On Reading Poems to a Senior Class at South High by D.C. Berry

Text:

Before

I opened my mouth

I noticed them sitting there

as orderly as frozen fish

in a package.

Slowly water began to fill the room

though I did not notice it

till it reached

my ears

and then I heard the sounds

of fish in an aquarium

and I knew that though I had

tried to drown them

with my words

that they had only opened up

like gills for them

and let me in.

Together we swam around the room

like thirty tails whacking words

till the bell rang

puncturing

a hole in the door

where we all leaked out

They went to another class

I suppose and I to home

where Queen Elizabeth

my cat met me

and licked my fins

till they were hands again.

Initial Reaction:

My initial reaction to the poem is that the fish imagery is a metaphor for the narrator’s experiences as a teacher. The narrator feels as if he was transported to a different setting and world when he is teaching. The teacher initially felt like he had “to drown [the students] with [his] words” in order to teacher them anything; however, the teacher found that “they had only opened up like gills for them and let [him] in,” suggesting that the students learned more from the narrator than he knew. The fish imagery suggests that the teacher was such an extraordinary English teacher that the students felt transported to entirely different places while in the narrator’s class. At the end of the poem, the narrator even stated that it was not until his cats licked his fingers that he was able to snap back into reality and realize that he lived in the real world, not the worlds he traveled through with literature while at school.

Paraphrase:

Before

I began talking

I noticed the students sitting there

as neatly as fish

in a can.

Slowly, it felt like water was filling the room

Though I barely noticed it

Until the water was up to

my ears

and then I heard the noises

of fish in an aquarium

And I knew that even though I had

Attempted to fill the students’ minds

with my words

They had already opened up

Their minds like gills

and let me in.

The students and I swam around the room

Like thirty bodies whacking the books

till the bell rang

like a puncture

in the door

where we all left

They left for another class

Or to go home

where Queen Elizabeth

my cat met me

and licked my fins

until I realized that they were hands again.

SWIFTT:

SW: The poem is composed of short lines with simple sentence structure. In fact, some sentences only compose of a few words, like “my ears” or “puncturing.” The short lines give the poem a flowing quality that makes it easy to follow. In addition, the author chose words that related to water or fish to convey the ideas of the poem, such as “frozen fish,” “an aquarium,” and “swam around the room.”

I: The poem contains water and fish imagery from the beginning to the end of the poem. For example, in the opening of the poem, the narrator stated that in his mind the students had transformed into “frozen fish” in a package. As the poem continued on, the author felt as if “water began to fill the room.” The teacher even compared the opening of the student’s minds to his teaching to “thirty tails whacking words.”

F: The poem is an extended metaphor for the power of learning and education. The idea can be seen through the fact that through the teachings of the teacher completely transported the students and teacher into a world where “water began to fill the room” and “Together [they] swam around the room.” The fact that the students and teacher alike felt like they were in a completely different world and environment shows that English and learning has the power to completely captivate one’s mind and transport them into a different world.

T: The tone of the poem was light and mystical as the students were transported from their classroom into a completely different environment where they pictured themselves swimming underwater. The light tone can be seen through the simple language structure and bright imagery of the students swimming like fish.

T: The theme of the poem is that English and poetry has the power to transport one to a completely different world. In the poem, the narrator and his students felt as if they were completely transported from hard ground to the underwater world. For as the teacher taught the students, the students felt as if “Together [they] swam around the room.” The classroom was so captivated that the teacher barely felt human again until he got home and his cat “licked [his] fins till they were hands again.”

Conclusion:

My concluding thoughts of the poem remain the same as my initial reaction. The poem is an extended metaphor for the power of education and poetry to transport the reader from one world to a completely foreign one. The story used fish and water imagery to convey the idea that poetry has the power to transport one to any place imaginable.