Obedience, or the Lying Tale Written by Jennifer Chang

Free verse 6 stanzas 34 lines The Poem I will do everything you tell me, Mother. I will charm three gold hairs from the demon’s head. I will choke the mouse that gnaws an apple tree’s roots and keep its skin for a glove. To the wolf, I will be pretty and kind and curtsy his crossing of my path. The forest, vocal even in its somber tread, rages. A slope ends in a pit of foxes drunk on rotten brambles of berries and the raccoons ransack a rabbit’s unmasked hole. What do they find but a winter’s heap of droppings? A stolen nest, the cracked shell of another creature’s child. I imagine this is the rabbit way and I will not stray, Mother, into the forest’s thick, where the trees meet the dark, though I have known misgivings of light as a hot hand that flickers against my neck. The path ends at a river I must cross. I will wait for the ferryman to motion me through. Into the waves he etches with his oar a new story: a silent girl runs away, a silent girl is never safe. I will take his oar in my hand. I will learn the boat’s rocking and bring myself back and forth. To be good is the hurricane of caution. I will know indecision’s rowing, the water I lap into my lap as he shakes his withered head. Behind me is the forest. Before me the field, a loose run of grass. I stay in the river, Mother, I study escape. Free verse 6 stanzas 34 lines

Jennifer CHang Born in New Jersey Went to the University of Virginia is a PhD candidate there Poet and a scholar To learn more about her go to http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/jennifer-chang

This Poem is about a child speaking to his mother, he tells her that he will do what he is told when he is told to do it. He explains that he is going to be obedient and obey his mother.

But Just what is Obedience ? compliance with an order, request, or law or submission to another's authority. Or in short term, to listen to someone or to obey to obey - comply with the command, direction, or request of (a person or a law); submit to the authority of.

Imagery In The Poem “To the wolf, I will be pretty and kind and curtsy his crossing of my path” Imagery In The Poem “I will charm three gold hairs” “A Pit of foxes” “rotten brambles of berries”

The speaker The Speaker is a child speaking to their mother about listening The Speaker tells his mother he will listen or obey what she tells him or her and be a good child

This Poem Has Peace of figurative meaning in it The meaning is he doesn't want to listen to his mother but he has no choice to listen because she is his mother It Also Has a literal meaning In the story he must listen and obey hos mother so he doesn't get in trouble

Websites Used http://www.lifecoachinglls.com/site/186.html http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/jennifer-chang http://www.livingwithhypersomnia.com/support-for-parents-of-children-with-idiopathic-hypersomnia/ http://www.endicott-studio.com/endicott_redux/2006/09/page/2/ x