Winter Poem

personification, point of view, interpreting text, figurative language, cause and effect

Set a Purpose for Reading (25 minutes)

• Read the Personification bubble for the class. Explain that personification can make a poem more exciting to read. Ask students to think about how the poet uses personification to describe something in nature acting and feeling the way a person does.
• Read the bubble with information about Nikki Giovanni. Explain that she’s a famous American poet who has published many books, including poetry collections for adults and children, children’s stories, and an autobiography. She has won important awards for her children’s books and other works. Many universities have honored her with special degrees. Giovanni grew up in a close-knit family, and her African-American heritage is very important to her. She has said, “I come from a long line of storytellers.”
  
• Point out that this poem is not divided into sentences or stanzas. Words are not capitalized, and there are no punctuation marks.
  

• Read the poem for the class or play our audio version.
• Project or distribute the Close-Reading and Critical-Thinking Questions and discuss them as a class while students refer to the poem in their magazines.
  

Close-Reading and Critical-Thinking Questions (15 minutes, activity sheet online)

• Who is the speaker in this poem? How do you know? (point of view) The poet is the speaker. She uses the pronouns “i” and “me.”
• In the first five lines, what acts and feels the way a person might? (personification) a snowflake What words describe how the snowflake feels and acts? “it was happy and called its cousins and brothers” Who are the “cousins” and “brothers” the poet refers to? other snowflakes
• Why does the poet say about the snowflake “i loved it so much and i kissed it”? (interpreting text) She’s showing how happy she feels when the snowflake falls on her forehead.
  
• What is the poet describing when she writes “and a web of snow engulfed me”? (figurative language) She’s describing the falling snow that completely surrounds her. She compares it to a web.
• What is the poet doing to the snow when she writes “i reached to love them all and i squeezed them”? (interpreting text) She holds the snow tightly in her hand. How does she feel at this moment? She feels very happy.
  
• What happens to snow when you hold it in your hand? (cause and effect) It melts and turns to water.
  

• Call on a volunteer to read the Think and Write box at the bottom of the page.
• Distribute our Write Your Own Poem Activity. Students can write a short poem about winter, using two examples of personification. They can read their poems in small groups.