World Make Way: New Poems Inspired by Art from the Metropolitan Museum of Art edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins

Bibliography

Hopkins, Lee Bennett. World Make Way: New Poems Inspired by Art from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, NY: Abrams Books for Young Readers, published with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2018.

Summary

“Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen,” stated by Leonardo Da Vinci is this inspiration for this collection of poems. In World Make Way, Lee Bennett Hopkins has collected modern poems inspired by art from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. This beautiful, rich, book includes poets like Naomi Shihab Nye, Janet Wong, and Marilyn Nelson, and art Leonardo Da Vinci, Winslow Homer, and Henri Rousseau. Readers will enjoy this diverse collection of poems and beautiful art that adorns its pages. 

Analysis

Images of beautiful art, Cat Watching a Spider and Repast of the Lion, cover World Make Way and are included amongst the art in the book that inspired these modern poets’ lyrical, charming, and beautiful poems. Aside from the Metropolitan Museum of Art artwork and the specially commissioned poems, this book includes a section with biographical information about the poets and the artists. Readers can learn about each person in connection with the art and poems they have created. Finding specific poems and art is easy because there is a helpful index at the back of the book. 

As this book is filled with various poets, poetic devices used vary. It is full of examples of wonderful poetic device use. Many poems include strong imagery such as a line from Great Indian Fruit Bat by Joan Bransfield Graham, “ripe succulent fruit spices the air”. Many poems, like the one previously mentioned, are free verse with elements of rhyme, while others like The Repast of the Lion by J. Patrick Lewis include a consistent rhyme scheme throughout. Poems are easy to understand, and will be accessible to a variety of audiences. Poems include topics such as nature and other cultures such as Dancing by Alma Flor Ada inspired by the oil painting Dancing in Colombia by Fernando Botero and Young Ashoka Sundari by Amy Ludwig Vanderwater which was inspired by the painting Shiva and Parvati Playing Chaupar: Folio from a Rasamanjari Series by Devidasa of Nurpur. Every poem in this book will inspire and delight audiences, and help readers look at art and poetry in a new way. 

 

Sample Poem

I loved every one of these poems, so it was hard to pick only one. I have chosen the following poem because I think students in particular would enjoy this playful poem about a regal bat. It has such beautiful imagery in it, and is fun to read aloud. 

Great Indian Fruit Bat

Joan Bransfield Graham

As my wings whisk me away, swooping through

this black velvet night, who will admire

my elegant attire, the intricacy 

of my design, robed

so regally?

Ripe succulent fruit spices the air.

A royal banquet … a feast

spread out before me --

nectars of the night.

I rule these hours

of darkness. 

Activity Idea

Start by introducing the whole book and its premise. Let students preview the art and poems. Let students choose the one they are most interested in. Together, read about the author and the artist. Then, read the poem aloud. Let students choose to create art inspired by the poem they have chosen or another poem connected to the art they have chosen to reinforce the painting/poetry connection.