The poem that I chose to write about is titled “The Turtle Came to See me” by Margarita Engle. For some reason, this poem originally sparked my interest most likely due to my favorite animal being turtles! As I read through the poem it seems to not be focused too much around a turtle. The turtle image I was looking for only popped up once. This poem has nothing to do with a turtle, I found out.
The poem sets a scene by using many adjectives and personification to describe colors, actions of inanimate objects and even going far to describe what the character is wearing. Setting this scene allows for a reader to understand that it is set in a tropical place and hearing about the parrots above, make for a much more realistic approach. There could be a few main points in this poem, but I believe the main idea behind is trying to describe how the trees are moving and acting like a dancing Cuban rumba dancer.
Bringing these two ideas together are again painting a picture in your head. They allow you to “see” the dancers moving freely in the wind with a possibility of everyone having a different scene in their head. The poem then goes on to say how the teacher disagrees with the scene. This resembles how everyone sees subjects from a different perspective and not everyone has the same point of view. The author finishes the poem by denoting this exact thought by saying “not everyone seen the dancing plants of Cuba.
Turtle Came to See Me
The first story I ever write
is a bright crayon picture
of a dancing tree, the branches
tossed by island wind.
I draw myself standing beside the tree,
with a colorful parrot soaring above me,
and a magical turtle clasped in my hand,
and two yellow wings fluttering
on the proud shoulders of my ruffled
Cuban rumba dancer’s
fancy dress.
In my California kindergarten class,
the teacher scolds me: REAL TREES
DON’T LOOK LIKE THAT.
It’s the moment
when I first
begin to learn
that teachers
can be wrong.
They have never seen
the dancing plants
of Cuba.
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