Journal-

Write 5 similes using “as____ as a _______”

POETRY

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.

Famous Free Verse Poets

T.S. Eliot- 1888 – 1965 American-born English

poet, playwright, and literary critic,

He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948.

Famous Free Verse Poets

Walt Whitman 1819-1892 American poet, essayist

and journalist often called the father of

free verse

BLANK VERSE POETRY

Blank Verse is Poetry that is written in unrhymed iambic pentameter. Blank verse is often unobtrusive and the iambic pentameter form often resembles the rhythms of ordinary speech. William Shakespeare wrote most of his plays in blank verse.

Blank Verse Examples

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.

Iambic

Iambic- A foot which starts with an unaccented and ends with an accented (stressed) syllable. It is the most common meter in the English language and naturally falls into everyday conversation. An example is "To be or not to be" (the accented syllables are italicized)

Pentameter

a line of verse consisting of five units of rhythm

such as five pairs of stressed and unstressed syllables

Iambic Pentameter Ten syllables in each line

Five pairs of alternating unstressed and stressed syllables

The rhythm in each line sounds like: ba-BUM / ba-BUM / ba-BUM / ba-BUM / ba-BUM

Iambic Pentameter

Most of Shakespeare’s famous quotation fit into this rhythm. For example:

If mu- / -sic be / the food / of love, / play on Is this / a dag- / -ger I / see be- / fore me?

Each pair of syllables is called an iambus. You’ll notice that each iambus is made up of one unstressed and one stressed beat (ba-BUM).

CONCRETE POEMS

In concrete poems, the words are arranged to create a picture that relates to the content of the poem.

PoetryIs like Flames,

Which areSwift and elusive

Dodging realizationSparks, like words on the

Paper, leap and dance in theFlickering firelight. The fieryTongues, formless and shiftingShapes, tease the imiagination.

Yet for those who see,Through their mind’s

Eye, they burnUp the page.

Assignment Read the following poems-

– “I Hear America Singing” pg 172• Answer questions 1,2a,2b,4,5

– “Macavity :The Mystery Cat” pg 402• Answer questions 1, 2a, 3a,3b, 4a,4b, 6

Write 2 concrete poems of your own. **See Ms. Murphy for instructions**