EXAMPLE 1

Thursday, Nov. 28 -- 1:07 a.m.

One light is on above the kitchen sink.

Tomorrow's dinner plates are clean,

stacked next to a bowl of white,

unpeeled potatoes. 

Pumpkin pies settle on the stove.

Chairs sit politely around the table. 

Each individual tick of the clock

falls off the wall,

out of tune with the hum

that comes from beneath

the refrigerator.

Everyone else is asleep.

I cut a piece of pie.

Then another.

.

1. Do you recognize words that are "concrete" in nature being used in this poem?  What are they?
    
2. Is it easy for you to visualize the scene from the words provided in the poem?
    
3. If you were secretly watching this event and decided to paint a picture of it, what would you include in your image?
    
4. What emotion do you think the person in the poem is experiencing?  What emotions do you personally experience from reading the poem?

EXAMPLE 2

After Midnight

The dark streets are deserted,

With only a drugstore glowing

Softly, like a sleeping body;

With one white, naked bulb

In the back, that shines

On suicides and abortions.

Who lives in these dark houses?

I am suddenly aware

I might live here myself.

The garage man returns

And puts the change in my hand,

Counting the singles carefully.

                                  --Louis Simpson
 

Some questions to consider: 

1. From what socio-economic status is the narrator? How do you know?
    
2. Where is the poem set? In the city, country, a small town? In what kind of neighborhood? How do you
    
3. Are there really "suicides and abortions" in this "drugstore?"
    
4. Why did the narrator stop here?
    
5. What time of day is it?
    
6. What is the narrator feeling at various points in the poem?
    
7. Why does the narrator say "garage man" instead of "the man" or "the boy," or "the mechanic" or something else? How important is the motif of money in the poem?

Example 3

The End of an Outing

Leaving the pond, she looks like something I know,

hauled-up and dripping, glistening in the sunlight

and swinging her heavy auburn hair she comes to the blanket

Her eyes are on the trees of the horizon.

I stare at her shoulder and arm,

flushed, and palely freckled, and moist and cold to the touch.

Behind the pines and cedars the sun is falling,

casting their shadows deep on the empty beach

and the cold red water, suddenly unfamiliar.

In a few minutes, she will undress and sit

alone on the gritty bench of the bathhouse, in semi-dark

slowly wiping her breasts with a damp towel.

                                                --Robert Mezey
 

Some questions to consider: 

1. What is the relationship between the narrator and the woman? Are they married? Divorced? Lovers' 'Ex-lovers? Strangers? Have they just met? What do you think? Why?
    

2. Whatever their relationship, is it beginning or ending?
    

3. What is the narrator's feeling about the woman and about their relationship? What is the woman's attitude?
    

4. Why does the poet say "She looks like something I know" instead of "someone I know?"
    

5. Where is the poem set? Lake?  Club? What time of year is it?
    

6. How does the title contribute to the poem?
    

7. Why does the pet say “she comes to the blanket” instead of “she goes to the blanket?