Poetry Unit

1. Poetry Unit A poem is never finished, only abandoned.  ~Paul Valéry

2. Overview Of The Lesson • You will be taught the use of and special features of poetry. • You will be provided with many examples. • You will then be tested to see how well you can read and identify these different kinds of poetry.

3. What is Poetry? • Poetry is an imaginative awareness of experience expressed through meaning, sound, and rhythmic language choices so as to evoke an emotional response. Poetry has been known to employ meter and rhyme, but this is by no means necessary. Poetry is an ancient form that has gone through numerous and drastic reinvention over time. The very nature of poetry as an authentic and individual mode of expression makes it nearly impossible to define.

4. What is Poetry? • One of the most definable characteristics of the poetic form is economy of language. Poets are miserly and unrelentingly critical in the way they dole out words to a page. Carefully selecting words for conciseness and clarity is standard, even for writers of prose, but poets go well beyond this, considering a word's emotive qualities, its musical value, its spacing, and yes, even its spacial relationship to the page. The poet, through innovation in both word choice and form, seemingly rends significance from thin air.

5. What is Poetry? • Poetry is evocative. It typically evokes in the reader an intense emotion: joy, sorrow, anger, catharsis, love... Alternatively, poetry has the ability to surprise the reader with an Ah Ha! Experience -- revelation, insight, further understanding of elemental truth and beauty.

6. POETRY—Traditional Definition • A type of literature that expresses ideas, feelings, or tells a story in a specific form (usually using lines and stanzas)

7. POINT OF VIEW IN POETRY POET • The poet is the author of the poem. SPEAKER • The speaker of the poem is the “narrator” of the poem.

8. POETRY FORM • FORM - the appearance of the words on the page • LINE - a group of words together on one line of the poem • STANZA- a group of lines arranged together • A word is dead • When it is said, • Some say. • I say it just • Begins to live • That day.

9. Excerpt from “The Raven”by Edgar Allen Poe • Then, me thought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censerSwung by Seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor.`Wretch,' I cried, `thy God hath lent thee - by these angels he has sent theeRespite - respite and nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore!Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget this lost Lenore!'Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'`Prophet!' said I, `thing of evil! - prophet still, if bird or devil! -Whether tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore,Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted -On this home by horror haunted - tell me truly, I implore -Is there - is there balm in Gilead? - tell me - tell me, I implore!'Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'` • Prophet!' said I, `thing of evil! - prophet still, if bird or devil!By that Heaven that bends above us - by that God we both adore -Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn,It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels named Lenore -Clasp a rare and radiant maiden, whom the angels named Lenore?'Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'`Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!' I shrieked upstarting -`Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore!Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!Leave my loneliness unbroken! - quit the bust above my door!Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!'Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'

10. REFRAIN • A sound, word, phrase or line repeated regularly in a poem. • “Quoth the raven, ‘Nevermore.’”

11. KINDS OF STANZAS Couplet = a two line stanza Triplet (Tercet) = a three line stanza Quatrain = a four line stanza Quintet = a five line stanza Sestet (Sextet) = a six line stanza Septet = a seven line stanza Octave = an eight line stanza

12. SOUND EFFECTS

13. RHYTHM • The beat created by the sounds of the words in a poem • Rhythm can be created by meter, rhyme, alliteration and refrain.

14. What is Rhythm? • Any poem has the chance of having rhythm. • A poem has rhythm if the reader of the poem gives the poem rhythm. • For a poem to have rhythm, it has to be read following a pattern with its syllables. For example: da, da, dadadadada, da, da, dadadadada, da, da, dadadadada, da, da, dadadadada.

15. Example of Rhythm Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall Humpty Dumpty had a great fall and of all the king’s horses and all of the King’s men couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty together again.

16. Practice Your Rhythm ClankityClankityClankity Clank! Ankylosaurus was built like a tank, Its hide was a fortress as sturdy as steel, It tended to be an inedible meal. It was armored in front, it was armored behind, There wasn’t a thing on its minuscule mind, It waddled about on its four stubby legs, Nibbling on plants with a mouthful of pegs. Ankylosaurus was best left alone, Its tail was a cudgel of gristle and bone, ClankityClankityClankity Clank! Ankylosaurus was built like a tank. By: Jack Prelutsky

17. More Rhythm Practice Iguanodon, Iguanodon, Whatever made you fade, You’ve traveled on, Iguanodon, We wish you could have stayed. Iguanodon, Iguanodon, We’ve sought you everywhere, Both here and yon, Iguanodon, But failed to find you there. Iguanodon, Iguanodon, You were a gentle kind, But now you’re gone, Iguanodon, And left your bones behind. By: Jack Prelutsky

18. METER • A pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. • Meter occurs when the stressed and unstressed syllables of the words in a poem are arranged in a repeating pattern. • When poets write in meter, they count out the number of stressed (strong) syllables and unstressed (weak) syllables for each line. They repeat the pattern throughout the poem. • This is especially important in Rhyming Poems and Limericks

19. METER cont. • FOOT - unit of meter. • A foot can have two or three syllables. • Usually consists of one stressed and one or more unstressed syllables. • TYPES OF FEET The types of feet are determined by the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables. (cont.)

20. METER cont. • TYPES OF FEET (cont.) Iambic - unstressed, stressed Trochaic - stressed, unstressed Anapestic - unstressed, unstressed, stressed Dactylic - stressed, unstressed, unstressed

21. RHYME • Words sound alike because they share the same ending vowel and consonant sounds. • (A word always rhymes with itself.) • LAMP • STAMP • Share the short “a” vowel sound • Share the combined “mp” consonant sound

22. What is a Rhyming Poem? • A rhyming poem is a verse poem that contains rhyming words at the end of certain lines. • Example: Night time by Lee Bennet Hopkins How do dreams know when to creep into my head when I fall off to Sleep?

23. The Purpose of Rhyming Poems • Rhyming poems are used mainly for humor. These poems are fun to read. • Lets see some more poems with rhymes.

24. Types of Rhyming Poems • There are many types of rhyming poems. Here are names of some of them: • The Couplet • The Limerick • The Ballad Stanza (including the short and long) • Octaves

25. A Rhyming Poem Marty Smarty went to a party In her jumbo jet. After tea she jumped in the sea And got her pants all wet. John Foster

26. END RHYME • A word at the end of one line rhymes with a word at the end of another line • Hector the Collector • Collected bits of string. • Collected dolls with broken heads • And rusty bells that would not ring.

27. INTERNAL RHYME • A word inside a line rhymes with another word on the same line. • Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary. • From “The Raven” • by Edgar Allan Poe

28. NEAR RHYME • a.k.a imperfect rhyme, close rhyme • The words share EITHER the same vowel or consonant sound BUT NOT BOTH • ROSE • LOSE • Different vowel sounds (long “o” and “oo” sound) • Share the same consonant sound

29. RHYME SCHEME • A rhyme scheme is a pattern of rhyme (usually end rhyme, but not always). • Use the letters of the alphabet to represent sounds to be able to visually “see” the pattern. (See next slide for an example.)

30. SAMPLE RHYME SCHEME • The Germ by Ogden Nash • A mighty creature is the germ, • Though smaller than the pachyderm. • His customary dwelling place • Is deep within the human race. • His childish pride he often pleases • By giving people strange diseases. • Do you, my poppet, feel infirm? • You probably contain a germ. a a b b c c a a

31. ONOMATOPOEIA • Words that imitate the sound they are naming • BUZZ • OR sounds that imitate another sound • “The silken, sad, uncertain, rustling of • each purple curtain . . .”

32. What is Alliteration? • A poem with alliteration repeats the initial consonant sounds closely together. • Example:Sheila Shorter sought a suitor; Shelia sought a suitor short. Sheila’s suitor sure to suit her; Short’s the suitor Sheila sought! by Michael Rosen

33. ALLITERATION • Consonant sounds repeated at the beginnings of words • If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, how many pickled peppers did Peter Piper pick?

34. The Purpose of Alliteration Poems • Alliteration poems tend to be tongue twisters. They are written for the fun they bring when they are read. • Lets see more poems with alliteration.

35. An Alliteration Poem Down the slippery slide they slid Sitting slightly sideways; Slipping swiftly see them skid On holidays and Fridays.

36. CONSONANCE • Similar to alliteration EXCEPT . . . • The repeated consonant sounds can be anywhere in the words • “silken,sad, uncertain, rustling . . “

37. ASSONANCE • Repeated VOWEL sounds in a line or lines of poetry. • (Often creates near rhyme.) • Lake Fate Base Fade • (All share the long “a” sound.)

38. ASSONANCE cont. Examples of ASSONANCE: “Slow the low gradual moan came in the snowing.” • John Masefield “Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep.” - William Shakespeare

39. FREE VERSE POETRY • Unlike metered poetry, free verse poetry does NOT have any repeating patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables. • Does NOT have rhyme. • Free verse poetry is very conversational - sounds like someone talking with you. • A more modern type of poetry.

40. BLANK VERSE POETRY • Written in lines of iambic pentameter, but does NOT use end rhyme. from Julius Ceasar Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once. Of all the wonders that I yet have heard, It seems to me most strange that men should fear; Seeing that death, a necessary end, Will come when it will come.

41. SOME TYPES OF POETRYWE WILL BE STUDYING

42. LYRIC • A short poem • Usually written in first person point of view • Expresses an emotion or an idea or describes a scene • Do not tell a story and are often musical • (Many of the poems we read will be lyrics.)

43. HAIKU A Japanese poem written in three lines Five Syllables Seven Syllables Five Syllables An old silent pond . . . A frog jumps into the pond. Splash! Silence again.

44. CINQUAIN A five line poem containing 22 syllables Two Syllables Four Syllables Six Syllables Eight Syllables Two Syllables How frail Above the bulk Of crashing water hangs Autumnal, evanescent, wan The moon.

45. SHAKESPEAREAN SONNET A fourteen line poem with a specific rhyme scheme. The poem is written in three quatrains and ends with a couplet. The rhyme scheme is ababcdcdefefgg Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date. Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimmed; And every fair from fair sometimes declines, By chance or nature’s changing course untrimmed. But thy eternal summer shall not fade Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st; Nor shall Death brag thou wanderest in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

46. NARRATIVE POEMS • A poem that tells a story. • Generally longer than the lyric styles of poetry b/c the poet needs to establish characters and a plot. Examples of Narrative Poems “The Raven” “The Highwayman” “Casey at the Bat” “The Walrus and the Carpenter”

47. CONCRETE or SHAPE POEMS • In concrete poems, the words are arranged to create a picture that relates to the content of the poem. Poetry Is like Flames, Which are Swift and elusive Dodging realization Sparks, like words on the Paper, leap and dance in the Flickering firelight. The fiery Tongues, formless and shifting Shapes, tease the imiagination. Yet for those who see, Through their mind’s Eye, they burn Up the page.

48. An Example of a Limerick What is a limerick, Mother? It's a form of verse, said brother In which lines one and two Rhyme with five when it's through And three and four rhyme with each other. author unknown

49. Rhyming Poems Spaghetti! Spaghetti Spaghetti! Spaghetti! You’re wonderful stuff, I love you, spaghetti, I can’t get enough. You’re covered with sauce And you’re sprinkled with cheese, Spaghetti! Spaghetti! Oh, give me some please. Jack Prelutsky

50. Alliteration Poem A fly and a flea flew up in a flue. Said the fly to the flea, “What shall we do?” “Let’s fly,” said the flea. “Let’s flee,” said the fly. So they fluttered and flew up a flaw in the flue.