on Reading Poems to a Senior Class at South High

Poetry became my passion subsequently I fell in love with Walter de la Mare'southward "Silver" in Mrs. Edna Pickett'southward sophomore English class circa 1962.

Introduction and Text of "On Reading Poems to a Senior Class at South Loftier"

D. C. Berry's "On Reading Poems to a Senior Class at South Loftier" consists of seven free verse paragraphs (versagraphs) that use the metaphor of fish that folks will hands recognize.

First, the students are sitting like fish frozen in a store-bought bundle, and then they transform, coming alive and pond as fish eagerly dart about in an aquarium. The speaker is employing this useful metaphor of transforming fish to describe his enjoyable feel of reading poems to a senior course at a high school.

On Reading Poems to a Senior Class at South High

Earlier
I opened my oral fissure
I noticed them sitting at that place
as orderly as frozen fish
in a package.

Slowly water began to make full the room
though I did not notice it
till it reached
my ears

and then I heard the sounds
of fish in an aquarium
and I knew that though I had
tried to drown them
with my words
that they had only opened upward
like gills for them
and allow me in.

Together we swam around the room
like thirty tails whacking words
till the bong rang
puncturing
a hole in the door

where we all leaked out

They went to some other class
I suppose and I dwelling

where Queen Elizabeth
my cat met me
and licked my fins
till they were hands again

Reading of "On Reading Poems to a Senior Class at Southward High"

Frozen fish are transformed into living, pond fish as they listen to poetry.

Commencement Versagraph: Depression Expectations

Before
I opened my mouth
I noticed them sitting there
equally orderly as frozen fish
in a bundle.

In the opening versagraph, the speaker claims that earlier he started speaking, he noticed that the students were sitting like "frozen fish / in a package." They were only sitting at their desks all in a row, all in social club, apparently non expecting much from the speaker.

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The speaker begins with low expectations, feeling that the students would have no interesting listening to a middle-aged poet. He felt that he had come her to read his poem, merely they would fall on deaf ears, only he continues to give it a effort.

Second Versagraph: From Frozen to Swimming

Slowly h2o began to fill the room
though I did non notice information technology
till information technology reached
my ears

Then the speaker's reading begins to bring the frozen fish to life. He expresses this new move in the room past claiming that water was filling the space, but he did non notice it until it "reached / [his] ears."

The speaker had begun reading, only because he did not expect them to be interested in listening to his poesy, he felt that he was just droning on. But so he starts to observe that they were coming alive. The water of his words had thawed out the frozen fish, and he begins to hear them moving about.

Third Versagraph: Listening and Reacting

and and so I heard the sounds
of fish in an aquarium
and I knew that though I had
tried to drown them
with my words
that they had simply opened up
like gills for them
and let me in.

Then the speaker becomes fully aware that the students are not simply listening to his poems, only they are as well reacting to them. They are no longer "frozen fish"; they are "fish in an aquarium." At this bespeak, he understands that the students are actually listening and are responding to his words.

The speaker had thought that the students probably felt as if they were being drowned by his words. Only he is then pleasantly surprised to detect that they were not just listening but reacting to the words. The speaker then feels that they are all fish in an aquarium swimming around in his words enjoying them.

Quaternary Versagraph: Enjoying a Practiced Swim

Together we swam around the room
like thirty tails whacking words
till the bell rang
puncturing
a pigsty in the door

They swim around the infinite and their responses were "like thirty tails whacking words." The students responded to his poems in a manner that told him they were not only agreement the poems but as well enjoying them plenty to call out appropriate responses.

They were totally engaged, and the speaker/poet was pleasantly surprised. They continued to bask the poesy until the end of grade. So the speaker likens the ringing of the bell to end class to some sharp tool, peradventure a drill, that punctures "a hole in the door."

Fifth Versagraph: Class Ends

where we all leaked out

The act of leaving the classroom becomes then momentous for the speaker that he places information technology in its own versagraph of one line. Continuing the swimming metaphor, the speaker has them all leaking out through the punctured hole.

Sixth Versagraph: Going Their Separate Ways

They went to another class
I suppose and I dwelling

Later "leaking" out of the classroom, the students had to get somewhere, and the speaker had to go somewhere. The speaker guesses that the students went to some other course, and he reports that he goes home.

Seventh Versagraph: A True cat Named "Queen Elizabeth"

where Queen Elizabeth
my cat met me
and licked my fins
till they were hands again

The speaker retains his feeling of being a fish until after he returns home. The pleasant feeling of having communicated with a classroom full of seniors at a high school had given him a euphoria which lasted until he had entered his ain home.

It was so only after his cat, "Queen Elizabeth"—quite an apt name for the cat of a poet—began to lick his hands, which were still "fins," that he snapped out of his fish metaphor and became human once again with hands instead of fins.

Portrait of D. C. Berry by Dan Drew

Dan Drew

© 2018 Linda Sue Grimes

on Reading Poems to a Senior Class at South High

Source: https://owlcation.com/humanities/D-C-Berrys-On-Reading-Poems-to-a-Senior-Class-at-South-High

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