POETRY COLLECTION Avarice The Good Life Money - Chandler Unified School ...

MAKING MEANING

POETRY COLLECTION

Avarice The Good Life Money

Concept Vocabulary

As you perform your first read of these three poems, you will encounter the following words.

avaricedesperateneedy

Context Clues If these words are unfamiliar to you, try using context clues--other words and phrases that appear nearby in the text--to help you determine their meanings. There are various types of context clues that may help you as you read.

Synonyms: The glimmer of the candlelight reminded me of the twinkle of starlight. Restatement: A glimmer caught my eye--a faint, flickering light reflecting off the surface of a diamond ring. Contrast of Ideas: The mere glimmer from the dying light bulb was not enough to brighten the dark, shadowy room.

Apply your knowledge of context clues and other vocabulary strategies to determine the meanings of unfamiliar words you encounter during your first read. Confirm your definitions using a college-level dictionary.

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STANDARDS

Reading Literature By the end of grade 10, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, at the high end of the grades 9?10 text complexity band independently and proficiently.

Language ? Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grades 9?10 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies. ? Use context as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase. ? Verify the preliminary determination of the meaning of a word or phrase.

First Read POETRY

Apply these strategies as you conduct your first read. You will have an opportunity to complete a close read after your first read.

NOTICE who or what is "speaking" the poem and whether the poem tells a story or describes a single moment.

ANNOTATE by marking vocabulary and key passages you want to revisit.

CONNECT ideas withinthe selection to what you already know and what you have already read.

RESPOND by completing the Comprehension Check.

430 UNIT 4 ? ALL THAT GLITTERS

ESSENTIAL QUESTION: What do our possessions reveal about us?

About the Poets

Yusef Komunyakaa (b. 1947) grew up in New Orleans, where he was strongly influenced by the local culture including blues, jazz, and the Creole-influenced speech patterns of the city's inhabitants. As a young man, Komunyakaa served his country in Vietnam, and some of his best poems focus on this time, capturing both the physical and psychological toll of the war.

Backgrounds

Avarice

This selection is part of a series of seven poems by Yusef Komunyakaa. Each one is named after the seven deadly sins of medieval Christian theology, which were moral offenses that were considered particularly terrible. These sins were pride, avarice, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth.

Tracy K. Smith (b. 1972) teaches creative writing at Princeton University. Prior to that, Smith held a prestigious Stegner fellowship at Stanford University. In 2012, Smith won a Pulitzer Prize for her book Life on Mars, which describes a futuristic world that nevertheless has a great deal to say about current times.

The Good Life

"The good life" is a stock phrase that can be traced back to the ancient Greek philosophers Epicurus and Aristotle. They both developed theories about what it means to live a good life and explored whether such a life would involve happiness, moral righteousness, wealth, useful work, or something else entirely.

Reginald Gibbons (b. 1947) spent his early life in Houston, Texas, far from the literary world of which he would become a part. Gibbons studied Spanish and Portuguese at Princeton University, but he quickly took to poetry after earning a doctorate from Stanford in comparative literature. Gibbons has focused on social injustice throughout his career, attempting to use the platform of poetry to activate social awareness and change.

Money

This poem features an element of American culture that is now almost entirely gone-- door-to-door sales. Before the widespread use of media and telephones, salespeople would make unexpected stops at private homes in the hopes of selling their products or services. Many towns and cities have passed ordinances to regulate and restrict uninvited door-to-door solicitations.

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Poetry Collection 431

POETRY

Avarice

Yusef Komunyakaa

432 UNIT 4 ? ALL THAT GLITTERS

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At six, she chewed off The seven porcelain buttons From her sister's christening gown & hid them in a Prince Albert can

5 On a sill crisscrossing the house In the spidery crawlspace. She'd weigh a peach in her hands Till it rotted. At sixteen,

She gazed at her little brother's 10 Junebugs pinned to a sheet of cork,

Assaying their glimmer, till she Buried them beneath a fig tree's wide,

Green skirt. Now, twenty-six, Locked in the beauty of her bones, 15 She counts eight engagement rings At least twelve times a day.

SCAN FOR MULTIMEDIA

NOTES

Mark context clues or indicate another strategy you used that helped you determine meaning. avarice (AV uh rihs) n. MEANING:

"Avarice" from Talking Dirty to the Gods by Yusef Komunyakaa. Copyright ? 2000 by Yusef Komunyakaa. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC. CAUTION: Users are warned that this work is protected under copyright laws and downloading is strictly prohibited. The right to reproduce or transfer the work via any medium must be secured with Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.

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Avarice 433

POETRY

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SCAN FOR MULTIMEDIA

NOTES

The Good Life

Tracy K. Smith

When some people talk about money They speak as if it were a mysterious lover Who went out to buy milk and never Came back, and it makes me nostalgic 5 For the years I lived on coffee and bread, Hungry all the time, walking to work on payday Like a woman journeying for water From a village without a well, then living One or two nights like everyone else 10 On roast chicken and red wine.

434 UNIT 4 ? ALL THAT GLITTERS

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