Natalie and I chose to do our presentation on one of the poems by Sara Teasdale, titled “Coney Island”, on page 408. Since I live in Brooklyn, near Coney Island, and Nat’s parents are Brooklynites, we’re both familiar with the area and so this poem caught our eye.
For our presentation we created a little skit about two girls coming to the beach, one reluctantly. We use quotes from the poem as one girl questions the reason for her friend bringing her to the freezing beach in the middle of winter. We show differing views of the beach- We both love it, however one of us prefers it in the summer while the other likes the solitude and quiet that comes with the winter. We use modern language to truly portray how two teenagers would argue over something like this, yet we mange to capture the meaning of the poem. Just because one of wants to enjoy the beach in the winter, the weather won’t simply cater to our needs and be warm and “beach-weather”. In the end, the two forget the idea and leave the beach, saving it for a warmer day.