The Poems of Carl Sandburg

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

• Why would a poet like Sandburg compare the fog to a cat?

Poets use comparisons to help us see things differently.

A poet watches the fog rolling in and asks these questions.

• How can I describe the fog?
• What makes fog special, interesting, and mysterious?
• What else can I compare it to?

Here is another of Sandburg's poems.

As you read, consider what questions he may have asked before writing it.

"Theme In Yellow" by Carl Sandburg

• I spot the hills
• With yellow balls in autumn.
• I light the prairie cornfields
• Orange and tawny gold clusters
• And I am called pumpkins.

• On the last of October
• When dusk is fallen
• Children join hands
• And circle round me
• Singing ghost songs
• And love to the harvest moon

• I am a jack-o’-lantern
• With terrible teeth
• And the children know
• I am fooling.

• Which questions do you think Sandburg was trying to answer here?

Maybe these.

• How can I describe pumpkins?
• What do people think of when they think of pumpkins?
• What is special about fall?
• What do children like about it?

Just as a poet asks questions to help create a poem, you can ask questions about it after reading it.

Listen as "Theme in Yellow" is read aloud, watch the video animation, and imagine the images the words invoke.

Imagine you're going to discuss this poem with your classmates, siblings, or friends.

Here are some questions you might want to ask. You can ask questions you already know the answer to get people talking!

• Why did Sandburg choose to write about pumpkins?
• Why did he use "I" in the poem as if he was a pumpkin?
• What does tawny mean?
• What is a harvest moon?
• How does this poem make you feel?
• What does it make you think about?
• What images does it bring to your mind?
• Why does he say that "the children know I am fooling"?

It's really not difficult to start a discussion about a poem!

Now move to the Got It? section, and practice writing great discussion questions!