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Poets: Analyzing poems
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Activity Description
In this activity, students explore the poem "maggie and milly and molly and may" by E. E. Cummings. This is just one of the numerous poems and lesson plans given so that the depth of the student experience can be adjusted to meet the needs of your students.
Preparation
- Make sure that the site is not blocked at your school and that the images and student pages can be viewed.
- Review the detailed lesson plan for the poem "maggie and milly and molly and may"
- Review SHMOOP Website milly and molly and may for a more in-depth analysis of the poem and decide on the elements you want your students to learn about.
- Make copies of the poem.
If you are having trouble with resources for teaching poetry, maybe some of these links will be useful to you and your students. This is a list of 5 links about poetry, poets, and rhyme. Included are:
- The Rhyme Zone
- Favorite Poetry Project
- Twentieth-century Poetry in English
- The Academy of American Poet
- The Awesome Library
How-To
Follow the step-by-step instructions for "maggie and milllie and molly and may" given on the Poets' site and teach additional elements as needed.
Teacher Tips
On the SHMOOP site be sure check out the Study Questions for some great ideas for writing assignments and Trivia under the Analysis tab for some interesting facts about E. E. Cummings.
More Ways
Students can research poets and poetry, write reports, write their own poetry, publish and share their work. Be sure to check out OTAN's Poetry page with links to other poetry pages.
Program Areas
- ASE: High School Diploma
Lesson Plan
Activity: Display this question on the board: "If you went to the beach and found something special, what do you think it might say about you?"
- Students complete a quick-write or turn-and-talk with a partner.
- Share a few answers aloud and introduce the idea that objects in poems can reflect personalities and emotions.
- Briefly introduce E. E. Cummings, highlighting his unique style (lowercase letters, lack of punctuation, playful tone).
- Show the poem “maggie and milly and molly and may” on the board or hand out printed copies.
- Go line-by-line analyzing the poem as a group.
- Use these guiding questions:
- What do each of the girls find at the beach?
- How might their discoveries reflect their personalities?
- What feelings or images does the beach evoke?
- Introduce literary elements such as symbolism, tone, and alliteration.
Small Group Activity: Divide students into groups of four. Assign each group one of the girls in the poem (maggie, milly, molly, may).
- Each group answers:
-
- What did your character find?
- What could it symbolize?
- How might this reflect a personality trait?
- Can you think of a modern character or friend like this?
- Groups create a mini-poster or digital slide summarizing their analysis and present it briefly.
- Individual written reflection: “Which character do you relate to most in this poem and why?”
- Optional: Create a metaphorical object you might find at the beach that represents something about you.
Creative Extension: For homework or next class, students write their own 6–8 line beach poem following Cummings’s style, where each line reveals something about a different person through the object they find.
Documents
- maggie and milly and molly and may.png - Screenshot of the poets.org lesson on "maggie and milly and molly and may"
Subjects
- English Language Arts
- American Literature
- English 1-4
- English Electives
- Literature
- Speech
- World Literature
Standards
- Reading
- CCR Anchor 7 - Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words.
- CCR Anchor 8 - Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, including the validity of the reasoning as well as the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence.
- CCR Anchor 9 - Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take.
- CCR Anchor 10 - Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently.
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