Knock at a Star

On Sectioning Poetry

Knock at a Star by X. J and Dorothy M. Kennedy is a fresh, inspired compilation of children's poetry that introduces and challenges it's readers. Most poems in the book are unique and essential to include , but a few could be left out or better explained. While“Canis Major” by Robert Frost is creative, clear, and inspirational, “Poor” by Myra Cohn Livingston sends a message to the reader that is unclear and potentially harmful to a young audience. Other poems, such as “In Just-” by E.E. Cummings, “Narcissa” by Gwendolyn Brooks, and “Two People” by Eve Merriam offer the reader lessons in acceptance and creativity. While it is very important for a young reader to understand and enjoy poetry, it can also be detrimental to them if the poetry sends the wrong message. Poems that are too complex or to preachy also don't tend to win over the younger audiences. Knock at a Star offers many types of poetry for many age groups and strives to enhance the readers experience with poetry by offering poems that, ideally, the reader can find meaning of their own in. But, are the included poems best served according to the section they're under? Are the poems clear and creative? For the most part, yes. Through consulting with the texts: Essentials of Children's Literature, Mooring Against the Tide, and PoetryFoundation.org, one is able to show how Knock at a Star is a creative and clear compilation of unique poetry for children that will continue to be relevant for years to come.

“Canis Major” by Robert Frost is placed under the section, Beats That Repeat. “In a good poem, the rhythm – wheather regular or changing – goes along with what the poet is saying in it” (86). Frost's poem has a rhyme scheme of ABCB, DEFE, GHAH and implores the use of masculine rhyme which is when “two words end with the same vowelconsonant combination” (Knorr, Schell 42). Masculine would probably be a favorite to young readers because it's simple and direct. The second verse reads: “He dances upright, All the way to the west, And never once drops, On his forefeet to rest.” (88). West and rest are the masculine rhyme; Additionally, Frost varies the beats that repeat by changing the meters within each line so different words are emphasized. The beat and rhyme scheme of this poem add to the message of it. The emphasized words in the above verse would be upright, way, west, never, drops, feet, and rest. When read aloud, the reader will emphasize these words. When broken down, it may sound like this: Ta (he) Ta (dances) Dum (upright) Ta (all) Ta (The) Dum (way) Ta (to) Ta (the) Dum (West), Ta (and) Dum (never), Ta (once) Dum (drops), Ta (on) Ta (his) Dum (Forefeet), To (to) Dum (rest). By using this meter, Frost is able to draw emphasis to the words that add meaning to the poem. 

 

The poem's meaning may be behind what an Overdog actually is. “The great Overdog” (line 1) is referring to the constellation in the sky, Canis Major; this is positively the case as the title of the poem indicates. The “star in one eye” (line 3) is referring to the star Sirius which is the brightest star in the sky. When the great overdog “gives a leap in the east” (4), it is referring to the constellation moving from east to west in the night sky. The “poor underdog” can be taken as the speaker of the poem literally sitting underneath the sky which contains the great Overdog, as well as it can mean the speaker is an underdog in the sense of being one who is at a disadvantage. “Yet, just as Frost is aware of the distances between one man and another, so he is also always aware of the distinction, the ultimate separateness, of nature and man” (poetryfoundation.org). The underdog is separate from the Overdog; he is not normally one with nature/God. When the underdog barks, the poem takes on an inspirational meaning. It sends the message: even though he's just a poor underdog, in this moment and at this time he is at one or, at least, bonding with the great Overdog and has the power to bark; he has the motivation to yell out his support or praise. If the great Overdog is assumed to be a higher being – which can be inferred by the use of capitalizing Overdog - then the underdog is a mortal and in a state of worship or communion with the great Overdog.

The message this sends to a child, then, is that it's okay and beautiful, actually, to have this connection with the great Overdog/God. Frost wrote: “I'm a poor underdog, But tonight I will bark” (lines 9-10), as if to say the underdog is at one with nature and in harmony with God. The rhyme scheme in the poem natural to read; when read aloud, the words just slip off the tongue. This adds to the poems meaning because it can be inferred that just as the poem is read naturally, the meaning of the poem, too, should come naturally. Frost may be saying communion and comfort in God and/or nature should come naturally. 

 

“In Just-” by E. E. Cummings is a creative, whimsical poem characterized under the Word Play section. The poem effectively deals with the topic of injustice towards, primarily, age discrimination and growing up. This type of theme was fairly common for Cummings. “Though his poetic language was uniquely his own, Cummings' poems were unusual because they unabashedly focused on such traditional and somewhat passe poetic themes as love, childhood, and flowers” (poetryfoundation.org) Cummings points out how unfair it is that the children in the poem continue to play while the balloonman must continue working. He “also discovered the joy of inventing new words. E. E. Cummings, in a poem about spring, applies such a new words to the wet earth that little kids dabble in after a rainstorm: mud-luscious. . . In word play, the results can surprise poet and reader. At its best, such word play can be exciting as a fast game of street hockey, as suspenseful as the next move in a game of chess” (101). As in the case with “In Just,” the poem plays with spacing, line breaks, rhyme, and meter to assist the flow of the message.

Immediately, the first line of the poem has a double meaning. “In Just-” can be taken to mean that it's just barely Spring, as well as it can be referring to the word: injustice. From the very first encounter with the poem, the title, the reader can expect that perhaps some sort of injutice is occuring within the poem. The spacing between the words helps the reader to visualize the words. For example, leaving extra space between “whistles far and wee” (line 5) makes the reader see the whistle carrying on far and long. Cummings plays with words, also, by combining them. “Mud-luscious” is put to great use because it combines the words and accentuates the meaning of the word; the mud is luscious and rich and full; Visually, the fullness of the word “luscious” expands into the word “mud.” He also used word play with the children's names. “eddieandbill” (line 6) and later, “bettyandisbel” (line 14). Combining the children's names adds the meaning that the children are interchangeable. Every year it's a new set of kids playing but the old balloonman is always there, watching them and stuck working. Cumming's is taking away the uniqueness of the children and lumping them together into one; by combining the names he makes the point that it's not eddie and bill, nor betty and isbel exactly individually but it's any kid he sees playing. The combining of the names could also signify that the kids are best friends and the balloonman sees them as one because they're always together.

The poem works well in Knock at a Star for the uniqueness of its word play and meaning. For a young reader, it can send the message about injustice. It might be a bit more challenging, as well, for a younger audience but it would work as a wonderful canvas or starting point for discussion. The authors couldn't have selected a better poem to demonstrate the best use of word play in a poem. Cummings effectively deals with the topic of injustice towards others. The balloonman is described as lame, queer, old, and goat-footed. These adjectives are how the children view the balloonman. The conversation may be about why they describe the balloonman as they do. What makes the balloonman queer and lame? The poem lends to the idea that the children view him as such because they don't understand or relate to him. While “eddieandbill come running from marbles and piracies” (5-6) and while “bettyandisbel come dancing from hop-scotch and jump-rope” (13-14) the balloonman “whistles far and we.” (20-24). The children never interact with the balloonman and to them, he's just this older man whistling and not enjoying the fresh spring weather, as they are. At the end, Cummings capitalizes the M in balloonMan. Cummings may be suggesting that the balloonman is demanding recognition, here. He is not just a goat-footed balloonman, he is a man. He is a person. Children need to understand that he is a person too and they shouldn't judge him because they don't understand him. If taught properly and broken down for a younger audience, this poem can teach profound lessons of acceptance and understanding. As is the case with many poems in Knock at a Star, In Just- could work just as well if placed in the Sends Messages section as it does in the Word Play section.

Under the Sends Messages section is the poem “Poor” by Myra Cohn Livingston. The poem contains three stanzas and internal slant rhyme. Internal rhyme is when “a word within a line rhymes with another word in that line or rhymes with a word of similar placement in the following line” (Knorr, Schell 42) and slant rhyme is when “the sounds nearly rhyme but do not form a 'true rhyme.'” “Poor” combines both rhyming techniques. For example, “I heard of poor. It means hungry, no food, no shoes” (25). The words “food” and “shoes” offer the same “ooh” sound. The author also repeats the double-o three times in the first stanza with “poor,” “food,” and “good.” This is a good demontration of assonance which is when “the same vowel sound is heard repeatedly within a line or a few lines of poetry” (Essentials of Children's Literature 59). In the second stanza, Livingston uses slant end rhyme. The words “cold,” “alone,” and “old” offer the same “oh” sound. According to The Essentials of Children's Literature, “Parts of words may be repeated, as with rhyme, the sound device that children most recognize and enjoy” (59). Livingston poem offers interesting sound devices that may make it easy and fun for the reader. Because Knock at a Star is a poetry book intended for a younger audience, sound devices could have been important for the authors to keep in mind when selecting the poems. 

 

The fact they placed “Poor” in the Send Messages section is arguably a mistake, though.

Written in the description of the Send Messagessection, it reads: “Poems often have a point to make” (22). What is the message of “Poor”? According to Livingston, poor is “being cold. It is lonely, alone, feeling old” (lines 6-8). Poor sounds like the worst possible thing. While it's true being poor can be hard, people get through it and some even rise above it. This is not the right message to send to a child. The message can come off as anti-inspirational and discouraging. It is important, as well, to point out that Livingston may not have intended her poem to be read this way. According to website Project Muse, “When Myra Cohn Livingston speaks, all those concerned with quality in literature for the young, especially in poetry, should listen.” Perhaps she wrote the poem in the eyes of a child who doesn't understand the many aspects of being poor. If the poem is meant to be read as from the eyes of a child, it would be essential to make sure the child reading it understands that this is not necessarily what being poor is. “Poetry is the most misused genre in classrooms, often used for memorization and handwriting practice. . . [the unit] bombards students with abstract poems that they are expected to analyze in order to uncover the 'hidden meanings'” (Essentials of Children's Literature 69). The fact is, many families struggle with money and it's often hard to know how much a child catches on to financial woes; if taught in a classroom, this poem would require additional conversation and an advantage of it may be to work as a bridge of communication with children about poverty. This poem may not be as relevant, or appropriate, in 2012 as maybe it was in 1999 when Knock at a Star was published. If read in a classroom, a child reader may feel self-conscious or singled out. The poem might be better placed in the Share Feelings section which contains poetry that “can express many different moods: happiness, sadness, anger, fear, loneliness” (28). If the narrator of the poem is meant to be a child, it should be in the Share Feelings section because, then, the point of the poem is for the child to share their feelings about the word poor and communicate what they think it means to be poor. In the case of “Poor” the feelings being expressed could be anger, fear, sadness, and lonliness. In the case of this poem, who the speaker is becomes essential to it's appropriateness. 

 

“Narcissa” by Gwendolyn Brooks (42) may have been a better fit than “Poor” for the Send Messages section as it offers many inspirational and encouraging messages, depending on how it is read. It also works perfectly well is the Help You Understand People category in which it was placed. “Narcissa” can be interpreted as a poem about imagination. While all the other girls are playing games, Narcissa sits against the brick wall, looking at tiger-lilies (line 7) and imagining herself as a queen (line 9). The poem, too, can imply that Narcissa is a narcisist and that may, indeed, be the way the other girls in the poem view Narcissa because she sits alone. The 3^rd person point of the view of the poem offers an outsiders take on the scene which leaves room for interpretation. This section of Knock at a Star offers insight that many children may not get in their day to day experiences. At younger ages, it's often hard to think outside of onself and try to understand the how's and why's of others; it's hard to put onself in another's shoes. “Poems, too, can give us insight into why people act as they do. Even a small poem, by showing us in words what a person looks like or what he or she is thinking can help us understand more about our families, our friends, and the other people on our planet” (40).

“Narcissa” uses a fun, upbeat rhythm and rhyme scheme. If read in the context that Narcissa isn't liked by the other girls because she's viewed as narcisistic, then the fun upbeat pattern of rhyme can counteract the negative connotations towards Narcissa and teach a young reader acceptance. For example, the second stanza reads: “Small Narcissa sits upon A brick in her back yard And looks at tiger-lilies, and shakes her pig tales hard.” The rhythm in this poem is essential to interpreting it's meaning. The rising meter, which is when “we go from unstressed syllables to stressed syllables,” (Knorr, Schell 46) makes the poem feel uplifting. The rhythm of the words can change the meaning from being, in this case, negative to positive. Just because Narcissa is sitting alone and not playing with the other girls, doesn't mean she's not enjoying herself or that she is antisocial. To help a child understand people, this may come in handy. Putting something hard to understand in simple, optimistic packaging can make all the difference. It can be the difference between singling Narcissa out and bullying her, or accepting her and possibly befriending her.

Also in the Help You Understand People section is the poem “Two People” by Eve Merriam. The poem is about family members and how sometimes they have opposite personalities but they still love each other. “In just about everything they disagree, but they love one another and they both love me” (lines 13-16). “Two People” sends a great lesson to children to help them accept others unlike themselves. It's relateable for children to remember they're parents love them. The rhyme scheme is fun and simple for a child to understand and the message, summed up in the last stanza, is clear. Merriam “began writing her own poems when she was seven or eight years old” (PoetryFoundation.org). Merriam seems to have taken to writing for children for much of her career.

“Poems about nature, animals, family, and the everyday experiences children encounter never disappeared from her children's books, yet she stretched beyond these traditional sensibilities of childhood and shifted her concerns to reflect the inner emotional conflicts and stark realities of the world facing children: anxieties, alienation, racial and social injustice, war, inhumane technology, and the struggles of urban life" (PoetryFoundation.org).

“Two People” is a creative, and clear approach to breaching the topic of loving and accepting ones family members. The poem can assist with sibling rivalvy, as well, if two siblings are opposite and feel like they have nothing in common. The rhyming of the poem also makes it easier to show to children as it can start a discussion about loving your family no matter what, on a lighter note. “Numerous critics have been impressed with Merriam's poetry for young readers. They applaud her serious attempt to get children involved in poetry by providing poems that are pleasurable, approachable, and stimulating to both the intellect and the senses.” (poetryfoundation.org). The speaker of “Two People” is the child of two parents who are opposite which makes it easy for other young readers to relate to.

The rhyme scheme is ABCB, DEDE, FGHG, IJKJ. “...One of Merriam's chief aims as a writer of children's poetry was to instill in youth the same fascination with language that she experienced . . . She maintains that no one learns to love poetry without hearing it read out loud” poetryfoundation.org). As is deomnstrated with “Two People,” poetry can act best when read aloud to children. Again, as seen in the other poems, the rhyme scheme makes the poem fun to read and enjoyable while communicating a strong, simple message. The format of the poem plays with opposites which helps the reader connect the dots; “He gulps down cold drinks, she sips at hot” (9-10). Instead of drawing attention to how opposite the two people are Merriam takes the two opposite traits, combines them in a sort of couplet within each stanza and makes them work as a pair. Children can look at the child speaker of the poem and identify the level of love and accepance displayed; as was the case with “Narcissa” this, ideally, can act as a deterrent to bullying. The poem is entirely relevant in 2012 as when the book was published. Many children come from unique family structures and “Two People” can help them understand that even though their family may not resemble someone else's, if they have love on their side then it doesn't matter what it looks like to anyone else. Whether it's because their parents are divorced, separated, foster parents, adoptive parents, same sex parents, or birth parents, this poem can help them understand that the only important this to concern themselves with is if they are loved. “Two People” reaches beyond “traditional sensibilities” and can assist in ensuring a child does not feel alienated, unloved, or alone. 

 

Knock at a Star offers many, many more unique and creative poems than the ones mentioned. This compilation is a great beginning to creating a lifelong love for poetry. It is clearly seen that the use of 'tone' is a poem can make all the difference; it can change a subject with negative connotations to being one with an uplifting message as was seen with “Poor”, “Narcissa”, and “Two People.” The speaker of the poem is also extremely important as it creates a credible source for the reader. Young readers will most likely identify stronger with a young speaker, as opposed to an adult who may come off as preachy in which case, “Poor,” “Two People,” and “Canis Major” may end up being a child's favorite out the selected poems. The child may identify with the underdog and the young speakers as opposed to the 3^rd person speaker in “Narcissa” and “In Just-”. Each poem in Knock at a Star has appropriate language – meaning, a younger audience could easily understand the vocabulary. E. E. Cumming's “In Just-” may at first seem confusing, but because children are still learning vocabulary, his creative fabricated words – such as mud-luscious – might make total sense to them. Knock at a Star reaches high in the sky with the hopes of creating a love for poetry in children that may otherwise never occur.

©November 2012

Works Cited

"E. E. Cummings." : The Poetry Foundation. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Nov. 2012. <http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/e-e-cummings>.

"Eve Merriam." : The Poetry Foundation. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Nov. 2012. <http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/eve-merriam>.

"Gwendolyn Brooks." : The Poetry Foundation. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Nov. 2012. <http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/gwendolyn-brooks>.

Helbig, Alethea K. "Project MUSE - Myra Cohn Livingston Offers a "New Mythology" in The Child as Poet." Project MUSE - Myra Cohn Livingston Offers a "New Mythology" in The Child as Poet. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2012. helbig.html>.

Kennedy, X. J., Dorothy M. Kennedy, and Karen Baker. Knock at a Star: A Child's Introduction to Poetry. Boston: Little, Brown, 1999. Print.

Knorr, Jeff, and Tim Schell. Mooring against the Tide: Writing Fiction and Poetry. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2006. Print.

Lynch-Brown, Carol, Carl M. Tomlinson, and Kathy G. Short. Essentials of Children's Literature. 7th ed. Boston, MA: Pearson, 2011. Print.

"Robert Frost." : The Poetry Foundation. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Nov. 2012. <http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/robert-frost>.