Journal: Zimmer in Grade School

Journal: Zimmer in Grade School

1. Who is the speaker in the poem?

The poet Paul Zimmer; he is reflecting on his own childhood experiences in grade school. It sounds like he went to a very strict and tough Catholic school.

2. Who is the speaker talking to?

It seems as though he may be speaking rhetorically, or of his childhood self; or, he could be just thinking out loud about his experiences in grade school; and, in that sense, he is talking to all of us who read his poem because we can all relate on some level to the experience of his childhood. Either we have been that child in schooldays or known someone like Zimmer who suffered and faced the challenges and contests of school life.

3. How do you know? Use marginal notes to help you.

The poem focuses on Zimmer’s issues throughout his school years. “To wrestle in ashy puddle with my square nose streaming mucus and blood, my knuckle puffed from combat and old nun’s ruler.” suggest that Zimmer often got into fights with the other kids in his school. “I could not read, spell, or read. My report card proclaimed these scarlet failures…” is proof that Zimmer had a dreadful time back in his school days and that he may have been a poor student as well which is stated in the line: ‘It is always to known that I am Zimmer, the one who does the messy papers and fracture all his crayons, and sits all day in shame outside principal’s office.” Zimmer was likely labeled as a weird and troublesome kids by both his peers and his teachers and this added to his challenges and difficulties in those early days.