What clues can you get from the descriptions of the potatoes and roses, the smell of the fertilizer? What season do you think is the best season for lovers, and how does this compare with the poem? Write a paper and explain your answer based on the clues from the poem. Include at least three reasons from different disciplines (such as science, literature, cultural beliefs, history, or art) and write at least one paragraph on each.

Construct a piece of artwork to complement the poem. It can be a sculpture, painting, or any other form. It can be a literal representation or more abstract. Include several elements of the poem, not just the moon. Interpret your creation for the class.

Write a musical composition to accompany the poem and sing or play the song for the class. If you sing, you do not have to include all the sections of the poem; select those easiest to put to music. You may accompany yourself or have someone else accompany you, or you may sing a capella. You may present an instrumental composition only, but be sure it matches the tone and theme of the poem. The composition should be at least one to two minutes long.

Make a slide show on the computer (such as a PowerPoint presentation) to represent the poem as you read it. Have each picture correlate to what is being narrated at the time it appears. If you are unable to produce a voice-over, read the poem aloud in class as the slide show is being presented. Add background music as well, if you like.

Write a children’s bedtime story using the themes and words from the poem. The theme of love is very important, and the image of the moon should be integral to the story. Illustrate your story and read it aloud to the class. It should be at least eight to ten pages long.

Thirteen Moons on Turtle’s Back by Joseph Bruchac (1997) is a young-adult book of poems and illustrations of the Native American legends of the cycles and seasons of the moon represented by the scales on the back of a turtle’s shell. Compare and contrast three poems, preferably set during the spring, from the selection with the poem ‘‘Moon Rondeau’’ preferably during the spring. Draw correlations between the images, themes, styles, characters, and moods of the poems.

Sandburg is renowned for his use of free verse. This poem is completely unrhymed, and yet it is written in a rhythmically pleasing way. It lends itself to a feeling of romanticism, and he uses the poem’s structure to convey his themes in a pleasing and convincing manner. There is no apparent form, only a free-flowing cascade of words that evoke images, emotions, and romance.

There is some uncertainty as to why Sandburg titled this poem ‘‘Moon Rondeau.’’ It is certainly not in the style of a rondeau, which is a French poetry form that has fifteen lines with two repeating rhymes, nor does it fit the musical form of French verse, although that version does have thirteen lines, as ‘‘Moon Rondeau’’ does; that verse style must have two repeating rhymes, and the first line of the poem is generally repeated more than once. It is possible that Sandburg had the musical form in mind and preferred to use his free verse style of poetry that does not rhyme or conform to any type of meter. Because many of his poems are humorous, perhaps he is making a pun on the rondo style of music, (which is instrumental only), since that is pronounced the same as ‘‘rondeau.’’ Much of Sandburg’s poetry is meant to be sung, and he traveled across the country, performing his poems and accompanying himself of the banjo. His collection American Songbag is full of such song-poems. Another possibility is that he is making a pun on the roundness of the moon—a rondo can be sung as a round, a children’s song that is sung in a never-ending, circular fashion. Sandburg wrote many poems and songs for children.

• Moon essay

An object can represent many different things to many different people. One object of interest is the moon. Philip Larkin, the speaker of Sad Steps, and Sir Philip Sidney, speaker of sonnet 31 from Astrophel and Stella, have different feelings and attitudes towards the moon. Each speaker uses various rhetorical devices to present their opinion

• Critical Overview poem ‘‘Moon Rondeau’’

Penelope Niven writes in Carl Sandburg: A Biography that Honey and Salt, the collection in which ‘‘Moon Rondeau’’ appeared, was generally well reviewed. However, some of Sandburg’s contemporaries wondered what happened to the voice of protest that had been evident in his Chicago Poems and Smoke and Steel. Where, they wondered, was the Sandburg who

• Poem Summary ‘‘Moon Rondeau’’

The first line of the poem ‘‘Moon Rondeau’’ begins with quotation marks, indicating that the voice that is speaking is not that of the poet. There seem to be two people discussing their future, a future of love. Love is depicted as a door that they will open. This poetic device, in which one thing

• Carl Sandburg (The Library of Congress)

‘‘Moon Rondeau’’ was published in 1963 by Carl Sandburg in a collection of poetry titled Honey and Salt. This was one of his later works; he had already been named the People’s Poet, and he focused on his favorite themes in the collection. ‘‘Moon Rondeau’’ is a lyrical love story about nature and people, a

• Figurative Language poem ‘‘Moon Rondeau’’

The first line of stanza 1 uses dialogue (a conversation between people), as indicated by the use of quotation marks. It is not the voice of the poet, but that of the characters in the poem: the two lovers. A metaphor is used as they declare love to be a door through which they will embark