Poetry Packets - Ms. Morris Buford High School



Poetry Packet: “What’s it gonna be?”

High school is all about making choices. Do you choose to hang out with the right friends, take the right classes, do the right homework? At the end of the day, your choice or choices can make or break your high school experience and it all starts your freshman year.

1. Read each of the following 10 poems about the complex nature of choices and

complete the activities below:

“Choices” – Allen Steble

“Choices of Tomorrow” – Fiona

“The Road Not Taken” – Robert Frost

“A Better Me” – Jojoba Mansell

“ Hard Choices” – Jojoba Mansell

“There is a Difference” – William Henry Dawson

“Tears of Man” – Aa Harvey

“The Choice” – Robert William Service

“If” – Rudyard Kipling

“Invictus” – William Ernest Henley

A. Annotate each poem, noting key techniques used by the author. Use a color-coded system or some other legend. Look for these literary techniques.

• simile (both parts of the comparison)

• metaphor

• hyperbole

• punctuation impacting meaning

• imagery

• rhyme

• rhythm (may be more of a cadence)

• personification

• diction

• alliteration

• repetition

B. For each poem write a thesis statement about the comment the speaker is making about choice. Include the title of the poem [in quotation marks] and author. Make sure it is specific to each poem.

** Item 1 will be worth a 25-point quiz grade. **

2. After reading and annotating each poem, pick 3 poems to complete a RACE response. Your responses should be between 5-7 sentences each. Choose from the list of prompts to complete your responses.

1. What is the primary message of the poem?

2. Which sentence best expresses the theme of the poem?

3. What is a lesson gained from the poem that you could use in your everyday life?

4. How does the author’s style and word choice in the poem make you feel about the message?

5. What conclusion about the theme choices can you make from the poem?

** Item 2 will be worth a 30-point writing grade. **

3. For the poem that is your favorite of the bunch, apply it to yourself. Prepare a short (no more than 2 minutes) speech to share and present to the class. Discuss what you have learned from the poem, how it has impacted you, and whatever personal connection you have made with the poem. Your presentation should be meaningful and you should point out specific points to the poem and apply it to yourself.

**Item 3 will be worth a 25-point major test grade. **

** Items 1-2 will be due THURSDAY, MAY 17th

Item 3 presentation due MONDAY, MAY 21st. **

|Content |5 |4 |3 |2 |1 |

|The purpose of the speech is clear | | | | | |

|The speech includes anecdotes and examples that clarify the speaker’s position | | | | | |

|The speech has a reasonable and effective conclusion | | | | | |

|The speech contains a quote that complements the speech | | | | | |

|Delivery | | | | | |

|Speaker speaks clearly with appropriate vocabulary and information | | | | | |

|Speaker uses tone, speed, and volume as tools | | | | | |

|Speaker appears comfortable with audience | | | | | |

|Speaker has evidently rehearsed speech and is not reading directly from their paper | | | | | |

Item 3 Speech Rubric

Choices

  by Allen Steble

We all have a choice

to live a lie

or be ourselves

to laugh and cry

or to follow someone else

to look up and smile

or bow down and frown

to walk the whole mile

or take off our crown

We have a choice

to shout out loud

or chant a whisper

to fly through the clouds

or to be blown like paper

to conquer our fear

or hide in the shadow

to the wise words hear

or be thrown out the window

We all have a choice

to climb our highest mountain

or fall into our deepest hole

to drink from life's fountain

or live life like a troubled soul

Choices of Tomorrow

by, Fiona

As the sun sets, another day’s departed

Distant memories light my way back home

Mysteries aren’t for the faint hearted, 

Can’t escape the past as it’s set in stone

An ending leads to a new beginning, 

But beginnings come to ends in the road

Great times vanish, the Cheshire cat’s grinning

These are words that I’ve bestowed

Decisions in life may be good or dire

You have to walk through the right doors in life 

Your judgment may land you knee deep in mire, 

Or otherwise lead you to joy or strife

Who knows what my life’s journey has in store? 

I shall wait to walk through tomorrows door

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 kept 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.

A Better Me

by Jojoba Mansell

I strive to find a better me, 

a person just and true.

I want to live and not just be, 

to be decent through and through.

I need to be a stronger me, 

both in body and in soul.

It's not a whim, it needs to be, 

for me to feel whole.

I will be that better me, 

and that better me will stay.

I will be better, they'll see, 

it's time to seize the day! 

Hard Choices

by Jojoba Mansell

A path is laid out ahead, 

it forks before your feet. 

A decision filled with dread, 

uncertain of what you’ll meet. 

A game full of chance, 

of many hidden pit falls. 

To find true romance, 

dare you risk losing all? 

Choices never easy to make, 

fog seems to cloud your way. 

You fear making a mistake, 

of gambling and losing the day. 

But life is full of Hard Choices, 

And risk is part of the game. 

Be brave, ignore doubting voices, 

make the choice, life won’t be the same.

There is a Difference

by William Henry Dawson

There is cause for many stings,

In the way some folks do things,

Some go at it "hammer 'n' tongs,"

Some with curses, some with songs;

But to each some trait belongs,

Some have soured on everything,

Can't find aught without a sting,

There are others not so sour,

Who find on every thorn a flower,

And for good they are a power,

As I've traveled life's pathway,

I've found grumbling doesn't pay,

Of the kicker folks have tired;

He's no longer much admired,

From good company he's been "fired,"

As I walk along the street,

I look for the good and sweet,

All the sour ones I pass by,

And the only reason why—

I couldn't like them if I'd try,

So, my friend, take my advice,

Don't let me have to tell you twice,

If you would ever happy be,

Don't be sour with all you see,

But be joyous, happy and free.

Tears of Man

by Aa Harvey

You have the right to remain silent.

Do you make the choice or remain violent?

Do you evolve and become more civilized?

Or do you choose to stay belligerent?

You choose to be healthy like you are told.

You stop eating junk food; replaced with cold,

And in the end are you any happier?

I have become numb, apart from automatic laughter.

I laugh at things you don’t find funny.

I have thousands of instant thoughts at once.

I eat and eat and still there is a rumble inside my tummy.

You think I am clever, but my hat says ‘D’ for ‘Dunce’.

I tell you tales, and as they set sail,

The rain comes down and people complain;

But I do not complain, for I only see waves,

That carry me home to people I love.

My God!  

It sure is,

A beautiful day!

The Choice

by Robert William Service

. . . And then I came to Three ways,

And each was mine to choose;

For all of them were free ways,

To take or to refuse.

"Now which shall be the best way,

East, West or South?" said I . . .

So then I went the West way -

I often wonder why. 

. . . And then I cam to Two ways,

And each was luring me:

For both of them were new ways,

And I was fancy free.

"Now which shall be the least way,"

Said I: "to gain my goal?"

And so I took the East way,

With freedom in my soul. 

. . . And then I came to One way,

And to the South it ran;

Then lo! I saw this sun way

Was mine since time began;

My pitiless, my doom way;

No other could there be,

For at its end my tomb lay,

And it was waiting me. . . .

Poor fools! Who think you're free.

If

by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;

If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,

And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

Invictus

by William Ernest Henley

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate,

I am the captain of my soul.

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