1. Students wrote for 5-10 minutes about what they understood and didn’t understand about the poem.
2. Fishbowl Seminar. When students were in the inner circle discussed the questions asked by those in the outer circle. Students in the outer circle took notes on the conversation. We tried to use our poetry terminology as much as possible.
3. Final Reflection. After the seminar, students reflected on what they thought the connection between the title and the content of the poem is.
HW: Study terminology for Poetry Test on Wednesday.
Absentees: Students who were absent should thoroughly answer the following questions in complete sentences to get full credit for the seminar:
- What kind of person is the speaker? How do you know?
- Why does the speaker ask so many questions?
- What do you think it means that the speaker has I have “measured out [his] life with coffee spoons”?
- When the speaker says “And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker, /
And in short, I was afraid” what is he afraid of? - The speaker mentions mermaids in the last few stanzas of the poem. What could the mermaids represent? Why does the speaker “not think they will sing to [him]”?
- How does the title connect to the topic of the poem? How is this poem a love song? To whom? In love with what?
Turn the answers to these questions as well as the three discussion questions you wrote for homework in to Ms. Garvoille when you return.
ALEXA GARVOILLE 