I Never Said I Wasn't Difficult

Have you ever felt torn between two or more emotions? Have you ever wanted someone to be there for you, but yet you try to push them away and make them leave? Have you ever wanted privacy, yet you didn't want to be alone? Does this sound familiar to you? If you are old enough to read this blog, you are old enough to have been there. These are common emotions for teens and preteens. They want to be all grown up and not need their parents, but yet in so many ways, are still so young and need their parents love and support more than ever.

So, what is poetry? Our book says that poetry “tugs at you with an insistent voice that rings through your head.” Another page says that “poetry is like a picture taken without a camera.” Poetry has several elements that make it able to be considered “well crafted”. Some of those elements are sound, rhyme, alliteration, assonance and onomatopoeia, rhythm, figurative language, shape, emotional force and insight.

Wow, does this blog post seem all over the place to you? Yes, I have taken my ADD medicine this morning. 

Just like teens and preteens can often seem all over the place with their emotions but to them it makes perfect sense, I am going to tie the elements of poetry and the wide variety of emotions of teens and preteens together.

The element of sound in poetry consists of the subcategories of rhyme, alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia and rhythm.  Our textbook says that “the sounds of poetic language are what make it sound musical to the ear.”

 Are you still wondering how these two seemingly different subjects tie together?  Read this poem by Sara Holbrook and I will show you how they relate.

I Never Said I Wasn't Difficult by Sara Holbrook

I never said I wasn't difficult,

I mostly want my way.

Sometimes I talk back or pout

And don’t have much to say.

I've been known to yell “So What?”

When I’m stepping out of bounds.

I want you there for me and yet,

I don’t want you around.

I wish I had more privacy

And never had to be alone.

I want to run away,

But I am scared to leave my home.

I’m too tired to be responsible.

I wish that I were boss.

I want to blaze new trails,

But I am terrified of getting lost.

I wish an answer came every time I asked you “why?”

I wish you weren't a know it all.

Why do you question when I’m bored?

I won’t be cross examined!

I hate to be ignored.

I know I shuffle messages like cards.

Some to show and some to hide.

But if you think I’m hard to live with,

You should try living with me on the inside!

This poem has a rhyming scheme in which the 4^th line rhymes with the 2^nd line. This scheme repeats in several stanzas of the poem which gives it a “tug of war” type of feeling. That feeling is often displayed in the emotions of the preteens and teens that this poem was written about.

There are several  examples of assonance, or a repeating internal vowel sound that provides a partial rhyme in this poem. Here is one of them.

“I wish I had more privacy, 
And never had to be alone.
I want to run away
But I’m afraid to leave my home.”

The repeated sound is the long O sound in alone and home.

Poems also have the elements of figurative language, shape, emotional force and insight.

This poem is a great example of using emotional force. This poem pulls you one way and then another, over and over again, much like the conflicting emotions felt by a middle school student. It also gives us insight and helps us remember what it was like to be that age and be all over the place as far as our moods and emotions are concerned.

There, I did it. I made two seemingly unrelated subjects subjects relate.

 My opinion of this poem is that it could definitely be used to teach the elements of poetry to a group of older elementary children. Many 4^th and 5^th graders, especially girls, can already understand this emotional tug of war. If we as teachers acknowledge it, and show examples of authors, who our students look up to, who acknowledge it, then it will seem more normal and not as scary as they begin to navigate the course of their preteen and teenage years.

 If we don’t acknowledge the mood swings that our students face as they enter these confusing years, we cause it to be a taboo subject and students may feel like it is not a normal thing. Our goal as teachers should be not only to teach the CCGPS and GPS standards, but to teach life as well, because many of our students won’t get those lessons at home.