English Literature & Composition - PopulationMe.com

Chapter 6: Introduction to Poetry
Personification is central to Plath's "Mirror" (p. 847), with the poem's speaker being a mirror
in a house-a mirror with attitude. We suggest that you begin with the title and its possible
meanings. Students have spent plenty of time with mirrors themselves and perhaps can appreciate
the woman's actions and emotions. Then ask these questions: "What is the mirror's attitude
toward the women?" "What is the significance of the last two lines?" "What does the poem
seem to be saying about vanity? About the aging process and our response to it?" Hawthorne's
short story "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment"* could be used in connection with this poem, as both
deal with our desire to remain young.
Because few high school students have firsthand experience with marriage, they probably
have many idealized notions about it. Corso, in his long, allusive, and comical poem "Marriage"
(p. 1090), speculates about the nature of courtship, marriage, and parenthood. This is a
poem to read aloud to students in your best thespian guise (assuming that the word masturbated
in line 27 won't pose a problem to your class or to either your principles or your principal). Ask
students about the nonsense words Corso's speaker uses ("Pie Glue" in line 29 is a version of
"I do"; what about "Radio belly! Cat shovel!" in line 45? "Christmas teeth! Radiant brains! Apple
deaf!" in line 56, etc.) Ask students what they think about this speaker. Are they sympathetic?
Outraged? Confused? What allusions do students notice? What emblems and values of
American culture is Corso satirizing?
Ifmarriage is a sacred, scary subject, how much more so death? Can one approach this subject
with humor? The Monty Python movies, especially Holy Grail and The Meaning of Life ("it
was the salmon mousse") prove that even about death we can laugh. (We see the same stance
working itself out in Faulkner's As I Lay Dying.) One suggestion is that you show a clip from
one of these films to prepare students for Collins's "My Number" (1088). Collins personifies
death as a car-driving Grim Reaper whom the speaker hopes to try to charm. You could invite
students to comment on whether they think Collins is satirizing the speaker's attitude, the
American attitude, about death. You might pair this poenl with one or two of Dickinson's death
poems, most obviously "Because I Could Not Stop For Death" (p. 810) or "I Heard a Fly Buzz
When I Died" (p. 926). In the former, death is a gentleman caller driving a carriage; in the latter,
the dramatic moment when speaker and deathbed guests expect "the King" (God?) to arrive
becomes ironic and comical when a fly arrives instead. If you have time to include a little
light music, try the Austin Lounge Lizard's "Last Words," from their album Employee of the
Month.
Impermanence and Loss
Bishop, IIOne Art"; Thomas, liDo not go gentle into that good night";
Hopkins, IISpring and Fall"; Housman, "When I was one-and-twenty";
Eliot, liThe Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
Before beginning Bishop's "One Art" (p. 1069), ask students to write a journal response to these
two questions: What are some relatively insignificant things that you've lost? and what's the
most significant loss that you've experienced? Turning to Bishop's poem about loss, have students
note how she moves from those relatively small losses to the bigger ones, yet the title of
the poem is "OneArt." Then you might ask these questions: "To what is Bishop referring? What
is the one art, and what's so 'arty' about it?" Although the art is "losing," the art might also be
writing about losing. The poem's last line contains the parenthetical, italicized "(Write it)!" The
homonym may make us wonder, "Might we 'right' loss by writing about it?" Intriguing question.
Students may not buy such an idea, but you can pitch it to them as a possibility. If you
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