is when she says "Pick it up with your fingers and lick the juice that may run down your chin" she doesn't mean that if you read a poem that juice will run off of the paper and on to your chin. It means that read it and get into it as if you were drooling over it. Right here is another example of how she is telling you to GET INTO THE POEM.

The last example is when she says "It is ready and ripe now, whenever you are." This doesn't mean its something that turns ripe and is ready to eat. It means that it is done and is ready to be read by someone.

Tanner said...

I think her point is that you shouldn't be polite and eat in your own way. In the first to sixth line, it was saying don't use napkins and eat with your fingers. I think this is a great post, because it really makes you think about what it means, like 'For there is no core or stem or rind or pit or seed or skin to throw away'. It's hard to see what she is trying to say, but I figured it out, it mean there are no leftovers. This is similar to the way I revise. I try to make it complicated to understand. Like in my Ice Particles post, one part says 'In a cube shape, cold as ice, easy to freeze, easy to melt, it cools your water, what is it? ICE'. Mysterious, right?

Ceara A. said...

What is Merriam’s point?
I think Merriam’s point was to tell anyone that once you write your first poem you can’t get enough of it and there will be nothing left of that poem when you are done writing it. I also think her point is to inform anyone who is afraid to write poems to not be afraid to write them. So I think she’s meaning to say go write some poems.

What about the poem makes you think that?
The poem makes me think those things because of how she explains to not be polite biting in and how she writes there will be nothing left to throw away. In each of those examples they bring out what she is trying to say the most.

This post makes me want to tear into many more poems that anyone writes. This poem has helped me understand that it is a good thing to tear into a good poem.