Tag Archives: apology

Writing an Apology Poem: What Else Can We Do with a Direct Address?

Increasing the focus on clear communication moves writing,

speaking, and listening to the center of our teaching. What are ways other than speech and argument essay writing can we teach students to address an audience? How do we foreground students’ creativity? Furthermore, what are ways other than speech and argument essay writing can we teach students to address an audience? Also, how do we foreground students’ creativity?

sorry Some poems take the form of “direct address”—that is, the speaker in the poem talks directly to a specific person. Poems can be used to develop initial reactions to situations or current events or as extensions of other types of writing.

An apology poem uses direct address to apologize for something the speaker has done or said. One of the most famous examples is William Carlos Williams’ “This Is Just to Say.” The following activity description can guide students through close reading, analyzing, creative brainstorming, purposeful drafting, language revising, and peer collaborating.

Possible script for writing an apology poem:

  • Read Williams’ poem.
I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast Forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold
  • Decide for yourself whether the speaker is actually sorry for what he has done.
  • Think of a situation like this from your own life.  Have you ever been forced to apologize when you didn’t really mean it? Try to recall two or three examples of times like this from your own experience.
  • For each example, write a very short description of what you have done (the action).
  • Think about details of sense: taste, touch, sound, sight, or smell. Give your readers a clear idea of what the action felt like for you.
  • Choose one of your examples to mine very short lines for your apology poem in a similar format to the one by Williams. Probably no punctuation is necessary.
  • Finally, use “This is just to say” as your first line if you wish. If you want, you can also include the words “Forgive me” in the last stanza of your poem.

Experiment with different ways to make line breaks or stanza breaks in order to get the effect that you want. Remember, there is no wrong way to write an apology poem. When William Carlos Williams wrote “This Is Just to Say,” no one had ever created a poem quite like this before. You can borrow his format if you want, or you can create something totally new.

Give the activity a try and post a comment or tweet a link to your draft! Better yet, come show it to us in person at our mini-conference on March 14th! You are welcome to share this post. Consider including hashtags such as #ilwrites, #teachwriting, #writing, as well as your own chat groups.