Poetic Elements: Imagery,
rhyme, onomatopoeia, metaphors, alliteration, and assonance are all strong
components that can be found throughout this book.
Appeal: The appeal to young
people is a definite. It is an
interesting topic that would enrich a child’s insight. For those that have had
the opportunity to see some of the places that are mentioned in the poems, it
will allow for a more concrete reading; for those lacking the in-person
experience, they can still gain an awareness and knowledge that is gleaned from
the poems. The illustrations by Hall
truly help to form a bridge for understanding with the words.
Overall Quality:
Each poem has been well executed by Bennett and is consistent in
quality. The collection stimulates the
idea of what other cities are like to visit and highlights the more well-known
landmarks of each. The style of the
hustle and bustle of each city is quite unique. This book is perfect in
extracting the curiosity for unfamiliar spaces; and widening the horizons for
those that have an itch to travel and see the world over.
The Poets: Lee Bennett Hopkins is a well-known
writer of poetry and has written all of the poems in this book. All of the poems in this anthology were
written by Bennett between 1971 and 2009 and focuses more on the visual or
physical aspects that come to mind when mentioning various well-known cities
throughout the world. Hopkins has his
own website at http://www.leebennetthopkins.com/
Layout: Each poem focuses on
something unique about the city in which the poem is being written about. The illustrations are perfectly tailored to
match each poem and were made with brush and ink and watercolor on paper. For example, the poem TAXI! is written in
reference to London, England. The
illustrations include taxis, traditional double decker buses, the Tower Bridge,
Thames River, Big Ben, and The Palace of Westminster Abbey. The 32 page book does not have a table of
contents or index, but duplicates a world map on the front inside cover and
again on the back inside cover. All of
the cities that have a poem written about them have a dedicated dot for where
they are on the map compared to the rest of the world.
Spotlight Poem:
Before sharing Bennett’s poem “Sing a Song of Cities,” I would ask
students to help me recall the five senses.
I would ask them to think about them as I read the poem, and to figure
out which of their senses is most strongly used in this poem.
As a follow up, a student
would identify to the class the sense most strongly used- ears for
hearing. As a class, students would help
brain-storm ideas out loud for various sounds that could be heard in a
city. This would allow the word urban to be taught. Students would read out of their social
studies books about urban areas to reinforce the word. Students would then switch gears and think
about how the sounds would be different in learning what a suburban area entails. Again,
students would read in their books that taught about suburbs and suggest sounds
that would be familiar to that area. And
finally, students would learn about characteristics that make up rural lands by reading that portion from
their social studies books. Students could
then think of what sounds would be identifiable in a rural area.
“Sing a Song of Cities” by Lee
Bennett Hopkins
Sing a song of cities.
If you do,
Cities will sing back
to you.
They’ll sing in subway roars
and rumbles,
People-laughs, machine-loud
grumbles.
Sing a song of cities.
If you do,
Cities will sing back.
Cities will sing back
to you.
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