Lesson: A Poem of Contradiction

Background information: This lesson is designed for seventh grade language arts students.  By the time they begin writing poetry in my class, we have spent a great deal of time on descriptive writing and practicing showing, not telling in writing.  Students will have some degree of understanding that they need to focus on creating images that communicate emotion rather than simply telling what they are feeling.

Model Poetry: Students will first examine and discuss "Song" by Adrienne Rich from the book How to Build a Long Lasting Fire by Carol Morrison (NTC Publishing, Lincolnwood, Illinois, 1997).

Song

You're wondering if I'm lonely:
OK then, yes, I'm lonely
as a plane rides lonely and level
on its radio beam,
aiming across the Rockies
for the blue-strung aisles
of an airfield on the ocean

You want to ask, am I lonely?
Well, of course, lonely
as a woman driving across the country
day after day, leaving behind
mile after mile
little towns she might have stopped
and lived and died in, lonely

If I'm lonely it must be the loneliness
of waking first, of breathing
dawn's first cold breath on the city
of being the one awake 

in a house wrapped in sleep

If I'm lonely
it's with the rowboat ice-fast on the shore
in the last red light of the year
that knows what it is, that knows it's neither
ice nor mud nor winter light
but wood, with a gift for burning 

Prewriting: Following a discussion of the images in this poem and how they are contrary to the term "lonely," students will be asked to list anything that parents, teachers, friends, siblings, and strangers might believe about them.  Next, students are asked to circle those ideas that they feel are not true about themselves and to name that which is true.  Finally, students are asked to choose one of those "truths" and describe what that truth looks like.  For example, others might say a student is brave, but she says that she is afraid.  She would then describe what fear looks like, smells like, etc.

First Draft: At this point students will write their first draft of a poem of contradiction.  

Sharing: Students will then share their images with their reading group.  Others will be asked to comment on the power of particular words and images.  Also at this point I will share some examples of poems of contradiction from former students and myself.  

Rewriting/Editing: Students will rewrite their own poems of contradiction and type them on the computers.  They will also use the spell check and grammar check at this time.

Publishing: Students who choose to make their poem into a poster to be hung in the classroom may do so.  Also, students who wish to read their poems to the class may do that.

Final Thoughts: I hope that the reasons that I like this writing activity are noticeable in the writing samples from my students.  This writing activity lets them share with me how they think others see them and how they see themselves.  I have found this activity to be very insightful.

Karen Thaler
Mickelson Middle School

Brookings, South Dakota

View the following contradiction poems by Thaler and her students:

"Perfect" (by Thaler)

"Pretty" (by Erica Pridey)

"Foolish" (by Carson Gross)

"I Am Funny" (by Megan Nelson)

"Lucky" (by Adam Doss)

"Fulfilled (by Katie Wiles)