1. In Acosta's poem, what metaphors does the speaker use to describe her mother?

What feeling about the mother do you get from these metaphors? (A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things without using the words like or as, for example: "The street light was my security guard.")

2. In Acosta's poem, how would you interpret the meaning of the stanza that begins, "oh mother you plunged me sobbing and laughing...."

3. In "My Mother Juggling Bean Bags," what do you think the speaker is trying to convey about his mother? Explain.

4. Compare and contrast the two mothers.

1. Stanza 1What are quilts usually used for? What consonant sounds are repeated in these lines? How does the word just in the first line set up the rest of the poem?

2. Stanza 2Quote the words the speaker uses to make the quilts seem like theyre alive?

3. Search the whole poem. List all the fabrics the speakers mother used to piece quilts. Where did these fabrics come from?

4. Stanza 3List the verbs. What feeling(s) or idea(s) do these verbs suggest when you consider them all together?

5. Stanza 4How is the mothers quilt-making compared to the way she cared for her children at night?

6. Stanza 5What words does the speaker use to compare her mother to a painter? Why do you think she makes this comparison?

7. Stanza 5What time in the mothers life might the line corpus Christi noon when my father held your hand refer to?

8. Stanza 6What are testimonies? How are the quilt pieces separate testimonies?

9. Stanzas 8 and 9In your own words, what is the speaker expressing/saying in the last two stanzas of the poem? What is the tone?

10. Consider the whole poem. How are the seasons brought into the poem? What is the purpose or effect?

My Mother Pieced Quilts Name_________________________ Per__

My Mother Pieced Quilts Teresa Palomo Acosta ___________________ they were just meant as covers in winters as weapons against pounding january winds 5 but it was just that every morning I awoke to these october ripened canvases passed my hand across their cloth faces and began to wonder how you pieced 10 all these together these strips of gentle communion cotton and flannel nightgowns wedding organdies dime store velvets 15 how you shaped patterns square and oblong and round positioned balanced then cemented them with your thread 20 a steel needle a thimble how the thread darted in and out galloping along the frayed edges, tucking them in 25 as you did us at night oh how you stretched and turned and re-arranged your michigan spring faded curtain pieces my fathers sante fe work shirt the summer denims, the tweeds of fall 30 in the evening you sat at your canvas --our cracked linoleum floor the drawing board me lounging on your arm and you staking out the plan: 35 whether to put the lilac purple of easter against the red plaid of winter-goinginto-spring whether to mix a yellow with blue and white and paint the 40 corpus christi noon when my father held your hand

whether to shape a five-point star from the somber black silk you wore to grandmothers funeral you were the river current 45 carrying the roaring notes forming them into pictures of a little boy reclining a swallow flying you were the caravan master at the reins driving your threaded needle artillery across the mosaic 50 cloth bridges delivering yourself in separate testimonies oh mother you plunged me sobbing and laughing into our past 55 into the river crossing at five into the spinach fields into the plainview cotton rows into tuberculosis wards into braids and muslin dresses 60 sewn hard and taut to withstand the thrashing of twenty-five years stretched out they lay armed/ready/shouting/celebrating 65 knotted with love the quilts sing on

Questions: My Mother Pieced Quilts Name___________________________ Per___ 1. What is the image in lines 7-8? Why does the poet use it here? 2. What is the image in lines 11-12? Why does the poet use it here? 3. Why does the poet use the word cemented in line 21? 4. Why does the poet describe her mothers needle as galloping in lines 26-27? 5. Why does the poet describe her mother as sitting at a canvas in line 35? What does this tell the reader about how the speaker thinks of her mother and her quilts? 6. Why does the poet describe her mother has a river in line 48? What does this image tell us about her mother? 7. Why does the poet say her mothers quilts sing in line 71? What do they sing about? 8. Considering the above, how might you summarize the importance of the speakers mother and her quilts?

Analyzing Poetry 1. Stanza 1What are quilts usually used for? What did the speakers mother intend the quilts to be used for?

2. Read lines 5-36. What words does the speaker use to compare her mother to a painter? Why do you think she makes this comparison?

3. Stanza 6Define the word testimony. How are the quilt pieces separate testimonies?

4. Search the whole poem. Describe 4 types of fabric used for the quilts. Where did these fabrics come from?

5. What is Acosta showing the reader through the listing of all the different fabrics, shapes, and clothing types?

6. Reread lines 51-54. Who are they? What are they armed and ready for? What are they celebrating?

7. What do you think the quilts symbolize (represent) for the speaker of the poem?

8. Challenge Question: Consider the whole poem. How are the seasons brought into the poem? What is the purpose or effect?

Identifying Literary Devices 9. List an example of metaphor found between lines 37-44.

10. Between what lines do we see repetition used?

11. What words does the speaker use to make the quilts seem like theyre alive? List TWO examples of PERSONIFICATION from the poem.

AFTER READING I liked lines ________through ________ that begin with ___________________________________ because

1. Visualize In My Mother Pieced Quilts, the poet uses vivid language to create a picture of the fabrics, patterns, and colors of the quilts. What three descriptive phrases best help you visualize the quilts?

"My Mother Pieced Quilts" Below is your assignment for Monday, April 13. First reading of the poem "My Mother Pieced Quilts" . . .

1. Note the poets name. 2. Read the poem through once without taking notes. 3. Break the poem down into four parts for key word notes. 4. Make boxes for key word notes.

Second reading . . . Read poem again and take key word notes. The key word notes strategy involves writing down two or three words per box that summarize the big ideas of that section of the poem. Answer the following questions about the poem . . . 1. Who is the speaker of the poem? 2. To whom is the speaker speaking? 3. Describe the speakers family. 4. Describe 4 sources of fabric for the quilts. 5. Reread lines 51-54. Who are they? In what way are they armed? ready? shouting? celebrating? 6. Describe the theme of the poem. A stylistic analysis of the sense of the poem . . . 1. Read the poem for the third time because the more times you read a poem, the more you will understand it. 2. Mark up your poemidentify and analyze elements of the poem based on the "sense" poetry terms we reviewed. In other words, identify similes, metaphors, personification, etc. and think about how that poetice devices enhances the meaning of the poem. We will discuss these sense terms in class. 3. Look at the list of sense terms in the blog post below.

What is an example of theme in the book My Mother Priced Quilts?

The theme of the poem My Mother Pieced Quilts is love of the family; how it was just a quilt to keep out cold but it is something much more and how hard the mother worked to make it, out of love for the child. All of the memoirs are built in the quilt.

Can You Name One Metaphor in the Poem My Mother Pieced Quilts
One metaphor in the poem my mother pieced quilts is October ripened canvases, in this poem a mother is trying to come up with an exceptional character which will stay in the child's memory forever. This poem was written by Teresa Palomo Acosta who was born in 1949 and has a bachelor's degree in cultural studies.

What is the poem 'My Mother Pieced Quilts' about?

The quilt in My Mother Pieced Quilts is a material symbol of family history; each fabric contains a story and memory that will never fade. Want to know? ChaCha and go!