Water Poetry

​The poems in this lesson will explore how water can affect people's lives, especially when there is too much or too little of it.

Raise a hand if you can remember a time getting too much or not enough rain.

As you read each poem, you will explore how language and other elements of a poem work together to create feelings and images.

​These are the poems that we will be reviewing today. I can tell that the last one might be about not getting enough water because it has to do with dust.

​In this poem, you will read to learn about the many forms water takes and the way it moves around our world.

What form of water is in line 5?

What word describes it?

So it it a gentle or an intense form of water?

Multiple Choice

What are some different ways that water forms in the poem so far?

• fog

• cloud plumes

• rivers

• all of the above

​The word plume refers to a feathers. A cloud plume is a cloud that resembles a feather. They usually occur before thunderstorms.

​In lines 25 - 27 the stanza describes water resting. The words rests, drowsy and silence create a quiet and sleepy feeling.

What feeling does the first stanza on page 167 have?

Multiple Choice

Read stanza one on page 167.

"In storms, water plunges

in thunder's brash roar,

races through branches from lightning's white flash."

What feeling does this stanza have?

• Calm, quiet

• Fast, energetic

​"Then water rests, drowsy in reservoirs" (lines 25 and 26).

What type of figurative language is being used in these lines?

Multiple Choice

"Then water rests, drowsy in reservoirs" (lines 25 and 26).

What type of figurative language is being used in these lines?

• Imagery

• Personification

• Simile

• Metaphor

​The top image is the gutter, the bottom image is the spout. This will be important as we continue to read about rain!

​As we read rain in summer, look closely for each speaker's feelings about rain.

Why does the speaker think the rain is beautiful?

Multiple Choice

Why does the speaker think the rain is beautiful?

• It follows the dry, hot weather.

• It clatters on the roof.

• It pours and pours.

• It gushes.

​This poem is called "Unititled" because the author did not give it a title.

"The gutters are full, and the spouts are gushing like the overflow to a dam on a very full lake." What can you infer from these details?

Multiple Choice

"The gutters are full, and the spouts are gushing like the overflow to a dam on a very full lake."

What can you infer from these details?

• The gutter is broken

• The spout did not close

• It rained a lot

• The lake overflowed

Why do you think the speaker says the next storm will be like "a hard right cross" that follows "a left jab"? What can you infer about how the speaker feels about the rainstorms?

Multiple Choice

How does the speaker feels about the rainstorms?

• He loves the rain

• He thinks the rain is beautiful

• He thinks the rain is necessary

• He does not like the rain

​We had one poet who loved the rain, another that hated it. An adversary is an enemy, so that makes me think this poet might not like rain either.

Look at the idiom in line 8. "It took no prisoners". If someone was taken as a prisoner it means that they are still alive. Therefore, the figurative meaning is that the rain was destructive and nothing survived.

​Reread lines 9 and 10. Why did they "dare not complain"?

Multiple Choice

Reread lines 9 and 10. Why did they "dare not complain" about the rain?

• They wanted the blossoms gone

• They did not like the daffodils anymore

• They had no rain for 5 years.

• They liked emptying the rain gauge.

Which statements describe the speaker's attitude toward the rain?

Multiple Select

Select all statements that describe the speaker's attitude toward the rain?

• She hopes it will continue to rain a while

• She thinks dealing with the rain is like being attacked in a battle

• She thinks she should feel thankful for the rain

It is a simile because it uses the word like. It compares the sound of the rain hitting the roof to the sound of horses running!

Multiple Choice

​"How it clatters along the roofs, like the tramp of hoofs".

What type of figurative language is this?

• Imagery

• Personification

• Simile

• Metaphor

​"How it clatters along the roofs, like the tramp of hoofs".

What type of figurative language is this?

​We have been reading about the effects of getting too much rain. As you read this poem, think about what can happen when there is not enough rain.


What is the dust doing?
What is the wheat helpless against?
What can you infer from lines 8-12, the speaker said she sensed the dust before she knew it was coming.

What can you infer about the storms from lines 13-24?

​After Daddy runs out the door, the speaker yells, "You can't stop dust." What do you think the father was trying to do?

Do you think he was successful? How do you know?

Why do Ma and the speaker do all of the actions in lines 36-39?

Multiple Choice

Based on the imagery in lines 6 and 7, what is the meaning of spindly?

• long and thin

• very bright

• sharp and twisted

• very noisy

Multiple Choice

Part A

Which BEST describes the type of figurative language the speaker uses in lines 20-24?

• imagery

• metaphor

• personification

• simile

Multiple Choice

Part B

Read lines 20-24 of the poem below. Then select the line that BEST supports the answer to Part A.

• I watched them fry

• or

• flatten

• or blow away,

• like bits of cast-off rags

Multiple Choice

Which of these lines from the poem has an example of personification?

• "Daddy!' I called. 'You can't stop dust.'" (line 35)

• "Wiping dust out of everything, / she made coffee and biscuits" (lines 40 and 41)

• "Ma sank down into a chair at the kitchen table / and covered her face." (lines 45 and 46).

• "The wind snatched that show right off the fields" (line 45).

Multiple Choice

In line 26, what do the words like a fired locomotive suggest about the dust storm?

• It is loud and messy and frightening to view up close

• It is large and powerful and cannot be stopped

• It is dangerous because it keeps changing directions

• It is running our of energy and will soon be over

Multiple Choice

In line 51, why are the speaker and Ma describes as "grateful"?

• They like cold weather more than hot weather

• They believe that the snow will water their crops

• They enjoy having something to watch together

• They hope that snow will clear away the dust