Dirty Laundry Pile: Poems in Different Voices

Citation

Janeczko, Paul B., and Melissa Sweet. Dirty Laundry Pile: Poems in Different Voices. [New York]: Harper Collins, 2001. ISBN 0688162517

Poetic Elements

The very nature of this entire collection is based upon the poetic element of personification, in that each of the poems is written from the perspective of an inanimate object. This compilation is meaningful in that the poems selected, though all from different poets and written in different years, all seem to fit together so well. The personification of the winter wind “...shaking the door with both my fists...” and the washing machine that will “...change my song as the cycle moves along...” will animate the reader while rhyming lines such as “...sounds wound round...” will delight the ears. There are numerous similes throughout the collection, among them “...for like puppies who warm each other all night you will warm us and we will warm your hands...” and “...a tangled weave, rough and aged like wooden lace...” Young readers will enjoy the imagery created with the words and will be able to appreciate the emotions of these inanimate objects as they become relatable in their different voices.

Appeal and Overall Quality

This collection of poems is interesting for many reasons, one of which is the variety of stanza patterns and rhythm contained within. Here readers can visit with poetry in the form of couplets, quatrains, and even dabble with some concrete poetry. It's a nice mix of several styles. Given that this is a collection of previously published poetry written from the perspective of various inanimate objects, Janeczko offers an introduction that explains his motivations for putting together this collection of poetry. He also uses this intro to encourage kids to use their own imaginations and to “Let that new voice sing.” The illustrations are eye catching in their sweet, whimsical way and children are as likely to pick up the poetry because the pictures look friendly and comfortable as they are for the words inside.

Spotlight Poem

The Vacuum Cleaner's Revenge

I munch. I crunch.

I zoom. I roar.

I clatter-clack

Across the floor.

I swallow twigs.

I slurp dead bugs.

I suck the cat hair

From the rugs.

My stomach full

Of dirt and dust

I gulp another

Pizza crust.

A tiresome life-

All work, no play-

I think I'll swallow you today!

Follow-Up Activity

This would be a fun poem to use when working on personification and the poetic element of onomatopoeia. It's also handy for looking at form, with its couplet stanza pattern. I would have the students read through it with each student taking a different couplet and reading round robin. I would then have the students work in pairs, picking an inanimate object that they'd like to write about. I would suggest that they brainstorm all of the sounds they could imagine this item making, and what kinds of things it might do. From there they could work to combine the action ideas with the onomatopoeia to create a poem in a similar style.

Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

These well-chosen verses represent what Janeczko (Very Best [Almost] Friends) calls "persona or mask poems" each written in the voice of an object or animal. Bobbi Katz's washing machine sings its washing songs "Blub-blub-a-dubba" while Patricia Hubbell's vacuum cleaner complains, "I swallow twigs./ I slurp dead bugs," and finally threatens, "I think I'll swallow you today!" Informally organized around various topics, the volume begins with poems about wind and weather and ends with works about insects and animals. For the most part, the poems, including selections by Douglas Florian, Jane Yolen and Karla Kuskin, are effectively matched by Sweet's (Bat Jamboree) playful and cartoony watercolors. The light mood of the illustrations, however, jars with slightly darker poems. In Nina Nyhart's "Scarecrow Dreams," for example, five crows perch on a wary scarecrow's shoulder as he describes convincing the farmer to put away his gun and then feels "a step on my shoulder,/ the first peck in my eye." Nonetheless, this collection contains well-crafted poetry that surprises with its deft wordplay and original points of view. All ages.

From School Library Journal

Grade 3-6-Janeczko's collection of "persona" or "mask" poems-poems written in voices of nonhuman things-is varied in topic, mood, and quality. The selector has included many crackerjack poets, such as Karla Kuskin, Bobbi Katz, Lillian Moore, and Douglas Florian, and a few whose names are not as familiar. Most of the selections have been taken from other anthologies. Whether thoughtful or humorous in nature, many of them are on-target descriptions of a variety of unrelated objects-a kite, roots, a sky-blue crayon, a vacuum cleaner, a pair of red gloves, the winter wind. The cleverness of the best of these descriptions voiced by inanimate narrators might entice young people to try to create some similar verses of their own. Sweet's bright, colorful watercolors in a flat cartoon style depict full- and double-page scenes and borders that feature critters and objects from the poems. Consider this one for classroom read-alouds.

From Booklist

Gr. 3-6. As Janeczko explains in his introduction, this collection of 27 poems is "something like wearing a Halloween costume or playing a part in a school play," because the poems have all been written in the voice of an object or an animal--a seashell, a cat, a tree. The imaginative language is simple yet rich in image and metaphor. Madeleine Comora's "Roots" speaks volumes: "Roots like ours, course and strong / as a grandmother's fingers." Sometimes the poetry sparkles, sweeps us along, or makes us laugh, as in the title poem about dirty clothes by Marcy Barack Black: "Ignore me now / on the floor / By the door. / But you'll notice / when I swell / By my smell." There's great variety in poetic mood and form--brisk couplets, thoughtful haiku, funny concrete poems. In Peggy B. Levitt's "Mosquito's Song" the word puncture is spelled out vertically, letter by letter, ending, appropriately, in an exclamation point. Melissa Sweet's watercolors are light and airy, but never too slight. Some are full-page, some thumbnail size; and all are hugely appealing, whether dancing comically across the page or bordering the text. They'll draw children into words that resonate with joy and, sometimes, deeper meaning, words that will remind them that there's more than one way to experience the world.