451 Essay Poems

For your reference, here are the poems I've selected for you to write about in your 451 essays. Pick the one that speaks to you most clearly, or find one on your own and check it with me. Please note, the poem "Between What I See and What I Say" is missing the last few lines on your handout. The poem is here in its entirety.

Between What I See and What I Say

Octavio Paz

1
Between what I see and what I say,
Between what I say and what I keep silent,
Between what I keep silent and what I dream,
Between what I dream and what I forget:
poetry.
            It slips
between yes and no,
                              says
what I keep silent,
                            keeps silent
what I say,
                dreams
what I forget.
                      It is not speech:
it is an act.
                It is an act
of speech.
                  Poetry
speaks and listens:
                            it is real.
And as soon as I say
                              it is real,
it vanishes.
                Is it then more real?

2
Tangible idea,
                    intangible
word:
        poetry
comes and goes
                        between what is
and what is not.
                        It weaves
and unweaves reflections.
                                        Poetry
scatters eyes on a page,
scatters words on our eyes.
Eyes speak,
                  words look,
looks think.
                  To hear
thoughts,
              see
what we say,
                  touch
the body of an idea.
                              Eyes close,
the words open.

My Heart Leaps Up

William Wordsworth

My heart leaps up when I behold

                A rainbow in the sky:

So was it when my life began;

So is it now I am a man;

So be it when I shall grow old,

Or let me die!

The Child is father of the Man;

I could wish my days to be

Bound each to each by natural piety.

Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night

Dylan Thomas

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rage at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

I Felt a Funeral, in my Brain

Emily Dickinson

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,

And Mourners to and fro

Kept treading – treading – till it seemed

That Sense was breaking through – 

And when they all were seated,

A Service, like a Drum – 

Kept beating – beating – till I thought

My Mind was going numb – 

And then I heard them lift a Box

And creak across my Soul

With those same Boots of Lead, again,

Then Space – began to toll,

As all the Heavens were a Bell,

And Being, but an Ear,

And I, and Silence, some strange Race

Wrecked, solitary, here – 

And then a Plank in Reason, broke,

And I dropped down, and down – 

And hit a World, at every plunge,

                And Finished knowing – then – 

The Men That Don’t Fit In

Robert Service

There's a race of men that don't fit in,
A race that can't stay still;
So they break the hearts of kith and kin,
And they roam the world at will.
They range the field and they rove the flood,
And they climb the mountain's crest;
Theirs is the curse of the gypsy blood,
And they don't know how to rest.


If they just went straight they might go far;
They are strong and brave and true;
But they're always tired of the things that are,
And they want the strange and new.
They say: "Could I find my proper groove,
What a deep mark I would make!"
So they chop and change, and each fresh move
Is only a fresh mistake.


And each forgets, as he strips and runs
With a brilliant, fitful pace,
It's the steady, quiet, plodding ones
Who win in the lifelong race.
And each forgets that his youth has fled,
Forgets that his prime is past,
Till he stands one day, with a hope that's dead,
In the glare of the truth at last.


He has failed, he has failed; he has missed his chance;
He has just done things by half.
Life's been a jolly good joke on him,
And now is the time to laugh.
Ha, ha! He is one of the Legion Lost;
He was never meant to win;
He's a rolling stone, and it's bred in the bone;
He's a man who won't fit in.

Life's a Dover Beach

In the 1800s, British poet Matthew Arnold wrote a poem entitled "Dover Beach." The poem is about how humanity has lost its faith, hope, and love. It is also the poem Montag read to Mildred and her friends in the novel. Read it four times slowly and then continue with the directions below.

Dover Beach

Matthew Arnold

The sea is calm to-night.
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits; on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand;
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!

Only, from the long line of spray
Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land,
Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.

Sophocles long ago
Heard it on the Aegean, and it brought
Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow
Of human misery; we
Find also in the sound a thought,
Hearing it by this distant northern sea.

The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.

Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.

Now that you've read the poem several times, go to the "to student" folders, look under the jcowlin folder, and open the document entitled "Dover Beach activity." Answer the questions by typing directly into the document. When you've finished, save it to your own folder using a new document name. Also, print out a copy and turn it in.

If you have any quesitons, don't hesitate to ask. Good luck!

Never Never Veldt

This EXTRA CREDIT post is for JUNIORS only.

Now that you've read Ray Bradbury's "The Veldt," check out this clip from Disney's Peter Pan.

If you'd like to see more of Peter Pan, or if your just not familiar with the story/film, rent the movie or check out the links via Youtube.

Your task: Write a thoughtful, thoough paragraph in which you explore the connections between the story and the Disney film. First, start out with the direct connections, character names and plot devices. Second, move on to themes and motivations. We're not simply making a list of similarities between the two, although that is part of it. We're exploring WHY Bradbury made similarities between the two tales. How do these similarities add to the irony of the short story's conclusion? How do the two explore the same themes, but come up with utterly different conclusions?

Remember: This post is EXTRA CREDIT. Your goal here is to demonstrate that you're thinking about the topic at hand. Share you thoughts - the more the better. That's it. Just show me that you're thinking.

Your paragraph is due on Friday. If you're not here on Friday, please e-mail it to me.