Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Living Tenderly by May Swenson

Living Tenderly
My body a rounded stone
with a pattern of smooth seams.
My head a short snake,
retractive, projective.
My legs come out of their sleeves
or shrink within,
and so does my chin.
My eyelids are quick clamps.

My back is my roof.

I am always at home. I travel where my house walks.
It is a smooth stone.
It floats within the lake,
or rests in the dust.
My flesh lives tenderly
inside its bone.

13 comments:

  1. Anigiselle Regis

    Definitely a turtle!!! but I don't think we are supposed to solve the riddle so I'll go ahead and analyze it.

    So there's a lot of imagery. It pretty much describes everything about the turtle. Maybe we could say it has personification on it because of the way the turtle is telling us something and for all I know turtles don't speak. In the whole poem the turtle is describing itself as if it were human, talking about its sleeves and his shin; that would also be considered a personification. Also when it talks about its head it compares it to the snake's so I think that could be a simile. We could also see simile when it says: "My body a rounded stone."

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    Replies
    1. Makes sense. Go for it

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    2. "My body a rounded stone" is a metaphor because it doesn't use like or as.

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    3. Maybe a turtle or a rock

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  2. Jennifer bruno

    Firts of all i love this poem....
    Its an imagenery poem. At first when i started reading it i started imagenering the turtle talking about himself or herself i dont know which one jajaja but then it says: My legs come out of their sleeves and then talks about he's or hers chin which got me thinking if he was describing the poem has a turtle but human at the same time which is personification i guess. and there is a simile when his head compares to the snake.

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  3. Lionel Aneudy Escobales Filippetti

    The poem was cool. It had a lot of imagery and a lot of descriptions. The main character is describing her thoughts and herself. There was personifications, as with the turtle. There were similes too, when she describe her body, head, eyelids and many other. The setting, I think, was her house. It could even seem she was dressing up, while thinking this poem, because she talks about her legs coming out of the sleeves. The poem had lots of descriptions and comparisons, it was a pretty good poem.

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  4. Jose espada
    i like this poem a lot because is short and its goes right to the point. This poem is describing the body of some kind of animal i don't know but it looksto me like a turtle or some kind of reptile,the description are very specific the narrator it seems to be the animal very happy and very special as a unique animal. it have a littlebit of rhyme but is not so constant. good poem prof.

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  5. Justin Cruz

    At first I thought it was a hermit crab (ok i know i ma little slow) but I could not understand the snake part. The poem has Metaphor, Personification and Imagery
    (i think). I love the poem because it talks about one of my favorite animals.

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  6. Noel Collado

    First of all, I loved this poem! I loved the way that the poet describes the details in this poem. I would hope that God could help me as descriptive or (through His help) maybe be able to do better.

    This poem is full of metaphors and personification; A LOT of imagery. It does not rhyme at all and no similes.I believe that the poet is talking about a turtle in this poem. Especially when the poet wrote "My legs come out of their sleeves,or shrink within,and so does my chin... My back is my roof."

    Really awesome poem.

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  7. Sony Antron

    This is a really cute poem..and i defiantly think its a turtle. Its really cute how the poet ried to disguise the obvious. This poem is full of metaphors and personification and alot of imagery. I didn't find any rhyme scheme or any similes. I really enjoy poems like these

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  8. I'd like to Prof Lignelli. I cant relate to this idea of a turtle talking unless maybe in the world of cartoon Movies there are talking turtles. There should be more monologue unless this is just the opening scene.
    Les Shobe

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  9. AWWW YEA
    YA'LL READY TO GET DOWN AND DIRTY WITH
    THIS
    SICK
    BEAT

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