Jack Prelutsky (1940-present)

"As soon As Fred Goes To Bed"
"Be Glad Your Nose Is On Your Face"
"Last Night I Dreamed Of Chickens"

                             Jack was born in Brooklyn, New York and is considered an American poet. He went to New York public schools and later went to High School of Music and Art and Hunter College as well. Believe it or not, Jack wore many hats in his day such as bus boy, furniture mover, folk singer and more. He wrote more than 30 collections of poems. I read many poems from him thus far, but I only chose to speak of three. They are humorous in every way and I believe most children would enjoy this man's work. (Adapted from famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/jack-prelutsky/poems)
                              Let me start off by explaining what Poetry is. It is the expression of ideas and feelings through a rhythmical composition of imaginative and beautiful words selected for their sonorous effects according to the definition that was given to us in class.

As Soon As Fred Gets Out Of Bed
                               Jack Prelutsky has a humorous way about him to I am sure most children. The first poem I will speak of talks about a very funny subject to most kids, underwear. I never knew of a kid who didn't laugh out loud to the word "underwear" in my life. The first poem I wanted to share has a sing song quality to it that is about a boy named Fred who wears his underwear over his head basically. It's short and simple, and gives you an image perfectly of this little boy named Fred and how silly he looks with his underwear upon his head. This poem includes rhythm and sound patterns like the definition that was given to us in class. My silly  class would absolutely love this poem. This was apparent to me after the first line! The lines flow like a song almost and by that quality alone, Fred and his underwear become pure laughter once imagined how silly he looks wearing it all day like this.

 Be Glad Your Nose Is On Your Face
                         Well, like the last poem about Fred and his laughable place where he puts his underwear, this poem also made me have a good laugh. I can't imagine a child not going into hysterical laughter.
                          This poem is light and funny, plus it is also considered to have "sense imagery" as in the definition of "poetry" says. Jack does a terrific job making the younger reader laugh, while putting a touch of sense imagery and a rhythmical pattern in between too! All this particular poem is telling us is that it would be quite weird and silly at the same time to have your nose other than on your face where it belongs. Jack proceeds to explain the many funny and wrong reasons for a nose to be other than where it is suppose to be. For example, he gives a graphic description and "smelly" reasoning for what would happen if your nose was in between your toes. I can picture my giddy class now just bursting into laughter at that line of this entertaining poem. Another funny line that Jack throws in there is how ones brain would rattle if your nose was on your ear and decided to sneeze. "Within your ear, your nose would be catastrophe, for when you were obliged to sneeze, your brain would rattle from the breeze".

Last Night I Dreamed Of Chickens
                        This was one of the last poems I read, of course like the other two prior, filled with a rhythmical pattern of humor.
                        The title says it all. A boy dreaming of chickens pecking everywhere and causing havoc. The fun surprise at the end of course was when he awoke, there were eggs on his head! Again making me laugh, I really appreciate good sing song  sounding poem. These chickens were on his head, pillow, hair and everywhere else. No wonder why the dream was so life like, it was a feared reality of this poor boy. This is all done in good clean fun, nothing to be scared of just pure laughing till it hurts humor.
                         I must admit, I never heard of Jack Prelutsky and when I asked for more info about this blog, I was so happy I was suggested towards this man's great works. I guess only you yourself know the little personalities that are in your classroom, and for me, my class, though very smart, can get very goofy. There are some poets out there that I may skip over for my class to read for they have not have an interest in. This would ruin my circle time and lesson to boot a poem like Jack Prelutsky's would work perfectly in my room because I get my student's humor. His work like I said is short, to the point, and have sense imagery in some with a rhythmical tone to it as well. His work is easy for a younger child to understand.
                          I wish I can blog about more of Jack Prelutsky's poems, but I only chose these particular three to blog about. It really only took one of his poems for me to decide I was into his work and I was hooked. Hey, I'm giggly myself so if I can read it and smile, then I know my class would love him and his work.