After traveling for days, you become tired.  Your feet are blistered and your back hurts.  You find a small hostel on the outskirts of a quiet town, surrounded by large trees.  In the lobby of the hostel, there is a shelf with a wide collection of novels.  You pick up a book of poems called  Sigo em Forma de Palavra, or I go on Shaped like a Word.
 

            Review your knowledge of literary terms in order to prepare you for
            understanding the book you’ve selected.

            You can scroll through the terms in the Glossary of Literary Terms and
            click “retrieve” for a precise definition with examples.  Or you can type
            in a specific term to search for.
 

    Read about the author of your book, Thiago de Mello. Then open the pages of your book by clicking on the link to his two poems.  Enjoy!

            Cut and paste these questions in a word processing document.
            Complete this first assignment in your journal.
 

1.  Read both poems and choose one that you wish to analyze more profoundly.

2.  Remember that poetry is very abstract.  There is no right answer about the author’s intended meaning because you, as a reader, participate in its interpretation.  The ancient gods expect you to exercise your critical thinking skills!

3.  Diction is the author’s word choice.  Words can have different tones and different shades of meaning.  This activity will be very beneficial if you are an ESL student, and it will also improve vocabulary.

In order to develop a clearer understanding of the poem, you must create a table.  (In Word, go to Table, Insert Table, 4 columns, at least 6 rows.)  The headings of the columns will be something like: word, general idea of the word, dictionary definition (when necessary), and the specific meaning of the word in the context of the poem.

Sample words that may give you difficulty in the poems are the following: vestments, prodigal, contemplating, labyrinths, confound, resurrects, volunteer, ill-proclaim, and permanence.  After creating a table, list your chosen words and fill in the chart!

Do not be afraid to pray to the ancient gods to receive help with this activity!

4.  Identify any images, metaphors, or similes in the poem of your choice.  You should know these literary terms from your earlier review.

5.  Attempt to analyze the poem.  You can explain each line or stanza in your own words and then look for connections between the stanzas to determine the overall meaning of the poem.

6.  What issues could have influenced the poet?  Hypothesize any political, cultural, social, religious, gender-related, or historical connections you can make between the poems, what you know about the poet, and what you read about the literary period.

7.  There are many paths to one destination, so here is another direction to choose!  You may write your own parallel poem with a similar theme of Thiago de Mello’s poem, explaining how they are related.  Or you can draw a representation of the poem as one picture or as several pictures like a “poem-strip.”
 

    Take your time because remember, the gods will evaluate the creativity of your journal before they send you back to your own time and place!