1. Obedience, or the Lying Tale
Written by Jennifer Chang

2. Free verse 6 stanzas 34 lines The Poem
I will do everything you tell me, Mother.
I will charm three gold hairs
from the demon’s head.
I will choke the mouse that gnaws
an apple tree’s roots and keep its skin
for a glove. To the wolf, I will be
pretty and kind and curtsy
his crossing of my path.
The forest, vocal
even in its somber tread, rages.
A slope ends in a pit of foxes
drunk on rotten brambles of berries
and the raccoons ransack
a rabbit’s unmasked hole.
What do they find but a winter’s heap
of droppings? A stolen nest, the cracked shell
of another creature’s child.
I imagine this is the rabbit way
and I will not stray, Mother,
into the forest’s thick,
where the trees meet the dark,
though I have known misgivings
of light as a hot hand that flickers
against my neck. The path ends
at a river I must cross. I will wait
for the ferryman
to motion me through. Into the waves
he etches with his oar
a new story: a silent girl runs away,
a silent girl is never safe.
I will take his oar in my hand. I will learn
the boat’s rocking and bring myself back
and forth. To be good
is the hurricane of caution.
I will know indecision’s rowing,
the water I lap into my lap
as he shakes his withered head.
Behind me is the forest. Before me
the field, a loose run of grass. I stay
in the river, Mother, I study escape.
Free verse
6 stanzas
34 lines

3. Jennifer CHang Born in New Jersey Went to the University of Virginia
is a PhD candidate there
Poet and a scholar
To learn more about her go to

4. This Poem is about a child speaking to his mother, he tells her that he will do what he is told when he is told to do it. He explains that he is going to be obedient and obey his mother.

5. But Just what is Obedience ?
compliance with an order, request, or law or submission to another's authority. Or in short term, to listen to someone or to obey
to obey - comply with the command, direction, or request of (a person or a law); submit to the authority of.

6. Imagery In The Poem “To the wolf, I will be pretty and kind and curtsy
his crossing of my path”
Imagery In The Poem
“I will charm three gold hairs”
“A Pit of foxes”
“rotten brambles of berries”

7. The speaker
The Speaker is a child speaking to their mother about listening
The Speaker tells his mother he will listen or obey what she tells him or her and be a good child

8. This Poem Has Peace of figurative meaning in it
The meaning is he doesn't want to listen to his mother but he has no choice to listen because she is his mother
It Also Has a literal meaning
In the story he must listen and obey hos mother so he doesn't get in trouble

9. Websites Used http://www.lifecoachinglls.com/site/186.html x