Prepared by Lucy Green
I. Read “This is Just to Say” by William Carlos Williams
I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox
and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast
Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold
II. Discuss poem
1. Are there any words you would like to know the meaning of?
2. What is happening in this poem?
3. How do we know that the plums weren’t his?
4. Who do you think this poem was written to?
5. Where might the poet leave this poem, if it were a message for that person? (kitchen table, empty plate)
6. He apologizes, but is he really sorry? Would he do it again if he had the chance?
7. William Carolos Williams is known for his use of imagery, or sensory detail, which means he likes to describe things you can see, taste, smell, touch, or hear. What sensory details exist in this poem?
III. Assignment: I’d like you to write your own version of “This Is Just To Say.” Have you ever done anything you shouldn’t have, but that you really enjoyed? Or have you ever wanted to? We call this being mischievous.
Show yourself doing something mischievous, and show the reader you’re not really sorry. It can be something that really happened or something you made up. You can use the idea of eating something that belonged to someone else… but it also doesn’t have to do with eating. Maybe you took your husband’s favorite pen, because you like the way it writes. Maybe you made a mess and left it for someone else to clean up.
Pretend this is a note, or possibly a phone message, you’re leaving for someone.
Try to use imagery—the way something looked, smelled, sounded, tasted, or felt.
IV. Write poems and share them.
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ReplyDeleteThis poem!
ReplyDeleteI admire your choice. It's hard not to get excited about “This Is Just to Say.” I'm curious about the kinds of responses (written and spoken) that your group had to this prompt—if only because so much of its fullness is in what is not stated, what is hidden behind the lines. When I (try to) teach creative writing in an academic environment, I find that concision (which maintains its eloquence) is one of the most difficult lessons for the young writer to learn. Perhaps this is a trust issue? Perhaps the young writer (or the weathered writer, for that matter) may not always trust her writing to say what she wants it to say and so feels the need to iterate and reiterate her point just as I am doing in this post? Of course, WCW's poem is so rich that a discussion of it need not introduce the teacherly vocabulary of “concision” or “line break,” but I'd like to know if your group had a response to the sheer simplicity of the piece, or how it manages to give depth to the usually flat adjectives “sweet,” and “cold,” or how successfully it situates itself within a larger narrative that exists outside of the page.