Topic 6: Class Dismissed!: High School Poems by Mel Glenn

Glenn, Mel. 1982. Class Dismissed!: High School Poems. New York: Clarion Books. ISBN: 0899190758.

Mel Glenn’s first book, CLASS DISMISSED!: HIGH SCHOOL POEMS, which was published in 1982, is a book of poems that are sometimes interconnected, though not always. The poems are written in free verse. Each poem represents the voice and experience of one student, which allowed Glenn to provide a multicultural cross-section of a typical high school. Glenn, a now retired high school English teacher, explores topics like poverty, college fears, fights with parents, teen sex, cheating, and violence with a students’ voice. Many poems were accompanied by a black and white still photo taken by a vice principal of real high school students at a Brooklyn high school. The photographs help the reader put a face on the speaker of the poem, though because this book was published in the 80s, the styles, both clothes and hair, prove somewhat amusing.

The way that Glenn interconnects the poems is interesting, with characters inflicting damage on each other by accident or on purpose. The effect is very similar to real life where students struggle to define themselves and create a place for them in the whole. For example, in “Allen Greshner,” Allen calls a girl named Tracy, to ask her to the prom. For some reason he can not understand, she refuses. He all the while is trying to figure out what is wrong with him. In the very next poem, “Maria Preosi,” Maria, Tracy’s sister, “accepted calmly, meekly, / My position in her shadow / And did not even whisper a syllable of revenge.” (Glenn, 35.) In “Jeanette Jaffe,” the speaker is a young woman who has a crush on her French teacher, who happens to be married. “Last week I put a letter in his mailbox, / Saying on paper what I was afraid to say in person.” (Glenn, 45.)

Glenn writes both humorous and very tragic poems, which demonstrate his ability to express clever turns of phrase with ease. In “Bernard Pearlman,” (Glenn, 88.) the young man uses mathematical and statistics terms to create a very funny diversion to precede the next poem, a sad commentary on life in the U.S. from the perspective of a Vietnamese immigrant. “I have see children with bloated bellies cry, / with no strength left to make sounds….In this new country my body grows. / But at school I look into the faces around me, / Wide-eyed, well-fed, unblinking. / How could they know? / How could they not know? / America, Land of the Free, Home of the Ignorant.”(Glenn, 89.) Glenn moved on with his poetry. “From this collection design it was a natural progression to develop a story with each character giving a viewpoint of the conflict. Characters expanded to include school personnel, such as guidance counselors and teachers. Glenn managed to take diverse viewpoints written in free verse and create a cohesive and suspenseful story.”(Chance, 34.) This book is easy to read because Glenn uses language exactly as the high school student would and this enables each character to speak directly to the reader in a natural flowing rhythm.

Reference List:

Glenn, Mel. 1982. “Maria Preosi,” In Class Dismissed! High School Poems. New York: Clarion Books,35.

Glenn, Mel. 1982. “Jeanette Jaffe,” In Class Dismissed! High School Poems. New York: Clarion Books, 45.

Glenn, Mel. 1982. “Bernard Pearlman,” In Class Dismissed! High School Poems. New York: Clarion Books, 88.

Glenn, Mel. 1982. “Song Vu Chin,” In Class Dismissed! High School Poems. New York: Clarion Books, 89.

Chance, Rosemary. 2004. “Novels in Verse for Teens: A Poetry Phenomenon.” Mississippi Libraries Vol. 68 No. 2 (Summer) 34.