Unlike many news organizations, we haven’t put up a paywall – we want our journalism to remain free and open to everyone. Democracy depends on reliable access to information. By making our journalism publicly available, we're able to hold governments, companies and institutions to account, and offer our diverse, global readership a platform for debate and commentary. This encourages us all to challenge our opinions on what’s happening throughout our world. By supporting the Washington Report – and just giving what you can afford – you can help us ensure that everyone has access to critical information for years to come. In 1996, the Academy of American Poets designated April as National Poetry Month, a time when schools, libraries, poets, writers, and publishers could come together in a nationwide celebration to honor the legacy of our nation’s and world’s poetry and poets. In the words of the US Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith, “Poetry is quiet, private, meditative, and rather than summing things up in pat and predictable ways, it surprises and deepens our sense of the ordinary. Poetry tells us that the world is full of wonder, revelation, consolation, and meaning. It reminds us that our inner lives deserve time, space, and attention.” 1 Then have students share their brainstorms with another student. Encourage students to pose questions that will help their partners generate new ideas to add to their brainstorm handout.

Antin’s understanding of conceptual art closely aligns it with body art and with identity politics in the 1960s and 1970s. Her use of conceptual strategies to explore poetic genius also brings her in line with a strain of artistic practice that critic Jorg Heiser has termed romantic conceptualism. 5 In the last analysis, ‘Ariel’ is one of Plath’s most confidently assertive poems about freedom and escape, made all the more poignant by the fact that she so desperately needed such escape (and, ultimately, tragically, only a few months after writing ‘Ariel’, would succeed forever in escaping, or perhaps failing to escape). We have analysed this fascinating poem here. Wordsworth, W. and S. T. Coleridge (2013) Lyrical Ballads 1798 and 1802 (Oxford: Oxford University Press). ID CARD” IS one of Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish’s most popular signature poems that made him a constant target of vicious criticism by Israel’s religious, ultranationalist and conservative groups.

Extract

The poet employs extended metaphors of “flowers” and “ugly weed” throughout the poem. He analogizes a group of people to “flowers” and himself to a “tall, ugly weed.” In comparing himself to a smelly weed, he intends to express his desire of being free than being like beautiful flowers that are “watered, fed, guarded, admired,” but limited only to their pot. He uses a confusing mixed metaphor in the opening lines. The speaker says flowers are “harnessed to a pot of dirt.” He ludicrously compares the harnessing of horses to flowers constrained by a flower pot. Imagery

The poet imbues the third stanza with thrilling romantic imagery to showcase the wondrous nature of living a life without constraint. The sibilance in the opening line mirrors the sound of rushing wind, allowing the reader to embody the eagle of the second stanza and feel the excitement of life on the wing. Next, divide the students into small groups and project the following questions for them to discuss. If necessary, before the discussion refresh your students’ knowledge of literary devices by having them complete the Literary Devices Definition Match handout.

References

Project the following questions and have students choose one or more to explore in a journal reflection: Sinfield, A. (1994) The Wilde Century: Effeminacy, Oscar Wilde, and the Queer Moment (New York: Columbia University Press).