Poetry
Study with Mrs.MacPoem 2 - Our Poems
Poem
2 - The Exercise Poetry
Study with Mrs.Mac
The original poem is Mean Song by Eve Merriam, who also wrote How to Eat a Poem. The poem appears below as the poet wrote it. Eve Merriam lived from 1916-1992. For most of her adult life, she lived in New York City. She had many jobs - teacher, radio talk show host, copywriter, and writer of books for children, of poems for all ages, of verse plays, of dramatic plays, and of prose. She is the author of one of the most "banned books" in America, The Inner City Mother Goose (also a Broadway play), and of other banned but less-banned books for children. Eve Merriam liked to use words for the way they sound, as well as for meaning. She could be a master of real and invented onomatopoeia and was known for using simple rhythms and rhymes to convey a grim, sarcastic, and sometimes humorous portrait rich in the personal details and everyday incidents of urban American life. Poems by Eve Merriam are also used in the exercises Poem 3 and Poem 4.
Read how other students completed this poem by clicking here.
After you read Mean Song, select any 3 words in Eve Merriam's poem and define them in the Definitions form under the poem. Read how others have defined some of these wonderful words at Poem 2 - Definitions.
Snickles and podes,
Ribble and grodes:
That's what I wish you.A nox in the groot,
A root in to stoot
And a gock in the forbeshaw, too.Keep out of sight
For fear that I might
Glom you a gravely snave.Don't show your face
Around any place
Or you'll get one flack snack in the bave.
Define any 3 (or more) words in Eve Merriam's poem in the form field below. Do not press return. Press the Submit button to send your response to the comments page, Poem 2 - Definintions. You should sign your submission in some way.