All posts in Larry Dean

Simile-ing from Ear to Ear

After a few weeks off, we were back with poetry at Volta; and what better way to dive into the deep end than with Harryette Mullen’s “Wipe That Simile Off Your Aphasia”? This poem […]

A Simile Is Worth a Thousand Words

Similes were our focus this week. Students are already pretty comfortable with the concept, so something a bit different was in order. I included a note on Harryette Mullen’s “Wipe That Simile Off Your […]

Springing into Action

The two elements we examined most closely for this week’s poem were imagery and line length. William Carlos Williams’ “Spring Storm” is intensely focused on its title event. I asked if we removed “spring” […]

Springing to Mind

This last week was the first full week of spring, so in celebration, Volta poets read “Spring Storm” by William Carlos Williams. In addition to personification, the poem includes imagery, a term I explained […]

List But Not Least

At the halfway point of our residency, it was time to introduce a poem unlike any we’ve seen so far. “Living in Numbers,” by Claire Lee, is an example of a list poem. As […]

Check List

This week’s poem looks nothing like any the students at Volta have seen so far. “Living in Numbers” by Claire Lee is a list of seemingly unrelated (or even random) items recorded over two […]

What: Our Friends Four

This week, we read “maggie and milly and molly and may” by E. E. Cummings. For starters, I said we could discuss how the poet uses personification as well as rhyme and similes in […]

With a Little Help from My Friends

Last week, we read and discussed E. E. Cummings’ “maggie and milly and molly and may.” Before doing so, I asked if anything looked unusual; students noticed the use of lowercase lettering throughout—except for […]

Art and Soul

“The art of losing isn’t hard to master” is one of four repeating lines in Elizabeth Bishop’s poem, “One Art.” Villanelles include repeating rhymes and two refrains, the other here always ending with the […]

Follow Your Art

Elizabeth Bishop’s villanelle, “One Art,” begins, “The art of losing isn’t hard to master.” As we commenced reading it aloud then discussing it, I talked about the idea of “the art of” something—such as […]

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I’M FROM THE CITY LIGHTS / STREAMING OUT IN THE NIGHT / AND HUGE SKYSCRAPERS / TOWERING OVER THE LAKE – MELISSA E., 7TH GRADE POET