Week 1

Lesson on Carl Sandburg's poem "Boy and Father"

Aim: How is the relationship between the boy and father described in the poem?

Do Now: In your journal, describe your relationship with your parent or guardian and explain why.

Procedure:

Read and analyze the poem following the questions below-

Who is the speaker? What kind of poem is it, lyrical, narrative or dramatic?
How is the boy described in the poem? Provide three examples to illustrate your interpretation.
Why are such allusions to Alice and Napoleon used in the poem?
What is the purpose of repeating the image " rain" and "raindrops"?
What do the references to "New Mexico" and "Deaf Smith County" indicate or reveal about the character Alexander?
According to the the briefly quoted speech by the father, what do we know about Alexander's mother?
What does the line "There is a God, there must be a God, how can there be rain or sun unless there is a God?" tell you about Alexander?
What's the purpose of the last stanza? How effective is it by repeating the imagery?
What are the major poetic devices used in the poem? How do they enhance the main ideas of the poem?
What is the main idea?
How do you feel about the poem?

Homework Assignments:

Answer the questions above.
Use the questions to guide you to write a 250-word essay to analyze the poem "The Boy and Father".

Writing about Poetry

Your essay needs to make a point about the most important feature of the poem and its relation to the rest of the poem. A literary analysis of a short poem often takes the form of explication-looking closely at the poem, opening up line by line, clarifying how literary techniques or elements contribute toward shaping the poem's meaning and effect. A good essay must include information of the entire poem. Each paragraph of the essay needs to explain how the element the poem covers contributes to the building the total effect of the poem.

We an focus on three aspects while analyzing poetry-

What goes on inside the poem-the literary context and techniques of the poem.
- Subject/Main ideas
- Voice /Speaker
- Tone/Mood
- Literary elements and techniques such as diction, figurative language, symbols, sounds, rhythm, meter, form, allusion, irony
- Theme
What surrounds the poem -its connection to other literary works.
What goes beyond the poem-its relation to its cultural and social context and to the real world issue it deals with.

The Outline of the Essay on "Parent-Children Relationship"

Introduction: What is the central idea of the poem? How does poem answer the topic of parent-children relationship?

Body

Paragraph 1: Elaborate the central idea. Provide examples to support your conclusion. For example, if the central idea is: parents need to love their children and communicate with them more besides providing materials to make their children happy, then explain how it is(not) so as illustrated in the poem. Quote a few lines or words or phrases to support the idea.

Paragraph 2: How does the poet use literary techniques or elements to help him express his message ( central ideas)? Name the literary elements or techniques used, such as setting/mood, Repetition etc. Quote the lines in the poem that contain the allusion or repetition.

Paragraph 3: Name two other important poetic devices to explain how the poet delivers his message about parent-children relationship. For example, characterization ( the ways the boy and father are described), anecdote and allusion ( references to Napoleon and the Cheshire cat).

Conclusion

Reiterate your central idea using different words.

Carl Sandburg (1878–1967). Smoke and Steel. 1922.

Boy and Father

THE BOY Alexander understands his father to be a famous lawyer.
The leather law books of Alexander’s father fill a room like hay in a barn.
Alexander has asked his father to let him build a house like bricklayers build, a house with walls and roofs made of big leather law books.

The rain beats on the windows
And the raindrops run down the window glass	5
And the raindrops slide off the green blinds down the siding.
The boy Alexander dreams of Napoleon in John C. Abbott’s history, Napoleon the grand and lonely man wronged, Napoleon in his life wronged and in his memory wronged.
The boy Alexander dreams of the cat Alice saw, the cat fading off into the dark and leaving the teeth of its Cheshire smile lighting the gloom.

Buffaloes, blizzards, way down in Texas, in the panhandle of Texas snuggling close to New Mexico,
These creep into Alexander’s dreaming by the window when his father talks with strange men about land down in Deaf Smith County.	10
Alexander’s father tells the strange men: Five years ago we ran a Ford out on the prairie and chased antelopes.

Only once or twice in a long while has Alexander heard his father say “my first wife” so-and-so and such-and-such.
A few times softly the father has told Alexander, “Your mother … was a beautiful woman … but we won’t talk about her.”
Always Alexander listens with a keen listen when he hears his father mention “my first wife” or “Alexander’s mother.”

Alexander’s father smokes a cigar and the Episcopal rector smokes a cigar and the words come often: mystery of life, mystery of life.	15
These two come into Alexander’s head blurry and gray while the rain beats on the windows and the raindrops run down the window glass and the raindrops slide off the green blinds and down the siding.
These and: There is a God, there must be a God, how can there be rain or sun unless there is a God?

So from the wrongs of Napoleon and the Cheshire cat smile on to the buffaloes and blizzards of Texas and on to his mother and to God, so the blurry gray rain dreams of Alexander have gone on five minutes, maybe ten, keeping slow easy time to the raindrops on the window glass and the raindrops sliding off the green blinds and down the siding.