This week, we read Alfred Tennyson's short poem, The Eagle, as illustrated by Dave Morice in his book, Poetry Comics. We've talked a lot about the image in poetry in other sessions, so I asked about Morice's artistic interpretation of Tennyson's poem—was he able to capture in pictures what students saw as they read the poem? If so, how did he accomplish this? The comparison was made to movies, where a director zooms in and out with the camera to create a sense of scope, from close-ups to long distance. We also discussed how Morice broke-up the six lines and two stanzas of Tennyson's poem to create movement in his illustrated version.

We then read Sylvia Plath's Crossing the Water, without discussing its "meaning." Students were asked to focus on the poem's images and/or emotion instead, and afterward drew their own poetry comics, based on Plath's poem—using all of its text, a single stanza or even a line or two only. Some of the best examples are below.

Maria-Eleni D.

Monica L.

Megan H.

Vincente H.

Cathlyn L.

Natalie Z.

Mr. Sandlass, 4th Grade

Anton B.

Allison C.

Naomi G.

Aleena I.

Sergio N.

Daniel S.

Mrs. Goode, 5th Grade

Elijah S.

Elana D.

Kayla H.

Calvin L.

Sherine M.

Sam S.