“Still Start” and “New Rooms” by Kay Ryan

Lesson Plan for “Still Start” and “New Rooms” by Kay Ryan (b. 1945)

 

Contents:

A) Links to the Poems

B) Standards

C) Lesson Objectives

D) Lesson Plan

E) Poem Analysis

 

A) Links to the Poems:

• Still Start
• New Rooms

B) Standards:

• Determine a theme of a text and analyze how it is shaped by specific details.
• Identify examples of poetic diction in a text and evaluate their effectiveness.
• Write an argument with a clear focus.

 C) Lesson Objectives:

• Re-write short prose poems by adding line breaks.
• Identify and evaluate examples of rhyme, alliteration, and assonance in poems by Kay Ryan.
• Read two poems and write an argument about which is better, giving reasons.

 D) Lesson Plan

0) Lesson preparation

• Create a handout that includes the poem “Still Start” without the line breaks. In essence, form the poem into prose sentences.
• Add the original poem “New Rooms” to the handout or prepare to share the link with students.

1) Warm Up

• Students respond to the prompt and share responses.
• Prompt: Fill in the blanks in the following sentences and write at least one sentence explaining why you filled each one in that way:

-I am like a _______.

-A computer is like a _______.

-My hometown is like a _______.

2) “Still Start” Activity 1: Meaning of the Poem

• Students listen to the teacher read the poem and answer the reading questions.
• Reading questions: 1) What two things are being compared in the poem? 2) How are these things similar? 3) What is the poet saying by comparing them?
• Answers: 1) An engine and a heart. 2) Both are centers of systems and help them run. 3) They can be damaged and continue to work.

 3) “Still Start” Activity 2: Line Breaks

• Share the handout that contains "Still Start" without the line breaks. Instruct students to re-write the poem by adding at least four line breaks. Tell them poets add line breaks to separate or stress ideas, make each line a similar number of syllables, to show rhymes, and more. Demonstrate with the first line break if necessary.
• Students share with a partner.
• Groups of students share with the class.
• Teacher reveals the poem with the original line breaks.

 4) “Still Start” Activity 3: Sound Effects (rhyme, alliteration, assonance)

• Define “recombinant rhyme.”
• Definition: Kay Ryan calls her rhyming style “recombinant rhyme” and defines it as having “rhymes at the wrong ends of lines and in the middle.” She creates her rhymes by “snipping up pieces of sound and redistributing them throughout a poem.”
• Identify the recombinant rhymes as a class and discuss (and perhaps show) what the poem would look like if the rhymes were placed at the ends of lines, where they usually are in poems. (The recombinant rhymes in the poem are part, start, and heart.)
• Define “alliteration.”
• Definition: the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words or in stressed syllables, such as “March Madness” and “Bob’s Big Boy.”
• Identify alliteration in the poem as a class. (Examples of alliteration in the poem are “wrenched out at random” and “still start and sound.”)
• Define “assonance.”
• Definition: the repetition of vowel sounds in words that don’t rhyme.
• Identify assonance in the poem as a class. (An examples of assonance in the poem is “broken open.”)
• Whole class discussion regarding the reasons poets use rhyme, alliteration, assonance and evaluate Kay Ryan’s use of them. Answers include it sounds good, it makes connections between ideas, it's easier to remember, and it reinfores the theme. See the analysis below for more guidance.

 5) “New Rooms” Activity: Student Practice

• Discuss the meaning of the poem with the students. See the analysis below for guidance.
• Direct students to read “New Rooms” on the handout or after following the link.
• Students should read the poem and identify recombinant rhymes and alliteration in the poem.
• The recombinant rhymes in the poem are goes & impose, tent & went.
• Examples of alliteration in the poem are “mind must,” “take them up like an interior tent,” and “where the windows went.”
• Review and discuss the answers.
• Whole class discussion to evaluate Kay Ryan’s use of  rhyme, alliteration, assonance in the poem. See the analysis below for guidance.

6) Conclusion

• Students will write an argument about which of the two poems is better in their opinion, giving examples related to themes and poetic devices.
• Students share their arguments with the class.

E) Poem Analysis

     Kay Ryan’s poems “Still Start” and “New Rooms” combine serious themes with playful devices to create poems about adapting to survive. “Still Start” is about the resiliency of the human heart after trauma. “New Rooms” is about realizing that old ways of thinking need constant updating. Ryan’s message in combining seriousness and playfulness is that a combination of these elements, and remaining open to possibilities, is necessary for survival.

     Survival is a serious theme, but Ryan handles it with playful sound effects, word choice, and rhymes. She has called her style of rhyming “recombinant rhymes,” which she has defined as having  “rhymes at the wrong ends of lines and in the middle.” By having rhymes at unusual places, Ryan is saying that there is indeed a degree of order or harmony in the world, but it is in unexpected places, and as we move through our lives, dealing with change and trauma, we need to be open to the unexpected to find what we need to survive and thrive.

     In “Still Start” the human heart is compared to a car engine. But it’s a possible or imaginary car engine instead of an actual one. It’s an engine that could work even though its parts were “wrenched out at random.” The poem is one sentence long and is centered on comparing our hearts to something that doesn’t exist to say that we have strength to continue to exist, even after our hearts have had their “chambers broken open.” The odd order and rhythm of this broken but running engine is created through recombinant rhymes (parts, start, hearts) and alliteration: “wrenched out at random” and “still start and sound.” The reader hears the alliteration and can imagine the car sputtering along until the end of the poem, when the assonance (“broken open”) leads the reader to a vision of the car working it’s kinks out, finding the sweet spot, and smoothly continuing on. Another meaning of “broken open,” apart from something that has been damaged, is something that has been unlocked, something that is open to new possibilities and free to explore.

     Moving into new possibilities is the theme of Ryan’s poem “New Rooms.” “New Rooms” is two sentences long. The first sentence is about how, when forced to confront something new, our first reaction is to “impose” our old sense of order on it. Ryan uses the symbol of moving into a new home to say something about our mental states and how we seek to assimilate novelty by stamping it with familiarity, as this is the “most convenient” way to move through the world. The second sentences is about how this method fails. Ryan could have said that our old furniture doesn’t fit in the new rooms, or the styles and colors clash, or the movers got lost and our old things were lost. Any of these lines as the second line would have gotten the job done and expressed Ryan’s point that our usual ways of acting or thinking don’t serve us well in new physical or mental space. Her second line goes deeper. Instead of focusing on the inconvenience of losing our furniture or it not fitting well in the new rooms, she writes about windows. We can’t just “tack up” an “interior tent” of our old rooms onto our new rooms because this tent will block the new windows and the old windows will open onto the new walls. She is saying we will be trapped in windowless rooms, without a view to see or air to breath.

     Ryan’s use of recombinant rhymes in “New Rooms” is a poetic example of the point she is making in the poem about the problems we face when we use old concepts in new realities. We can think of standard rhyme sequences—having rhymes at the end of lines—as our old rooms. If we approach a Kay Ryan poem that uses recombinant rhymes with the expectation that the rhymes will be at the end of lines, we will be either frustrated or amused, depending on how comfortable we are with the inconvenience of novelty. She is forcing us to approach her poetry with attention. She is forcing us to play along. One survival strategy is to be conservative and not stray too far from traditional ways of doing things that supposedly keep us safe from any dangerous surprises. The message in “Still Start” and “New Rooms” is we should be open to surprise and what comes after danger, the knowledge that we can survive more than we think we can, and that learning from scratch to make a home where nothing fits marks a stronger fitness.