Learning Objective: Students will analyze the theme of a poem.
Hokushi was a famous poet in Japan during the late 1600s and early 1700s. He was also a sword sharpener!
Just think—
when Mother was my age,
she could build a fire
with sparks from rocks,
catch a bunch of
grasshoppers and
roast them whole
for a summer
night’s snack!
“Get me a good stick,”
she says, “thin but strong,”
and I bring her one
from the woods
behind our tent.
On the way back
I see a brown bag
by her feet—
could it be?
When the fire is spitting ready,
she reaches
in the bag, rustling,
and hands me
one big, fat, luscious
marshmallow.
Sometimes a poem makes us so curious that we have to find out more about what inspired it! Here’s what Janet Wong had to say about “Campfire.”
Shutterstock
The first time we went camping, my mother told me the story of how she roasted grasshoppers when she was a child. I thought it was disgusting until she explained why she did it. She grew up on a farm, so they should’ve had plenty of food—but this was the time of the Japanese wartime occupation of Korea, and much of their food went to the soldiers. Some nights, all they had to eat for dinner was a small bowl of rice. My mother, from when she was 5 years old, learned to catch food and cook it for herself. She would catch a fish, build a small fire on the riverbank, roast the fish, and eat the whole thing. Or, if she couldn’t catch a fish that day, she would catch grasshoppers.
When we went camping, my mother loved building our fire. It was always a great fire. And we always roasted marshmallows—never grasshoppers, which was perfectly fine with me.
Poem and author note © 1996, 2019 Janet S. Wong from A Suitcase of Seaweed & More (YUZU/Pomelo Books).
Pomelo Books
Writing Prompt
Write a poem about something you did over the summer. Focus on a particular moment, the way Janet Wong does in “Campfire.”
This poem was originally published in the September 2024 issue.
1. Read and Discuss
(30 minutes)
As a class, watch the video of poet Janet Wong reading her poem and author’s note aloud. The video is located in the Resources tab in Teacher View and at the top of the story page in Student View. (Alternatively, have students listen to Wong’s audio read-alouds of the poem and author’s note.)
For a second read, invite students to read the poem as well as the author’s note and biographical information silently to themselves.
Note: In her comments about the poem, Wong mentions the Japanese wartime occupation of Korea. You might share with students that this occupation began in 1910, when Japan seized control of Korea and declared it a colony of Japan. At the time, Korea was one unified country; it was not divided into North Korea and South Korea as it is today. The Japanese occupation of Korea lasted until 1945, when Japan lost World War II and the United States and the U.S.S.R. put an end to Japanese rule in Korea. (It was after this that the division of Korea began.)
Discuss the following questions as a class.
Featured Skill: Poetry Analysis (20 minutes)
1. How much time passes in this poem? In other words, does the poem describe events that happen over a period of minutes, hours, days, or longer? Generally speaking, the poem describes events that take place over several minutes, from when the speaker’s mom asks her daughter to find a stick to when the mom pulls the marshmallow out of the bag. Students might note, however, that the first stanza describes how the speaker’s mom would build fires and roast fish and grasshoppers when she was a child. So taking the first stanza into account, the poem describes events that happen over a period of years, events that happen over a period of minutes, and also events that happen years apart.
2. What do the words just think at the very beginning of the poem tell you about the speaker’s attitude or feelings about what her mother did as a child? The words just think tell you that the speaker is amazed or even a bit shocked that her mother built fires and roasted grasshoppers when she was a child.
3. In the second stanza, the speaker says, “I see a brown bag/by her feet—/could it be?” What does the speaker think might be about to happen? The speaker thinks the bag might be full of grasshoppers and that her mom might be about to pull one out for them to roast and eat.
4. In the third stanza, the speaker describes the fire as “spitting ready.” What does she mean? She means that the fire is hot and burning well—so well that it is spitting, or shooting out, sparks. She is saying that the fire is hot enough to roast marshmallows (or grasshoppers) over.
5. Consider the words the speaker uses to describe the marshmallow: big, fat, and luscious. Why do you think the poet chose these words in particular? It is likely the poet chose these words because she is developing the idea that the mom might be about to pull a grasshopper out of the bag, and big, fat, and luscious could describe a marshmallow or a grasshopper. What’s more, these words help create drama, because for those not accustomed to eating grasshoppers, the description of a grasshopper as big, fat, and luscious probably makes the idea of eating it all the more unappealing.
6. Why might the poet have made the choice to put the last word of the poem, marshmallow, on its own line? The poet likely put marshmallow on its own line to draw out the suspense at the end of the poem. When you read a poem, you naturally pause slightly at the end of each line, so by putting a line break before the last word, the poem creates a beat of silence (like a held breath or an inhale) before revealing what the mom pulls out of the bag.
7. Were you surprised by the poem’s ending? Did you find it funny? Answers will vary.
8. What did the author’s note about the poem help you understand? Did it answer any questions you had about the poem? Students are likely to offer that the author’s note helped them understand why the speaker’s mother roasted and ate grasshoppers as a child. Students might also offer that the author’s note helped them understand that Janet Wong wrote the poem about her own experience—in other words, that the poem is autobiographical.
2. Write Your Own Poem
(30 minutes)
Have students complete the Poetry Planner. This activity will help them brainstorm ideas and provide tips for writing their own poem in response to the prompt:
Write a poem about something you did over the summer. Focus on a particular moment, the way Janet Wong does in “Campfire.”
