Would You Rather(s)...?

So you’ve decided you want to read the poem “Rathers” by Mary Austin. Have you ever wanted to be someone other than yourself? Or have you ever been plagued with the question, “What do you want to be when you grow?” and you had no answer for them. Austin’s poem shows both sentiments. Today, we are going to have a short interview with Billie Thompson and Cami Patterson to learn more about this work specific work.

So, you read Mary Austin’s poem, “Rathers”?

Cami: I did and I absolutely loved it! I felt like it was such a cute poem, but insightful all at the same time.

Billie: Yeah, I read it and I was immediately intrigued.

What was your favorite part of the poem?
Cami: The best part of it for me was that she was wishing that she could be anything other than herself, but she couldn’t settle on any one thing. Austin kept coming up with something better that she could be.

Billie: I really enjoyed the end because I feel like that is where we learned the most about her. She shows her true colors. She would love to become a hunter, so that she can help save the innocent lives of other animals killed by the Puma.

How is “Rathers” poetry, rather than prose?
Billie: This poem is written in the form of stanza, whereas prose is normally written in paragraph form. “Rathers” can be considered traditional poetry, as well, because each new line has a capitalized letter. Most prose is written with a capital letter only at the beginning of each sentence.

What are some elements of poetry that Austin used? 
Cami: It is poetry because it has several elements including, rhyme, assonance, onomatopoeia, and insight. “Wink-ity, blink-ity and rap-ity, tap-ity” are good examples of her use of assonance.

How do you think this poem could be used in the classroom?

Billie: I think that the most obvious way is to have the children read it and then discuss what they think that it means. You could even have them write what they thought about it, as well as their own version.

What kind of lessons could it be incorporated with?

Billie: I think that it could be used during quite a few different lesson. One of which  kids would be learning about rhyme because she uses a lot of rhyming. For example when she says, “I know very well what I’d rather be. If it didn’t always have to be me!”

Cami: It can definitely be used in a poetry lesson. The kids can break it down with what they think it is about. They can point out the elements poetry in this poem very easily

This work was about a woman who didn’t like her particular identity. She spends the whole poem goes through the different stages of her thought process. In the first stanza she talks about being an owl. From there, she decides that a woodpecker would be a great choice. The next animal she talks about is the antelope that is the prey of her next choice, the puma. Finally she decides on being a hunter in order to help keep the puma population from hunting all of the other innocent animals. From the sounds of it, this would be an awesome poem to use in the classroom! It isn’t too difficult for them to understand, but a greater meaning could be discussed, as the kids get older. “Rathers” used a lot of different elements of poetry that are easily definable for the children. If you are needing a poem for your classroom, this would be a great choice!