“Percy Wakes Me”

Project description
Analyze the poem and discuss it with the class after giving a brief biography of the poet.
Option 1: poem which is deceptively simple but extremely profound and asks the reader to analyze relationships not only between a human and a dog, but between all

beings. It is by Mary Oliver and is called “Percy Wakes Me. Extra points if you can discover why she called her dog Percy.
“Percy Wakes Me”
Percy wakes me and I am not ready.
He has slept all night under the covers.
Now he’s eager for action: a walk, then breakfast.
So I hasten up. He is sitting on the kitchen counter
Where he is not supposed to be.
How wonderful you are, I say. How clever, if you
Needed me,
to wake me.
He thought he would hear a lecture and deeply
His eyes begin to shine.
He tumbles and squeals; he has done something
That he needed
And now he hears that it is okay.
I scratch his ears, I turn him over
And rub his belly. He is
Wild with the okayness of it. Then we walk, then
He has breakfast, and he is happy.

This is a poem about Percy.
This is a poem about more than Percy.
Think about it.
Be sure to give a visual presentation of the author of the poem you choose and then analyze the theme, the literary techniques, rhyme scheme (Percy Wakes Me is written

in free verse) and why you chose the poem.