The
Bat- Poet
The
Bat- Poet
by Randall Jarrell
See a baby bat here before reading this poem!
A bat is born
Naked and blind and pale.
His mother makes him a pocket of her tail
And catches him. He clings to her long fur
By his thumbs and toes and teeth.
And then the mother dances through the night
Doubling and looping, soaring, somersaulting--
Her baby hangs on underneath.
All night, in happiness, she hunts and flies.
Her high sharp cries
Like shining needlepoints of sound
Go out into the night and, echoing back,
Tell her what they have touched.
She hears how far it is, how big it is,
Which way it's going:
She lives by hearing.
The mother eats the moths and gnats she catches
In full flight; in full flight
The mother drinks the water of the pond
She skims across. Her baby hangs on tight.
Her baby drinks the milk she makes him
In moonlight or starlight, in mid-air.
Their single shadow, printed on the moon
Or fluttering across the stars,
Whirls on all night; at daybreak
The tired mother flaps home to her rafter.
The others are are there.
They hang themselves up by their toes,
They wrap themselves in their brown wings.
Bunched upside down, they sleep in air.
Their sharp ears, their sharp teeth, their
quick sharp faces
Are dull and slow and mild.
All the bright days, as the mother sleeps,
She folds her wings about her sleeping child.
THE BAT-POET RESPONSE GUIDE
1. What feelings do you have as you read and listen to the poem? Read some lines that make you feel this way.
2. In your own words, tell what is going on in the poem. In the sixth line, the poet says the mother "dances" through the night. What words in the next line remind you of dancing? What other words in the poem paint pictures? What do yu think of the line "Like shining needlepoints of sound"? What is the poet describing here?
3. Copy the part of the poem you liked best and tell why. Which lines have similar sounds? What lines are repetitive? What end rhymes do you see and hear? Sometimes the poet sees the bat like "takes" in a movie. Sometimes he sees the bat in a "long action," and makes a long line with long words to capture the picture. Give an example. What are the shorter lines with shorter actions with short abrupt actions?
4. While this poem is about a bat, does it remind you of something else you know about? Explain.
CHORAL READING OF THE BAT-POET