1. Milton Acorn By Jason LeBritton

2. Background Information ► Milton James Rhode Acorn was born on March 30, 1923, in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. ► When he was 16 years old Acorn joined the army and fought in World War 2. In 1943 Acorn was wounded during a trans-Atlantic crossing. He was discharged from the army that same year. ► After the war he returned to Charlottetown and became a carpenter. When carpentry did not work for Acorn he decided to become a poet. He felt very strong opinion about politics and is noticeable in his poetry. ► In 1956 he moved to Montreal and published his first book “In Love and Anger”. While he was living he published 12 books of poetry, with 1975’s “The Island Means Minago” being the most popular. After his death 6 more books of his work were published.

3. Background Information ► Acorn received the Canadian Poet Award, more commonly known as the People’s Poet Award in 1970. In 1976 he received the Governor Generals Award. ► He was given an honorary law degree from the University of Prince Edward Island. When he died in 1986 he was made a member of the Canadian Poetry Association.

4. The Island by Milton Acorn Since I'm Island-born home's as precise as if a mumbly old carpenter, shoulder-straps crossed wrong, laid it out, refigured to the last three-eighths of shingle. Nowhere that plowcut worms heal themselves in red loam; spruces squat, skirts in sand or the stones of a river rattle its dark tunnel under the elms, is there a spot not measured by hands; no direction I couldn't walk to the wave-lined edge of home. Quiet shores -- beaches that roar but walk two thousand paces and the sea becomes an odd shining glimpse among the jeweled zigzag low hills. Any wonder your eyelashes are wings to fly your look both in and out? In the coves of the land all things are discussed. In the ranged jaws of the Gulf, a red tongue. Indians say a musical God took up his brush and painted it, named it in His own language "The Island".

5. LIVE WITH ME ON EARTH UNDER THE INVISIBLE DAYLIGHT MOON by Milton Acorn Live with me on Earth among red berries and the bluebirds And leafy young twigs whispering Within such little spaces, between such floors of green, such figures in the clouds That two of us could fill our lives with delicate wanting: Where stars past the spruce copse mingle with fireflies Or the dayscape flings a thousand tones of light back at the sun— Be any one of the colours of an Earth lover; Walk with me and sometimes cover your shadow with mine.

6. I’ve Tasted My Blood by Milton Acorn If this brain's over-tempered consider that the fire was want and the hammers were fists. I've tasted my blood too much to love what I was born to. But my mother's look was a field of brown oats, soft- bearded; her voice rain and air rich with lilacs: and I loved her too much to like how she dragged her days like a sled over gravel. Playmates? I remember where their skulls roll! One died hungry, gnawing grey porch-planks; one fell, and landed so hard he splashed; and many and many come up atom by atom in the worm-casts of Europe. My deep prayer a curse. My deep prayer the promise that this won't be. My deep prayer my cunning, my love, my anger, and often even my forgiveness that this won't be and be. I've tasted my blood too much to abide what I was born to.

7. Analysis ► Theme- poverty, oppression, surviving, strengthening oneself. ► Figurative Language  “and the hammers were fists” (personification)  “air rich with lilacs” (personification)  “how she dragged her days like a sled over gravel” (simile)  “I've tasted my blood too much to abide what I was born to“ (symbol)

8. Questions 1. What does the line “I’ve tasted my blood to much to abide what I was born to” mean? 2. What does the blood symbolize in this poem? 3. How does figurative language in the poem develope the theme?

9. Works Cited ► http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Acorn http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Acorn ► http://www.ucalgary.ca/UofC/faculties/HUM/ENGL/canada/poet/ m_acorn.htm http://www.ucalgary.ca/UofC/faculties/HUM/ENGL/canada/poet/ m_acorn.htm http://www.ucalgary.ca/UofC/faculties/HUM/ENGL/canada/poet/ m_acorn.htm ► http://www.lovethepoem.com/poets/milton-acorn/ http://www.lovethepoem.com/poets/milton-acorn/ ► http://www.library.utoronto.ca/canpoetry/acorn/index.htm http://www.library.utoronto.ca/canpoetry/acorn/index.htm ► http://www.library.utoronto.ca/canpoetry/acorn/poem1.htm http://www.library.utoronto.ca/canpoetry/acorn/poem1.htm ► http://www.library.utoronto.ca/canpoetry/acorn/poem5.htm http://www.library.utoronto.ca/canpoetry/acorn/poem5.htm ► http://pages.interlog.com/~gilgames/pmacorn.htm http://pages.interlog.com/~gilgames/pmacorn.htm