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Poetry
What is Poetry?
• “Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history.” ~ Plato
• “Poetry is a mirror which makes beautiful that which
is distorted.” ~ Percy Shelley
• “Poetry is the language in which man explores his
own amazement.” ~ Christopher Fry
• “Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance.” ~ Carl
Sandburg
• “Poetry is thoughts that breathe, and words that
burn.” ~ Thomas Gray
• “Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in
words.” ~ Edgar Allan Poe
• “Poetry is plucking at the heartstrings, and making
music with them.” ~ Dennis Gabor
• Poetry is….What does poetry mean to you?
“Introduction to Poetry” by Billiy Collins
I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide
or press an ear against its hive.
I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,
or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.
I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.
But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.
Poetry Activity # 1
• What is happening in this poem?
What is it about?
• Who is the poet addressing/writing
to?
• What is the message of the poem?
• What images/feelings did the poet
conjure?
Poetry
• There are as many interpretations of
a poem as there are interpreters of
the poem.
• A poem is like a message in a bottle.
• A poem is meant to be a
conversation between poet and
reader.
• Poets use certain tools and
techniques to make a poem more
appealing to the reader’s senses…
Poetic Terms/Tools
• Stanza – a grouping of lines, set off by a
space, which usually has a set pattern of
meter and rhyme.
• Rhyme Scheme – A pattern of end
rhymes as indicated by letters in the
alphabet in a stanza.
• Enjambment – running over from one
line to another.
Let’s take a look!......
“The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost
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;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
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.
Poetic Terms/Tools
• Rhythm – Musical quality of poetry
• Meter – a reoccurring pattern of stress
and unstressed syllables within the
lines of a poem.
• Scansion – Marking stress in rhythmic
patterns based on syllables.
• Foot – How a line is measured.
Let’s give it a try…
“My Heart Leaps Up” by William Wordsworth
My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I grow old,
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.
Poetic Terms/Tools
• Tone – the speaker’s attitude
towards a subject and overall
mood of the poem.
• Diction – the writer’s word choice.
• Imagery – wording that appeals to
the reader’s senses.
Let’s have a look at the Jabberwocky….
“Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll
`Twas brillig,
and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"
"And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'
He chortled in his joy.
He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.
`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
Poetry Activity #2
• What is this poem about? What
imagery is present?
• How did you know this with all of the
nonsense words?
• Look at the diction of each stanza,
replace the nonsense words with
actual words.
Poetic Terms/Tools
• Alliteration – Repetition of consonant
sounds at the beginning of words.
• Assonance – Repetition of vowel sounds
usually within words.
• Internal Rhyme – rhyme that occurs within
a line of poetry.
Let’s get some help from Mr. Poe…
From “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
'Tis some visitor,' I muttered, `tapping at my chamber door Only this, and nothing more.'
Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow; - vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow - sorrow for the lost Lenore For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels named Lenore Nameless here for evermore.
Blue = Internal Rhyme
Green = Assonance
Red = Alliteration
Poetic Terms/Tools
• Allusion – A reference to a person, place, or
thing that is meant to invoke that image.
• Symbol – an image or group of words that
stand for or represents an idea, concept, or
person.
• Personification – Giving of human qualities
to inanimate things.
Let’s look at the poem “The New Colossus”
“The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Poetry Terms/Tools
• Onomatopoeia – words that resemble or
represent their sounds:
- buzz, hiccup, zoom, splash, beep, burp,
bark
• Simile – A comparison between things
using “like” or “as”.
• Metaphor – a direct comparison using two
unlike things.
Let’s see how they work…
“Player Piano” by John Updike
My stick fingers click with a snicker
And, chuckling, they knuckle the keys;
Light footed, my steel feelers flicker
And pluck from these keys melodies.
My paper can caper; abandon
Is broadcast by dint of my din,
And no man or band has a hand in
The tones I turn on from within.
At times I'm a jumble of rumbles,
At others I'm light like the moon,
But never my numb plunker fumbles,
Misstrums me, or tries a new tune.
“Dreams” by Langston Hughes
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
“A Dream Deferred” by Langston Hughes
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore-And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over-like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
Fun with Simile/Metaphor/Onomatopoeia/Personification!
• Take the first letter of your name:
What does it look like?
Describe it using a simile.
• Rotate the letter to the right:
What does it look like?
Describe it using a metaphor.
• Flip the letter upside down:
What does it look like?
Describe it using a simile and onomatopoeia.
• Rotate the letter to the left:
What does it look like?
Describe it using metaphor and personification.
Homework Assignment
• Compose a poem of at least three stanzas
• 4 lines in each stanza; 12 lines
• Must have a rhyme scheme of your choice
• Contain at least 4 similes and/or metaphors
• 1 use of alliteration
• 1 use of internal rhyme
• 1 use of onomatopoeia
• 1 use of personification
***It can be on any topic. Family, friends, sports,
nature, vacation, school, food, love, life, etc.***