Read these poems:
“The Cape Cod House” by Steve Straight, “The Long Road Home” by C. J. Dennis, “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden, Thoughts of Home by Du Fu , Prayer for a Small House by Florence Bone, and The Home I Love by Kay Hoffman.
Choose one or two poems to help you think and write about home. Avoid huge general definitions if you can. Vivid writing requires some specific images, sights, sounds, smells, or dialogue. Notice how specific these poems are? Be specific when you write about them.
Read the questions below. These questions are meant to help you write about the poems. There are a multitude of ways to write about a subject and each question below will not apply to all the poems. Do not waste time being frustrated by a question; move on to the next question and see if it helps you understand either of your chosen poems. Do not pick a poem that does not speak to you.
By the way, do not shy away from a poem that is long. The easiest and most charming poem in this group is the longest one. Here are questions to help you frame this short interactive essay (a discussion post). If you do not find one that helps you to understand your poem, the create your own questions (they should have some depth) and answer them.
1. What is home within your chosen poem or poems? People? Places? Things? Feelings? Something else?
2. If your poem is written by someone from another country or culture, how does that affect your understanding of the idea of home as a universal human longing?
3. These writers (along with moviemakers, artists, and musicians) depict home ( or whatever subject) in different ways. Do any of these poems show the value of home in an unusual way — by its absence or by the longing for home or by something else? Or what about a series of events that show the atmosphere of the home without ever saying anything directly about home? This can be a very powerful way of telling a story.
4. What is the relationship of location or place or architecture to our idea of home? Do any of these poems depict the effect of location, place or architecture on the speaker’s idea of home?
After writing a two or three paragraphs about your poem or poems, write one or two about your own idea of home and how it connects to something in your chosen poem(s).
