This poem is a lovely piece about Bradstreet’s husband. In it, she declares how strongly they are bound, “If ever two were one, then surely we.” What I find interesting is how at points she is almost bragging about her husband, like he is a prize won that other woman could not hold, “If ever wife was happy in a man,// Compare with me, ye women, if you can.” It’s funny because it’s objectifying the man to a degree when this was an age where women were like objects. It places the woman is a position of ownership, which wasn’t something exactly smiled upon at the time. Then she starts comparing her love of her husband to great treasures, like “whole mines of gold” and “all the riches the East doth hold.” Afterward, she pulls back, trying to show that yes, her love is great, but obviously her husband’s love is more. The husband is the superior being, “The love is such I can no way repay,//The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.” This shows her concession not only to her husband, but to the male poets of her times as well, however ironic it might be. In the end, she says she hopes that they’ll forever live through the love they have for one another. I find Bradstreet to be exceedingly human and a beautiful crafter of words. I feel they show her great passion and humanity well.

D.H Lawrence vs Franklin

When Lawrence says that Franklin is the first "dummy American," he means that Franklin is disregarding God, creating his own deity for his own purposes. Which is funny, because Lawrence is doing the same with Franklin's words. Franklin wasn't telling people not to go to Church and to believe in God when he said they should be "master unto himself, and don't even let the Lord put His spoke in." What was obviously meant here was to not let oneself be bogged down by such things. The reason many people came to America was religious freedom and quite a few found more prosecution when they went to an area that wasn't pleased by their ideas. Franklin was obviously a forward thinker and far from a dummy.

Bradford vs. Morton

In a paragraph of approximately 200 words, explain the major conflict between William Bradford and Thomas Morton. Why did Bradford want Morton arrested and deported? Why do we modern Americans have at least some sympathy for Morton?


Bradford came to America as a Separatist who settled at Plymouth. These people went to the new land looking to be free of judgment and persecution based on their beliefs. Bradford was a leader, elected to office after the original governor, John Carver died. Though he obviously had to be an intelligent man, his religion molded him into someone who had little tolerance for other religious view points. This is little surprise as his writing is scattered with Biblical verse. This is likely why he had difficulty and understanding Morton. Morton came to America with a group of other men looking for a new start and new funds. As the leader of his own men, Morton was scene is an offense just by how he existed when compared to the pious Pilgrims. He was terribly punished, sent back to England more than once, and then wrote a book about his experiences in America before returning there where he died. Obviously, even though this man had trouble with the likes of Bradford and others, he must have held some love for this new land with how he just kept returning and wouldn’t be displaced by his enemies. I find that admirable.

While Nichol’s works from what’s she’s experienced in the Caribbean, her poems I feel still hold a lot of fun and interesting stories for all children. I loved “Banana Man” personally. Lots of kids love bananas and this is a silly way to talk about it, referring to bunches of bananas as hands. Here the rhyming isn’t a regular line by line pattern. The rhymes themselves are repeating still and they show another sort of rhyming instead of the classic ABAB or AABB styles. The language is more relaxed, less formal and as many of Nichol’s poems, it’s almost a sort of slang that can be relaxed into. Kids can have fun reading these! For a fun activity after, you can discuss favorite fruits and maybe how different fruit looks like different body parts or different things in general.

See mt comment above on the language/culture thing, but cute idea with this poem.

Any (brief) idea for a poetry month exhibit in the children's section of a library?

Something I found significant an interesting about Clifton’s poetry is that she kept to one main character, Everett Anderson. While none of the previous poetry we touched on here made specific mention of race, these ones make specific mention of Everett and his family being African American. I think this adds to the character and gives us as teachers and parents something significantly different from the heavily British lot we had just been reviewing. The introduction says that Clifton wishes to express the “pain and fear experienced by a young African American child” but at least in these excerpts, I feel these poems could relate to many children regardless of race.
“Tuesday All Day Rain” is a silly poem about Everett Anderson leaving his umbrella at home instead of taking it out to protect himself from the rain because he doesn’t want to lose it. The idea is so child-like, the best way to keep yourself from losing your umbrella is to simply leave it at home. The rhyming here is a little different; the lines are choppy, but this adds to the flow of things, the quick movement of the words.

“Rain or shine,
he doesn’t whine
about ‘catching cold’ or
‘summer showers.’

Sad or merry
he doesn’t carry
the thing around
for hours and hours”

We see it’s carried into the next stanza at times instead of all being self contained in one stanza and merely carried over into the next one. I think this pulls the poem together nicely and makes you feel like you need to finish the poem and say it all together. Of course, this leads you to think I normally don’t read poems all together as one piece, which no, I don’t always. Kids can talk about times they’ve left their things at home instead of taking them with them and what happened in the end.

Good reading of this poem, and nice realization of your own tendencies when reading poetry. There are other collections that focus on one character. On the race thing, coudn't these poems also be used, like the Mora (missing these) and Nichols, to introduce kids to other cultures?

These poems are all rather interesting. Something I find might be a hindrance at times is when poetry comes off as too British and too old fashioned. This doesn’t hurt the sound or the meaning, but it makes it unrelatable to the children that might be learning about it. This is just my feeling though, I feel like more updated writing would work better in schools and teachings today. While these are more up dated than others, I feel that these are still a bit too British. “Mrs. McPhee” I think would be a fun read for kids. This woman eats duckling, ducklings! That’s scandalous to a child, who would likely never eat a duckling. The women’s transformation is fun though, like a punishment for eating poor little baby ducks. The poem even plays with the sounds, especially at the end, “Said Mrs. Mac, Mrs. Quack,//Mrs. MacPhee.” It’s a fun poem and for a learning exercise, perhaps they could try to think up silly or not silly names that rhyme with duck sounds, like Mark Bark or something like that. With a more fun thing, maybe try cutting out paper feathers to glue to a cape so mommy or teacher could become Mrs. or Mr. MacPhee.”

Cute ideas here, but isn't Causley's language a bit more accessible than, say, De La Mare's?

De La Mare brought us another story previously, with his telling of a vane Little Red Riding Hood. Some of his other poems are also sort of dark, which shows a similar voice to what we saw with his previous story. I found his poetry sort of dull, I feel like it lost something in time. The rhyming does flow still, but many of the topics I feel kids would have more of a fun time just saying than actually knowing exactly what it’s about. “The Penny Owing” almost sounds like some sort of reaper or ghost coming with a final penny for blind Tam. Beggars are something we have today as well, so they could understand this enough, but I don’t think they’d see the same meaning as I do, which is fine still. Some of the words aren’t common ones for children, like “abide” and “grudged” so it can work for extending vocabulary as well. Again, maybe this could also introduce children to the idea of money and counting change, suggesting they save their pennies and such.

Aren't some of his poems a little lighter? Good, if general, on the vocabulary benefits and differing interpretations.