First Lesson by Philip Booth

Lie back daughter, let your head
be tipped back in the cup of my hand.
Gently, and I will hold you. Spread
your arms wide, lie out on the stream
and look high at the gulls. A dead-
man's float is face down. You will dive
and swim soon enough where this tidewater
ebbs to the sea. Daughter, believe
me, when you tire on the long thrash
to your island, lie up, and survive.
As you float now, where I held you
and let go, remember when fear
cramps your heart what I told you:
lie gently and wide to the light-year
stars, lie back, and the sea will hold you.

Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden

Sundays too my father got up early
and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.

I'd wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he'd call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,

Speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love's austere and lonely offices?

Mother to Son by Langston Hughes

Well, son, I'll tell you:


Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.


It's had tacks in it,


And splinters,


And boards torn up,                                                                


And places with no carpet on the floor --


Bare.


But all the time


I'se been a-climbin' on,


And reachin' landin's,                                                             

And turnin' corners,


And sometimes goin' in the dark


Where there ain't been no light.


So boy, don't you turn back.


Don't you set down on the steps
                                           

'Cause you finds it's kinder hard.


Don't you fall now --


For I'se still goin', honey,


I'se still climbin',


And life for me ain't been no crystal stair                               

 1. This poem is about a mother explaining to her son how life will not be easy but we should never turn back or give up.

2. A harsh, rough, dark staircase that is challenging to climb.

3. It shows how life isn't a beautiful crystal stair case but a bare splintery path. I find these images very effective because it shows a comfortable way through life in which we all dream of and the harsh reality we wake up to each passing day.

4. The images depict splintery, dark, bare passages. I think these images work well to describe the life in which we all live in.

5. The mother sees life as a harsh hell that she lives in. She does not however describe the good things about life only the bad.

6. The mother is trying to show the son how life is all unicorns and rainbows but can be a stressful hellhole at times.

7."life for me ain't been no crystal stair"

8. A stairway.

9. The language is in a southern accent which I like because the author is providing a realism to the way he  "speaks" in the poem.

10. The author affected the poem by writing in his accent.

The Day

On that early saturday morning
I looked upon your face for the first time
Your little arms and legs thrashing from side to side
A combination of all that is good
And inside that day I broke

You killed what I was
But brought out what I am
An ever watchful guardian
By just existing I knew
That from that day on I would love you child

That empty space filled
With a new purpose and reason for being
I was with you that day
And until death take me away
By god I will never leave you

The will to crush all that threaten you
The will to accept the most excruciatingly painful fate
To protect you, my baby, my child, my daughter
From that day on no matter the condition or cost
When you need me...

I'll be here.