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Fred W. Duckworth, Jr.
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T U T O R S
U
TRINITY
TRINITY
T U T O R S
U
CONTENTS
Creator of the Universe
Yeah man, I really "dig" bones!
HOW TO WRITE POETRY
How to Write a Concrete Poem
Concrete poetry is not poetry about roads, driveways, and parking lots, but rather, poetry that creates some type of visual representation, or picture, of the topic it describes, often following the contours of (or forming the shapes suggested by) its subject.
In a concrete poem the placement and appearance of the words is often just as important in conveying the intended effect as are its rhythm, its rhyme, the meaning of the words it employs, and other conventional poetic elements. For this reason, concrete poetry is often referred to as visual poetry.
The art form is “concrete” in the sense that it depicts something that exists in space, can be seen, is physical, or is “real.”
To view a rather striking example of a concrete poem, go to
http://www.gardendigest.com/concrete/cvpindex.htm
and scroll down to the space between the words beginning with the letter “s” and those beginning with the letter “t.”
Concrete poems emphasizes the “experience” of poetry. Poets writing in this style do not wish to merely transform an experience into language, but to actually have the language <i>itself </i>be part of the experience. they are trying to say that the words themselves <i>are </i>the experience.
Click on the links appearing on the next page to see more examples of concrete poetry. You'll find them interesting and fun to look at. In each of them, the words ARE the experience.
A Practical Approach
POETRY DEFINED
So there you have it.! And what is the purpose of this book? Well, in all humility, is to help students to experience poetry for themselves through "active participation" (writing poems and having their poetry evaluated by peers). The believe is, it is only through experiencing poetry firsthand, only by personally practicing the craft of literary composition, that students will develop an authentic appreciation of the wide range of styles that are out there, acquired genuine insight into poetry, and possibly even joined the ranks of a complex poets in the process.
Now, that is plausible and note of caution.
Since schools of poetry are often hostile toward one another and contemptuous of other movements (what one admires may be anathema to another) students would be well advised to read widely and even joined different poetry groups before settling on a particular philosophy or style. The three main camps are as follows.
Traditionalists argue that up home is an expression of a vision that is rendered in a form intelligible and pleasurable to other is and so, likely to arouse kindred in motions.
Modernists view applaud as in autonomous object that may or may not represent the real world, but is created a language made distinctive by its complex web of references.
Postmodernists look on poems as collages of current idioms that are intriguing and self-contained. They may employee, challenge and/or mock preconceptions, but in any case, they refer to nothing beyond themselves.
So, for all but the postmodernist, poetry attempts to represent or understand something of the world in human terms. For all three, poetry is a (relatively) short piece of creative or imaginative work, of a personal nature, expressing and/or evil king emotion through literary composition in order to move its audience in some way.
POETRY DEFINED
Again, taking one last stab at defining this literary art form:
Poetry is a carefully organized arrangement of well chosen words, referring to the and/or con men teen upon something experienced by the author, which s/he wishes to share with others by transforming his or her vision into language, in hopes it will generate a deep emotional reaction in its audience.
And hopefully, you will find riding ploy tree a very enjoyable, fulfilling, satisfying, and/or rewarding experience. If so, wouldn't it be wonderful if you were to continue practicing the craft even after you have finished this book!
The Aesthetics of Poetry
What evidence is there for the existence of God?
WHAT MAKES A POEM POETIC?
The Logic of Faith
Poetry is obviously a form of communication, but a good poem communicate something more than mere words, something intangible, something that is probably the result, at least in part, but it's a very form and which cannot exist outside of that form.
Moreover, a poem is a place of discovery, for both its author and its audience, and requires some amount of effort to write in to understand. Though it doesn't necessarily have to be challenging, it does have to explore the nature of our world (that is, unless you are a postmodernist).
A lot of people think that ploy tree has to be about something serious. In considering poetry, the invasion grand ideas or overwhelming emotions. Still others have firmly held ideas about how it won't should behave. For instance, they may think it ought to rhyme, or that it should have a distinguishable rhythm. Or maybe, in their mind, applaud needs to be full of fancy, sophisticated words.
People have all kinds of ideas about what a poem ought to be like. Regardless, after you have had a little bit of practice writing forms, you will be able to create your own poems in any way you choose. A pawn can really be just about anything you wanted to be.
When all is said and done, the one thing that is abundantly clear is that you cannot take a cookie-cutter approach to creating poetry. There is no recipe for creating a poll-no universally accepted mold into which one may pour content and obtain a guaranteed result.
AESTHETICS
When creating appalled, form and content interact throughout the process, as they do in the final product. So, when you write your points, you should be continually thinking about what you are writing and why.
No doubt, the works you create as a result will shape your concepts about poetry, concepts that will continually develop along with you as you integrate all of the experiences that make you who you are.
The more you write, the more likely you are to develop a distinctive "voice" (or style) that fits your values and beliefs, a voice that changes as your worldview changes. If you write a lot or over an extended period of time, you will undoubtedly go through any number of styles, with your experiences in the world influencing your literary works, and your literary works influencing your experiences in the world.
But, even though a poem is an individual form of artistic expression and the personal creation of its author, we have to begin somewhere. Poetry is also, after all, created in some type of social context so that one would hope that others might also be able to identify with it. So, let's make the topic of our first pulled something with which we are all familiar -- people.
Writing Your 1st Poem
What evidence is there for the existence of God?
WHAT MAKES A POEM POETIC?
The Logic of Faith
For our first exercise in writing poetry, you will need to pick a person about whom you have strong feelings. Take your time and pick him or her carefully. How do you see that person? Do you just see a picture, or is s/he doing something? If you don't see the person engaged in any type of action, relax and let your mind go clear until you see the person undertaking some kind of activity.
Now write about whatever it was you saw him or her doing. Don’t worry about getting the words right. Describe the picture quickly before you forget it. The more action and details you include, the better your writing will be.
Relax again and take time to think of another picture. Write that one down as well. Then do this one more time so that you have a total of three “word pictures.”
When you’ve finished writing down your three scenes, start to turn your words into a poem. Order and number the pictures to begin giving your poem some kind of structure. The right order is whatever order makes sense and expresses your feelings best.
Once you have the right order for your poem, think about why it seems right. You will be able to write a better poem if you know why you have things in the order you do. See what the person is doing. How does s/he start out? How does s/he end up? Understand what happens in you poem. Be very clear on exactly what feelings or emotions you want to communicate. It will help your writing.
These instructions were written under the assumption that you have been receiving a quality education and are therefore familiar with the writing process. If so, you know that there are six steps, the first of which is a prewrite. (That's when you plan what you are going to write via brainstorming, an outline, a web, or some other kind of graphic organizer.) Whatever prewriting strategy you decide to use, make sure you include words describing the feeling or feelings you wish to convey. The emotional aspect of your poetry will be a powerful element in determining its effectiveness.
One of my students is a big fan of Tiger Woods, a professional golfer. After seeing Tiger win the British open in 2006, he wrote the following. This was his pre-write.
Tiger Woods
grace in motion
the picture of perfection
comes from behind
emotions erupt
tears flow
buries head in shoulder (head disappears in shoulder)
contemplative
intelligent.
analytical.
soft-spoken
After you plan what you are going to write by organizing your ideas on paper, it is time for the next step in the writing process. This step is called drafting, and it is when you transfer your thoughts onto another paper in phrases, lines, and verses.
The goal of drafting is to quickly get all of your thoughts down on paper. There is no such thing as a perfect draft, so don’t worry about mistakes. You can fix them later. However, as you write, you should definitely keep your purpose and your audience in mind. Go ahead and write you first draft now.
REVISING YOUR FIRST DRAFT
Revision is a step in the process of creating written works in which you make sure you have said exactly what you meant to say. When you revise, you make changes to your original draft to make it better -- to improve its coherence and progression -- by adding, deleting, consolidating, and rearranging text.
Read the thoughts you used to describe the three images you visualized. Think carefully about what your are really trying to say. Remember that your are expressing your feelings in this poem, so make sure you understand what they are!
Start reworking the words you already have. Keep reading, writing, reading and rewriting. You’ll hear which words sound wrong and which words sound right. Again, the main point here is to express your feelings -- the right words are the ones that sound like and reflect your feelings best!
Now, think again about what you have written. See more and more ideas and feelings in your three pictures. Write down all of the thoughts about your poem that come into your head. If necessary, reorder your words to best express your feelings. Remember that poetry is an organized arrangement of words that transforms an author’s ideas, thoughts, or feelings about an experience into language in order to be shared with others. This is your goal. Hopefully, when you have finished you will have created something that will register some type of emotional response in at least one segment of your audience.
After revising, editing, and publishing his drafts, here is what my student wrote:
Tiger Woods.
Grace in motion.
The picture of perfection.
Yeah! Come on, Tiger.
Clutch victory from the hands of defeat.
Exhilaration!
Emotions erupt.
Tears flow.
Where is your head, Tiger?
Buried in the shoulder of another man?
Where is your . . . dad . . . Tiger?
The interview:
A soft-spoken individual.
Contemplative,
Intelligent,
Analytical.
The student wrote the above poem after watching Tiger win the British Open (one of golf's most important tournaments) on Sunday, July 23, 2006. Woods stormed home to victory following a day of riveting play on Saturday, in which he took over the lead thanks to an excellent round and a miracle shot. It was Tiger’s first major tournament following the death of his influential and much beloved father. Woods dealt with the absence, capturing victory while "playing alone," but he broke down after his victory, paying a tearful tribute to his deceased dad.
Tiger sat down for an interview afterwards and explained that he wished his dad could have been there.
Following Up on Your First Poem
What next?
You might enjoy using the same process that you just learn to write a poem about one or more of the following:
- a part of your body
- in object (i.e., your baseball nicked, your favorite sweater, etc.)
- in animal or a favorite pet
- another person (i.e., your mom, a best friend, an enemy, etc.)
WRITER'S NOTEBOOK
One of the coolest things about creative writing is that, after a while, ideas just start popping into your head, sometimes when you least expect them. It could be while you’re walking the dog. It could be as you’re taking a bath. You’ll hear something on the radio, on television, in a conversation, and suddenly, words start to form almost subconsciously. When that happens, you need to write down your thoughts quickly, before you forget them! You might end up with a finished poem as soon as you get to the end of the last line, or you may only have a rough idea for a poem, one that will need a lot of work. That’s why you should keep a writer's notebook.
Many times, the best way to learn a skill is to copy those that have already mastered it. So, when it comes to writing, you should note that many professional writers have a notebook they go to again and again for their ideas. They use these books to take notes on words, sentences, paragraphs, pages, chapters, and books that they want to remember. This helps them recall all of their inspiring moments and to create more later on.
Consequently, you too should keep a notebook where you can maintain a record of your attempts to mimic or "copy" the various strategies and techniques used by published writers, such as different approaches to writing a poem, or ways of describing people or places. You could also use you notebook for sketching your ideas for illustrations that might supplement one of the poems on which you may be working.
To get ideas on what to write, continually look all around for inspiration. Regularly write things down like expressive words, interesting sentences, and descriptive passages. In fact, write something in your writer's notebook every day. It will serve as a record of what you have tried, and as a writing resource throughout the months ahead.
Here is a list of suggestions for what to include in your writer's notebook:
Experiences you find interesting or engaging.
Snippets from overheard conversations.
Dialogue for two or more people.
Inscriptions of people, both real and imaginary.
A record of responses or suggestions from classmates.
Attempts at copying various styles and techniques.
Notes on writing strategies taught by your teacher.
Techniques modeled during a lesson.
Phrases that are memorable.
Ideas for poems.
Lines for poems.
Personal thoughts.
Formats for outlines or other "tools" for planning.
"Getting started" activities.
So, get yourself a little notebook that is just for your poetry. Every time you see something in the a way, or you notice a detail that you keep thinking about, write it in your book. Then, when you feel like writing a poem, you’ll have some ideas to work with.
Even though you should write down all of your ideas, you don’t have to sit down and actually begin a poem for every idea that you get, nor do you have to finish every poem that you begin. As you are already aware, writing poetry takes some amount of effort, but you don’t want to turn it into sheer drudgery. Hopefully, there will be times when you are actually in the mood to write a poem on your own.
http://poetry.tetto.org/read/13707/
http://oregonstate.edu/~smithc/poems/boat.html
http://www.manassas.k12.va.us/Round/ClassWeb/Slough/Poetry/pics/bfc2tif.jpg
http://www.schools.pinellas.k12.fl.us/educators/tec/pravda3/concrete.html
http://oregonstate.edu/~smithc/poems/salmon.html
http://www.manassas.k12.va.us/Round/ClassWeb/Slough/Poetry/pics/dsc1.jpg
http://oregonstate.edu/~smithc/poems/owl.html
How to Write a Haiku
Haiku is a type of traditional poetry that originated in Japan. It was developed about 500 years ago, but people in Japan still write haiku today. It combines form, content, and language in a meaningful, yet compact or “succinct” style. Because they are fun to create, poets in the United States write him as well. They are a special kind of poetry, and there are special rules for writing them.
Traditionally, Haiku focused on nature as its subject matter -- typically one of the four seasons. The goal was to re-create the feeling of a season in words and mental images. However, those writing haiku today (whom you are about to join) often write about everyday things, including feelings and experiences. Now, here are those special rules mentioned earlier:
Haiku has three short lines.
The first line has five syllables.
The second line has seven syllables.
The third line has five syllables.
By the way, in case you weren’t aware, a syllable is a single sound unit in a spoken word (sort of like one “beat” in the word). Each line in haiku contains a certain number of sound or <i>phonetic</i> units, which partially correspond to syllables in English.
Something else that you need to know about haiku is that it doesn’t rhyme and it usually makes use of simple words and grammar. As already stated, the goal of haiku is to paint a mental image -- to paint a picture that conveys the poem’s meaning in the mind of the reader -- and to do that in exactly three lines of 17 total syllables.
If you follow this link you can click a thumbnail and enjoy a haiku verse with an illustration.
Or for a wider selection, go to and choose one from the tables of contents.
Haiku is a type of traditional poetry that originated in Japan. It was developed about 500 years ago, but people in Japan still write haiku today. It combines form, content, and language in a meaningful, yet compact or “succinct” style. Because they are fun to create, poets in the United States write him as well. They are a special kind of poetry, and there are special rules for writing them.
Traditionally, Haiku focused on nature as its subject matter -- typically one of the four seasons. The goal was to re-create the feeling of a season in words and mental images. However, those writing haiku today (whom you are about to join) often write about everyday things, including feelings and experiences. Now, here are those special rules mentioned earlier:
Haiku has three short lines.
The first line has five syllables.
The second line has seven syllables.
The third line has five syllables.
By the way, in case you weren’t aware, a syllable is a single sound unit in a spoken word (sort of like one “beat” in the word). Each line in haiku contains a certain number of sound or <i>phonetic</i> units, which partially correspond to syllables in English.
Something else that you need to know about haiku is that it doesn’t rhyme and it usually makes use of simple words and grammar. As already stated, the goal of haiku is to paint a mental image -- to paint a picture that conveys the poem’s meaning in the mind of the reader -- and to do that in exactly three lines of 17 total syllables.
If you follow this link
http://homepage2.nifty.com/haiku-eg/gardEA3.htm
you can click a thumbnail and enjoy a haiku verse with an illustration.
Or for a wider selection, go to
http://homepage2.nifty.com/haiku-eg/
and choose one from the tables of contents.
Let’s take a look at a haiku that mimics one written by a Japanese boy named Kobayashi Issa and see how it was put together. (Kobayashi Issa lived from 1763 to 1827.) Be sure to read through it <i>out loud </i>a few times, but don’t worry yet about understanding it completely. Do pay attention however to the way that the syllables work. Count out the five syllables in the first line, the seven syllables in the second line, and the five syllables in the third line.
Hello, little hut.
You’re newly thatched I see . . .
Bright little daisies.
Let’s go through this poem together. To thatch a hut means to put on a new roof made out of fresh straw. Daisies are flowers whose heads have a yellow center and white petals. Think about it. This haiku equates the image of flowers blossoming on top of a hut with that of thatching a roof.
Now it’s time to write a haiku of your own. Pick one of the four seasons that you would like to write about. Maybe you want to write about winter, and the way you feel the first day that there is snowfall. Maybe you love to go hunting in the autumn and would like to tell about that feeling. Began by deciding which season you are going to talk about. Then think about why you like that season so much. Don’t forget, haiku is about nature, so think about feelings that are in some way connected with the outdoors during a certain time of year.
As always, when writing poetry you want to try to relax and just let the pictures come into your mind. Once you have chosen the season about which you wish to write, relax and try not to think about anything specific. Just let your mind wander so that a relevant picture is free to come to the forefront.
When a picture that “speaks to you” drifts into your imagination, one that seems to express the idea you want to communicate, examine it carefully because the next thing you’re going to need to do is find a detail for you last line. Maybe what you see is a butterfly, and for your detail you imagine the way some butterflies methodically open and close their wings while sipping nectar from flowers. That picture of a lone butterfly drinking nectar might be a good picture for the last line of a haiku about summer.
If I were going to write about the autumn, I might picture a child jumping into a big pile of leaves, and a barren maple tree looking down from above, embarrassed by the loss of all its leaves. For me, that image capsulizes<b> </b>the feeling of autumn, a time when many trees lose their leafy garments, forced to stand totally naked until the coming of spring.
One of my students, let’s call him Bruce, decided to write a haiku about the end of winter. Remember, the first step is to pick the final detail toward which your haiku will move. Bruce thought a good image for his last line would be a single icicle melting in the sun. He chose that for his last line because he wanted to create a sense of anticipation, the feeling of spring being on its way. In the same way, once <i>you </i>have decided which season <i>your </i>haiku will be about, decide what detail you want in <i>your </i>last line. Once you have written the last line, it’s time to go back and write the first two.
Traditional haiku often presents two different impressions or aspects of its subject, separated by a major grammatical break at the end of the first or the second line (though this is not always done by non-Japanese haiku, nor by modern Japanese authors of “free-form haiku”). To set up this “twist,” keeping in mind the final detail toward which I am moving, I need to start off with a general picture, one that will form a contrast with my final detail so that my last line will be a surprise. Make sure that you do the same. Create a general picture in your first line (or first two lines) that contrasts the third.
Bruce thought that what he should do to set up his contrast was begin by describing a severe winter storm. After you have decided what you want your first line to describe, write it down.
Hello, little hut.
You're newly thatched I see . . .
Bright little daisies.
It’s very apparent that there are no extra words. That’s because the author was aware that there could only be a limited number of syllables in each line. That special rule -- that there must be five phonetic units in the first line, seven in the second, and five in the third -- is what makes writing haiku different from writing other kinds of poetry, and what makes haiku a fun challenge.
To finish your haiku, get three pieces of paper. On the first one, write down the most general picture. (Maybe it’s a big winter wave headed toward the beach at Sombrio, British Columbian.) The important thing is to make sure the first line describes the most general picture. It should tell us generally what you are looking at or thinking about. Kobayashi Issa’s general picture was that of a hut. Bruce pictured strong winds with blinding wind-driven snow, creating blizzard-like conditions that reduce visibility to almost zero.
Next, go back to the most important detail in your image. What makes it special to you? What part of the scene best expresses your feeling about this season? Whatever it is, write it down on your second piece of paper. You will want your haiku to end up on this image. For Kobayashi Issa, it was blue morning glories.
Now you have to figure out how to get from the general picture to the specific one. Look at the way Kobayashi Issa sets up the last line of his haiku with the second. He moves from the hut to the morning glories by using the middle line, “Is newly thatched I see . . .” That picture is the bridge between the two images. How will you get from your first line to the last? Think about that. As soon as you think of a way to do it, write down that picture on your last piece of paper. The image that Bruce decided to use was that of heavy accumulations of ice on trees, telephone poles, and electrical wires.
Okay, you’re almost finished. All that remains is to take your three pictures and describe each of the images using the correct number of phonetic units. On your first piece of paper, keep rewriting the description of your picture until you can describe it in five syllables. It may take some time, but try not to rush it. I’ll show you what Bruce did with his first line.
On his first piece of paper, Bruce wrote: “Strong winds with blinding wind-driven snow are creating blizzard-like conditions that reduce visibility to almost zero.” But of course, that’s <i>way </i>too many syllables. Bruce had to do his best to say the same thing using exactly five phonetic units. He would only be able to use the most important words. The first thing that came to mind was, “wind driven snow.” But, when he counted the syllables he discovered that there were only four, and he needed five. So, he revised what he wrote so that the words he finally decided on were: “Blinding winter winds.
Once you have your first line done, you can start on your second. Remember that in your second line you need to form a bridge to the third. In Bruce’s second line, after playing around with the number of syllables, he got: “ice covered telephone lines.” His plan was to find some way to get from the ice cover telephone lines to a single melting icicle. You need to do the same thing in your second line. (By the way, you can use a word like “oh” or “hey” For your syllable count if you want to.)
If you happen to get stuck while trying to get the right syllable count, just set your haiku down for a little while and comeback to it some time later. It may even be that the right words just come to you sometime when you least expect it. Don’t worry if it takes you a little while.
Once you have your second line done, turn to the last one, the one where your detail will be the most focused. where you will capsulize the feeling of your season. When Bruce got to the last line, he realized that he would not have enough syllables to include the sun in his description. But, he needed the sun to explain why the icicle was melting, so he decided to try including it in the second line, where he had seven syllables to work with as opposed to just five. He revised his second line once again so that it read, “Ice-covered trees greet the sun.” But, he wasn’t happy with that. So, he tweaked it a little and finally came up with, “Ice covered trees say, “Hi, sun!”
And for his last line he wrote, “Drops countdown to spring.”
Here is Bruce’s final draft:
Blinding winter winds.
Ice covered trees say, “Hi, sun!”
Drops countdown to spring.
And let’s take one last look at the poem patterned after Kobayashi Issa:
Hello, little hut.
You are newly thatched I see . . .
Bright little daisies.
Do you see how the scenes become more and more focused? And it do you see how the last line contrasts the first? Notice the syllable count.
Now look at your haiku. Does your poem start with a general picture and move to a specific one? Are you satisfied with the way your haiku creates the feeling of the season you picked? Is the number of syllables in each line correct?
If so, wonderful!
You have just written a haiku.
Why Write a Poem?
Gregory Orr says that he believes in poetry as a way of surviving the emotional chaos, spiritual confusion, and traumatic events that come with being alive. When he writes a poem, he processes experiences. He takes what’s inside of him and translates it into words that he then shapes into the rhythmical language we call poetry. For him, this process brings a kind of wild joy. So, it would seem that for some, writing poetry can be a kind of therapeutic, or healing, activity.
On the other hand, writing poetry can simply be a way of sharing experiences with others -- a means of connecting with other people. As such, poems make great gifts. Write one for your mom for on Mother’s Day. Give one to your dad on his birthday. It might turn out to be one of the best presents they ever received. Write a poem for a friend who is sick in the hospital. Send one to your grandparents. It’s nice to give poems to other people.
But, in the final analysis, the best thing about writing poetry is how it makes <i>you</i> feel. Whether you're depressed, happy, angry, disappointed . . . you should try writing a poem. You will probably discover that it helps you to process your feelings and to work out your emotions. Writing poetry is a way to put things in perspective, and in the end, you’ll probably have a better understanding of yourself and your world too.
Not that many concrete poems deal with what might be considered “weighty” or serious material. To tell you the truth, there are people who say this style of poetry isn’t really poetry at all, but poetry or not, creating one together will be a lot of fun.
Beginning a concrete poem is almost equivalent to writing it since we will need a word and an idea to get started, and that’s virtually all that a concrete poem is.
The first step is to pick a word. It can be any kind of word that tickles your fancy . . . a noun, verb, adverb, or whatever you desire. Next, see the word doing what it says. Or to put it another way, imagine a word, and at the same time, imagine the idea or concept that the word symbolizes or represents. Your poem will simply be doing whenever it is that the word you chose does. It’s as simple as that.
Also, you probably know how most paintings cover an entire canvas. Well, in the same way two-dimensional works of art have to fill up all of the space on which they are created, your idea, whatever it might be, needs to fill up the whole page. Since you will be expressing a single idea, make sure that it is big and clever enough to completely fill the page.
(If any of this is unclear to you, take a another good look at the previously linked examples linked. Carefully study and analyze what those poets did and that should give you a clearer picture of what it is you have to do.)</i><page>
MEET THE POET:
As we have already seen, poetry can be written and/or read for a variety of reasons.
Now read the poem aloud, emphasizing tone. Read it in a happy voice for the first ending, in a sad voice for the second ending, and in an amused voice for the third. Visualize as you read, picturing in your mind what the hippo is doing.
As you study poetry, you will learn that there are many elements that make up a poem. Many poems contain rhyme, rhythm, and words that create a picture in the reader’s mind. You will learn about each of these elements in this unit.
Before we begin, what do you already know about rhyme, rhythm, and meter?
Meter is like a drum beat. Reread a poem aloud and listen for the poem’s rhythm or meter. As you read the poem emphasize the beat. Clap the rhythm of the poem as you read. By doing this, you can better hear the poems rhythm. What do you notice about the second and fourth lines of each stanza. (A stanza is like a paragraph in a poem.) You may have noticed that they sound like a song.
You can respond to poetry by writing poems of your own. Think of a time when you took a risk or tried something new. Write a poem about your experiences. Use meter in your poem. Record your ideas in your Writer’s Notebook.
LITERARY ANALYSIS:
When you encounter a new home initially read through it and when turned to gain an understanding of its meaning and written. Thin, read a second time, emphasizing its written. You are reading it with others, you might wish to take turns reading alternate stanzas allow him or you might invite your group in and had each have read one stanza time.
You might find certain words challenging. Use context clues to help you understand what such words mean.
When reading poems, use an appropriate tone of voice. For examplee of when reading a poem about overcoming tragedy, you may wish to use a voice somber, but filled with conviction. Try to imagine that you are the narrator and that the poem is about you. think aboutt you are dealing she read the words.
METAPHOR:
A metaphor is a comparison of two like things, often using the word is. Reread the poem and pick out the metaphor. Writers use metaphors to help readers better understand what they are trying to say. Metaphors also give words a deeper meaning. What you think the poem meant by comparing freedom to a seed. Perhaps it meant that people need freedom like they need seeds that grow food.
Think of a time when you did something that had good consequences. It could be as simple as studying for a test and getting an A or talking to a new student and making a friend. Described what it was like by using metaphors. Record your ideas in your Writer’s Notebook.
What Is Poetry?
What evidence is there for the existence of God?
WHAT MAKES A POEM A POEM?
The Logic of Faith
What is it that qualifies a given piece of literature as poetry? That’s not easy to say, for poetry is different things to different people and the way it is described varies widely depending on just who it is that you ask.
Okay then, let’s start by identifying exactly what it is we already know about poetry. First, we know that the average poem is much shorter than the average book or story. That means that poets must express what they are trying to say using a lot fewer words. Because they are forced to use words sparingly, poets must carefully choose the words they select when writing a poem. They must struggle to be clear and concise, considering the emotional quality, musical value, pacing, and/or even the spatial relationship of the words they commit to paper.
We also know that poetry is sometimes used to narrate, sometimes to describe, sometimes to argue, and sometimes to define. It often communicates a subtle message or serves an underlying purpose beyond its superficial meaning. Moreover, it is not unusual for a poem to create a strong emotional reaction in its reader, whether it be joy, anger, sorrow, love, or what have you. Poetry also has the ability to surprise and excite its audience. It can spark imagination, discovery, greater understanding, insight , and revelation. It can even uncover previously unrecognized beauty and truth.
So, what can we say about poetry then? Let us define it as follows:
Poetry is a carefully organized arrangement of words that transforms an author’s ideas, thoughts, or feelings about an experience into language so that it can be shared with others in the hopes of eliciting some type of emotional response.sity of emotional response.
