Saturday, March 21, 2015

Second Day of Spring

Happy second day of spring/
And Poetry Day too, if you will/
I’d write a little celebratory rhymy thing/
But it would shrivel next to nature’s daffodil!
 
     Oh dear! This is something I found in my notes from the 2008/2009 story-a-day files! Well, it is the second day of spring, and Poetry Day, so I might as well share it here. And the poem reminds me of another poem and ninth grade English class.
     I'll be writing about this class again in other posts. But today's is about an assignment we were given one day to pick a poem and illustrate it. I was excited – not because I was much of an artist, I was not – but because there was a particular poem we had talked about, and there was only one image that came to mind when I read it. And I could illustrate it.
     The poem is by William Wordsworth and it begins I wandered lonely as a cloud and then the fourth line is A host of lovely daffodils! And the picture that came to my mind when I read the lines is of a person walking along with a cloud covering his head – that is, a cloud where the head should be. And then daffodils at his feet and in the background. And that is what I drew!
     When it was my turn to present my assignment to the class, Mrs. Dye, my teacher, was a tad dumbstruck with the picture. “What is that where the head should be?” She did not get it. And the rest of the class did not get it. What's to get? The poet felt like a lonely cloud as he walked along!
     Oh well, Mrs. Dye would be glad to know that the imagery stuck – and on Poetry Day one year, I wrote about nature's daffodil!


80 20150321 Second day of Spring

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