In-class work for Brigit Kelly's "Song"

Write for five minutes in your in-class writing doc: Is this a poem or a story? Is this beautiful? Is it horrible? Or both?

Then get into groups of three or four and discuss the questions above, and then the following questions, for 15–20 minutes: 

• Who is this speaker, what is her goal in telling us this story? What do you make of the repetition of “listen”? What do you think the “the point” is when the speaker says “But listen: here is the point”?
• Why don’t we hear about the girl’s reaction to the death of her goat?
• What do you make of the last line?

Then write for five more minutes in your doc: What do you think the “the point” is when the speaker says “But listen: here is the point”? OR What do you make of the last line?

If there's time left, spend the rest of the period looking for a poem to explicate.