Words, (oh!), The Fish, and Mom.

Poets love words. They can spend days picking the right one.
Oh!

Why!?

"Stripped
day by day of all my garments,
dry naked tree,
in my solitary withered mouth
fresh words
will still blossom." ~~Alaide Foppa "Words"

Connotation - Emotion - Tone

Sound - Onomatopoeia - Alliteration - Assonance - Internal Rhyme - Repetition

Image - Symbol - Senses

Irony

First, The Fish, by Elizabeth Bishop:
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/22238

Questions:
1) How does the tone shift in this poem? Describe the speaker's feelings at the beginning, middle, end. What words reveal the movement in tone?

2) Question #2 in the book, p. 617.

3) Find examples of the following sound devices at work - alliteration, assonance, onomatopeia, and, for each, describe the effect on your understanding of the poem's central theme that even the ordinary, the ugly, the worn-out can be extraordinary and beautiful and inspirational?

4) What words stood out? Why? What were their connotations?

5) How does the imagery in this poem make you see/imagine the fish? You may answer with words, or you may draw.

6) What are the ironies of this poem? (What are the things that you do not expect?)

And, for mom: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/178168

Bonus Assignment: write your mom a 10 - 20 line poem that describes what you have learned from your mother. Choose each word carefully. Type it up... give it to her for Mother's Day. Give it to me for a few bonus marks.