POETRY BOOK REVIEW: HOPKINS ANTHOLOGY

POETRY BOOK REVIEW

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Lee Bennett Hopkins. 2002. HOME TO ME/POEMS ACROSS AMERICA. Illustrated by Stephen Alcorn. New York: Orchard Books, an imprint of Scholastic Inc.

ISBN 0439340969

SUMMARY

This book contains 15 poems selected by Hopkins—including one by him. Each poem is by a different poet and is written about a different place in America. Each poet eloquently describes the wonderful vast parts of the United States that make it the great nation that it is. For example, the first poem in the book is entitled A PLACE CALLED PRAIRIE and is penned by Rebecca Kai Dotlich. She describes vividly what life is like for a person living in the mid-western part of the United States. In contrast Joan Bransfield Graham paints a picture in her poem WILDWOOD BY-THE-SEA what life would be or is like for someone who loves living near an ocean. The book concludes with a short bio about each of the poets mentioned in the anthology.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

The poets in this anthology use concrete examples in their poems to help the reader get a sense of what it is like to experience the place being described in the poem. The varied rhythmic patterns in the book provide vast opportunities for discussion about meter and pattern and the reason the poet may have had for choosing to use a predictable pattern over free verse and vice versa. When it comes to sound and the rhyme(s) used by the fifteen poets this are again as varied as the poets themselves. The poets are also skilled at using assonance, alliteration, consonance, and onomatopoeia.

The sense imagery in this anthology allows a reader with a means of connecting with the poets because they can understand the love and admiration that the poet has for a place being described if the reader has had a similar experience. And if the reader has not had the pleasure of visiting for him/her self the part of America being written about then they can get a feel and appreciation for another part of the country that makes up the United States of America.

The poets create this experience through the use of sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch. For example, in the poem by Patricia Hubbell entitled ON MY ISLAND she writes

in part: I watch sleek seals on wave-wet rocks,/rowboats bobbing at weathered docks./I hear the buoy’s lonely bell,/I touch a chalky oyster shell./All about me, pines grow tall./All about me, seagulls call. These images also provide an emotional connection for a reader who lives or has lived in America because each poem describes a particular environment that is unique and specific to that part of the United States.

REVIEW EXCERPT

School Library Journal-“ The styles and rhythms vary; some poets write in rhyming iambic pentameter while others choose free verse to describe their homes. Alcorn's thoughtful, folklike illustrations creatively depict the settings.”

CONNECTIONS

Some of the poetry collection books compiled by Lee Bennett Hopkins are:

MARVELOUS MATH: A BOOK OF POEMS.

New York: Aladdin (imprint of Simon & Schuster). ISBN 0689844425

SPECTACULAR SCIENCE: A BOOK OF POEMS.

New York: Aladdin (imprint of Simon & Schuster). ISBN 0689851200

WONDERFUL WORDS: POEMS ABOUT READING, WRITING, SPEAKING, AND LISTENING. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0689835884

SURPRISES. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 0064441059

AMERICA AT WAR: POEMS SELECTED BY LEE BENNETT HOPKINS.

New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 1416918329

HAND IN HAND: AN AMERICAN HISTORY THROUGH POETRY.

New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 067173315X

MY AMERICA: A POETRY ATLAS OF THE UNITED STATES.

New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0689812477