What is the purpose of porpoise
and for that matter turtle or tortoise?

Things scamper and sing
they fin and they wing
but what of the purpose of porpise?

The roll of the dice
the throw of the cards
the forms they disperse
like so many shards.

Things jump and they twitch
and occupy niche.
It's much underated
and self-generated?

The richness abounds,
shrimp, zebra and hounds,
But what is the purpose of porpoise?

This thing we all call diversity
is it not derived of adversity?

copyright Nov. 2011, Robin T. Day

1. This poem belongs to a group called nonsense poems but it brings up heavy adult bioscience subjects like dispersal, randomness, niche, diversity and evolution. Write the poem on the board for group analysis.

2. Have the children look up unknown vocabulary, then circle the rhyming parts (etc. as in my poems posted earlier).

3. The stanzas are two, three and four lines long and this structure is a bit unusual. The term "purpose of porpoise" is used three times like a chorus in a song. Why? Do you think you have the whole meaning? What do you think is the purpose of porpoise?

4.What about the title? What is Robin doing here?

5. Are "fin" and "wing" verbs? No? They are used as verbs here. Why does Robin do this?

6. The hidden meanings in literature is called subtext. Did you discover subtext today?