What is Poetry?

1. What is Poetry? And why should we study it?

2. Poetry is defined as: writing that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience in language chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through meaning, sound, and rhythm (Mirriam-Webster)

3. Notice the Differences Between Prose and Poetry: “Rainsford sprang up and moved quickly to the rail, mystified. He strained his eyes in the direction from which the reports had come, but it was like trying to see through a blanket. He leaped upon the rail and balanced himself there, to get greater elevation; his pipe, striking a rope, was knocked from his mouth. He lunged for it; a short, hoarse cry came from his lips as he realized he had reached too far and had lost his balance. The cry was pinched off short as the blood-warm waters of the Caribbean Sea dosed over his head.” (Connell) “Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story of that man skilled in all ways of contending, the wanderer, harried for years on end, after he plundered the stronghold on the proud height of Troy. He saw the townlands and learned the minds of many distant men, and weathered many bitter nights and days in his deep heart at sea, while he fought only to save his life, to bring his shipmates home. (Odyssey)”

4. Form Follows Function Especially in poetry, the function (theme or purpose) of what the author is writing determines the form of the poem (how they will write it). Whether they use similes or alliteration, rhymes, long stanzas or short stanzas all depends on the PURPOSE of their writing. Usually the purpose has something to do with describing the human experience.

5. Take for example this poem: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49909/a-narrow-fellow-in-the-grass-1096

6. Based on all these examples, we could say: Poetry is a kind of writing that focuses on using imagination to explain experiences and create a particular emotional response using imagery, sound, meaning, rhythm, etc.

7. Why do we study it?

8. For Enjoyment “Every night I lie in bed, The brightest colors fill my head A million dreams are keeping me awake” - “A Million Dreams”, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul

9. 2) To Understand Common (or Not) Experiences “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; ... I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.” “The Road Not Taken”, Robert Frost

10. 3) To Express Experiences “Every night I lie in bed, The brightest colors fill my head A million dreams are keeping me awake” - “A Million Dreams”, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul

11. 4) To Better Understand the World and Its Messages Poets aren’t the only people who use form for a specific function! Advertisers, politicians, and journalists all use specific strategies to try and manipulate your feelings and beliefs. Poetry can teach us many concepts to help us interpret these messages. What is this trying to make me think or feel?

12. In teams of 4-5, students will have 5 minutes of “think time” and answer this prompt: List 5 ways that poetry interacts with our lives. At least one of these has to be a way that poetry has impacted you personally. I want you to list the venue (how we are exposed to the poetry – music, books, etc.) and how the poetry affects us (does it change the way we think, feel, etc.). Give specific examples of effect, not just generalizations. “A Million Dreams is a song that put into words something I could never explain – staying awake with a wild imagination. It made my experience feel more precious and valuable.” After think time, go around the group and have each person share one thing they wrote. Go around again until all of the answers have been shared. Then, as a group, come to a consensus and write down the 4 most common ways that poetry interacts with our lives. I will be grading on our normal discussion rubric: 5 points for the groups’ notes, 5 points for everyone participating and staying focused, 10 for the answers each team member gives to my questions.