April 28

Ap 28/16 Station A – Individually – find a poem about Choice

Do some online digging and find a poem that stands out to you related to our common topic of Decision-making. 

Task: on your own  (each)

  1. Look online for a poem that suits the following criteria:
    1. is at least 10 – 15 lines long
    2. is of an appropriate difficulty level for Grade 10
    3. is related to the theme of choices/influences of decisions/decision-making
  2. Copy the poem text to a document (Word/Google Doc/Email)
  3. Identify 5 qualities of the poem that stand out or draw a reaction from you. For each of the 5, write one sentence explaining what you recognize or what stands out as being important to you. Number each sentence and try to make your points specific about this particular poem you’ve selected.
  4. Once you have your poem and 5 points made about it, copy and paste that into the comment space to this post. Make sure you leave your name.

Note: If your comments are general enough that they can be applied to another random poem about Choices, your point is not specific enough.

 

You can search for this on Poetry Websites or even by images.

 

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Posted April 28, 2016 by Waldner in category ELA B10

21 thoughts on “Ap 28/16 Station A – Individually – find a poem about Choice

  1. Wylie

    Make Your Choice
    Make no mistake, choose what is right
    This heart of stone or that of a marshmallow
    This unclear path or that of the lighted, which to follow
    Make your choice and put up a fight
    Either you hold on tight or just let go

    The clock is ticking and so is this heart
    Take your time but be quick
    Walk to the finish line but run to where you start
    Make your choice, take a pick

    But before you choose, always remember:
    Open this stone you’ll realize the sincerity it promises
    Risk to the unclear you’ll see adventure that’s endless
    Make your choice, it’s one way or another
    Either you hold on or let go
    But all I ask is that you’d let me know.

    Line 1 is an attention grabbing statement that is very bold
    Line 3 says you have to choose a path and it’s a hard decision
    Line 4/5 tells you to fight for your decision and fight hard or not at all
    Section 2 sayes to make your choice quickly but not in a hurry and choose right
    Section 3 sayes that you only get one choice so make it right

    Reply
  2. Zach

    Hard choice
    A path is laid out ahead
    It fork below your feet
    A decision filled with dread
    Uncertain of what you’ll meet
    A game full of chance
    Of many hidden pit falls
    To find true romance
    Dare you risk losing all
    Choices never easy to make
    Fog seems to cloud ur way
    You fear makinfg a mistake
    Of gambling and losing the day
    But life is full of hard choices
    And risk is part of the game
    Be brave ignoring doubting voicces
    Make the choice life won’t be the same

    1) a path laid out ahead which represents life, line 1
    2)a game of full chance line 5
    3) choices never easy to make line 9′
    4) of gambling and losing the day taking risks line 12
    5) fog clouds your way represent s difficulty line 10

    Reply
  3. Jadelyn

    Choices
    by, Allen Steble

    We all have a choice
    to live a lie
    or be ourselves
    to laugh and cry
    or to follow someone else

    to look up and smile
    or bow down and frown
    to walk the whole mile
    or take off our crown

    We have a choice
    to shout out loud
    or chant a whisper
    to fly through the clouds
    or to be blown like paper

    to conquer our fear
    or hide in the shadow
    to the wise words hear
    or be thrown out the window

    We all have a choice
    to climb our highest mountain
    or fall into our deepest hole
    to drink from life’s fountain
    or live life like a troubled soul

    Responses
    1. I recognize a pattern in this poem. It explains that we can either make positive choice and become higher in life or make negative ones that will break us down and make us weaker.
    2. I like the stanza “We all have a choice
    to climb our highest mountain
    or fall into our deepest hole
    to drink from life’s fountain
    or live life like a troubled soul” I like it because it really describes how we can become stronger in life or easily fall into “our deepest hole” and “live life like a troubled soul”
    3. I found this poem was really straightforward
    4. I like the rhyming and patterns
    5. I also like how it continuously reminds you that we all have a choice.

    Reply
  4. Brody

    Hard choices

    A path is laid out ahead,
    It forks before your feet.
    A decision filled with dread,
    Uncertain of what you’ll meet.

    A game full of chance,
    Of many hidden pit falls.
    To find true romance,

    Dare you risk losing all?

    Choices never easy to make,
    Fog seems to cloud your way.
    You fear making a mistake,
    Of gambling and losing the day.

    But life is full of hard choices,

    And risk is part of the game.
    Be brave, ignore doubting voices,
    Make the choice, life won’t be the same.

    The title is emotional. There are lots of different choices in life (Line 2). You never know what’s ahead (line 4). It like gambling (line 12). Be confident in your choice and you might succeed (line 15 & 16).

    Reply
  5. Sara sagen

    Choices
    by, Allen Steble

    We all have a choice
    to live a lie
    or be ourselves
    to laugh and cry
    or to follow someone else

    1.)to look up and smile
    or bow down and frown
    to walk the whole mile
    or take off our crown

    We have a choice
    to shout out loud
    or chant a whisper
    2.)to fly through the clouds
    or to be blown like paper

    to conquer our fear
    or hide in the shadow
    to the wise words hear
    or be thrown out the window

    We all have a choice
    3.)to climb our highest mountain
    or fall into our deepest hole
    to drink from life’s fountain
    5.)or live life like a troubled soul

    1.)No matter what happens move
    on and smile.
    2.)To get pushed around or do your
    own to succeed in your choices.
    3.) To hit the highest points in your life,
    reaching your set goals.
    4.) Or maybe not trying your hardest and
    falling back in your life.
    5.) whether you decide to move on from mistakes
    or let it haunt you for the rest of your life being not satisfied.

    Reply
  6. Tyson

    The Road Not Taken
    by Robert Frost

    Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
    And sorry I could not travel both
    And be one traveler, long I stood
    And looked down one as far as I could
    To where it bent in the undergrowth;

    Then took the other, as just as fair,
    And having perhaps the better claim
    Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
    Though as for that the passing there
    Had worn them really about the same,

    And both that morning equally lay
    In leaves no step had trodden black.
    Oh, I kept the first for another day!
    Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
    I doubted if I should ever come back.

    I shall be telling this with a sigh
    Somewhere ages and ages hence:
    Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
    I took the one less traveled by,
    And that has made all the difference.

    Reply
  7. Calina

    I can’t ever make up my mind
    The best answer I can’t ever find
    My mom and dad yell “You have to decide”
    If only they were in my brain along for the ride

    (She can’t make decisions and struggles to explain what she wants)

    People don’t realize just how hard it can get
    To not disappoint without feeling regret
    It seems easier to have someone pick for me
    But I guess that just weakens my decision making ability

    (She doesn’t want to make her own decisions and have people not like her choice)

    I also wish someone would help me to choose
    Give me some advice that I could use
    Get me to get over this problem of mine
    Help me to realize all I need is time

    (She wants help making choices and wants to get better and decision making)

    But it seems like I need to get over it right now
    Just practice and try even though I don’t know how
    I could really face some problems in the years to come
    With this problem of mine that may seem quite dumb

    (She knows she needs to be able to make decisions otherwise she will have trouble
    In the future with even more important choices)

    I’m worried I will have to face a major consequence
    For when I’m faced with the decision and I reply “I’m on the fence”
    Just toughen up and buckle down
    Because the best choice I know can be found

    (She knows she will have to make big decisions and can’t be on the fence)

    I’ll be cured before you know it
    But right now I’m not faking
    I protest everything that goes along,
    With decision making

    (She will figure out how to decide)

    Reply
  8. Braeden

    1Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
    2And sorry I could not travel both
    And be one traveler, long I stood
    3And looked down one as far as I could
    To where it bent in the undergrowth;

    4Then took the other, as just as fair,
    And having perhaps the better claim
    Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
    Though as for that the passing there
    Had worn them really about the same,

    And both that morning equally lay
    In leaves no step had trodden black.
    Oh, I kept the first for another day!
    Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
    I doubted if I should ever come back.

    I shall be telling this with a sigh
    Somewhere ages and ages hence:
    Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
    I took the one less traveled by,
    5 And that has made all the difference.

    1 There is two paths in life that you can go down.
    2 out of the two paths you can only go down one
    3 you can never see ahead where the path will take you
    4 at somepoint you have to go down one and hope it’s a good path.
    5 no matter what path you take it will make a big difference to you

    Reply
  9. Jenna

    Do you ever wonder?

    Do you ever wonder,
    Do you ever doubt
    Whether what you’ve chosen
    Was completely right?
    What about the choices
    You’ve neglected thus?
    Because by picking something
    That you’re doing now
    You’ve missed all the rest
    Of things you could have done
    Things you could have done
    People you could have met
    Places you could have seen

    But is there even sense
    In asking yourself now
    Bout all you could have done
    And everyone you could have met?
    Because the fact is you have not,
    Done this other thing
    But the one you’re doing now
    The one you’re living in
    And it’s exactly this
    You were supposed to do
    3.)Had there been any other way
    1.)You wouldn’t have ended up
    3.)In this same place you are today
    And you know yourself best.

    So why remember choices missed?
    Why bother with it all?
    Because, always, wanted or not
    Uncertainty remains

    1. Don’t regret the choices you make, because it makes you the person you are today
    2. I like how it starts out negetive talking about our choices and regrets but by the end, it turns positive, telling us not to have regrets
    3. I like the rhyme in this
    4. “Do you ever wonder” is an a title that gets you wondering what the poem is about
    5. No matter what decisions you make, dont regret them

    Reply
  10. Morgan

    Choices of Tomorrow
    by, Fiona
    As the sun sets, another day’s departed
    Distant memories light my way back home
    Mysteries aren’t for the faint hearted,
    Can’t escape the past as it’s set in stone
    An ending leads to a new beginning,
    But beginnings come to ends in the road
    Great times vanish, the Cheshire cat’s grinning
    These are words that I’ve bestowed
    Decisions in life may be good or dire
    You have to walk through the right doors in life
    Your judgment may land you knee deep in mire,
    Or otherwise lead you to joy or strife
    Who knows what my life’s journey has in store?
    I shall wait to walk through tomorrows door

    1) The title is very suiting, it is “Choices of Tomorrow” and really is telling you that it’s your choices in the future are ones that matter. The choices of the past are already made and cannot be changed, so instead of worrying about those, work towards your future choices.
    2) I really like line 9 “Decisions in life may be good or dire” because it is very honest and true. Not all decisions are good, but not all are terrible either.
    3) Line 4 is stands out to me. “Can’t escape the past as it’s set in stone” this is very true, you cannot change the past. There is no way that you can go back and change it, it’s “set in stone”
    4) For me the last line is very important. The author says that they “shall wait”. As important as it is to not worry and stress about the past, it is also important not to rush into things and make choices. You should still take time and wait.
    5) Overall I really liked this poem, it was fairly straight forward, but it still made you think. I liked the way it was set up as well. It had rhyme and structure and this made me happy as I do not like free verse poems.

    Reply
  11. Saleen (Post author)

    Saleen’s poem choice:
    We all have a choice
    to live a lie
    or be ourselves
    to laugh and cry
    or to follow someone else

    to look up and smile
    or bow down and frown
    to walk the whole mile
    or take off our crown

    We have a choice
    to shout out loud
    or chant a whisper
    to fly through the clouds
    or to be blown like paper

    to conquer our fear
    or hide in the shadow
    to the wise words hear
    or be thrown out the window

    We all have a choice
    to climb our highest mountain
    or fall into our deepest hole
    to drink from life’s fountain
    or live life like a troubled soul

    Five things to identify- 1. The sentences start with Or, To, and We.
    2. The lines alternate negative and positive
    3. It’s about being yourself or following someone else
    4. It rhymes
    5. It’s about life

    Reply
  12. Jessica

    Traveler, your footprints
    BY ANTONIO MACHADO
    Traveler, your footprints
    are the only road, nothing else.
    Traveler, there is no road;
    you make your own path as you walk.
    As you walk, you make your own road,
    and when you look back
    you see the path
    you will never travel again.
    Traveler, there is no road;
    only a ship’s wake on the sea.

    Line 1&2. This line is saying that the traveler is in control of where he goes, he doesn’t need to follow any roads.
    Line 3&4. This line is saying that there is no given path for you to follow, so you must make your own choices and your own path in life.
    Line 5-8. These lines are saying that you will go through life making choices, and when you look back you will see how your choices have pathed your journey. And that once you make these choices you can go back but always forward.
    Line 9&10. This last group of lines says that this is no path for your but a open area for you to explore.

    1. I really enjoy this poem it is about life and how you are in charge of your life journey and you get to make your own paths.
    2. I like how it says you will look back on your path, it is saying you can look back on your choices and how you got to where you are.
    3. When it says you will never travel that path again, it’s sounds very deep and like the author of this poem is saying you never make the same choice more then once. Which I think means that all your experiences are going to be different, none of them will ever be the same.
    4. I like how he says traveler, it makes me feel like he is taking directly to the person reading the poem, and telling you that you are making your own path.
    5. I very much enjoy the ending where he says that there is no road but yet a ship on the sea. I really enjoy this line in this poem because it is saying you are like a boat at sea, no paths are anything just wide open area for you to travel.

    Reply
  13. Rachael

    The Choice

    1.)He’d have given me rolling lands,
    Houses of marble, and billowing farms,
    3.)Pearls, to trickle between my hands,
    Smoldering rubies, to circle my arms.
    You- you’d only a lilting song,
    Only a melody, happy and high,
    You were sudden and swift and strong-
    4.)Never a thought for another had I.

    1.)He’d have given me laces rare,
    Dresses that glimmered with frosty sheen,
    Shining ribbons to wrap my hair,
    Horses to draw me, as fine as a queen.
    You- you’d only to whistle low,
    5.)Gayly I followed wherever you led.
    5.)I took you, and I let him go-
    2.)Somebody ought to examine my head!

    1.The author writes with a patterns such as rhyming and starting certain lines in the stanzas the same way
    2.she knows that she made the wrong choice
    3. Is very descriptive and makes good pictures form in your head.
    4.she should have thought more before she made her decision
    5.this poem got right to the point and didn’t have any hidden messages that you had to infer to get.

    Reply
  14. Jackson F and Jaxson B

    Choices, Choices, Choices – Poem by Eben S J

    Hate seethes inside you
    Jealousy courses through your veins
    Pain pricks at your mind
    Anger boils in heart

    The darkness envelops you
    The light begins to fade
    Questions begin to soar inside your head
    Why, why, why, why now

    You feel yourself begin to lose control
    The madness begins
    Your engulfed with fear
    You know it is coming yet you can do nothing

    The fear you feel overwhelms you
    The icy touch of death touches your consciousness
    You cringe away
    You know it is coming yet you can do nothing

    Your body turns your thoughts turn evil
    The anger hate and pain drives you
    You must kill or be killed
    The choice rips you apart

    You make your choice
    You choose to kill
    To kill, to kill
    To kill yourself
    Eben S J

    Jaxson Boot and Jackson Firby

    Reply
    1. Jackson F and Jaxson B

      1. 1 “Hate seethes inside you”- We find it very intriguing that the very first line jumps to something as dark as the deep concept of hate,
      2. 14 “The icy touch of death touches your consciousness”- This line shows an example of repetition in a action word, the writer may have done this to make the reader think more about the line.
      3. 16 “You know it is coming yet you can do nothing” Once you have read the poem through to the resolution you can see that it’s about suicide, and clearly there is ways to stop depression.
      4. 17 “Your body turns your thoughts evil” This is another line with relation like line 2 and it really makes you re read to understand it.
      5. 24 “after u realize what all the depression and hard feelings boiled down too you see that all the sad thing the character wrote about were more like a list of reasons why to make such a large, deep decision.

      Reply
  15. Jenna

    Break, Break, Break
    By Alfred Lord Tennyson
    Break, break, break,
    On thy cold gray stones, O Sea! And I would that my tongue could utter The thoughts that arise in me.
    O, well for the fisherman’s boy, That he shouts with his sister at play! O, well for the sailor lad,
    That he sings in his boat on the bay! And the stately ships go on
    To their haven under the hill;
    But O for the touch of a vanish’d hand, And the sound of a voice that is still! Break, break, break
    At the foot of thy crags, O Sea!
    But the tender grace of a day that is dead Will never come back to me

    Reply
  16. Olivia

    The Right Decision by Melissa Westfall

    There are right paths in this world to take,
    And right choices in your life to make.
    Making these decisions are hard to do,
    Making the wrong one can poison you.
    They may seem hard but you must make a choice,
    You can always listen to your inner voice.
    Listen to your heart and then with your mind,
    But the right decision you must find,
    Always be careful when you pick your path.
    Don’t cross another and raise their wrath.
    So think about your answer before you choose,
    If you don’t you may have a lot to lose.

    1. At the end of every sentence the words rhyme and it makes the poem sound better.

    2. The first sentence states what the whole poem is about.

    3. “Making the wrong one can poison you” is a really great way to put it.

    4. The whole poem is about decisions and about how you need to make the right one or something bad can happen.

    5. The last three sentences say that don’t get in a fight with someone else on their own path, think about your decisions because if you don’t you will make a bad choice and you will loose lots.
    -Olivia

    Reply
  17. Sam Thomson

    The Crossroads of Life!

    The crossroads of life,—fate!
    And there you wait
    For the sign that presents forth
    The goal,—then guides your destiny!
    The phrase is synonymous with challenge:
    Bold adventure and, decision making
    In achieving greatness,
    Or to be the best that you are!
    And yet, you hesitate:—
    What will people think?
    How will I get ahead?
    This response you believe,
    Both rational and precise
    Is cowardly;—
    When opportunity knocks, you procrastinate!
    This action deprives the soul of fuel
    By exaggerating fear with excuses,
    To avoid the truth of consequences.
    Precedent case law, the name will stand
    In the books unembellished,—based on facts
    Of articulate arguments waged in the courtroom,
    In the presence of peers!

    Five Qualities
    1.)It’s powerful and bold for a poem
    2.)Talks about topics that aren’t always talked about in decision making, such as procrastination and fear or self doubt
    3.)Title is a good visual metaphor
    4.) Asks questions one might ask themselves
    5.) Will sometimes rhyme at parts, alliteration

    This poem stands out to me because it’s a very internal piece of writing that can relate to many people.

    Reply
  18. Madison Beck

    perilous are those decisions
    you haven’t yet made
    afraid of the seed the tree
    questions its own validity

    inconsequential are those thirty minutes
    before a decision
    the wind moves the branches without
    the tree’s choice

    forgiving are those moments
    in bed asleep beyond not here
    the tree can’t spot failed saplings
    without the daylight which lets them grow

    1.) The layout of the poem makes reading it more interesting than having the regular layout. It makes it unique and different from other poems I have read.
    2.) The indented parts of the poem are specifically talking about trees which is fun and different for me.
    3.) Having the tree act as a character rather than just a tree is also an aspect that intrigues me.
    4.) It seems like the author is writing like the a person’s decision is being persuaded by a tree.
    5.) The poem goes in a person’s daily cycle of morning to night, although it isn’t immediately obvious.

    Reply

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