MOD 5: Sidman Poetry

Bibliographic Data

Sidman, Joyce, and Pamela Zagarenski. 2013. What the Heart Knows: Chants, Charms & Blessings. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN: 9780544106161

Summary

Joyce Sidman soothes the soul of coming of age children with charms, laments, spells, and praises.

Critical Analysis

Layout

Sidman’s books begins with a “Note to Readers” educating us on the history of chants, charms, and blessings. Sidman also outlines the purpose of the book within the paragraphs. The accompanying quote complements the purpose, “If you say it right, it helps the heart to bear it.”

The table of contents is next. The poems are separated into four sections: Chants & Charms, Spells & Invocations, Laments & Remembrances, and Praise Songs & Blessings. Each section lists the purpose of each poetic style. The first page of each section features an illustration and a definition of the title of the section.

The illustrator, Pamela Zagarenski, is a Caldecott Honor winner. Her style utilizes negative space, geometric shapes, and patterned textures. Her figures are surrealistically proportioned, some having large hands or long torsos. Like other books Zagarenski has illustrated many characters wear in “a crown or are shown with one nearby.

Poetic Elements

The only poem labelled by poetry form is “Chant to Repair a Friendship.” It is a triolet. It has multiple rhyming lines, rhyming the words “past” “last” “and “vast.” It repeats the line, “I was wrong and I am grieving.” Readers get a sense of duration with the line, “Anger’s brief, but love is vast.”

“Lament for Teddy” uses imagery to bring the memory of a teddy bear back to life. Sidman recalls the “softest” fur. We can visualize the “slack head” drooping. Even the texture of the animal’s tongue shows in the line, “tongue lapped the lint of many beds.”

In “Invisibility Spell” we get the sense of warmth with words like “Let my blush blaze hot melting each frozen bone.”

The emotional impact of this collection is multidimensional. The “Praise Songs & Blessings” section praises and uplifts reader. In contrast the “Laments & Remembrances” section reflects on grief and regret.

The poem “Heartless” features personification in the line, “Darkness wraps me in its arms.”

Appeal

This collection is appealing for older audiences like tweens and teens. The poetry muses over coming of age experiences such as remembering a lost childhood toy or friendship gone sour. Younger audiences may relate to some poetry such as “Blessing on the Smell of Dog.” It reminisces the experience of having a family pet, an experience many young children can relate to.

Poems like “Invisibility Spell” enrich readers’ vocabulary with words like “taunting” and “sultry.” Readers can use context to find the meaning of these words or look them up in a dictionary.

Sidman’s collection stimulates emotions across the spectrum from grief to celebration. She stimulates imagination with strong imagery.

Overall Quality

These poems are consistent in the representation of each section’s theme. Each reinforces the purpose of the book, to tell your heart good news and bad news “the right way.” Each of the four sections stimulates different emotions and thoughts. “Chants & Charms” aims to guard against evil and increase courage. “Spells & Invocations” claims to cause things to happen. “Laments & Remembrance” intends to help readers remember and reflect on regret and grief. Finally, “Praise Songs & Blessings” promise to celebrate and show love. As a whole it is quite emotional and sentimental, but it suits this book.

Final Analysis

Just by looking at the titles I initially thought this collection would be religious, but it is not. I would recommend this book to inspire young people in the throes of growing up.

Featured Poem

I Find Peace

I find peace in the lazy doze of Saturdays

and in the beat of a pounding run.

I find peace in the sideways glance of morning

and in the blare of a city night.

I find peace in one pair of eyes, one set of ears.

I find peace in the flashing arms of a crowd.

I find peace in the task completed,

I find peace in the color of water:

how it invites the light,

how it flows though us and around us,

how it becomes so many different things

while remaining itself.

I find peace when I set greed aside.

I find peace when I have spoken my last word.

I find peace when I am ready to listen.

Poem Connections

Sidman’s teaching guide recommends teens writing their own Peace poems starting with the line “I find peace in…” This can easily be translated into artistic mediums like paintings, a peace quilt where each teen creates a square, or a post-it display. Use the last poem of the book, “I Find Peace” to draw inspiration by reading it aloud multiple times.

Teaching guide via the author’s, Joyce Sidman’s, website: http://www.joycesidman.com/books/what-the-heart-knows-chants/heart-knows-rg.pdf