Module 1 Review on Hopkins Poetry Book

Module 1 Poetry Book Review

5663-21 Poetry

Diana Stephens

Opening Days, Sport Poems, selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins, illustrated by Scott Medlock, Harcourt Brace & Company, 1996.

I selected this one because I am a sports fan and participant, and the book was on the shelf in our library. The eighteen illustrated poems nicely span the sports spectrum, from karate to weightlifting, from bike riding to skiing, from baseball and soccer to basketball and football. Feminine gender is included on only two poems, one about running, another about ice skating, which might not be enough to reward a female reader.

The poems effectively met a high standard for imagination, conjuring with sensitivity and realism a basketball moment: “Calms it with fingertips, /Breathes, /Crouches, /Waits, /And then through a stretching of stillness, /nudges it upward.” Another creates the vigorous tone of a tennis match: “Dancers in /a rigorous rite /who with every ardent motion /praise the dark /and primal pulse that pounds and bounces /in the light.” Timeless philosophical insight about the end result of competition is evident: “Games /have been played. /They’re over. /That’s all.”

My favorite poem was humorous and brief. The title is actually longer than the poem: “Thoughts After a Forty Mile Bike Ride,”—“My feet, /And seat, /Are beat.”

The structure and elements of the poems vary widely. The rhyming couplets in “Chair Lift” are effective, “Under your feet, the snowy humps /Of hills go by with jerks and bumps,” but the imagery is trite, “the trees move past in a stiff parade /Like ice cream cones that giants made.” There is a very nice rhythm to “The Swimmer”, and the rhymes are not forced, “Although I have no tail or fin /I’m closer than I’ve ever been /to what fish feel /and think about.” However the title of “Speed!” is an empty enticement, when the thirty-nine words are pretty mundane. It ends like this, “wheels spin /this is speed! /wheels spin /all I need”. The theme and word choice of “Skiing” was mundane: “/and I am the mountain /and the mountain was me.” (And that’s such a great sport with so much scope for poetic imagination!)

The best and the worst poems are by well known poets. There is nothing particularly unique, creative, or even interesting about Walt Whitman’s “The Runner.” (Leave it out!) Gary Soto does his usual job of providing the most interesting metaphors, comparing muscles to apples in “Ode to Weight Lifting.” The opening poem, and maybe the best of them, is Jane Yolen’s “Karate Kid.” She uses personification to accurately portray the state of mind and body when engaging in the sport, “I am wind, /I am wall . . . I am tiger /I am tree,” and offers a nice wrap-up ending to this thinking that refers back to the earlier images, “Not to bully, /Not to fight, /Dragon left /And leopard right. /Wind and wave, /Tree and flower, /Chop. /Kick. /Peace. /Power.” It is nice and tight. If only they were all so interesting.

The whole impression is, it’s okay, mostly. It just doesn’t pull enough together to make me go, “Wow!” The illustrations are not top quality either, with literal, ordinary color drawings of the sport discussed. I really liked the “Chair Lift” illustration, but the poem was cheesy. However, I am reacting from the perspective of an older teenager or adult.

For grades three to five, maybe six, there was a great deal of appropriate vocabulary, and with the nice balance and variety of types of poems and sports, it qualifies for a recommendation. The images and word choice easily sustain enough interest to appeal to the elementary athlete, and the illustrations would not be critiqued by that age either. After reading and looking at the Printz Honor book, Heart to Heart, however, this artsy, athletic heart yearns for more.