Are you afraid of

Poetry?

RELAX!

There’s nothing to fear!

What exactly is “poetry?”

“Poetry is the type of thing a poet writes.”Robert Frost

Literary work which expresses feelings and ideas using style and rhythm.

Poems (have) got RHYTHM!

A pattern to the words that makes them fun to say and easy to remember.

Sometimes the rhythm is a simple one, and sometimes it’s more complex, but it’s not there by accident. Poets arrange their words in such a way as to create those rhythmical patterns.

In music, the rhythm of the song is the beat!

Unlike a song, poems don’t have drums. The rhythm is set by the “stresses” or “accents” in the words.

In most words that have more than one syllable, one of the syllables is pronounced more strongly than the others. We say that this syllable is “stressed” or “accented.”

Meter

The rhythm created by stressed and unstressed syllables.

Iamb - a unit of rhythm in poetry that consists of one syllable that is not stressed followed by one syllable that is accented or stressed

Different forms of Iambic Meter An iamb is two syllables : da DUM. Iambic dimeter = Two iambs:

da DUM / da DUM Iambic trimeter = Three iambs:

da DUM / da DUM / da DUM Iambic tetrameter = Four iambs: da DUM / da DUM / da DUM / da DUM Iambic pentameter = Five iambs:

da DUM / da DUM / da DUM / da DUM / da DUM

My mother ate an apple and my father ate a pear.

my MOTH-er ATE an AP-ple AND my FATH-er ATE a PEAR.

Four Iambs: Iambic Tetrameter

Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll

Twas brillig, and the slithy toves    Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;

Iambic tetrameter. Four stressed and four unstressed:

'Twas brill-ig, and the sli-thy tovesDid gyre and gim-ble in the wabe

Jabberwoky

Poems have rhyme! Words that sound alike

In poetry, rhyme is often at the end of a line

Rhymes are classified by how similar the sounds are:

-Eye rhyme rhymes only when spelled. For example, “through” and “rough.”

-End rhyme, the rhyming of the final syllables of a line. See “Midstairs,” by Virginia Hamilton Adair:           And here on this turning of the stair          Between passion and doubt,          I pause and say a double prayer,          One for you, and one for you;          And so they cancel out.

Rhyme Scheme

Poems use different rhyme schemes. A “rhyme scheme” is a way of describing the pattern of end rhymes in a poem.

Each new sound at the end of a line is given a letter, starting with “A,” then “B,” and so on. If an end sound repeats the end sound of an earlier line, it gets the same letter as the earlier line.

Here are three slightly different cat poems, each with a different rhyme scheme.

My cat is nice.My cat likes mice.My cat is fat.I like my cat.

My cat is nice. My cat is fat. My cat likes mice. I like my cat.

My cat is gray.My cat is fat.My cat is cute.I like my cat.

Poetry has figurative language

Most poems make use of the types of figurative language we’ve learned: Simile, Metaphor, Personification, and Onomatopoeia

Poems also make use of Alliteration and Assonance.

Alliteration and Assonance

Alliteration - when a writer repeats the consonant sounds at the beginnings of words.

Assonance -- when a writer repeats the vowel sounds in the stressed syllables of words.

Ex. ”My rabbit whacked my ear.” The words “rabbit whacked” are an example of assonance because they both contain a “short a” sound on the stressed syllable.

Alliteration and Assonance

Alliteration and assonance do not have to have the same letters; just the same sounds. So for example, “falling phone” is  alliterative and “flying high” is assonant, because they repeat the same sounds even though they don’t repeat the same letters.

My Puppy Punched Me In the Eye

My puppy punched me in the eye.My rabbit whacked my ear.My ferret gave a frightful cryand roundhouse kicked my rear.My lizard flipped me upside down.My kitten kicked my head.My hamster slammed me to the groundand left me nearly dead.So my advice? Avoid regrets;no matter what you do,don’t ever let your family petstake lessons in kung fu. –Kenn Nesbitt

Poetry is art!

And those who write it, are artists! Here are some famous poets you may know…

Couplet

A two-line poem or stanza, usually rhyming.

In the world of mulesThere are no mules.

Ogden Nash

Ballad

A ballad tells a story, often coming from local history or legend, and often involving lost love or tragedy. Some are written in couplets, others in six-line stanzas. Some are set to music.

The Shooting of Dan McGrewby Robert W. Service

A bunch of the boys were whooping it upIn the Malamute saloon;

The kid that handles the music boxWas hitting a jag-time tune;

Back of the bar, in a solo game, Sat dangerous Dan McGrew,

And watching his luck was his light-of-love,The lady that’s known as Lou.

Example

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ooq3JbWbdjk

Popular songs can be considered ballads

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0MK7qz13bUhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kAJgiLK1wAhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9f95lAIL8to

Popular songs can be considered ballads

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJT0Suanqhg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcL31nYtHxA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_WyB1Yunqw

The Sonnet

There are two types of sonnets: Italian and Shakespearean. Both are 14 lines long, usually written in Iambic Pentameter (5 iambs, 10 syllables, accent on every other syllable). The Shakespearean Sonnet has a rhyme scheme of

abab, cdcd, efef, gg Three quatrains (like a stanza) and a rhyming

couplet

Haiku

Three unrhymed lines and 17 syllables, arranged in lines of 5, 7, and 5.

They often describe scenes in nature.

In the rains of spring, An umbrella and raincoat

“Spring Rain,” by Buson

Limerick

A five-line poem with a rhyme scheme of aabba. It has a bouncy rhythm and is usually humorous.

There was an old lady whose follyInduced her to sit in a holly;Whereupon, by a thorn, Her dress being torn, She quickly became melancholy.

Edward Lear

Acrostic

Descriptive poems in which the first letter of each line spells out the subject of the poem.

Can’tAvoidTrouble

Paul Janeczko

Concrete Poem

The words of the poem are arranged in the shape of the subject.

List Poem

Takes simple, every day objects in order to describe something in detail.

Home address: “Shady Lawn”

Working hours:Dusk till dawn

Hobbies/Sports:Likes to climb

Special skills:Making slime

Selection from “Slug File” by Avis Harley