Red Donkey
Red clay road.
Red donkey braying.
He has a red temper.
He's probably saying,
This load is too heavy.
I'm hungry
My feet hurt!
I'm tiered!
I'm hot!
It's
not
fair!
Red donkey sits down.
Someone shouts, "Come!"
But he won't come.
Red donkey tantrum.
-Julie Larios
Red Donkey is a poem in an anthology of poetry called Yellow Elephant. All of the poems thirty in the anthology are about thirty different animals that are an unusual color. The poems are written in the lyrical form. Some of the poems rhyme in some way but some do not rhyme at all. None of the poems have a clear rhythmic pattern. The author uses colors as metaphors of the the personality's of the animal. For example, the red donkey is not a happy donkey he is actually quite contrary. He is RED with anger. The donkey is fed up with having to haul stuff around in the hot weather and he has finally had enough! There is also a pink kitty who is cool and lazy.
I really like this particular poem because I think everyone can identify with being sick and tiered of having too do things they don't want to do. This is especially true for children who are prone to tantrums. This poem is an excellent tool to use to introduce children to metaphors. Children can be asked to explain why they think the author chose that color to represent that particular animal. You could even ask the students to pick a color to represent themselves and explain why it would be a metaphor for them. This anthology is also a great way to expose children to forms of poetry other than the "Mother Goose" poems that they are probably most familiar with. Children who do not like writing structured, rhythmic poems might really enjoy reading an writing Lyric poems. I think that there are endless teaching opportunities with this book.
The illustrations in this book are quite spectacular. Paschkis painted the illustrations with gouache on arches paper. The first animal we see is the front of a yellow elephant on the title page. The following pages of poems follow the same format. The left page has a rectangular block illustration at the far left of the page that spans the length of the page. This illustration is like a preview of the main course. The main course is the illustration that is locates on the right page. this page has no text. All of the illustrations are beaming with bright and brilliant colors like all of Paschkis' work. I think that these vibrant illustrations are a great visual compliment too the the poetry in this book.
I really like this particular poem because I think everyone can identify with being sick and tiered of having too do things they don't want to do. This is especially true for children who are prone to tantrums. This poem is an excellent tool to use to introduce children to metaphors. Children can be asked to explain why they think the author chose that color to represent that particular animal. You could even ask the students to pick a color to represent themselves and explain why it would be a metaphor for them. This anthology is also a great way to expose children to forms of poetry other than the "Mother Goose" poems that they are probably most familiar with. Children who do not like writing structured, rhythmic poems might really enjoy reading an writing Lyric poems. I think that there are endless teaching opportunities with this book.
The illustrations in this book are quite spectacular. Paschkis painted the illustrations with gouache on arches paper. The first animal we see is the front of a yellow elephant on the title page. The following pages of poems follow the same format. The left page has a rectangular block illustration at the far left of the page that spans the length of the page. This illustration is like a preview of the main course. The main course is the illustration that is locates on the right page. this page has no text. All of the illustrations are beaming with bright and brilliant colors like all of Paschkis' work. I think that these vibrant illustrations are a great visual compliment too the the poetry in this book.
1 comment:
Thank you for posting a link to Paschkis'work. I appreciate the shape of the poem and the comments on metaphors. Very thorough post! I would like to see more like this! What did you make of the shape of the poem? Thanks for such a thoughtful response. I really like your teaching suggestions, too; I would just add to write a poem about the metaphor they chose to represent themselves.
Post a Comment