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"The term triumvirate (from Latin, "of three men") is commonly used to describe a political regime dominated by three powerful individuals" (Wiki).
Read D. C. Berry's "On Reading Poems to a Senior Class at South High". Discuss the poet's use of figurative language to add power and meaning to the poem.
I think that "On Reading Poems to a Senior Class at South High" quite obviously contains the extended metaphor of fish swimming upstream or around an aquarium to what it is like to try and read poetry to a high school class.
I believe the reason why this metaphor is as powerful as it is is because the poem created such detailed mental imagery. Sure, one can imagine high school students dreading learning about poetry but to describe their lack of moment as "as orderly as a frozen fish / in a package" (3-4) is such a vivid image to paint in one's head that it is so easy to visualize. Also, because Berry continued this metaphor throughout the entire poem it becomes an metaphor with so much more power as you follow along.
When the metaphor ends, on line 23 with the bell ringing and the sentence, "where we all leaked out" I imagined the fish tanks you can see in an supermarket, where the fish are so cramed in there so tightly that they can hardly move. It reminded me of when I was around 5 years old and I crashed a shopping cart into one and all the fish just started pouring out onto the floor because they were finally free, just like the students being released from class. It was an accident, mind you, but that's probably the reason why the image Barry was trying to create was so strong for me, because I related it to that experience. Oh, but P.S. I don't recommend anyone tries to do that, even though it was such a cool thing to see.
The poet's use of figurative language is over the top and yet quite powerful. The aquarium metaphor somewhat drowns my interest...
It makes sense though as the speaker notices his students are at first closed and unable to take in his words(his body of water) at first like "frozen fish", and then frustrated, I suppose, he attempts to drown them away in his lessons etc. Cruel.
The teacher then notices that, instead of drowning, the students overcome his expectations; they had "opened up like gills for them and let [him] in." The students thaw out and became alive again... They learn to live in the flood of words filling up the classroom from out of the teacher's mouth.
The cat seems unnecessary. Cats like to eat fish... That's the only witty thing that seems to... Queen Elizabeth??? I'll stop before I over analyze.......
Erik, haha, I can sympathize with your frustration.
There are some things i want to point out. I thought it was odd that Berry said: "and I knew that though I had tried to drown them with my words," giving the impression that his objective was to throw poetry at them in a manner that was meaningless. As readers then, our initial assessment of this poem then is that he eventually helped the class understand poems and the students were engaged. In a way, we think that the students liked poetry which Berry found surprising, saying "that they had only opened up like gills for them and let me in." The students then are the fish, and thus are the subject of the extended metaphor. I just find this poem to be very odd. Why are students compared to fish? An aquarium is a very distinct metaphor too and is something that is used for viewing pleasure. It's almost like a prison too and the fish are not their by choice.
__________ So this is my conclusion, this poem is a fantasy account of a teacher who is asleep and dreaming about his class being enamored with poetry and loving it as much as he does. I suspect this for two reasons. Firstly, because i get the impression that the cat woke him up at the very end of the poem. His fins becoming hands again is a return to reality. The reality being, in my mind, that poetry is not something that can be taught but must be discovered. You cannot force poetry upon minds. This is confessed i think with "whacking words" which is a joking yet serious way of criticizing poetry being taught.
The Queen Elizabeth allusion, if it was intended as such, is (I agree with Erik) quite stupid.
I'm not sure what to make of this poem; but there were a few things I noticed. Firstly, the structure of it was different than any of the other one's we've analyzed. Secondly, the extended metaphor throughout the majority of the poem made it more powerful; and thirdly, like Erik said, I don't understand the cats.
But the figurative language; in the first stanza, "sitting there/as orderly as frozen fish/in a package" (3-5)--is a interesting comparison. Fish are packaged so neatly and with such careful organization. It seems like he [the teacher]is trying to say his students have no life. They're kind of just sitting here, because they have to be there.
I'm not sure what he's referring to when he says in the 2nd stanza "water began to fill the room" (6) because I'm sure it's not literal, but he's comparing it with something--I just don't know what.
Maybe possibly realizing that the students are more than just "organized fish"? Because in the 3rd stanza, he says "that they had only opened up/like gills for them/and let me in" (14-16). So maybe he's realized that his students are listening and they're finally taking in what the teacher has to say?
He continues throughout the rest of the poem to use the extended metaphor of the fish and I think that's what makes it so powerful. The imagery in the poem is also very strong; there is auditory, tactile, and kinesthetic.
I read over it a couple more times and the impression i'm getting is that Berry just wanted to show how cool he was and use an extended metaphor. I think it's interesting that Mrs. Minor asked about how the FL added "POWER" and "MEANING" to this poem which i think is very shallow.
Nevertheless, it is a great example of figurative language and should be respected for it i suppose.
Nima, your absolutely in the right. The poem is definitely a dream, fantasy, what have you, and I have found a level of respect for the author. It's not easy to write a poem about modern day high school students studying poetry, and the figurative language most definitely forces the otherwise depressing subject into something metaphorical and more than what it actually is.
I like imagination. I just probably instead of fish would have used Star Wars metaphors.
I thought that this poem was very whimsical, which made it funny, but there's also a point to it. Overall, I kind of liked it. :)
It doesn't seem like there's much to analyze, but the extended metaphor of fish is very vivid, and the quote "as orderly as frozen fish" illustrates how uninterested and glassy-eyed the students are. I think the aquarium is comparing the students in the classroom to the confines of a cage, or in this case, an aquarium.
Michelle, I think the water filling up the room is a metaphor for the kids slowly making more and more noise and not paying attention anymore. Later, when he/she says "I had tried to drown them with my words," I think it's almost literally trying to talk over them or at least to gain their attention with poetry.
I took a more pessimistic view of the phrase "that they had only opened up/ like gills for them/ and let me in." Although the kids pulled the speaker into their "aquarium," it wasn't because they were interested in poetry or the speaker. Instead, they brought he/she in to transform the speaker into another fish "whacking words" and not really caring about what's going on. It's as though the speaker entered the students' alternate reality. Finally, the futility of the class is over when the students "leaked out" and the speaker is brought back into their reality by the cat.
I keep saying "speaker" because it seemed to me like the person talking about the poem could have been a student, uncomfortably feeling the stares of their peers when they have to get up and present. I feel like it could've been written by a student who's then washed into the same prison as their peers.
Erik: Haha, I really hope there's no double meaning to the Queen Elizabeth reference either. Just comic effect maybe...
For some reason, when I read this poem, I didn't get the sense that the speaker was necessarily the teacher of the class. Like every else has said, the fish are a metaphor for the students, and the speaker is teaching poetry to a class of fish (clever, Berry). I would have to agree with Diya that the speaker is probably another student or a guest, because I sense of mood of apprehension or anxiousness by his/her tone before the speaker begins talking.
Before the speaker shares his/her poem, the fish are described as "frozen fish in a package" (4). This implies the class is dead or apathetic to poetry. However, as the poem progresses, and the water fills the room, which is another metaphor for the intellectual atmosphere created by analyzing poetry, the class comes alive. I love the fourth stanza because words such as "whacking" and "puncturing" stood out to me. In line 18, I imagined the scene in "Finding Nemo" where Nemo first goes to school, and the stingray teacher carries all his pupils on his back and swims through the ocean. The speaker in this poem is swimming with the students, and guiding them through poetry. The bell signifies a call back to reality. I also love how Berry used the word "leaked" to describe how the class left the classroom. I had the exact image Lauren described.
Initially I interpreted this poem as a teacher becoming indignant at his students lack of interest in poetry, assuming that the "gills" represented the students passivity, letting the teacher's words go right through them when they were supposed to "Drown" them. My perspective changed when i came across the word "puncturing" in the fourth stanza. The word has negative connotations, and ends the session of poetry, suggesting that the experience was a positive one.
I think that the poem is not necessarily a fantasy or dream, but a recollection of a good memory, as it is all in the past tense. The teacher recalls that at first that the students seemed to be conformists, or "frozen fish". As he read them poetry he realized that he was wrong and that they could comfortably breathe and move around in it. The fourth stanza almost seems sexual, like a poetic orgy of intellect.
As for the cat and Queen Elizabeth... Help...
But the last two lines are my favorite of the whole poem. They conjure up beautiful and vivid imagery, as the speaker reenters the present moment.
I agree with Grace about the poem, and that the water filling the room represents the students coming alive, or beginning to understand the poetry, perhaps.
I can't think of any other reason for the cat than what nima said about the teacher/student/narrator daydreaming. That explanation seems to make sense enough to me.
Why not compare students to fish? It's not a very beautiful poem, but it's interesting. Fair enough.
I'm not sure whether to look at the latter stanzas as pessimistic or optimistic, since he says "together we swam around the room like thirty tails whacking words till the bell rang." I think I'll go with optimistic, though. I imagine a discussion rather than a 'who can talk louder' fight.
This poem didn't say much to me but I didn't think badly of it, either.
I liked the structure of this poem. I also like that there was just one big metaphor and not thirty that we have to decipher and guess at their meaning.
I read that someone thought the water filling the room was the chatter of students. But if it was, then why would he describe them as frozen fish in the previous stnaza? Frozen fish are pretty silent and calm. I also like that there was a panicked sort of feeling in stanzas three and four. As if the narrator was trying to shove his knowledge on the kids before time was up.
And as for the cat part? Yea, that was a little weird. I've read several musicians say that when they go on stage they become someone else and it takes them a ittle while to 'come down', so to speak. Maybe that's what the cat licking his fins back to hands mean. The narrator needs to unwind and wash the stress/panic from the third and fourth stanzas off.
The fish metaphor adds power to this poem because without it, it would be entirely boring. Even though it seemed a desperate stretch, Berry saved himself with several key lines. The 'gills' that his students have is fitting; gills flush water in and out (atleast I think they do??), which is similar to how these kids listen to his words but spit them back out. The "thirty tails whacking words" is interesting because it reminds me of beating a dead horse. I never hear the phrase 'beating a dead horse' unless it's used by a teacher addressing a completely non-responsive class.
The entire aquarium idea is also fitting because they always seem hectic. When ever I look at the aquariums in the dentist office, the fish swim around (more twitching than swimming) and seem lost. That's kind of what it's like when teachers talk about poetry. Kids get all panicky and either overanalyze or underanalyze.
First off, I thought this poem was enjoyable. It was written in more simple language than many other poems, yet had a great deal of meaning. I can ascertain from the title of the poem that the speaker is not a regular guest of the classroom; in short, it is not the teacher.
I'll first respond to some of the things others have said. Nima and Erik, you both talked about the Queen Elizabeth allusion. I frankly do not understand this allusion, and so cannot tell what purpose it really serves in the context of the poem.
I understood that the poem was simply one long extended metaphor, one of comparing fish in a tank to the students in the classroom. This was the main figurative language, and it helped to draw me into the poem and appreciate it more.
I also noticed some of the smaller phrases of figurative language, such as "as orderly as frozen fish in a package". This line really helped me to visualize exactly how the students were sitting in the classroom when the speaker walked in.
I felt that the climax of the poem was the one line verse "where we all leaked out". Not only did this line give a resolution to all of the description before it, but it also gave a nice change in the structure of the piece.
One last thing I noticed was how the verses got longer and longer up until the single line verse, and then tapered off in length quite a bit. I thought that this might be symbolic of the water level rising in a fish tank until the tank can hold no more, and the tank leaks out, much like the students and speaker did in the poem.
When I started the poem I thought it would be like lauren said, but actually, I think the poem is describing a wonderful experience where the students open up to the poetry and join the teacher in a journey of creativity. There were a few diction choices that made me think this. The lines in the first stanza "sitting there as orderly as frozen fish in a package" creates an image for me of perfectly poised students waiting for another boring lecture they had to sit through. The lines "though I had tried to drown them with my words that they had only opened up like gills for them and let me in" make it clear that the teacher had been prepared to give the lecture the students were expecting but, instead, the poetry touched the students and they were filled with it. The word only makes this statement, as it describes the contradiction. "Together we swam around the room" describes the connection between the teacher and the students and suggesting that the poem had released them from their sealed packaging and allowed them to be free. I really like how this poem makes the statement that poetry can set you free.
*sigh* I hate to admit it, but the cat is completely necessary to reveal the fantasy-like nature of the aquarium. He awakes when the cat licks his fingers..... Queen Elizabeth though I am still not willing to over-analyze.
good use of surrealism. It's like the MATRIX.....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
For me, the most significant part of this extended metaphor comes at the beginning of the poem when the teacher is explaining his preconceived notions about teaching poetry. He goes into the class assuming his lessons will "drown" his students, and is surprised to learn they actually enjoy the study of poetry. I can relate to this because oftentimes I believe high school students are stereotyped as unmotivated and uninterested. We then get to shock adults as we are willing to swim with them, rather than forcing them against the current.
To be honest, I can't say that studying poetry is a breath of life, giving me oxygen through my metaphorical gills, but I think that this poet's point can transcend poetry and apply to high school education in general. If you just toss is in water, we're able to swim much better than you'd expect.
This poem is nothing but the truth all wrapped up in figurative language. Obviously, by using fish D.C. Berry creates an illusion of schooling fish that move and think in unison. The water that filed the room was the teachers own words. When teachers talk and talk then stop, its like they are listening to their words float about the room. When analyzing the poem the whole class is "whacking words", when I thought of the fish spawning and making redds, by whacking the ground
It seems like the teacher enters the classroom somewhat apprehensive. He comes in prepared to give a lecture on poetry that he/she suspects will “drown” them, but in all actuality, after the students begin listening, they are transported to a whole new literary world where the a figurative aquarium of water is their life-sustaining air. It is a wonderful experience that flows in and out of them, profoundly affecting them -- as well as the teacher. The experience clings to the teacher long after he returns home. Only when a piece of reality --his cat, the Queen-- touches him does he return to his previous state.
The extended metaphor, obviously involving fish and an aquarium, really makes you feel as if you’ve walked into a whole new realm… just as the students feel. “Together they swam around the room / like thirty tails whacking words.” I took this to mean a class discussion where they are “fishing” (ha ha) around for meanings. Collaborating. Brainstorming. Just like we do on the blog.
…but then the experience must end, and they all leak out. I think the diction here is particularly interesting. It wasn’t a “rush” or a “flood.” It was a slow leak, like a reluctant trickle. Sounds like they weren’t ready to leave… but their next class called for them in the form of a ringing bell.
This poem is just about how a teacher feels when his class really connects with him on the subject and specific material he is teaching that day. It is something boring to talk about for us students and might excite the handful of teachers who truly love their jobs. But Berry describes his class in a way that makes the reader turn, like his students, from bored stiff "frozen fish in a package" into "tails whacking." He fills the poem with different figures of speech about fish and ends it nicely with his cat licking his fish/human fin/hand. The imagery of his students as "frozen fish in a package" provokes not only a visual response but also the slight rotten, ocean smell that comes with the fish, reminiscent of something that is so tired it died and is decomposing. His diction is evidenced by the word "drown," which has a double meaning in this poem. He could be drowning their sound out with his words literally, or be trying to drown them in his fish metaphor. He ends his room-aquarium metaphor, but not the fish one, when he writes "the bell rang puncturing a hole in the door where we all leaked out." I can just see the kids falling out like fish from a broken aquarium. Which btw if you haven't... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMh2vnKuLyI
I think that this poem is short and sweet. It's a simple metaphor that gives meaning and fun to the poem. It keeps readers engaged. The students are "as orderly as frozen fish" just like at the beginning of every class. However, as the lesson starts and the teacher began his or her reading of poetry, "water began to fill the room." The teacher was somewhat shocked of his or her student's attentiveness and ability to listen ("that they had only opened up like gills for them and let me in.") From here, the class began to get into the poetry and "thirty tails whacking words" began to happen. They were discussing and enjoying what the teacher was reading to them. And, with the bell, the students stormed out of the room, just like any other day at school. I mean, who wants to prolong time spend in class right?
I thought that the poem was very interesting and fun to read. Unlike most of the poems we read in class, the language was simple, and the main idea of the poem was easily seen through figurative language. Although, the allusion to Queen Elizabeth, I may never understand...
As I have been thinking about this poem, reading it more, and reading other blog posts, I realized that I don't think it's a teacher talking to students, but rather someone else...
I thought that the teacher developed fins because he/she also learned things at school while he/she thought. You know how people say that you never stop learning. The students are fishes, but since you don't stop learning, parts of the teacher become a fish - indicating that he/she also learned things at the school. The fins go away in the comfort of his/her home. I also thought the same as Michelle. The packaged frozen fish are students who don't have any life or individuality, but as they learn more they become more active "whacking words" - throwing ideas back and forth.
This poem about reading a poem to a senior class creates a fun, playful atmosphere. The overall poem is built on an extended metaphor of fish swimming in water to the moment of reading a poem to a senior class. The transition from “frozen fish” to “fish in an aquarium” was cleverly written. The imagery of the water (essential for the survival of fish) filling the room and seeing fish swimming back and forth adds on to the cheerfulness of the overall poem. The metaphors, such as “licked my fins” and “swam around the room”, support the narrator’s consciousness being absorbed into the poem. Instead of drowning his classmates with words he became one of them. The diction in the poem brings movement to the poem; Berry chooses words such as “puncturing” and “leak” to show the energy of the classroom.
As I started to read this poem the image of packed fish immediately reminded me of sardines, packed tightly and looking identical. The students seemed to be portrayed as individuals that are confined and actually dead. Then the water starts to enter the picture. To fish water is life, and without it they cannot survive. I think that when the water starts to fill up the room, the water is supposed to be the poem starting to consume the students. The water could possibly be the poetic mood starting to breathe life into all these dead fish! The reason that I think that the water is the poem taking a positive effect on the students is because the reader of the poem is also swimming through the water with the students. Their tails that whack words seem to be the discussion of the poem, the figurative language, the meaning and the diction of the poem.
I read the poem once, read the blog post, and agreed with Nima's idea that this was a fantastical, idealistic account of the teachers imagination. But after reading it again (the poem bein so short) I don't agree with that idea. I think the main concept of the metaphor is that even though a teacher can barrage students with lots and lots of poetry and try to instill some interest, it is in the end up to the students to initiate their own transformation.
To me, this teacher, or lecturer, seemed to initially see condemn these students apathetically as uncaring to poetry. Then there seems to be a sort of enlightenment with the teacher as the students only react, and adapt to his "drowning."
And to the last part, I was a little confused and I thought that the whole plot had been a dream. But from a more figurative standpoint, his transformation back to "human" seems to be a movement back to reality. Becoming the fish, and swimming freely was only the essence of entering poetry. No longer was the he (and the students) confined to the walls of the room, but open to intellectually roam and appreciate poetry.
I viewed this poem as taking place over the course of a school year. At first the students are totally zoned out and are about as lively as "frozen fish" in the classroom. As the year progresses the students begin to warm up to the idea of being more creative in the classroom and certainly become more lively with one another. The water reaching the teachers ears in the second stanza is a metaphor for the teachers realization of his/her students creativity and intellect. Towards the end of the poem the ringing of the bell and the students heading off to different classes represents the students going off to pursue something after high school.
Words like "drown" and "frozen" made it seem as if the teacher felt hopeless or powerless. The second stanza made me think of a passive teacher who attempts to ignore the rowdy children in his or her classroom until they become unbearable and start bouncing off the walls. But then I thought about it again, and maybe the teacher sees the students as frozen fish and the water, or the words are what thaw them out. They break the ice and begin to open up and share their thoughts. And then they start to swim around the room and move their tails, which seem to represent active minds.
I liked Lauren's story. Haha. I also had the image of a fish tank cracking and exploding. That metaphor perfectly describes what our halls look like when the bell rings. First the sneakiest, most impatient kids trickle out and then the bell rings and everyone floods the hallways and it's impossible to stop them or push them back into their classrooms.
Tactile and visual imagery were prominent. From the second stanza on, I had a feeling of being underwater because the words were consistent with the theme of the aquarium and being underwater.
The last three stanzas make the shift from the classroom to home feel so abrupt. The short sentence, "where we all leaked out" kind of ends that vision or fantasy as some described it. That is where the vision of an aquarium seems to disintegrate. You imagine these students returning to their natural state, and the teacher returning home to his or her cat. There is a different sense of understanding between the teacher and the cat. Organic imagery?
This poem is very unique. I think it has a comic effect because it is interesting to read the thoughts of a teacher, who trying to get his lifeless students engaged in poetry.
The first stanza refers to the students "sitting there as orderly as frozen fish." It had a strong sense of visual imagery because I could just picture their gaping mouths and glazed eyes, unaware of the importance of what they are about to learn.
In the second stanza, I loved how Berry expressed their thoughts as water. Like water, thoughts can seep into the smallest "cracks." As the water rises, the fish become alive again and they begin to let the knowledge "drown" them.
I loved how he mentioned Queen Elizabeth and a cat in one stanza! I think it is fairly simple..the cat is named Queen Elizabeth..but I have no idea..
Well, there really isn't much more that I can add to the discussion, but I'll give it a try anyway.
I liked this poem because it's very simple, direct, and doesn't require hours of deep analysis. When I read the poem, I got very detailed and vibrant images in my head. The extended metaphor of fish made the poem interesting, fun, and also establishes a connection with the readers. The litotes in line 6, "I did not notice it till it reached my ears," also adds humor and adds to the overall effect of the poem.
Like Lauren said, the usage of detailed imagery also achieves the goal of the poem, which is to share an experience (I don't think there is any oral to the story). I noticed that the poem uses a wide range of imagery; tactile, auditory, organic, and kinesthetic imagery.
The last stanza is cool. At first I thought it was really random, but now that I understand why it was put in there, I see that it is important to the poem. This is really random, but it kind of reminded me of movies where the character has a really vivid dream and the whole movie is about that dream, then at the end the main character wakes up, and you find out it was all a dream.
When the speaker gets to the class, the students are all “orderly frozen fish” (5). But apparently poetry has the power to both revive and defrost when the speaker and his school later “swam around the room like thirty tails whacking words” (20). It's an outlandish claim, that poetry can energize someone like that, but just such a hyperbole works wonders to get the point across.
The thing that bothers me most about this poem is that it doesn't make complete sense without the title. Why are there no mentions to exactly what class this is in the body of the poem? The only clue is that it takes place in a class room.
31 comments:
I think that "On Reading Poems to a Senior Class at South High" quite obviously contains the extended metaphor of fish swimming upstream or around an aquarium to what it is like to try and read poetry to a high school class.
I believe the reason why this metaphor is as powerful as it is is because the poem created such detailed mental imagery. Sure, one can imagine high school students dreading learning about poetry but to describe their lack of moment as "as orderly as a frozen fish / in a package" (3-4) is such a vivid image to paint in one's head that it is so easy to visualize. Also, because Berry continued this metaphor throughout the entire poem it becomes an metaphor with so much more power as you follow along.
When the metaphor ends, on line 23 with the bell ringing and the sentence, "where we all leaked out" I imagined the fish tanks you can see in an supermarket, where the fish are so cramed in there so tightly that they can hardly move. It reminded me of when I was around 5 years old and I crashed a shopping cart into one and all the fish just started pouring out onto the floor because they were finally free, just like the students being released from class. It was an accident, mind you, but that's probably the reason why the image Barry was trying to create was so strong for me, because I related it to that experience. Oh, but P.S. I don't recommend anyone tries to do that, even though it was such a cool thing to see.
The poet's use of figurative language is over the top and yet quite powerful. The aquarium metaphor somewhat drowns my interest...
It makes sense though as the speaker notices his students are at first closed and unable to take in his words(his body of water) at first like "frozen fish", and then frustrated, I suppose, he attempts to drown them away in his lessons etc. Cruel.
The teacher then notices that, instead of drowning, the students overcome his expectations; they had "opened up like gills for them and let [him] in." The students thaw out and became alive again... They learn to live in the flood of words filling up the classroom from out of the teacher's mouth.
The cat seems unnecessary. Cats like to eat fish... That's the only witty thing that seems to... Queen Elizabeth??? I'll stop before I over analyze.......
Notes:
Erik, haha, I can sympathize with your frustration.
There are some things i want to point out. I thought it was odd that Berry said:
"and I knew that though I had
tried to drown them
with my words," giving the impression that his objective was to throw poetry at them in a manner that was meaningless. As readers then, our initial assessment of this poem then is that he eventually helped the class understand poems and the students were engaged. In a way, we think that the students liked poetry which Berry found surprising, saying "that they had only opened up
like gills for them
and let me in." The students then are the fish, and thus are the subject of the extended metaphor. I just find this poem to be very odd. Why are students compared to fish? An aquarium is a very distinct metaphor too and is something that is used for viewing pleasure. It's almost like a prison too and the fish are not their by choice.
__________
So this is my conclusion, this poem is a fantasy account of a teacher who is asleep and dreaming about his class being enamored with poetry and loving it as much as he does. I suspect this for two reasons. Firstly, because i get the impression that the cat woke him up at the very end of the poem. His fins becoming hands again is a return to reality. The reality being, in my mind, that poetry is not something that can be taught but must be discovered. You cannot force poetry upon minds. This is confessed i think with "whacking words" which is a joking yet serious way of criticizing poetry being taught.
The Queen Elizabeth allusion, if it was intended as such, is (I agree with Erik) quite stupid.
I'm not sure what to make of this poem; but there were a few things I noticed. Firstly, the structure of it was different than any of the other one's we've analyzed. Secondly, the extended metaphor throughout the majority of the poem made it more powerful; and thirdly, like Erik said, I don't understand the cats.
But the figurative language; in the first stanza, "sitting there/as orderly as frozen fish/in a package" (3-5)--is a interesting comparison. Fish are packaged so neatly and with such careful organization. It seems like he [the teacher]is trying to say his students have no life. They're kind of just sitting here, because they have to be there.
I'm not sure what he's referring to when he says in the 2nd stanza "water began to fill the room" (6) because I'm sure it's not literal, but he's comparing it with something--I just don't know what.
Maybe possibly realizing that the students are more than just "organized fish"? Because in the 3rd stanza, he says "that they had only opened up/like gills for them/and let me in" (14-16). So maybe he's realized that his students are listening and they're finally taking in what the teacher has to say?
He continues throughout the rest of the poem to use the extended metaphor of the fish and I think that's what makes it so powerful. The imagery in the poem is also very strong; there is auditory, tactile, and kinesthetic.
I read over it a couple more times and the impression i'm getting is that Berry just wanted to show how cool he was and use an extended metaphor. I think it's interesting that Mrs. Minor asked about how the FL added "POWER" and "MEANING" to this poem which i think is very shallow.
Nevertheless, it is a great example of figurative language and should be respected for it i suppose.
Nima, your absolutely in the right. The poem is definitely a dream, fantasy, what have you, and I have found a level of respect for the author. It's not easy to write a poem about modern day high school students studying poetry, and the figurative language most definitely forces the otherwise depressing subject into something metaphorical and more than what it actually is.
I like imagination. I just probably instead of fish would have used Star Wars metaphors.
I thought that this poem was very whimsical, which made it funny, but there's also a point to it. Overall, I kind of liked it. :)
It doesn't seem like there's much to analyze, but the extended metaphor of fish is very vivid, and the quote "as orderly as frozen fish" illustrates how uninterested and glassy-eyed the students are. I think the aquarium is comparing the students in the classroom to the confines of a cage, or in this case, an aquarium.
Michelle, I think the water filling up the room is a metaphor for the kids slowly making more and more noise and not paying attention anymore. Later, when he/she says "I had tried to drown them with my words," I think it's almost literally trying to talk over them or at least to gain their attention with poetry.
I took a more pessimistic view of the phrase "that they had only opened up/ like gills for them/ and let me in." Although the kids pulled the speaker into their "aquarium," it wasn't because they were interested in poetry or the speaker. Instead, they brought he/she in to transform the speaker into another fish "whacking words" and not really caring about what's going on. It's as though the speaker entered the students' alternate reality. Finally, the futility of the class is over when the students "leaked out" and the speaker is brought back into their reality by the cat.
I keep saying "speaker" because it seemed to me like the person talking about the poem could have been a student, uncomfortably feeling the stares of their peers when they have to get up and present. I feel like it could've been written by a student who's then washed into the same prison as their peers.
Erik: Haha, I really hope there's no double meaning to the Queen Elizabeth reference either. Just comic effect maybe...
For some reason, when I read this poem, I didn't get the sense that the speaker was necessarily the teacher of the class. Like every else has said, the fish are a metaphor for the students, and the speaker is teaching poetry to a class of fish (clever, Berry). I would have to agree with Diya that the speaker is probably another student or a guest, because I sense of mood of apprehension or anxiousness by his/her tone before the speaker begins talking.
Before the speaker shares his/her poem, the fish are described as "frozen fish in a package" (4). This implies the class is dead or apathetic to poetry. However, as the poem progresses, and the water fills the room, which is another metaphor for the intellectual atmosphere created by analyzing poetry, the class comes alive. I love the fourth stanza because words such as "whacking" and "puncturing" stood out to me. In line 18, I imagined the scene in "Finding Nemo" where Nemo first goes to school, and the stingray teacher carries all his pupils on his back and swims through the ocean. The speaker in this poem is swimming with the students, and guiding them through poetry. The bell signifies a call back to reality. I also love how Berry used the word "leaked" to describe how the class left the classroom. I had the exact image Lauren described.
Initially I interpreted this poem as a teacher becoming indignant at his students lack of interest in poetry, assuming that the "gills" represented the students passivity, letting the teacher's words go right through them when they were supposed to "Drown" them. My perspective changed when i came across the word "puncturing" in the fourth stanza. The word has negative connotations, and ends the session of poetry, suggesting that the experience was a positive one.
I think that the poem is not necessarily a fantasy or dream, but a recollection of a good memory, as it is all in the past tense. The teacher recalls that at first that the students seemed to be conformists, or "frozen fish". As he read them poetry he realized that he was wrong and that they could comfortably breathe and move around in it. The fourth stanza almost seems sexual, like a poetic orgy of intellect.
As for the cat and Queen Elizabeth... Help...
But the last two lines are my favorite of the whole poem. They conjure up beautiful and vivid imagery, as the speaker reenters the present moment.
I agree with Grace about the poem, and that the water filling the room represents the students coming alive, or beginning to understand the poetry, perhaps.
I can't think of any other reason for the cat than what nima said about the teacher/student/narrator daydreaming. That explanation seems to make sense enough to me.
Why not compare students to fish? It's not a very beautiful poem, but it's interesting. Fair enough.
I'm not sure whether to look at the latter stanzas as pessimistic or optimistic, since he says "together we swam around the room like thirty tails whacking words till the bell rang." I think I'll go with optimistic, though. I imagine a discussion rather than a 'who can talk louder' fight.
This poem didn't say much to me but I didn't think badly of it, either.
I liked the structure of this poem. I also like that there was just one big metaphor and not thirty that we have to decipher and guess at their meaning.
I read that someone thought the water filling the room was the chatter of students. But if it was, then why would he describe them as frozen fish in the previous stnaza? Frozen fish are pretty silent and calm.
I also like that there was a panicked sort of feeling in stanzas three and four. As if the narrator was trying to shove his knowledge on the kids before time was up.
And as for the cat part? Yea, that was a little weird. I've read several musicians say that when they go on stage they become someone else and it takes them a ittle while to 'come down', so to speak. Maybe that's what the cat licking his fins back to hands mean. The narrator needs to unwind and wash the stress/panic from the third and fourth stanzas off.
The fish metaphor adds power to this poem because without it, it would be entirely boring. Even though it seemed a desperate stretch, Berry saved himself with several key lines. The 'gills' that his students have is fitting; gills flush water in and out (atleast I think they do??), which is similar to how these kids listen to his words but spit them back out. The "thirty tails whacking words" is interesting because it reminds me of beating a dead horse. I never hear the phrase 'beating a dead horse' unless it's used by a teacher addressing a completely non-responsive class.
The entire aquarium idea is also fitting because they always seem hectic. When ever I look at the aquariums in the dentist office, the fish swim around (more twitching than swimming) and seem lost. That's kind of what it's like when teachers talk about poetry. Kids get all panicky and either overanalyze or underanalyze.
First off, I thought this poem was enjoyable. It was written in more simple language than many other poems, yet had a great deal of meaning. I can ascertain from the title of the poem that the speaker is not a regular guest of the classroom; in short, it is not the teacher.
I'll first respond to some of the things others have said. Nima and Erik, you both talked about the Queen Elizabeth allusion. I frankly do not understand this allusion, and so cannot tell what purpose it really serves in the context of the poem.
I understood that the poem was simply one long extended metaphor, one of comparing fish in a tank to the students in the classroom. This was the main figurative language, and it helped to draw me into the poem and appreciate it more.
I also noticed some of the smaller phrases of figurative language, such as "as orderly as frozen fish in a package". This line really helped me to visualize exactly how the students were sitting in the classroom when the speaker walked in.
I felt that the climax of the poem was the one line verse "where we all leaked out". Not only did this line give a resolution to all of the description before it, but it also gave a nice change in the structure of the piece.
One last thing I noticed was how the verses got longer and longer up until the single line verse, and then tapered off in length quite a bit. I thought that this might be symbolic of the water level rising in a fish tank until the tank can hold no more, and the tank leaks out, much like the students and speaker did in the poem.
When I started the poem I thought it would be like lauren said, but actually, I think the poem is describing a wonderful experience where the students open up to the poetry and join the teacher in a journey of creativity. There were a few diction choices that made me think this.
The lines in the first stanza "sitting there as orderly as frozen fish in a package" creates an image for me of perfectly poised students waiting for another boring lecture they had to sit through. The lines "though I had tried to drown them with my words that they had only opened up like gills for them and let me in" make it clear that the teacher had been prepared to give the lecture the students were expecting but, instead, the poetry touched the students and they were filled with it. The word only makes this statement, as it describes the contradiction.
"Together we swam around the room" describes the connection between the teacher and the students and suggesting that the poem had released them from their sealed packaging and allowed them to be free. I really like how this poem makes the statement that poetry can set you free.
*sigh* I hate to admit it, but the cat is completely necessary to reveal the fantasy-like nature of the aquarium. He awakes when the cat licks his fingers..... Queen Elizabeth though I am still not willing to over-analyze.
good use of surrealism. It's like the MATRIX.....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
For me, the most significant part of this extended metaphor comes at the beginning of the poem when the teacher is explaining his preconceived notions about teaching poetry. He goes into the class assuming his lessons will "drown" his students, and is surprised to learn they actually enjoy the study of poetry. I can relate to this because oftentimes I believe high school students are stereotyped as unmotivated and uninterested. We then get to shock adults as we are willing to swim with them, rather than forcing them against the current.
To be honest, I can't say that studying poetry is a breath of life, giving me oxygen through my metaphorical gills, but I think that this poet's point can transcend poetry and apply to high school education in general. If you just toss is in water, we're able to swim much better than you'd expect.
This poem is nothing but the truth all wrapped up in figurative language. Obviously, by using fish D.C. Berry creates an illusion of schooling fish that move and think in unison. The water that filed the room was the teachers own words. When teachers talk and talk then stop, its like they are listening to their words float about the room. When analyzing the poem the whole class is "whacking words", when I thought of the fish spawning and making redds, by whacking the ground
Hi--
This was kind of a fun poem…
The whole poem provides a comical image
It seems like the teacher enters the classroom somewhat apprehensive. He comes in prepared to give a lecture on poetry that he/she suspects will “drown” them, but in all actuality, after the students begin listening, they are transported to a whole new literary world where the a figurative aquarium of water is their life-sustaining air. It is a wonderful experience that flows in and out of them, profoundly affecting them -- as well as the teacher. The experience clings to the teacher long after he returns home. Only when a piece of reality --his cat, the Queen-- touches him does he return to his previous state.
The extended metaphor, obviously involving fish and an aquarium, really makes you feel as if you’ve walked into a whole new realm… just as the students feel. “Together they swam around the room / like thirty tails whacking words.” I took this to mean a class discussion where they are “fishing” (ha ha) around for meanings. Collaborating. Brainstorming. Just like we do on the blog.
…but then the experience must end, and they all leak out. I think the diction here is particularly interesting. It wasn’t a “rush” or a “flood.” It was a slow leak, like a reluctant trickle. Sounds like they weren’t ready to leave… but their next class called for them in the form of a ringing bell.
This poem is just about how a teacher feels when his class really connects with him on the subject and specific material he is teaching that day. It is something boring to talk about for us students and might excite the handful of teachers who truly love their jobs.
But Berry describes his class in a way that makes the reader turn, like his students, from bored stiff "frozen fish in a package" into "tails whacking." He fills the poem with different figures of speech about fish and ends it nicely with his cat licking his fish/human fin/hand. The imagery of his students as "frozen fish in a package" provokes not only a visual response but also the slight rotten, ocean smell that comes with the fish, reminiscent of something that is so tired it died and is decomposing.
His diction is evidenced by the word "drown," which has a double meaning in this poem. He could be drowning their sound out with his words literally, or be trying to drown them in his fish metaphor.
He ends his room-aquarium metaphor, but not the fish one, when he writes "the bell rang puncturing a hole in the door where we all leaked out." I can just see the kids falling out like fish from a broken aquarium. Which btw if you haven't... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMh2vnKuLyI
I think that this poem is short and sweet. It's a simple metaphor that gives meaning and fun to the poem. It keeps readers engaged. The students are "as orderly as frozen fish" just like at the beginning of every class. However, as the lesson starts and the teacher began his or her reading of poetry, "water began to fill the room." The teacher was somewhat shocked of his or her student's attentiveness and ability to listen ("that they had only opened up like gills for them and let me in.") From here, the class began to get into the poetry and "thirty tails whacking words" began to happen. They were discussing and enjoying what the teacher was reading to them. And, with the bell, the students stormed out of the room, just like any other day at school. I mean, who wants to prolong time spend in class right?
I thought that the poem was very interesting and fun to read. Unlike most of the poems we read in class, the language was simple, and the main idea of the poem was easily seen through figurative language. Although, the allusion to Queen Elizabeth, I may never understand...
As I have been thinking about this poem, reading it more, and reading other blog posts, I realized that I don't think it's a teacher talking to students, but rather someone else...
I thought that the teacher developed fins because he/she also learned things at school while he/she thought. You know how people say that you never stop learning. The students are fishes, but since you don't stop learning, parts of the teacher become a fish - indicating that he/she also learned things at the school. The fins go away in the comfort of his/her home.
I also thought the same as Michelle. The packaged frozen fish are students who don't have any life or individuality, but as they learn more they become more active "whacking words" - throwing ideas back and forth.
I think its just what he called his cat
This poem about reading a poem to a senior class creates a fun, playful atmosphere. The overall poem is built on an extended metaphor of fish swimming in water to the moment of reading a poem to a senior class. The transition from “frozen fish” to “fish in an aquarium” was cleverly written. The imagery of the water (essential for the survival of fish) filling the room and seeing fish swimming back and forth adds on to the cheerfulness of the overall poem. The metaphors, such as “licked my fins” and “swam around the room”, support the narrator’s consciousness being absorbed into the poem. Instead of drowning his classmates with words he became one of them. The diction in the poem brings movement to the poem; Berry chooses words such as “puncturing” and “leak” to show the energy of the classroom.
As I started to read this poem the image of packed fish immediately reminded me of sardines, packed tightly and looking identical. The students seemed to be portrayed as individuals that are confined and actually dead. Then the water starts to enter the picture. To fish water is life, and without it they cannot survive. I think that when the water starts to fill up the room, the water is supposed to be the poem starting to consume the students. The water could possibly be the poetic mood starting to breathe life into all these dead fish! The reason that I think that the water is the poem taking a positive effect on the students is because the reader of the poem is also swimming through the water with the students. Their tails that whack words seem to be the discussion of the poem, the figurative language, the meaning and the diction of the poem.
I read the poem once, read the blog post, and agreed with Nima's idea that this was a fantastical, idealistic account of the teachers imagination. But after reading it again (the poem bein so short) I don't agree with that idea. I think the main concept of the metaphor is that even though a teacher can barrage students with lots and lots of poetry and try to instill some interest, it is in the end up to the students to initiate their own transformation.
To me, this teacher, or lecturer, seemed to initially see condemn these students apathetically as uncaring to poetry. Then there seems to be a sort of enlightenment with the teacher as the students only react, and adapt to his "drowning."
And to the last part, I was a little confused and I thought that the whole plot had been a dream. But from a more figurative standpoint, his transformation back to "human" seems to be a movement back to reality. Becoming the fish, and swimming freely was only the essence of entering poetry. No longer was the he (and the students) confined to the walls of the room, but open to intellectually roam and appreciate poetry.
Also my verification for this post was "indian"
I viewed this poem as taking place over the course of a school year. At first the students are totally zoned out and are about as lively as "frozen fish" in the classroom. As the year progresses the students begin to warm up to the idea of being more creative in the classroom and certainly become more lively with one another.
The water reaching the teachers ears in the second stanza is a metaphor for the teachers realization of his/her students creativity and intellect.
Towards the end of the poem the ringing of the bell and the students heading off to different classes represents the students going off to pursue something after high school.
Thomas I saw that vid. Hahahaha
Funny. Sad.
Words like "drown" and "frozen" made it seem as if the teacher felt hopeless or powerless. The second stanza made me think of a passive teacher who attempts to ignore the rowdy children in his or her classroom until they become unbearable and start bouncing off the walls. But then I thought about it again, and maybe the teacher sees the students as frozen fish and the water, or the words are what thaw them out. They break the ice and begin to open up and share their thoughts. And then they start to swim around the room and move their tails, which seem to represent active minds.
I liked Lauren's story. Haha. I also had the image of a fish tank cracking and exploding. That metaphor perfectly describes what our halls look like when the bell rings. First the sneakiest, most impatient kids trickle out and then the bell rings and everyone floods the hallways and it's impossible to stop them or push them back into their classrooms.
Tactile and visual imagery were prominent. From the second stanza on, I had a feeling of being underwater because the words were consistent with the theme of the aquarium and being underwater.
The last three stanzas make the shift from the classroom to home feel so abrupt. The short sentence, "where we all leaked out" kind of ends that vision or fantasy as some described it. That is where the vision of an aquarium seems to disintegrate. You imagine these students returning to their natural state, and the teacher returning home to his or her cat. There is a different sense of understanding between the teacher and the cat. Organic imagery?
This poem is very unique. I think it has a comic effect because it is interesting to read the thoughts of a teacher, who trying to get his lifeless students engaged in poetry.
The first stanza refers to the students "sitting there as orderly as frozen fish." It had a strong sense of visual imagery because I could just picture their gaping mouths and glazed eyes, unaware of the importance of what they are about to learn.
In the second stanza, I loved how Berry expressed their thoughts as water. Like water, thoughts can seep into the smallest "cracks." As the water rises, the fish become alive again and they begin to let the knowledge "drown" them.
I loved how he mentioned Queen Elizabeth and a cat in one stanza! I think it is fairly simple..the cat is named Queen Elizabeth..but I have no idea..
Well, there really isn't much more that I can add to the discussion, but I'll give it a try anyway.
I liked this poem because it's very simple, direct, and doesn't require hours of deep analysis. When I read the poem, I got very detailed and vibrant images in my head. The extended metaphor of fish made the poem interesting, fun, and also establishes a connection with the readers. The litotes in line 6, "I did not notice it till it reached my ears," also adds humor and adds to the overall effect of the poem.
Like Lauren said, the usage of detailed imagery also achieves the goal of the poem, which is to share an experience (I don't think there is any oral to the story). I noticed that the poem uses a wide range of imagery; tactile, auditory, organic, and kinesthetic imagery.
The last stanza is cool. At first I thought it was really random, but now that I understand why it was put in there, I see that it is important to the poem. This is really random, but it kind of reminded me of movies where the character has a really vivid dream and the whole movie is about that dream, then at the end the main character wakes up, and you find out it was all a dream.
When the speaker gets to the class, the students are all “orderly frozen fish” (5). But apparently poetry has the power to both revive and defrost when the speaker and his school later “swam around the room like thirty tails whacking words” (20). It's an outlandish claim, that poetry can energize someone like that, but just such a hyperbole works wonders to get the point across.
The thing that bothers me most about this poem is that it doesn't make complete sense without the title. Why are there no mentions to exactly what class this is in the body of the poem? The only clue is that it takes place in a class room.
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