Auto-Lullaby By: Franz Wright Liz Williams

Biographical Information. Franz Wright Wrote poems for his wife while he had terminal lung cancer Volunteers his time at centers for grieving children Is known for his lyrical poems He and his father are the only father-son pair to both win a Pulitzer prize for the same category-poetry. Writes poems about isolation, illness, spirituality, and gratitude.

Organization. Structure. Form. B C D E F G H I Think of a sheep knitting a sweater; think of your life getting better and better. Think of your cat asleep in a tree; think of that spot where you once skinned your knee. Think of a bird that stands in your palm. Try to remember the Twenty-first Psalm. Think of a big pink horse galloping south; think of   a fly, and close your mouth. If   you feel thirsty, then drink from your cup. The birds will keep singing until they wake up. J K L M N O Wright organized the poem this way to organize his thoughts. The rhyme scheme is also affected by the structure of the poem. The form of the poem is 5 stanzas, with 4 lines in each stanza.

Poetic. Literary. Terms. Literary Elements: End Rhyme: The end rhyme pattern is the same and continues through out the poem to connect ideas. Imagery: Imagery is used so you get a better understanding of the poem. Wright tells you to think or picture specific parts in his poem. Here he is talking about a sheep knitting a sweater. He is relating to how some people don’t think about how they get their clothes. A sheep certainly doesen’t kit them! Imagery: When Wright talks about your cat asleep in a tree, he is connecting your cats to other cats because most people have heard of a cat sleeping in a tree, but do they really do it that often? Repition: He wants you to think so you have a better understanding of the poem. Alliteration Think of   a sheep A knitting a sweater; B think of   your life C getting better and better. B Think of   your cat D asleep in a tree; E think of   that spot F where you once skinned your knee. E

Poetic. Literary. Terms. Literary Elements: Imagery: In this part Wright wants you to picture a bird in your palm a pink horse and a fly, buy why? He wants to spread the poem so more people can connect to it. Wether you have pet birds, live down south with horses or in the woods with flies, he wants you to be able to connect. Next slide is about the twenty-first psalm. Think of a bird G That stands in your palm H Try to remember I The Twenty-first psalm H Think of a big pink horse J Galloping south K think of   a fly L And close your mouth K

The twenty first psalm

Imagery. (Stanza 1) “Think of a sheep Knitting a sweater;” (Stanza 2) “Think of your cat Asleep in a tree;” (Stanza 3) “Think of a bird That stands in your palm” (Stanza 4) “Think of a fly, and Close your mouth”

Speaker. The speaker is whom we think to be the author. In the poem we do not learn anything about the speaker. I think that the poem is about the speaker reflecting back on his life and realizing that 1 hickup in life woln’t stop the world from going round. In this stanza is when I made those discoveries about the speaker. If you feel thirsty, then Drink from your cup The birds will keep singing Until they wake up.

Literal. Meaning. The poem literally gets you thinking. It keeps saying think…, think…,. To get your inner self thinking. Do you remember that spot where you skinned your knee? I know I do. The poem also says the big pink hors galloping south. Some spots in the poem you can’t even figure out what the literal meaning was because a pink horse dosen’t exist.

Figurative. Meaning. The author has many figurative meanings in this poem. The author mostly wants you to look back on this poem and be able to reflect on your life. Wether you had a pet bird or ate a fly as a child this poem is a simple story that spirals into something even bigger. It depends on who you are what the meaning is, if you were Edgar Allan Poe he might think that the poem is really sad because it reminded him of the childhood when the most important people in his life died.

Author’s. Purpose. The author mostly wanted for everyone to be able to think, “maybe this poem was about me”. From if you wear sweaters, to seeing pink horses galloping, if you know of these things you can relate to the poem. The author was also maybe reflecing back on his childhood and seeing all the things he thought were important parts.

THEME. The theme of the poem is to be thankful for what you have. At the end of the poem, Wright says “if you feel thirsty, then Drink from your cup The birds will keep singing Until they wake up” From that I got that you should be thankful because if you are thirsty, you can take a drink of water, where in someplaces you cant do that or you could get a deadly disease and die.

Websites Poetryfoundation.org Poetryoutloud.org dreamstime.com fantastic-farm-and-country-photos.com jcpanddelier.com