Define love. What is love? Heading – Poetry 9 Define love. What is love?

Objective To examine a new poet, an even happier poet. Have your homework out and ready.

Will we work together – Marge Piercy. My heart wags me, a big dog with a bigger tail. I am  a new coin printed with  your face. My body wears  sore before I can express  on yours the smallest part of what moves me. Words shred and splinter But when  I am with you, I light up the corners, I am bright as a fireplace roaring with love, every bone in my back  and my fingers is singing  like a tea kettle on the boil.   Like sheep of whose hair is made blankets and coats, I want to force from this fierce sturdy rampant love some useful thing.  I want to make with you  some bold new thing to stand in the marketplace, the statue of a goddess,  laughing, armed and wearing flowers and feathers. You wake in the early gray morning in bed alone and curse me, that I am only  sometimes there.

Everyone Read through the poem on your own for one minute and then answer me this: Is it a boy or a girl in the poem talking? Is the speaker a male or a female?

Theme: Love The speaker in the poem is deeply in love with someone. They have a strong physical and intellectual connection. There raw animal love is powerful now but they are aware that it shall weaken over time (as do all things). The intention of the poem might be to show people this intense relationship and teach them that what comes next must be considered. What comes after that intense part at the beginning of a relationship?

Theme: Language Language is not good enough to express some things. It is limited, as are we. (?) (Interesting fact – Eskimos have 100 words for snow.) The speaker has to compare himself and his partner to other things. If what he says is not possible, it is a metaphor. If he uses the words ‘as’ or ‘like’, it is a simile. (Let’s find and underline some metaphors and similes.)

You wake in the early gray morning in bed alone and curse me, that I am only  sometimes there. But when  I am with you, I light up the corners, I am bright as a fireplace roaring with love, every bone in my back  and my fingers is singing  like a tea kettle on the boil.  My heart wags me, a big dog with a bigger tail. I am  a new coin printed with  your face. My body wears  sore before I can express  on yours the smallest part of what moves me. I want to make with you  some bold new thing to stand in the marketplace, the statue of a goddess,  laughing, armed and wearing flowers and feathers. Like sheep of whose hair is made blankets and coats, I want to force from this fierce sturdy rampant love some useful thing. 

You wake in the early gray morning in bed alone and curse me, that I am only  sometimes there. But when  I am with you, I light up the corners, I am bright as a fireplace roaring with love, every bone in my back  and my fingers is singing  like a tea kettle on the boil.  My heart wags me, a big dog with a bigger tail. I am  a new coin printed with  your face. My body wears  sore before I can express  on yours the smallest part of what moves me. I want to make with you  some bold new thing to stand in the marketplace, the statue of a goddess,  laughing, armed and wearing flowers and feathers. Like sheep of whose hair is made blankets and coats, I want to force from this fierce sturdy rampant love some useful thing. 

Choose one of the following: I light up the corners, I am bright as a fireplace roaring with love, every bone in my back  and my fingers is singing like a tea kettle on the boil.  My heart wags me, a big dog with a bigger tail. I am a new coin printed with  your face. Finish the following sentence: The speaker is like a ...... which means that ......

Write your opinion. Do you understand why the poet used her own language?

Homework FOR FRIDAY Compare Mahon’s three poems.

Reflection I think... I like... I want to know...