On Reading Poems to a Senior Class at South High by D.C. Berry

The rhyme and meter in this poem follows no particular order but rather is like a story being told. It builds up and then diminishes at the final line at the end. This is relevant to the meaning of the poem because that is what happens, the water builds up and the students become engrossed in the poems and feel the meaning of them. The stanzas are broken up into small short sections which I feel is done to keep the simplicity of the poem and show the ease of being drawn into a poem.

The poet uses a lot of imagery, symbolism, and theme in the writing of this poem. He uses images of fish and aquariums and water to show the inspiration of the children. How by the water flowing in they are no longer these frozen fish that can only sit and not feel, the water thaws them out and brings them to life. He symbolizes the inspiration as water flowing into the classroom and having it fill up until the bell rings and then they have to leave and the door opens and the inspiration fades and flows away. The water and marine things is the theme that is the poem entirely, it is effective and has many attributes that what he is symbolizing does.

This poem is about an English teacher who while teaching kids who seem not to be interested inspires them without knowing or really meaning to. While many times a teachers job is to settle kids down and make them calm sometimes teachers can bring them to life in what they are discussing and what they are reading. This is the case in this poem, the teacher brings his kids into another world without even knowing it. He himself becomes part of this world and when the water and inspiration flows away from the kids he still has it when he gets home and must relax back into his real life to finally leave the place that the poems brought him.