Write about the poems listed in instructions
We’re starting a four-week unit on poetry. One of the first steps in analyzing a poem is to paraphrase it. A paraphrase is a description in your own words of the poem’s subject, the poem’s theme, the main ideas it presents, and the key metaphors and /or symbols it contains.
In one paragraph write a paraphrase of the lyric poem “Introduction to Poetry” by Billy Collins. Include a statement about the speaker of the poem (we might refer to this voice as the poet’s persona). What is his profession and what is his problem? Quote a few key words / phrases from the poem in your paraphrase.
In another paragraph, write a paraphrase of one of the following narrative poems: Cofer’s “Quinceañera” or Frost’s “Mending Wall” or Rose’s “December.”