“Life, friends, is boring.” So begins John Berryman‘s “Dream Song 14,” which was the focus of our poetry classes this week. My initial question was “who is speaking?” and while some students felt it was the poet, others thought it could be Henry—who is mentioned in the text—or perhaps even the dog that makes an appearance late, in the third stanza, before it takes itself and “its tail considerably away . . . leaving / behind: me, wag.” This kind of goofy language was part of our discussion—can you separate the wag from the tail? What does that mean? Also, how can we “flash and yearn” like the sky and “the great sea”? What are our “Inner Resources”? And what might the title mean? We also looked at the poem’s intermittent rhyming and repetition, the latter especially in regard to the six variations of the word bored that Berryman uses.
Boredom was the topic for this week’s student writing. Who would ever want to be bored?!
Mrs. Carlson, 4th Grade
School zzz
Gabrielle C.
* snore *
Uh!
science
it bores me
molecules
they bore me
Atoms
they bore me
‘the atoms inside homonuclear
blah, blah, blah’
So!
Bored!
I’ll just take a…
zzzz
Thinking about “science”
‘get up!’
Science is over, Yay!
Time for art!
Hooray! Hoorah!
Wait oh no
this is boring too!
History, boring
Math
boring
PE…
wait!
What!
That is…
boring
Uh!
Bored
Taylor H.
I am bored
bored like a lonely lily pad on a naked river
yearning and pleading for something exciting
like a child begging for a cookie
I am thinking about nothing
like a newborn baby with a blank mind
needing something exciting
I am uncomfortable
I feel like I am sitting on a huge
boulder
needing something exciting
I am reading a book very quiet
like a mouse hiding from a hungry cat
needing something
oh wait, I found something exciting.
Being Bored
Tierra M.
It’s like you’re about to die
Boredom
Being drowsy, when your phone dies
Boredom
Trying to keep yourself busy while doing homework
Boredom definition: Being upset when your sarcasm
doesn’t work
So Boring
Amber P.
How it feels
to be bored:
IT’S NOT
FUN AT ALL,
What makes me
bored? I don’t know.
Now I know
being bored…
IS SO
BORING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Don’t EVER
BE BORED!!
Forget being
BORED…
BE Excited!!!!
I’m Bored
Riley S.
I’m bored
Sitting in a car for 6 hours. Boring.
Replaying the game I just finished. Boring.
Eating. Boring.
Reading. Boring.
TV. Boring.
Board games. Boring.
Chocolate milk shake. Maybe.
Video games. Not boring.
Now repeat everything you just said without
the car part.
Not boring at all!
But being bored. Boring.
And now we are there.
No!
We have to drive back!
Mrs. Rupp, 4th Grade
Boredom
Jaren B.
This page is boring,
the page full of boredom,
I don’t know what to write,
or to do.
Hours of work and I still
have done nothing,
oh what should I do,
I’ve done it! I can
finally write something!
This paper is not
boring it’s exciting!
Bored
Rebecca B.
Dust specks.
Trailing off.
Beautiful in the daylight.
Oh.
I got distracted.
Sorry.
Life can be boring.
When you’re in a park, walking with
a Mary Sue who cried and cried endlessly,
making you get distracted by
dewdrops on spiderwebs and
loving ladybugs and butterflies
or locked in a room
with nothing but empty hands.
Or life.
Which swirls and speaks with a lovely flair,
but stops.
When you have empty hands
and bare feet
by the fireplace
burning.
Burning.
Hardens your soul.
With weak
and empty
hands.
Boredom
Adrija D.
The day is dark.
Rainy.
Stormy.
Cloudy
and
Mean.
I sit on the comfy
bed and stare out the
window.
Into the
Cold,
Dark,
Outside.
There is nothing to do.
But stare.
Until something
makes a noise.
And the noise will
be boring.
Bored
Maya M.
Bored a feeling
Bored a time
which you feel
nothing Bored
no feeling Just
as if the world
was gone and
and you were
the last one
Bored an empty
space Bored
a lifetime
of nothing
Untitled
Andy W.
I get bored in school. Hunger makes me
not bored because I think about food.
I get bored when I do long hard work. I
have to be always moving when I get bored
or I feel squirmy inside. I am
bored now.
Mrs. Travis, 4th Grade
Untitled
Roman C.
I
feel
bored.
Very
bored
when
I
am
bored
I
am
bored
if
I
have
been
doing
nothing
for
10
minutes
or
more
I am very impatient
I’m Bored
Dominic C.
When I’m bored I watch
TV or play with random
stuff.
Bored
Dalton F.
The little guy is bored he wants
something fun. I don’t blame
him all he can do is eat and
rest in his hole.
So I gave him an iPad and
Xbox One S so he will never be
bored again.
Boredom
Pranav J.
I’m bored life is horrible I am bored without my
friends I am bored homework is boring
uh do I have to do homework?
Bored
John K.
I am bored of
hockey also it
is so weird. You just hit
the puck.
SO WEIRD
AND BORING!
Untitled
Alana O.
Life is hard and birth is hard.
Being bored is boring.
THE END
Not! Life is always
boring. Life is a game.
Mr. O’Brien, 4th Grade
Bored
Mylea A.
Are you bored from people waking
up?
Here is a way to fix it.
Sleep where your feet are supposed to and
under your covers.
Bored
Isaiah I.
Bored is a horrible feeling
This Is What Bores Me
Miles K.
animals
Doritos
books
science
snow
poems
is this poem boring to you?
Here are states that bore me.
Georgia
Alabama
Idaho.
Here are songs that bore me.
“My Name Is No.”
“Orbeez Soothing Spa.”
I’m so bored I’m not wriiitt
I Am Bored
Mark L.
I am bored
nothing
to do nothing
to play nothing (for
you) to play
or do for you
Untitled
Jackson O.
being boring is boring like a tomato
is red.
being bored is boring.
being bored is doing nothing
good to do.
being bored is a waste of
time.
Untitled
Mark S.
Math makes me bored but technology is anti bored
for me and TV is too. The things that make me
bored are school, homework, math, reading, and everything
in school.
Untitled
Isaac T.
Bored…
nothing to do,
what is going on?
No one is here.
Where am I?
Lonely
Nothing…
You are fading away…
Bored
Matthew Z.
Bored bored I am bored
so much to say so much to see I am
so bored and I am so weird and
I feel so alone
HELP
I AM
SO BORED
there is a bored monster
HELP
