Free-Verse Poetry

1. Free-Verse Poetry

2. What is Free-Verse? • A definition: Verse composed of variable, usually unrhymed lines having no fixed metrical pattern • First used in the Bible

3. Elements of Free-Verse • Assonance • Alliteration • Parallel Structure • Imagery • Onomatopoeia • Cadence

4. Assonance • The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds • “My tongue, every atom of my blood, formed from this soil…”

5. Practice assonance • Examine the picture on the right. Write a few lines describing what you see, using assonance

6. Alliteration • The repetition of the same sounds or of the same kinds of sounds at the beginning of words or in stressed syllables • “I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable”

7. Last names ending in A-M: Write a short description of a small child eating a melting ice cream cone, using alliteration. Last names ending in N-Z: Write a short description of a bull rider getting ready to come out of the chute, using alliteration. Practice alliteration

8. Share your work with a partner!

9. Parallel Structure • The repetition of single words or phrases: • “Born here of parentsborn here from parents the same, and their parents the same”

10. Practice parallel structure • Use the words “tightly woven,” “ugly,” “hammer,” “over,” and “I think to myself” to write a few lines using parallel structure.

11. Imagery • The use of vivid or figurative language to represent objects, actions, or ideas • Using sensory language to create mental images • “I clutch the rails of the fence, my gore dribs, thinn’d with the ooze of my skin”

12. Practice imagery • You have thirty seconds to view the picture on the following slide. Then, use imagery to re-create the scene in your own free-verse poem.

14. Onomatopoeia • The formation or use of words such as buzz or bang that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to.

15. Practice onomatopoeia • A poem titled “When Carly Eats Spaghetti” is on the following slide. As you read it, write down words that are examples of onomatopoeia.

16. “When Carly Eats Spaghetti” When Carly eats spaghetti, She chomps and gobbles and slurps, The spaghetti disappears with a whoosh Sauce slapping and smacking Round her chops. She scrapes the toast round the plate Crunching, grinding every mouthful. She burps, gurgles and leaves the table!

17. Cadence • The rhythmic rising and falling of the voice when speaking or reading poetry.

18. Practice cadence • Listen to the following speech by Shirley Chisholm, the first African-American woman elected to Congress. Notice her use of cadence.

19. Examples of Free-Verse • Walt Whitman- “Walt Whitman”

20. Examples of Free-Verse • Dylan Thomas- “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night”

21. Examples of Free-Verse • Marianne Moore- “The Fish”

22. Examples of Free-Verse • Langston Hughes- “I, Too, Sing America”