Poems for Poetry Responses 4th and 5th Six Weeks 2012-2013 - Poetry Selection

Sep 23, 2026

Uploaded by Noah

Collection of poems for Poetry Responses covering the 4th and 5th six weeks of 2012–2013. Includes works by Billy Collins, Stephen Crane, Frances Cornford, David Mason, Margaret Atwood, Ishmael Reed, Emily Dickinson, Miller Williams, William Blake, Lucille Clifton, and Walt Whitman. The selections range from instruction-like imagery and moral reflection to satire, prophecy, and vivid metaphor, encouraging close reading and response through distinct voices and styles.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages13

Reading Time20 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction to Poetry

Billy Collins

Untitled - Stephen Crane

The Guitarist Tunes Up - Frances Cornford

Song of the Powers - David Mason

you fit into me - Margaret Atwood

Turning Pro - Ishmael Reed

Much madness is divinest sense - Emily Dickinson

The Book - Miller Williams

A Poison Tree - William Blake

what the mirror said - Lucille Clifton

note, passed to superman - Lucille Clifton

the lesson of the falling leaves - Lucille Clifton

When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer - Walt Whitman

Poems for Poetry Responses 4th and 5th Six Weeks 2012-2013 Introduction to Poetry Billy Collins I ask them to take a poem and hold it up to the light like a color slide or press an ear against its hive. I say drop a mouse into a poem and watch him probe his way out, or walk inside the poem‟s room and feel the walls for a light switch. I want them to waterski across the surface of a poem waving at the author‟s name on the shore. But all they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confession out of it. they begin beating it with a hose to find out what it really means. Untitled Stephen Crane In the desert I saw a creature, naked, bestial, Who squatting upon the ground, Held his heart in his hands, And ate ofit. I said: “Is it good, friend?” “It is bitter—bitter,” he answered;“But I like it Because it is bitter, And because it is my heart.” untitled Stephen Crane I stood upon a high place, And saw, below, many devils Running, leaping, And carousing in sin. One looked up, grinning, And said: “Comrade! Brother!” The Guitarist Tunes Up Frances Cornford With what attentive courtesy he bent Over his instrument; Not as a lordly conqueror who could Command both wire and wood, But as a man with a loved woman might, Inquiring with delight What slight essential things she had to say Before they started, he and she, to play. Song of the Powers David Mason Mine, said the stone, mine is the hour. I crush the scissors, such is my power. stronger than wishes, my power, alone. Mine, said the paper, mine are the words that smother the stone with imagined birds, reams of them, flown from the mind of the shaper. Mine, said the scissors, mine all the knives gashing through paper‟s ethereal lives; nothing‟s so proper as tattering wishes. As stone crushes scissors, as paper snuffs stone and scissors cut paper, all end alone. So heap up your paper and scissors your wishes and uproot the stone from the top of the hill. They all end alone. As you will, you will. you fit into me Margaret Atwood you fit into me like a hook into an eye a fish hook an open eye Poems for Poetry Responses 4th and 5th Six Weeks 2012-2013 Turning Pro Ishmael Reed There are just so many years you can play amateur baseball without turning pro All of the sudden you realize you‟re ten years older than everybody in the dugout and that the shortstop could be your son. The front office complains about your slowness in making the line-up They send down memos about your faulty bunts and point out how the runners are always faking you out “His ability to steal bases has faded” they say They say they can‟t convince the accountant that there‟s such a thing as “Old Time‟s Sake” But just as the scribes were beginning to write you off as a has-been on his last leg You pulled out that fateful shut-out and the whistles went off and the fireworks scorched a 747 And your name lit up the scoreboard and the fans carried you on their shoulders right out of the stadium and into the majors. Much madness is divinest sense Emily Dickinson Much madness is divinest sense To a discerning eye, Much sense, the starkest madness.„Tis the majority In this, as all, prevail: Assent, and you are sane; Demur, you‟re straightway dangerous And handled with a chain. The Book Miller Williams I held it in my hands while he told the story. He had found it in a fallen bunker, a book for notes with all the pages blank. He took it to keep for a sketchbook and diary. He learned years later, when he showed the book to an old bookbinder, who paled, and stepped back a long step and told him what he held, what he had laid the days of his life in. It‟s bound, the binder said, in human skin. I stood turning it over in my hands, turning it in my head. Human skin. What child did this skin fit? What man, what woman? Dragged still full of its flesh from what dream?

FAQs

What is the main purpose of this document?

It compiles poems intended for “Poetry Responses” for the 4th and 5th six-week period of 2012–2013.

Which poets are included in the selections?

The document lists multiple poets including Billy Collins, Stephen Crane, Frances Cornford, David Mason, Margaret Atwood, Ishmael Reed, Emily Dickinson, Miller Williams, William Blake, Lucille Clifton, and Walt Whitman.

How is the content organized?

Poems are grouped as standalone titles, each followed by the poem text, with an initial section labeled “Introduction to Poetry.”

Sep 23, 2026

Uploaded by Noah