Poem 203 Page 273

The poem I selected from Sound and Sense was "On Reading Poems to a Senior Class at South High" by D.C. Berry. Nothing in particular drew me to it except flipping through my poetry book. The basic idea is basically in the title, reading a poem aloud to this person's classmates at his high school. The feelings of nervousness and being unsure of what the speaker's audience will think. The structure of this poem greatly adds to the overall effect and emotions that the speaker is feeling throughout the poem. The first line, "Before" and then it goes to the next line to continue it. This pause, or line break makes the reader go through it slower and a little choppier. This shows how the person reading his or her poem is nervous and taking their time because they are unsure of the reactions they'll receive. This occurs throughout the entire poem and especially at the end where a line stands alone as a stanza.

The entire poem is one huge metaphor that's carried throughout. The metaphor of coming to life, like fish being unfrozen in a pond. The first stanza describes his classmates as frozen fish; they are all listening attentively but not engrossed in the poem. The fact that they are frozen is saying that they are alive, but not interactive, not relating quite yet. However, gradually, in the next stanza, the students started to become interested, but the reader didn't realize their interest at first, "till it [the water or the interest level] reached my ears". Moving to the third stanza, the audience is completely absorbed into the poem. The poem-reader thought he was overwhelming them ("drowning") with his poem, but they became apart of it, "opened up like gills..and let me in". "Together we swam around the room", this is my favorite line of the passage. Everyone is intertwined and becoming part of the poetry. Then the bell rings, letting all of the water and fish out into their next classes; letting the energy and the students out of class. The speaker's high continued until he was home when his cat licked him, and he came back down to reality. It's similar to "pinch me I'm dreaming". The reader was so euphoric off reading the poem so successfully that he couldn't even feel.

What I enjoyed most about this poem is the journey that it takes the reader on. It begins frozen and as it thaws it fills with energy and then calmly yet abruptly brings us back to reality. Reading or presenting is a fear that I can relate to and this is a positive experience that is rather encouraging. The excitement that the speaker felt is so great and as the reader, you kind of cheer on the nervous poet. The fact that its rewarding is simply a happy ending and that's always positive. The crescendo of the poem when everyone is in one big fish tank swimming amongst each other, is amazing and I can only imagine the unity felt throughout.