Year 9 Poetry homework - due first lesson back after Easter holidays

Reflections on a Gift of Watermelon Pickle Received from a Friend Called Felicity

During that summer

When unicorns were still possible;

When the purpose of knees

Was to be skinned;

When shiny horse chestnuts

    (Hollowed out

    Fitted with straws

    Crammed with tobacco

    Stolen from butts

    In family ashtrays)

Were puffed in green lizard silence

While straddling thick branches

Far above and away

From the softening effects

Of civilization;

 

During that summer--

Which may never have been at all;

But which has become more real

Than the one that was--

Watermelons ruled.

 

Thick imperial slices

Melting frigidly on sun-parched tongues

Dribbling from chins;

Leaving the best part,

 

The black bullet seeds,

To be spit out in rapid fire

Against the wall

Against the wind

Against each other;

 

And when the ammunition was spent,

There was always another bite:

It was a summer of limitless bites,

Of hungers quickly felt

And quickly forgotten

With the next careless gorging.

 

The bites are fewer now.

Each one is savored lingeringly,

Swallowed reluctantly.

 

But in a jar put up by Felicity,

The summer which maybe never was

Has been captured and preserved.

And when we unscrew the lid

And slice off a piece

And let it linger on our tongue:

Unicorns become possible again.

 

John Tobias

 

Year 9 English Homework Task 1

     

1.   Before you read the rest of the poem, what does the title suggest that the poem will be about?   Try to think of 2 ideas and explain each idea.  (4 marks)
    (4 marks – 1 mark for each valid answer and 1 mark for each valid explanation.)
    
2. Choose a word/phrase/line from Stanza 1 which you find interesting and explain the poet’s choice of words and what you think he meant or was trying to achieve? (1 mark for valid quotation and 1 mark for valid explanation)  (2 marks)
    
3. From the rest of the poem find TWO examples of a word/phrase or line which provides evidence that the poet enjoyed his childhood.  (4 marks – 1 mark for each valid answer and 1 mark for each valid explanation.)  (4 marks)
    
   Total: 10 marks